Easter is just a few days away and many of us will be spending time with friends and family. These gatherings can be a good time for kids to practice simple Spanish conversation, or if your family speaks Spanish at home, to spend time listening and speaking the language with relatives. Also, those plastic eggs are just so handy, I could not resist putting a little Spanish in them! These Spanish conversation questions are at [...]
Below you will find a word search with Spanish Easter vocabulary. The words go in all directions, including backwards. The solution is included in the PDF. Lots of kids really like word searches, or sopa de letras, in Spanish. As a supplemental activity, these puzzles can focus attention on a specific category of Spanish words that a child is learning. They are also useful for reinforcing the letter sounds and the sounds in specific words. [...]
In this printable Spanish board game, kids move around the board by clapping and counting the number of syllables in a word. There are pictures accompanying the words on the cards, so kids learn new vocabulary too. Most of the vocabulary is related to spring. In Spanish, syllables define how to read, spell and accentuate words. Because syllables are so important, they are the basis for learning to read. In English, children learn to “sound [...]
Discovery Kids has created a Spanish color game called El juego de los colores. The game has wonderful, clear audio and is a perfect way for Spanish language learners to practice color vocabulary and also absorb native-speaker pronunciation. In addition to color words and verbs, players hear the words pintura, pincel and mezclar used repeatedly. The game consists of mixing two colors to form a new color and using that color to paint a picture. [...]
Many of you are familiar with MisCositas.com and the wonderful collection of resources available on the website. In addition to thematic units, videos and other resources, the site offers a set of illustrated Spanish words and phrases that are commonly used in the classroom. These printable words and phrases can be colored and hung in the room or adapted to different activities. This set of Passwords Perfectos, as they are called on MisCositas.com, includes common [...]
This time of year there are lots of plastic eggs around. If you find yourself with a few extra, consider making a language activity where kids match the two halves. You can put a sticker on one half and the word on the other, or a number and the corresponding word. Kids can also match synonyms or antonyms. I like making Spanish games for kids where they put something in the egg to help reinforce [...]
Los pollitos is a printable story and coloring book of a traditional children’s song. In addition to the story-coloring pages, it has figures for stick puppets, picture cards for games and a teacher and parent guide with ideas for using the material and additional activities. The song is available to download from Music with Sara, and there is a YouTube video of the song with the illustrations. I had a wonderful time collaborating with illustrator [...]
World Water Day, coordinated by the United Nations, is March 22, 2013. Earth Day is April 22. If you are talking about water with kids on these special days, or any day, you might want to use this wonderful graphic. The U. S. Geological Survey and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have teamed up to create a diagram of the water cycle in Spanish for children in elementary and middle school. [...]
¡Hola, Crayola! ¡Adios, carita de arroz! There are lots of Spanish rhymes like this, and kids like learning them because they are fun to say. They are some of the first spontaneous interactions in Spanish that I hear between students. Many of these Spanish rhymes are used to greet someone and are based on the word hola. Children say them with enthusiasm and affection. Other rhyming phrases are based on common expressions like bien dicho [...]
These free Spanish coloring pages from Song School Spanish include lots of basic vocabulary. The pictures are big, clear and labeled in Spanish. There are pictures for many common nouns related to topics like food, animals, weather and the parts of the body. There are also sheets for numbers and colors. In addition to common nouns, there are Spanish coloring sheets for the question words, emotions and most common verbs forms, like tengo, tienes, quiero [...]
This is a Spanish Valentine game based on completing a two line rhyme with a silly word. I do it with picture cards, to be sure that students know what the rhymes means when they complete it. A link to the PDF of the cards is at the end of this post. There are three short rhymes to complete in different ways, but you can use just one or two. These are the rhymes: Porque [...]
Teaching words as opposites, antónimos or opuestos, increases a child’s Spanish vocabulary. The relationship between the two concepts helps kids understand both words. There are lots of activities that you can do with opposites. The ones I mention work with my printables, or you can easily make your own cards with different vocabulary. If the vocabulary is new to your child or students, you will want to start with just a few pairs. You can [...]