Variations of familiar games are an easy way to incorporate Spanish into the day. The game Duck,Duck,Goose is a good example. I play this game in class in Spanish with the phrases buenas noches and buenos días. One child moves around the outside of the circle saying buenas noches as she touches each child on the head. The children in the circle should be “sleeping,” keeping their heads bowed. At some point the child who [...]
Day and night, sun and moon – these natural rhythms establish a child’s sense of time and daily routine. It is also vocabulary that children acquire at a young age. el día – day la noche – night el sol – sun la luna – moon la estrella – star These common words are easy to use with your child. Try these phrases: On a sunny day: Hace sol. It’s sunny. When you see the [...]
Spanish rhymes are fun to say and teach lots of language. They can teach basic vocabulary, numbers and letters. There are lots of Spanish rhymes to teach the vowels, and this is one if my favorites. Tomorrow I am flying to Peru visit my daughter for a couple of weeks. As you can see, this rhyme is relevant! While I’m in Peru I plan to spend time looking at books, games, and educational materials. Also, [...]
Look at the picture with your child. Read the questions that follow and answer them together. Don’t worry about understanding every word in the questions. You can often understand the main idea anyway. The ability and the confidence to listen (or read) for the main idea without understanding every word is a very important language-learning skill. It is good to guess at a meaning that makes sense in the context. As your child hears words [...]
Las gallinas de la señora Sato tells a simple story in Spanish with both sequence and repetition. It moves through the days of the week and describes what the narrator finds each day as she visits Mrs. Sato’s hens. El domingo fui a ver las gallinas de la señora Sato. On Sunday I went to see Mrs. Sato’s hens. El lunes contamos dos huevos blancos. On Monday we counted two white eggs. El martes [...]
Here are some phrases to help you incorporate numbers in Spanish into your day. ¿Cuántos hay? – How many are there? ¿Cuántos tienes? – How many do you have? Vamos a contar -Let’s count. ¿Qué número es eso? – What number is that? ¿Qué número sigue? – What number is next? With younger children counting in Spanish can be part of many activities. You can count: Stairs, as you go up and down Buttons on [...]
This is a simple song for learning Spanish numbers. Listening and then singing along is a great way to learn the numbers in Spanish and is also good Spanish pronunciation practice. These are words and a translation. Listen to the Spanish numbers song. Empieza con uno / Begin with one – uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco / one, two, three, four, five, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. / six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Y vamos [...]
Structure interactions in Spanish so that your child has fun and is successful. The following steps will help you teach vocabulary in a positive, supportive way. Try these steps using real objects or with any picture that has several words that you want to teach your child. You can also use the steps with online activities – anywhere you have a set of related objects. As an example, look at this farm scene you can [...]
I love this book! Each sentence begins Me gusta cuando (I like it when) but ends with a different everyday activity involving a loving adult and a happy child. Me gusta cuando me dejas ayudarte. (I like it when you let me help you.) Me gusta cuando comemos algo nuevo. (I like it when we eat something new.) Me gusta cuando me lees cuentos. (I like it when you read me stories.) Me gusta cuando [...]
This simple Spanish circle activity is great for a family, a group of friends, day cares or classes. It uses por favor, gracias and de nada and also is a way to practice Spanish animal vocabulary. Choose a snuggly stuffed animal that the children know how to say in Spanish, for example, el gato. Give the cat to a child, and model asking for the cat by saying “El gato, por favor” and when the [...]
Children can learn lots of Spanish helping you around the house. When my children were small, as we set the table I would ask ¿Cuántos tenedores? How many forks? Cinco. Then we would count them out together- uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco. ¿Cuántos platos? How many plates? Cinco. And again we would count together. The movement, the repetition and touching the objects all contribute to learning Spanish. Here is some of the Spanish vocabulary that [...]
Here is a fun online activity using Spanish food vocabulary. With this activity you hear the words pronounced, so your child (and you too, if you are learning) can practice listening and then repeat to practice Spanish pronunciation. Your child helps Dora find ingredients in this online Spanish food game. You’ll need to choose the Spanish version by clicking on “recitas” (This is a spelling mistake in the game. The word for recipes in Spanish [...]