This set of Spanish Valentine’s Day materials and activities is from the wonderful website Nourish Interactive. The free printable Spanish materials include coloring pages, cards, a word search puzzle and a worksheet of Valentine’s Day words to alphabetize. All of these activities teach Spanish food vocabulary if you talk about them with kids learning Spanish.

You can find all of these activities and others here: Printable Spanish cards for Valentine’s Day.
Scroll down to the activity. Click on the title or image of the activity.
On the next screen there will be a box on the right side of the screen that says Descargue esta hoja (Download this worksheet).
Click on Archivo en español (File in Spanish) for the Spanish printable. If there is an answer key, it will be labeled Clave de Respuestas en Español.

The following activities have simple text and are appropriate for using with Spanish language learners.

Tarjeta Para Dibujar y Colorear - This is a simple card to color. It says ¡Feliz Día de San Valentín!

San Valentín y Los Grupos Alimenticios – Página de Colorear – This is a coloring page about the food groups and heart health. It uses the vocabulary for the food groups: granos, vegetales, frutas, lacteos, carnes y frijoles. There is also a sentence about exercise that uses the common verbs saltar, caminar and correr.

Tarjeta Para Mantenerse Activo Para el Día de San Valentín - This is a colorful card about being active. It is designed to print, cut out and glue to heavier paper. The Spanish says Vamos a mantener nuestros corazones felices con actividad divertida (Let’s keep our hearts happy with fun activity). Sé mi compañero activo para San Valentín. (Be my active Valentine buddy).

Diversión Para el Corazón Saludable – Tarjetas Para el Día de San Valentín – There are four colorful mini-cards on this page. The Spanish text reminds kids to be active with phrases like Mantén a tu corazón bombeando fuerte con ejercicio. (Keep your heart beating strong with exercise.)

Actividad de Emparejar – Alimentos para un a corazón saludable – This is a matching activity. Children match the activities with the energetic heart or the tired heart. The activities include basic vocabulary like no desayunar, correr, mirar televisión, bailar, caminar, deportes, sentarse todo el día, jugar en la computadora, and trabajar en el jardín.

Opciones Saludables Para Niñas – Tarjetas Para el Día de San Valentín – These cards have pictures of girls. The Spanish says Mantente activo cada día y tu corazón estará contento (Be active every day and your heart will be happy) and Manten tu corazón saludable con el ejercicio (Keep your heart healthy with exercise).

Opciones Saludables Para Niños – Tarjetas Para el Día de San Valentín - These cards have pictures of boys. The text is the same as the cards with pictures of girls: Mantente activo cada día y tu corazón estará contento (Be active every day and your heart will be happy) and Manten tu corazón saludable con el ejercicio (Keep your heart healthy with exercise).

Comidas Saludables – Tarjetas Para el Día de San Valentín – These cards have messages about healthy food:
¡Las frutas son una merienda sabrosa todos los días! (Fruit is a healthy snack everyday.)
¡A tu corazón le encantan los vegetales y las frutas! (Your heart loves vegetables and fruit.)
¡A tus huesos le encanta la leche! (Your bones love milk.)

Alfabetos de Palabras Saludables Para San Valentín
On the worksheet, kids put Valentine’s Day words in alphabetical order: Valentín, corazón, ejercicio, amor, saludable, sonrisa, feliz, cartas, activo, Cúpido, frutas.

Comidas Saludables para Colorear – Tarjetas Para el Día de San Valentín - These are black and white cards to color. The Spanish text includes phrases like: ¡A tu corazón le encantan los vegetales! (Your heart loves vegetables) and Hay alimentos saludables que vienen de los árboles. (There are healthy foods that come from trees.)

Rompecabezas Imprimible de Búsqueda de Palabras Para San Valentín - This is a word search puzzle. The words are: manzanas, nueces, fibra, corazón, semilla, activa, fruta.
The word nueces is misspelled in puzzle. It is spelled with a z and should be with a c. The singular nuez (nut) is with a z.
The word corazón is misspelled in the list of words beside the puzzle, but it is correct in the puzzle.

Nourish Interactive has other Valentine’s Day materials in Spanish on the same page. The site also has wonderful activities and materials to use all year. You can read about using their materials to teach the days of the week in Spanish here.

