Movies and television are excellent sources of authentic language for children and teens learning Spanish. Young people all over the world acquire huge amounts of English through American film and television, and kids in the United States can take advantage of media the same way. Although the language in movies is much too difficult for Spanish language learners to use without support, with subtitles they can enjoy films as they hear the rhythm and pace [...]
Gifts are an opportunity to give a child who is learning Spanish a toy or game that encourages her to use the language in a new way. A new puzzle or toy can also be motivating and keep the process of learning Spanish exciting and fun. If possible, choose toys that can be used again and again in different ways. Repetition is important to language learning and it also makes the toy more cost-efficient than [...]
Many children learn to say thank you in Spanish when they are little even if they are not learning more of the language. Although gracias is the basic and most common way to give thanks in Spanish, there are some simple variations that you can easily teach children. These are a few expressions and some vocabulary that you can use to express your appreciation in Spanish. Gracias – Thank you Gracias por… -Thank you for [...]
This children’s song in Spanish, Barquito de papel, was written by Cuban composer and pianist Enriqueta Almanza in the 1940s. Its bright tune and hope for peace have made it a Cuban classic, and children sing it all over the Spanish-speaking world. The song is about a paper boat, and the wishes of a child to travel, make friends, and live in a world without war. Singing songs, children learn and use Spanish vocabulary that [...]
In this online Spanish game for kids, children hear a phrase in Spanish and are given the words to that phrase out of order. They drag and drop the words to make the Spanish sentence that they heard. If the child makes a mistake, the word will not go into place and the sentence is repeated. There are images of each sentence behind the words, so even if all of the Spanish vocabulary is not [...]
Since I wrote this post, I am sorry to say Fundación Telefónica has stopped funding La biblio de los chicos. The poem is also on the author’s blog, and the links below have been updated. Spanish poems for children to use in a language classroom can be hard to find. You can imagine how much I love La biblio de los chicos! There are websites that make me marvel at the vision and initiative [...]
Congratulations to Luis Pescetti for his Latin Grammy Award for Best Children’s Album! He is such a talented performer – a wonderful way to bring Spanish and music to children. You can find a post I wrote recently about Luis Pescetti and music in Spanish for children here. Be sure to visit his website! It is a wonderful authentic language resource for teaching Spanish to children. Congratulations, Luis!
I love these P’kolino multi-solution puzzles for teaching body parts and colors in Spanish. There are many ways to do each puzzle, so children will play with them again and again. That means that these toys provide lots of opportunities to speak Spanish with your child, and lots of repetition of important vocabulary. Kids can easily learn body parts in Spanish with these puzzles: P’kolino Multi-Solution Shape Puzzle – Rhombot and P’kolino Multi-Solution Shape Puzzle [...]
Children learning Spanish as a second language, or in minority language situations, get most of their exposure to the language from adults. They often do not hear Spanish-speaking children playing with the sounds of the language and expressing emotion naturally with their voices. Quiero ser distinta is from the site Milcuentos.com: Cuentos infantiles con sonido (A thousand stories: Children’s stories with sound), a collection of stories illustrated and narrated by children. The expression that the [...]
Recently, I have had several parents ask for recommendations for toys to give as gifts to their children who are learning Spanish. I encouraged them to consider games or toys that are not obviously language learning activities. Many games and toys are not language specific. If you are getting a gift for your child, and are going to be involved in playing, often the best investment is to buy a toy or game that lends [...]
For children learning Spanish, music is a wonderful source of language and culture. In the case of Luis Pescetti’s songs, it is also a lot of fun! Luis Pescetti is a very talented performer from Argentina. In addition to singing songs for children, he is a comedian, an author of books for children and adults, and a gifted teacher. He has been nominated for a Latin Grammy Award this year for Best Children’s Album. Luis [...]
¡Es hora de ir al colegio! (It’s Time to Go to School!) is a printable mini-book in Spanish. It is a free download from DLTK’s Growing Together. ¡Es hora de ir al colegio! is very short, with basic Spanish words and common Spanish structures. The illustrations are simple pictures of the vocabulary on each page. This little book in Spanish teaches the common structure Es hora de + infinitive (base form of the verb) to [...]