We sang this song at story time today, and it’s just so simple and lovely, I wanted to share it here.
Yo te amo
Yo te amo
All day long I sing this little song to you.
Yo te amo
Yo te amo
Darling, I love you.
The song comes to us from Kathy Reid-Naiman, a superstar of Canadian children’s music and early childhood education, though the lyrics I learned in library school differ slightly from her original. You can hear Kathy perform it here.
We sang I love you in several languages today – English, Spanish, French and Mandarin! It’s lovely to invite families to share the words they use to express love in their home language. When we sang in Mandarin and Spanish, several little faces lit up in recognition. Whenever possible, it’s wonderful to respectfully include different languages in your programming, and invite patrons to share their languages and cultures with us and with each other.
You can even learn how to play it on the ukulele thanks to one of my amazing library colleagues and her blog Storytime Ukulele! And if you’d like a little peek behind the curtain – here is a very old recording of yours truly sharing this song at a professional development event!
Poetry Friday is hosted by Mary Lee Hahn at A(nother) Year of Reading – be sure to head over there and be inspired,
How fun! In my fifth grade classroom, we sang happy birthday in multiple languages! Let’s see if I can remember them all…German, Spanish, Arabic, Kurdish, and Chinese. So important to honor every culture!!
That’s so lovely! Even little actions can go a long way to helping build community and connection. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this, Jane. It’s given me a lovely idea for a way to incorporate different languages of attendees when I do library storytimes!
How wonderful, I’m so glad to hear it! I’m sure your programs are wonderful. <3
I love this…when speaking another language we can’t help but understand a little…add singing and we’ve got some feeling too. The world would be a better place if we sang this song every day.
Agreed! Music is such a universal language, even if we don’t understand the words, we feel the meaning in our hearts!
Such a gift, for you to share this elemental & heart-warming Creative, who like you is bringing the peaceful best in all sorts of mediums to our young ones in many languages. So glad to know her materials are in newborn kits, too. I feel I will be hearing Yo Te Amo in my heart all day, since folowing the link & listening.
So grateful for the way books, music, art, games, crafts, drama & more all flow through our public libraries.
More appreciations.
Such kind and heart-warming words! Public libraries are truly magical places, and I feel so honoured to be able to be a part of their work. <3
What a wonderful job you have! I new to the poetry community and wasn’t familiar with your name until….I realized my library bag here at home is holding one of your books. 😊 I picked up a copy of Bear Has a Belly at my branch last week. Delightful!
Oh my goodness, that’s so exciting! Yes, I wear a few hats – most of the time I’m a children’s librarian, and writing is my fun little side gig. 🙂
Jane, I missed your post and am glad I circled around to read it. I love the song and the celebration of music in classrooms. I shall share this with my little grandgirls. They will love it.
Thank you for the lovely words! I love using music in my programs, it has this magical ability to bring everyone together. <3