Listen to this short Spanish audio description of a very common object. Can you guess what it is? This is one of a series of videos called Adivina la palabra de hoy (Guess Today’s Word). The Spanish audio in these short videos is excellent. The series is produced by the Fundación de la Lengua Española, a private non-profit from Spain that promotes the teaching of Spanish. In this video, two girls describe a common word for viewers to guess. At the end of the video, the word appears on the screen. The video is short, about one minute long.

Listening to this Spanish audio is an excellent language learning activity. The words in the descriptions tend to be used together or are associated with the word you are trying to guess. This is an effective way to expand vocabulary.

Of course, this Spanish audio also makes great listening practice. The sentences are short and the children speak directly to the camera. Children will not understand every word of the description, but that is fine. They are practicing listening for the main idea, that is, how the words that they do understand come together to communicate one concept.

For example, in this video many children will understand the clues amarillo, fruta, comen, monos and abrir. That is probably enough to guess the word. Listening for words that they understand is an important skill in language learning. Children need the opportunity to practice in order to develop the ability to distinguish the words they know in a stream of language.

Vocabulary for the Spanish audio

This is a list of the common Spanish words that the children use in the following video. The words in the list are in the order you hear them. You can listen for these words with your child and try to guess what is being described. The mystery word will be shown at the end of the video, but if you want to know before you listen, scroll down. A transcript, translation and the answer follow the video.

amarillo – yellow
fruta – fruit
comen – eat
los monos – monkeys
mediano – medium-sized
grande – big
pequeño – small
abrir – open
dentro – inside
blando – soft
negro – black
verde – green

Spanish audio transcript

Es amarillo. / It’s yellow.
Y es una fruta. / And it is a fruit.
Lo comen los monos. / Monkeys eat it.
Y es mediano. Puede ser mediano o grande o pequeño. / It is medium-sized. It can be medium-sized or big or small.
Se puede abrir. / You can open it.
Puede ser, por..por dentro.. puede, puede estar muy blando y puede ser negro. / It can..inside..it can, can be very soft and it can be black.
También puede estar verde, la cascara. / It can also be green, the peel.

The word being described is plátano – banana.

You may also be interested in these posts:

Spanish audio – Guess this word 1

Spanish audio – Guess this word 2

This extensive set of free printable materials has lots of wonderful activities for Spanish language learners. It is offered by Udicom on the educational portal Educarm of the Department of Education in Murcia, Spain.

These printable PDFs are designed for native Spanish speakers with a focus on language in context. The set includes a variety of activities that can be used with Spanish language learners at different levels. These materials are divided into 11 units. Each unit is divided into 6 sections with many different activities. Each unit also includes sets of activities for several letters.

The first section in each unit, Bloque 1, begins with a vocabulary list and picture cards with the image, the word in print and the word in cursive. These are followed by vocabulary exercises like crossing out the picture that does not belong, cutting and pasting into categories and ordering a series of pictures.

All the sections in a unit have exercises for beginning readers like matching the picture to the word, categorizing, completing the word, ordering syllables, and puzzles like crosswords and wordsearches. In addition, there is practice with basic grammar points like gender and articles (el or la) and forming plurals. There are also activities with basic concepts like shapes, colors, and size.

The exercises are from Spain, so some of the words, nouns in particular, differ from what is used in Latin America. However, the vast majority of the vocabulary is standard. There is a lot of material in these units and much of it will be useful to teachers and parents working with Spanish language learners.

These materials are offered free of charge for educational purposes. You can accept the terms of use here and you will be taken to the index of Printable Spanish Activities.

You can go directly to the index to look over the activities, but do go back and accept the terms of use (to not modify the work and leave the copyright intact) if you find materials  you can use.

These are the 11 units:

1. El colegio y mi aula.  - School and my classroom
2. El cuerpo y los sentidos. – The body and the senses
3. Los alimentos. – Food
4. Las prendas de vestir. – Clothing
5. La casa. – The house
6. La calle. – The street
7. Los oficios. – Jobs
8. Los animales. – Animals
9. Las plantas. – Plants
10. Los medios de transporte. – Transportation
11. Los medios de comunicación. – Communication

Let’s Learn to Speak Spanish: Conversational Workbook and CD is a set of worksheets and activities by Susana Murphy, published by the non-profit One World Foundation. Susana sent me a copy of this book because she realized it would be helpful to many Spanish Playground readers. These activities are an excellent supplement to an elementary Spanish program. The book is also a great choice for parents who want to reinforce a school program or introduce their child to Spanish at home. The exercises cover the most common introductory topics and the pages can be photocopied. It takes tons of material to give kids enough exposure to these basics. This workbook gives teachers and parents an easy way to reinforce what kids are learning.

