Arriba, Abajo y Alrededor = Up, Down and Around
by Katherine Ayres & Nadine Bernard Westcott is a wonderful book that was a great hit with all the children. It is simple to read with lovely bright illustrations. I used it to accompany a food unit I did during the Autumn.
With the older children, we read it together, taking turns as we passed it around the class. This was a great exercise for them to practice reading with vocabulary they recognised but in short sentences.
With the younger one as well as simply reading it, we played a game. Whenever I said each of the words in the title the children had to act out the meaning. So when I read (arriba) they stretched up as high as they could, get down on the floor as low as they can when I read (abajo) and spin around for (alrededor). This is great fun and really gets the children listening and understanding first prepositions while learning new vocabulary.
Other books that work well with this unit are “El Nabo Gigante” by Aleksei Tolstoy & Niamh Sharkey and “La semilla de Zanajoria” by Ruth Krauss, reviews coming soon.
Photo credit: Brandi McGrath Pownall