I love teaching with Spanish poems for children, and I am so impressed by how fun and useful Douglas Wright’s poems are with Spanish language learners. It is authentic language that really works with my students! Douglas Wright is a well-known children’s author and illustrator from Argentina. As a humorist, artist and author, his work consistently includes literature suitable for many levels. I also appreciate the content; his poems deal with the experiences of children [...]
These are my favorite bilingual picture books to read to kids. Margaret speaks English and Margarita speaks Spanish and reading aloud the story works! The story line depends on both characters and both languages. It is an ingenious idea and the author, Lynn Reese, managed the concept beautifully to create these two lovely books. The first book Margaret and Margarita / Margarita y Margaret tells the story of how the two girls meet in the [...]
The deadline for this contest has been extended until May 15th! Encourage schools to enter! My Bilingual School Library Contest is the idea of Ana Flores and Roxana Soto at SpanglishBaby. This is a fabulous contest! Please keep reading and then spread the word. This contest will award a school library $500 worth of bilingual and Spanish language books. It is a wonderful prize and schools should definitely participate on that basis alone. However, please [...]
Earth Day, El día de la Tierra, is April 22, and children will be hearing and thinking about how to care for the planet. When you do activities related to El día de la Tierra in Spanish, their awareness of the topic in English will help them understand and learn the same concepts in Spanish. This 12-page activity book on conserving resources is from the EPA. It is designed for Spanish-speaking children, but works really [...]
Mamá pájaro (Mama Bird) is a free printable mini-book, and it is excellent for speaking Spanish with your child. The book is short, with basic Spanish words and simple, common Spanish structures. The story lends itself well to follow-up activities, so it is easy to reinforce what your child is learning. This mini-book tells the story of a mother bird building a nest, and sitting on her eggs. The eggs hatch and she finds a [...]
This weekend you may have celebrated Children’s Book Day. If you work with Spanish language learners, you may also want to recognize World Book Day, or El Día Internacional del Libro later in the month. This is a wonderful way to celebrate part of Spanish history and culture. UNESCO designated April 23 as a day to recognize the importance of books and authors and to encourage everyone to read. The date is symbolic because Cervantes, [...]
Picture books in Spanish are one of the best language learning tools you can use with children. Even as kids get older, if you can convince them to listen or to read together, they will learn an amazing amount of Spanish. I love the Spanish-English bilingual book Un gato y un perro/A Cat and a Dog by Claire Masurel. Although it is hard to define what exactly makes a picture book fun, in this case, [...]
This is a free book of fun and practical activities for teaching Spanish to children. ¡Aprendo jugando! Actividades de Español para niños y niñas de 6 a 9 años (I Learn by Playing! Spanish Activities for Boys and Girls from 6 to 9) is available to download in PDF format so that you can make copies of the activities and games. Teachers in Spain, with the support of the Spanish government, created the materials to [...]
Stories without words are useful tools for teaching Spanish to children. These wordless picture books engage children actively with the events on the page. Children interpret the drawings and follow the narrative by identifying characters, emotions, actions, and consequences. Simple phrases and questions in Spanish make the most of this connection and of the context created by the illustrations. In addition, teachers and parents can use Spanish at an appropriate level so that reading is [...]
¿Algo más? (Anything else?). Such a common, useful question! When I am choosing picture books to read with beginning Spanish learners, I am always happy to find a repeated phrase that we use commonly in conversation. ¿Algo más? is that phrase in the book Siesta, by Ginger Foglesong Guy. Siesta is a bilingual book with very simple text in Spanish and English. As two children collect objects, they ask each other ¿Algo más? with a [...]
These two Spanish poems for children are by Douglas Wright, a well-known poet, illustrator, and humorist from Argentina. In addition to being the author of many books, his work appears in magazines and newspapers in Argentina and other countries. Some of Douglas’ work is available from Amazon or in larger Spanish-language bookstores in the U.S. He recently published a book of Spanish poems for children called Rimando Ando which would be a wonderful resource for [...]
Children can draw on information they already know to understand new Spanish vocabulary and structures. When teachers and parents talk about familiar subjects in Spanish, children associate concepts they understand with the new language. This way, children learn Spanish vocabulary in context and applied to content, rather than as lists of vocabulary words which are often memorized and then quickly forgotten. In the early grades, children learn the basic facts of the solar system. When [...]