Most of these Spanish activities are based on translation and there is a glossary in the back of the book. This format makes the book is a good choice for parents who do not have much knowledge of Spanish but want to introduce school-age children to Spanish at home. The workbook comes with an audio CD of native speakers from Costa Rica, Colombia and the Dominican Republic. With this support, parents and kids can hear the correct pronunciation and practice the sounds of Spanish. These are written activities, but I really like how consistently this book reminds kids to use the spoken language. They need lots encouragement to speak Spanish!

Let’s Learn to Speak Spanish includes activities on topics like the alphabet, greetings, numbers, the days of the week, the months of the year, and the weather. There are also worksheets for units like colors, food, animals, clothing, body parts and places. The grammar practice is basic and appropriate for many elementary programs and even middle school programs. In addition to the singular forms of regular -ar verbs in the present, the book has exercises on ir, tener, querer and gustar.

For each of the topics covered, there are several different Spanish activities. You will find word searches, scrambled words, and pictures to color. Kids will choose which word does not belong, match words to pictures, copy Spanish sentences and complete sentences by filling in the blank. The book includes flash cards of common phrases and vocabulary and also mini-books to practice the verbs quiero, voy and tengo. All of the worksheets provide sufficient practice, but are not so long that they become boring.  Also, I love the choice of vocabulary in this book. It is truly representative of a standard Spanish that will be understood worldwide.

Many of these topics include a section called ¿Sabes? on one of the worksheets. These sections are a wonderful collection of cultural and linguistic information. The explanations are short with clear examples and include all kinds of fun, useful and very accurate information.

There is no doubt that this book will save teachers time and provide students with an opportunity to practice the basics. I think that Let’s Learn to Speak Spanish is also a great model of the kinds of Spanish activities that teachers can make. For parents who want to introduce kids to Spanish at home or reinforce a school program, there are a variety of activities that will keep kids entertained while giving them some of the essential practice that it takes to learn Spanish.

Disclosure: The company sent me a copy of the book to write this article. All of the ideas and opinions are my own.

This is a game I play with kids to practice the verbs ver, querer and tener in the first person and also review a bunch of vocabulary. I like it because I say almost nothing and the kids are using Spanish that makes perfect sense and exactly describes what they are doing.

Overview of the Spanish game to practice verbs and vocabulary:
- Students are divided into teams of about 5.
- A set of objects and pictures, labeled with different point values, is displayed where everyone can see them. The point values are hidden from view.
- When it is their turn, a team confers to choose the object they will go and get.
- The team sends a representative to get an object (someone different each time). The player first identifies the object she will get by saying Veo (la manzana). Then she says she wants the object Quiero (la manzana). She goes, gets the object and when she is holding it she says Tengo (la manzana). The team is awarded the number of points on the object.
- When everyone has had a certain number of turns, the team with the most points wins.

