Hi Friends!

As you may know, I love languages. I love learning new languages, I love speaking new languages, and I especially love to teach my friends new languages. I get all of my language books from the library and I also use Mango Languages, which is a super-fun language learning database that is FREE with your library card. You should check it out. They have so many fun languages that you can learn. 

Today, I’m going to teach you my two favorite languages – Spanish and Sign Language, and we are going to talk about Sports. How does that sound? Great! Let’s go…

First, when we say sports in Spanish we say:

deportes

It sounds like – dee-poor-tays

Awesome!

In Sign Language, we are going to give two thumbs up, put our knuckles together, and wiggle our hands back and forth. 

You got it! 

I love playing and watching sports but these sports are my absolute favorite.

Baseball

Baseball is one of my favorites sports to watch and to play. Have you ever played baseball? What is your favorite place to stand on the baseball field? I like to play catcher. 

When we say Baseball in Spanish it sounds very similar to the way we say it in English:

béisbol

It sounds like – bays-bohl

Great job! 

In Sign Language, we are going to put one closed fist on top of the other, like we are holding a baseball bat. Can you pretend that you are holding a baseball bat? Perfect! Now, we are going to swing our bat a few times. Not a big swing like you would do if you were really holding a baseball bat and swinging at a ball, but we are going to make small swinging motions with our fists together. Just like we are swinging a really small baseball bat and hitting a tiny ball. 

Awesome!

Tennis

I love to play tennis but I don’t watch it on television too often. Have you ever seen a televised tennis match? It’s pretty neat to watch. 

And, again, tennis is Spanish is very similar in spelling and pronunciation to English:

tenis

It sounds like – te-nees 

Wow! You are doing such a great job!

Now, tennis is sign language is just as easy. We take our dominant hand (that is the hand that you like to eat with or color with – the hand that you use the most) and we make a T sign. That looks like this:

Then, with our T sign, we are going to make tiny swings from left to right and then back again. Kind of like we are swinging a little tennis racket and hitting a ball. 

Amazing!

Congratulations! You’ve learned three words in two different languages. Wow! Next month we’ll explore more words with Ms. Faith’s Favorites but, until then, you can check out all the fun Spanish and Sign Language resources on these great library databases:

• Spanish Learning for Kids on Hoopla
• Sign Language Learning for Kids on Hoopla
• Spanish Learning for Kids on Overdrive
• Spanish Learning for Kids on Kanopy Kids
• Spanish Learning for Kids from the Library
• Sign Language for Kids from the Library

Also, if you want to join Ms. Faith live every month with her Ms. Faith’s Favorites library program, you can register here. We also have tons of other great library programs that you can check out here.