Reading El jardín de Douglas recently, I was happy to find two new poems that I think are especially well suited to using with Spanish language learners. I will share one today and the other one in the next few days. Douglas Wright is well-known poet, author and illustrator from Argentina. Finding his books in this country is not easy, but he generously shares his work on his blog El jardín de Douglas and also [...]
Talking about this photo of a little girl playing in the sand is a excellent way to speak Spanish with children. The questions that follow, like all the Learn Spanish with Pictures activities, are ordered to help children master the vocabulary and gain confidence with the language. Start with Describe the photo (1) and be sure to point to the objects in the picture as you talk about them. Use gestures, facial expressions and actions [...]
Father’s Day is coming up in a couple of weeks. It is on June 17th this year, and for those of you who want to get a head start here are a few resources. In Spanish, Father’s Day is Día del padre or Día de los padres. Making Spanish Father’s Day cards is a great language activity for kids. One of the easiest ways to make cards is using the printables on the website Correomágico. [...]
This online game is called Mi familia. It is excellent for beginners learning family and house vocabulary or as a review for kids who are already familiar with the words. The activities are simple, and there is a lot of clear Spanish audio. It is a set of exercises, so there is plenty of repetition. The activities use a limited set of vocabulary and that makes them perfect for beginners. The games are from Spain [...]
At the end of the school year, kids have fun looking back on what they have done and learned. With my students who read and write, I do a simple activity where they record their favorite books, songs, games and other information about the year. These printable Spanish activities remind children of all they have accomplished and are a nice way to close a class. I have attached two of my activities for the end [...]
School is almost over and I have been playing some of the games that we played at the beginning of the year. This is a very simple Spanish game, and a favorite with my youngest students. I call it ¿Dónde está el pájaro? At the beginning of the year, the most challenging part of this game for the littlest ones is passing the bird around the circle. They have grown up so much! This is [...]
This is a traditional Spanish song for children. It compares a face to a house. The song has simple actions and uses lots of common vocabulary. You can make up any actions so that kids point to the body parts when they are mentioned. The ones I teach are a lot like the actions in the second video below, but I include the nose as the timbre (doorbell). My preschoolers can do the actions to [...]
This traditional Spanish game, El juego de la oca, is a board game similar to Snakes and Ladders. Players roll dice and move in a spiral to reach the center of the board. If they land on la oca (the goose), they move ahead to the next oca and roll again, saying De oca a oca y tiro porque me toca. If they land on the bridge, they move to the next bridge and roll [...]
I have been having a wonderful time using the materials from Risas y Sonrisas with my students. Risas y Sonrisas is an award-winning K-5 Spanish curriculum for students in a classroom or homeschool setting. It is also excellent for after-school programs and private classes. Risas y Sonrisas takes the best of the communicative approach to teaching language and also engages a child’s academic skills to create an effective learning experience. In games and conversations, children [...]
Summer’s coming and it is time to give away a few products to help kids learn Spanish in the months ahead. We’ll start with two DVDs. Spanish Playground will give one visitor La fiesta de Fritzi from Whistlefritz and Bilingual Baby from The Brainy Company. You can read more about the DVDs in these posts: Spanish DVD by Whistlefritz – La Fiesta de Fritzi Spanish DVD for Kids – Bilingual Baby DVD, Brainy Baby Book [...]
If you are looking for ways to expose kids to Spanish during the summer, websites with Spanish audio are an excellent resource. There are sites at all levels with a wide variety of activities. I will mention eight of my favorite sources of online Spanish audio, but be sure to check out the online activities category for more ideas. These are sites with a significant quantity of online Spanish audio. They have a variety of [...]
These entertaining Spanish books for children are very popular with my students. In class just last week a student got really excited when she spotted the picture of the books on the back cover. She quickly determined that she had heard all but one and asked if I could bring the only one she had not heard to the next class. The kids love these stories! The series is about Eric and his little sister [...]