A few details:
- Because I work with small groups, I can usually play with two teams of about five students, but you can certainly play with more teams. This Spanish game works with all ages.
- I often do a quick review of the verbs or new vocabulary before we play.
- I like this game because the kids usually produce the Spanish correctly and fairly easily and who wins is determined by luck. I let the teams confer on the vocabulary, so they choose the words they are sure of early in the game. You can give only partial credit if a word is mispronounced.
- Pictures or objects work, as long as they are big enough for everyone to see. I use some pictures and things like plastic animals, a plastic fork, spoon, knife, plate, cup, a paper napkin, a ball, a key, an apple, a banana, a small bottle of milk, chocolate, a small box of cereal, clothing (baby clothes work well), a phone, a clock, etc.
- The number of items depends on how long you want the game to take and how many turns you want each student to have. The last time I played I had a group of 10 students (two teams of 5) and they all had two turns so I had about 25 items. I always have more objects and pictures than students so that as the game ends there is still some choice.
- Label each of the objects or pictures with a point value. I use masking tape and a permanent marker for this. If I have 25 objects, I label 4 objects – 1pt., 4 objects – 2 pts., 6 objects – 3 pts., 6 objects – 4 pts., 5 objects – 5 pts. You could probably spread the points evenly, but having a few more objects worth a certain number of points makes it very unlikely that the teams will tie (something that has never happened). Also, with a point spread like this the team scores tend to stay fairly close.
- I spread the objects out on the floor where everyone can see them. You could also spread them on a table or around the room.
- When it is their turn, the team confers to choose which object they are going to get. Because the objects are worth different points, the kids will try to guess which are worth more. I tend to make the easiest words (ones I know they all know) worth a smaller number of points, but it is pretty random.
- The player from the team whose turn it is to get the object, identifies what she is going to get saying Veo el/la (object). Then she says that she wants the object saying Quiero el/la .. The player goes to get the object and then, once she is holding it, says Tengo el/la …  I ask ¿Cuántos puntos vale? and the points are added to the team’s score. The player puts the object in a box and it is the next team’s turn. The teams get a rhythm going and can quickly run through the sequence of verbs and deliver the object to the box.

I have been having a great time with the Whistlefritz CD, Cha, Cha, Cha -Spanish Learning Songs. This award-winning collection of songs for children has a combination of original works and traditional music in Spanish. Visit the website to learn more about the Whistlefritz Spanish CDs and Spanish DVDs for kids.

The CD Cha, Cha, Cha is designed for children learning Spanish, but this is music that native speakers will enjoy just as much. The original songs teach basic concepts like the vowels, the days of the week, the months, and the seasons. Jorge Anaya’s arrangements of the traditional songs are so well done that they feel “right” to native speakers. This is excellent music for learning Spanish, but it is also just excellent music.

The original songs will teach Spanish vocabulary, verbs, and pronunciation to children learning Spanish. These songs are carefully designed language-learning tools. Many can be combined with actions, and they all create a context that gives the language meaning. I will mention a few of my favorites to give you an idea of how carefully crafted this music is.

Las estaciones (The Seasons) is about the weather in each season and the clothes children put on to go out to play. The weather vocabulary reinforces the meaning of the clothes words and vice versa. The language – season, weather, clothes – comes together to make a logical whole so that kids understand and remember it. This song can easily be combined with actions – one of the best ways for kids to learn Spanish. Like lots of the songs on this CD, it is very visual. It would be a great song for kids to illustrate. I also love the message of this song – that you can always be outside. No matter the weather, you dress for it and go out to play. Living in Wisconsin, this is the attitude you have to have!

Me gusta viajar (I like to travel) is a song that lends itself to really fun actions and also to being illustrated. It teaches lots of vocabulary, but so logically that kids will learn it without realizing it. The song begins Me gusta viajar….por cielo, por tierra o…por el mar (I like to travel… through the sky, over the land or… by sea). The verses that follow are about how we travel in those places, and carefully incorporate the vehicles carro, tren, bote de vela and avión (car, train, boat, plane), the opposites abajo – arriba and rápido – lento (above – below and fast – slow) and words we use with geography like cerro, puente, ciudad, campo, and bahía (hill, bridge, city, countryside and bay). There is plenty of repetition and an overall symmetry that makes the song very easy to learn.

Los días de la semana teaches the days of the week and a lot more Spanish. As vocabulary, the days of the week are very abstract. The words only have meaning in association with something concrete (you can get a sense of this if you try to describe the essence of Monday and distinguish it from Tuesday). The song Los días de la semana provides that association by pairing the days of the week with different actions and body parts. Lunes, levanto los dos brazos. Martes, yo salto en un pie. (Monday, I lift my two arms. Tuesday, I jump on one foot). This is a cumulative song, so each time you add a day and action, you go back and sing the other days too. It is active, fun and a wonderful way to learn Spanish.

Los días de la semana is a great example of a children’s song that could, and should, be used at other levels. Middle school and high school classes would learn the days of the week in no time, and also learn body parts and verbs in a natural, entertaining way.

This CD also has an well-chosen selection of traditional songs. These are some of the best known children’s songs throughout the Spanish-speaking world. They include Que llueva, La cucaracha, Los elefantes and El barco chiquito. They are songs that children learning Spanish will love and also a part of the cultural knowledge that is so important in learning a language.

Use these links for more information about Whistlefritz  and to hear clips of the wonderful Spanish songs on Cha, Cha, Cha.

This free online game is the perfect first game for children starting to learn Spanish. Kids do not have to know any Spanish to play, and the Spanish audio makes it a wonderful introduction to the language. Playing Las llaves del tesoro (Keys to the Treasure) children hear introductions, colors and other common vocabulary in a context that makes the language completely clear. They absorb the sounds of Spanish and soon understand the basic phrases and words used in the game. The vocabulary in this game corresponds to the words on the En mi casa CD by Singalingo, but it is basic Spanish and great for any child learning the language.

Use this link to Las llaves del tesoro – Online game with Spanish audio.

To begin the game, players choose a character. There are six options, and five of those are people who will introduce themselves in Spanish. The sixth is a monkey who introduces himself in monkey (something my son and husband thought was hilarious). There is Spanish audio and the text of the introductions also appears on the screen. Encourage children to click on the different characters and listen to all the introductions before they choose one. The more they listen, the more they learn.

Players also pick a color for the clothes of the character. The Spanish words are beside the colors and there is Spanish audio that pronounces each color word. Again, encourage kids to click on all the colors and listen before they choose what color the character will wear.

Choosing the character and the color, the context and images makes the Spanish perfectly clear. You do not have to translate anything for children playing this game. In fact, avoid relating the Spanish to English. Just let kids listen to the words and phrases and absorb the language. They do not have to repeat what they hear. At this point, they learn by listening.

To play the game, kids click just before the treasure chest to open it as it goes by. If the key reaches the chest it opens and an object comes out. The object is labeled with the Spanish word and the word is pronounced several times.

The game always lasts 1:30 and kids see how many times they can open the trunk in that time. Children will associate the Spanish audio with the objects, so there is no need to translate to English. Again, it is best to avoid translation when it is not necessary, and the images make the meaning of the Spanish words clear.

Kids learn by listening to the Spanish words as they play this game. Once they are familiar with the vocabulary, you can encourage them to repeat the words or to guess at what is in the chest. The vocabulary in the game is basic Spanish. Children will learn words like el sol (the sun), la luna (the moon), las estrellas (the stars), el plato(the plate), el tenedor (the fork), la cuchara (the spoon), el vaso ( the glass), el queso (the cheese), el pastel (the pie), los pantalones (the pants), and la camisa (the shirt). The words included in the this game reinforce the vocabulary on the En mi casa CD by Singalingo, but the game is excellent for any beginning Spanish learner.

This is a set of Thanksgiving materials and activities in Spanish from the wonderful website Nourish Interactive. The free printable materials include coloring pages, word games, bookmarks, lunchbox notes, dinner place cards and a organization sheet to help with Thanksgiving planning.

All of these activities teach Spanish food vocabulary and Thanksgiving vocabulary if you talk about them with kids learning Spanish. The following activities have simple text and work particularly well with Spanish language learners.

You can find all of these activities here: Spanish printables for Thanksgiving

Click on the title or image.  On the next screen there will be a box on the right side of the screen that says Descargue esta hoja (Download this worksheet).

Click on Archivo en español (File in Spanish) for the Spanish printable. If there is an answer key, it will be labeled Clave de Respuestas en Español.

Día de Acción de Gracias la Pirámide Alimenticia – Kids match food items to the food groups.

Actividad Divertida de Vegetales de Cosecha – A coloring page with simple text. The vegetables introduce themselves: ¡Hola! ¡Soy una calabaza! (There is a small misprint. Change una rábano to un rábano )

Hoja de Aprender y Colorear de Vegetales Anaranjados y la Vitamina A – Another coloring page with simple text. The vegetables introduce themselves and give a fact about their nutritional value: ¡Hola! Soy una zanahoria.Te ayudo a ver por la noche.

Búsqueda de Palabras de Día de Acción de Gracias – A word search with seven common words including  familia, cena, manzana, fiesta, and pavo. The words that might be unfamiliar to beginning learners are desfile (parade) and batata (sweet potato).

Clave – Búsqueda de Palabras de Chef Solus – The key to the seven-word puzzle

Búsqueda de Palabras de Día de Acción de Gracias de Chef Solus – A word search with 15 common words.  This puzzle uses the seven words from the other word search and includes other important Thanksgiving vocabulary like celebra, papas, and agradecido.

Clave – Búsqueda de Palabras de Chef Solus – The key to the 15-word puzzle

Diversión del Chef Solus Para Descifrar el Mensaje Escondido para el Día de Acción de Gracias  - Kids unscramble the words to find a hidden message. The words are common verbs and nouns that have to do with physical activity: jugar, bailar, caminar, saltar, fútbol, bicicleta.

Clave – Descifrar el Mensaje Escondido de Chef Solus – The key to the scrambled words and hidden message.

Hoja Imprimible ‘Yo Doy Gracias Por’ para Niños para el Día de Acción de Gracias – Kids write their reasons for being grateful.

Lista de Compras para las Fiestas Por Grupo Alimenticio – A shopping list organized by food group.

Página Divertida para Niños para el Día de Acción de Gracias – A simple story about shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. The story reinforces vocabulary from the activities.

Nourish Interactive has other Thanksgiving materials in Spanish. It also has wonderful activities and materials to use all year. You can read about using their materials to teach the days of the week in Spanish here.

 Learn Spanish Today 

This online Spanish game with native-speaker audio is a good way for children to practice vocabulary and listening comprehension while they are sorting, grouping and matching. Listening to native-speaker Spanish is also important for pronunciation. The set of activities is called Un poquito de orden and there are three temas (topics), each with several activities.

Click on the link below to reach the online Spanish game. The site sometimes takes a little while to load. It works really well once it has loaded. On the first screen, click on alumnos (students).

Online Spanish Game – Un poquito de orden

The boy, Ulises, will give instructions on every screen. Just click on him. The text appears on the screen with the audio. On this first screen, he introduces himself and says to click on the objects to get to different games.

All of the the instructions include brief explanations of the activities. Because these online Spanish games are mostly self-explanatory and kids know what to expect, the instructions are good listening practice.

The three temas are:
Dibujos confusos (Mixed-up pictures) – Click on the figure of a man with a tail for an arm.
Cada cosa en su sitio (Everything in its place) – Click on the shapes.
Cada oveja con su pareja (A saying roughly equivalent to Like seeks like or Every Jack has his Jill) – Click on the sheep.

The first two topics, Dibujos confusos and Cada cosa en su sitio have audio as a part of the games. Cada oveja con su pareja has audio for the instructions, but not in the activities. All of the games are good for practicing common Spanish vocabulary.

These are the activities in each topic. You can advance through them by clicking on the yellow arrow (the audio says siguiente) next to the bar at the top of each screen. You can also click on Rubics cube at the bottom of the screen to get to the activities for each tema.

Dibujos confusos – For all these activities, click on Ulises first and listen as he explains what to do.

1. Choose what does not belong – fruits and vegtables. Move the cursor over the objects for audio. Vocabulary: plátano, pera manzana, cereza, cebolla, uvas

2. Choose the item that does not have something in common with the others.The answer that they are looking for is the snake because it does not fly. (The airplane is also a logical answer because it is not alive). This activity does not have audio when you move the cursor over the picture, but there is a brief explanation, audio and text, when you complete the activity.

3. Find the things that do not make sense in the picture.The cursor turns to a hand when you are over one of the answers. When you click, there is audio and a written explanation.

4. Choose what does not belong – clothes. Move the cursor over the objects for audio. Vocabulary: falda, camisa, gorro, guante, llave, pantalón

5. Choose what does not belong – electronics.  Move the cursor over the objects for audio. Vocabulary: ordenador, televisión, ventana, radio

Cada cosa en su lugar - All of these activities are about Christmas. They use Christmas ornaments, decorations, cookies and presents.  Each set of instructions includes a brief explanation of what Ulises does at Christmas. It is good listening practice!

1. Click on the matching object. You hear the word when you click on the large object and again when you click on the small one that matches. There are five items to match on separate screens. Vocabulary: campana, regalo, caletín, bola de Navidad, muñeco de nieve

2. Click on the Christmas ornament that is different. You will hear each word pronounced if you click on it.

3. Drag the cookies into the box with the matching shape. Ulises says all the shapes in the instructions. There is no audio in the activity, but you can say the shapes as you play. Vocabulary: galletas, redondas, rectangulares, cuadradas, triangulares, romboidales, con forma de estrella.

4. Click to color the ornaments. There is no audio in the activity, but you can say the colors when the ornaments change. Vocabulary: morado, rojo, amarillo, azul, campana, estrella, muñeco de nieve, bola de Navidad.

5. Match shapes –  Say the shapes as you match them. Vocabulary: triángulo, diamante, círculo, cuadrado, estrella.

6. Order from smallest to largest by matching the presents to numbers.

Cada oveja con su pareja - This set of games only has audio for the instructions. They all use common objects, so it is good Spanish vocabulary practice if you say the words as you play.

1. Match the vehicles. Vocabulary: ambulancia, autobús, avión, barco, bicicleta.

2. Match the musical instruments to their names.

3. Memory game, find the matching pairs. Vocabulary: pelota, patín, muñeca, osito

4. Match related items. Vocabulary: zapato – calcetín, pajaro – jaula, cereal – cuchara, flores – florero, vaso – agua, tenedor – cuchillo

5. Match the person in each profession to the object.  Vocabulary: doctora, pintora, albañil, mecánico, bombero, policia, llave inglesa, brocha, manguera, carretilla, silbato, estetoscopio

Printable activities

If you go back to the first screen and click on Docentes, there are a few related activities that you can print. They are sorting and matching activities in a pdf format.

 Learn Spanish Today 

The Brainy Company makes a variety of products for introducing children to Spanish. Last week they sent me the Bilingual Baby DVD, the Brainy Baby Spanish/English:Simple Words and Phrases Book and the Brainy Baby Spanish/English:Simple Words and Phrases Flashcards. These items are available individually or as the Brainy Baby Spanish & English Bundle Collection.

Bilingual Baby DVD
The Bilingual Baby DVD is a wonderful collection of images to support a voice-over narration of basic Spanish words and phrases. There is no story, but this DVD is surprisingly engaging and entertaining. The live-action video of people and animals has wonderful colors and the pacing is just right. It holds a child’s attention and yet it is never too busy or overwhelming.

The DVD is intended for children ages 1-5 and introduces basic words and phrases. For example, the video teaches niño, niña, manzana, cama, libro, comer, dormir and leer. Children hear individual words pronounced and then combined into sentences. The video shows fun images of exactly what they are hearing. The DVD also introduces the numbers one through ten, the question ¿Cuántos hay? (How many are there?), colors and the question ¿De qué color es? (What color is..?). The structure of the video provides for lots of repetition of language with a great variety of images.

The native-speaker narration on this DVD is excellent. One woman does all of the voice-over and she has a warm, expressive voice. The inflection is just what you would use talking to children.

The video shows the Spanish text on the screen, but I do not think children get anything out of seeing the words. I understand that parents may want to know how the words are spelled, but children in this age group who are being introduced to Spanish as a second language are not learning to read in Spanish. They are learning by watching and listening.

At the beginning, the DVD explains that the English words are only on the screen for a moment in order not to distract the kids. The Spanish text could also be distracting for some children at first, but they will quickly ignore it. The pictures are too engaging for them to pay much attention to text in any language.

The DVD is about 40 minutes long. Children certainly do not have to sit through the entire DVD at one time. There is lots of repetition and recycling of language, so you can stop and start at any point. This is a video that children will continue to learn from as they watch it again and again.

Brainy Baby Spanish & English Simple Words and Phrases Book
This is a sturdy board book intended for children ages 1-5. The book is big, a great size for kids, and it has really wonderful photographs. The pictures illustrate common Spanish words and phrases including greetings, body parts, colors and numbers. The vocabulary in the book corresponds to a large extent to the vocabulary in the Bilingual Baby DVD.

To make the most of this book, move the language beyond the pages. With the parts of the body this is easy. After you point to the pictures in the book and say the words, point to your own eyes and nose, or your child’s, and say the Spanish words. With the numbers, count fingers and toes in Spanish. The verbs in the book are in the infinitive (comer – to eat, dormir – to sleep). An easy way to move beyond the book is to say Vamos a comer (Let’s eat) or Vamos a dormir (Let’s sleep) and then act out the action together.

This is a short book with relatively few Spanish words, so I was disappointed to find several misprints in the Spanish. For example, after introducing the words perro (dog) and gato (cat), the book asks “Do you have a dog or a cat?” The Spanish in the book is ¿Tiene un perro o un gato? The verb should be tienes. Tiene can mean “do you have,” but it is not the verb form used with children in most of the Spanish-speaking world. Later in the book the less formal form is used in the phrase te quiero, so tiene without the s is probably a misprint. If you get this book, read the question ¿Tienes un perro o un gato? Also, the word for the number ten, diez, is misspelled. The book spells it with an “s” instead of a “z.”

This is a book that you will read aloud to your child, so the errors will not affect its usefulness. It is just disappointing that more care is not taken in proofreading Spanish language materials for children.

Brainy Baby Spanish & English Simple Words and Phrases Flashcards
I do not use flashcards with children of any age who are learning Spanish. but I think these cards can be useful as activity cards. As activity cards, they serve as a reference or a label as you play with your child using Spanish words.

These cards are big and sturdy, meant to be handled by little fingers. You can use them to do lots of different activities with your child. Here are a few simple ideas:

1. Match objects to the cards. Play with three or four words at a time. Assemble objects shown in the cards and match them up. Say the words on the cards as you put the card with the object.
2. Move around the house placing the cards next to objects. La puerta, el reloj, los zapatos, un huevo (the door, the clock, the shoes, an egg) – label objects where they are and then collect the cards again. Say the Spanish words as you play.
3. Put three or four color cards out on the floor. Collect things of that color around the card. Repeat the Spanish color word as you collect and point to the objects.
4. Put three or four number cards out. Bring objects to make the picture on the card (2 cookies, 3 blocks) or the same number of different objects.
5. Take the cards in the car.  Choose one color to look for. When you find three things, choose another card.
6. The color cards are hand prints. Make your own hand prints in the different colors. Say the color words as you make the pictures.

Again, I was disappointed to find several misprints and vocabulary errors.
- The number diez is misspelled, as it is in the book. It is spelled with an s on the card.
- The number dos is also misspelled. The card shows the pronunciation guide (dohs) as the Spanish spelling.
- The words for basketball and baseball on the cards are not the words for the balls. The cards show a basketball and a baseball. They are labeled with the words baloncesto and béisbol. These words can only be used to refer to the sports. On the other side of the card there is a related word, anaranjado (orange) for basketball and círculo (circle) for baseball. Given these descriptive words, and the fact that all the cards refer to objects, it is unlikely that the cards were intended to refer to the sports and not the balls in the picture. The most common words are balón and pelota.

As with the book, these cards can be useful in spite of the errors. It is just too bad that the same attention to detail that went into the Bilingual Baby DVD was not given to the book and flashcards.

Talking to The Brainy Company
I always send companies a draft of a review before I publish it. When I sent The Brainy Company the draft of this post, I wrote a very nice email (really!) saying that I hoped the representative would forward the review to someone who could see that the errors were corrected if they ever updated the products. I pointed out that the review was positive and said that I thought they would want to know about the mistakes. This situation comes up fairly often, and companies usually appreciate the feedback and free proofread. Last week someone offered me a job.

The representative at The Brainy Company told me that they had consulted with several professionals when they made the products, that there are differences in dialect and usage and that they were never going to make 100% of people happy.

Needless to say, I do not agree. I think that you can make 100% of people happy by spelling diez with a z, and dos without an h.

Getting beyond the misprints, obviously there are differences in dialect and usage, but as professionals we have an obligation to teach a standard, useful vocabulary. I believe that companies selling educational products to teach children Spanish have the same obligation. I am the first to recognize that although I have never heard or seen baloncesto used to refer to the ball, and cannot find it used that way anywhere, someone somewhere may say it. Does it follow that the word be used on cards for children beginning to learn Spanish as a second language? I am not usually one to turn to the Real Academia Española for backup, but if they do not think baloncesto refers to the ball, I would vote for a more standard word choice.

Do you have thoughts on the quality of Spanish language products for kids? How can parents who do not speak much Spanish make good choices when buying language products for their kids? Would you buy a children’s book in English with misprints? I would love to hear your thoughts!