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 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.

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!

Do you have children starting Spanish in school? If you are looking for games and activities to supplement what they are doing in class, The Everything Kids’ First Spanish Puzzle and Activity Book has lots of fun ways to practice basic Spanish.

Kids who like word games and activity books will love this book. It is packed with mazes, codes, word searches, hidden pictures and other puzzles that reinforce basic Spanish vocabulary and concepts. There are brief explanations, but the book does not teach the material in depth. It provides an entertaining way to review and expand on what a child has seen in class. If the information is new, the activities serve as a brief introduction to the vocabulary. The book has the answers to all the puzzles in the back.

Most of the activities are based on translation, so there is a mix of English and Spanish. For several of the activities, kids do a puzzle in English to discover a Spanish word or phrase. Because of the English, the book is not a good choice for children in immersion programs. However, for kids using books that include English translations, lots of the activities match material taught in beginning classes.

I like the variety of short, quick activities like mazes, codes, dot-to-dots, word searches, crosswords, tongue twisters. Also, the pages are big enough to write on easily and there is enough space in the blanks to make the activities fun to do. The book is for ages nine and up, and it could certainly be used with middle school students. Because the Spanish makes these games and activities more challenging, it appeals to a wider age range.

This is a book of written activities, but I like the way it encourages children to speak Spanish. There are pronunciation keys for all the Spanish words and the instructions tell kids to say the words out loud, or to try to say a phrase three or five times fast. There are never too many words on a page, so saying the words is fun, not overwhelming.

The Everything Kids’ First Spanish Puzzle and Activity Book has too many activities to go into much detail, but I want to mention a few of the ones that I particularly liked. One is called Sad Man, Glad Man, where kids draw expressions in labeled circles before following the happy faces like a maze. Drawing the faces is fun! The models for the faces are easy, and kids will quickly learn the Spanish words feliz, enfadado, triste, cansado and miedo.

There is an activity with con (with) and sin (without) where kids match simple descriptions to pictures. This is an effective way of teaching these two important words. I also like the group game in the book that teaches how to tell time in Spanish. There are several written activities on telling time too, so kids can get more practice.

If you are considering getting this book for your child, you should be aware that there are a few misprints. These matter because they cause agreement errors and several of the activities teach agreement. Here are the ones I noticed:

p. 28, the book has pan tostada, but it should be pan tostado (pan is masculine).
p. 65, the word quarto should be spelled cuarto.
p. 78, tengo mucho hambre should be tengo mucha hambre (hambre is feminine).
p. 92, the written accent and pronunciation key are wrong for the word alergias. There is no written accent on the word (the book has one on the i). The stress falls on the e in the next-to-the-last syllable.The ia combine in one syllable (a dipthong).
p. 118, the book has una papá for father. It should be un papá.

The book is still useful, even with the mistakes; you can just correct them. Kids will have a great time doing the puzzles and they will spend more time thinking about Spanish as they do. I would just use the errors as an opportunity to talk to kids about how it is important to be careful with spelling and agreement and about how everyone makes mistakes, even busy copy editors.

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

 Learn Spanish Today 

This make-your-own online puppet show is a great way to get kids speaking Spanish or any language. Start by choosing scenery and characters. Then you can move the characters around and have them talk to each other. They automatically turn toward each other, and you can move them below the level of the stage. There are four scenes to choose from and four pairs of characters.

This activity is on UpToTen – one of the best kid sites in English and French (it is completely bilingual). If you have little ones or your kids are learning French, you are probably familiar with UpToTen and the clever stories, games and songs. Lots of the activities can be used with Spanish language learners, too.

Many of the suggestions below appy to playing with any puppets or toy figures. The advantage of the online puppet show is that children do not have to worry about holding and moving the characters, and they can watch the show as they make the figures talk.

Link to Spanish speaking activity: Make your own puppet show

Even a very short, simple conversation in Spanish is great practice for kids. Here are a few suggestions to get beginning learners speaking Spanish with the puppet show:

- Play together. You make one character move and talk, and your child makes the other move and talk.

- Kids learning Spanish have a limited vocabulary, so it is easier to make the characters talk if you establish a situation first. Decide before you start, saying for example, “Claudia just moved into the neighborhood and she is introducing herself to everyone,” or, “Max is looking for his dog.”

- Give the puppet show a name that sums up the situation. For the examples above, Me llamo Claudia and ¿Donde está mi perro? are good titles because they are sentences you will say as you play.

- Base the show on one or two repeated phrases. Use the same pattern for the whole puppet show. For the examples above you could say:

- Hola, me llamo Claudia. ¿Cómo te llamas?
- Hola, Claudia. Mucho gusto. Me llamo Miguel. (Then Claudia moves on to greet another character.)

- No veo mi perro. ¿Dónde está mi perro?
- No sé. Lo siento. (Then Max moves to the next character to ask where his dog is.)

- Use four characters (the maximum the program allows) so that one character can say the same thing to three others.

- Have an ending to your puppet show. It can be very simple. For the examples above, Claudia can say ¡Adios amigos! Max can say ¡Veo mi perro! or just ¡Mi perro!

- Use different voices if you are speaking for more than one character. This makes simple conversations more interesting.

- Use the puppet show as a setting for kids to sing a song (or a line of a song) or count. Try shows like Me gusta contar where a character counts everything or counts all the time or Me gusta cantar where a character says Me gusta cantar and another says Me gusta cantar también and then they sing together. Make funny variations where no one else likes to sing or count, or where a character will not stop singing or counting.

- Sing call and response songs with the characters, like a Spanish greeting song, or Te quiero.

- The scenery in this puppet show is basic, but there are things to talk about. Use simple sentences with verbs like Veo /¿Ves? (I see / Do you see?) and hay (there is, there are). Here are a few suggestions for using the scenery:

In the fall scene, a character can count the leaves: Me gusta contar. ¿Cuántas hojas hay? (I like to count. How many leaves are there?)

In the castle scene, they can count the windows on the castle (there are lots!): Me gusta contar. ¿Cuántas ventanas hay? (I like to count. How many windows are there?)

In the house scene, there are colored flowers on the wall and other colors in the room. A character can say: Me gustan los colores. Veo verde. Veo azul. (I like colors. I see green. I see blue.)

In the beach scene, they can talk about el sol (sun), las nubes (clouds), el velero (sailboat), la sombrilla (umbrella) el vestidor (changing room), la arena (sand), el mar (sea) and las olas (waves) using veo, ¿ves?, allí está(n), and hay.

Practice your puppet show and present it for family and friends. If your child has fun with one show and wants to do it over and over, that is great. Repetition is important. Have fun!

I was excited to see Juanita Ulloa’s name in my inbox recently.  She wrote suggesting that Spanish Playground readers might be interested in her songs for children learning Spanish. Juanita Ulloa is one of the nation’s leading bilingual performers and songwriters. You can read more about her wonderful music on the Juanita Ulloa website. Juanita’s latest CD of music for children, ¡Canta mi son!, has won a National Association of Parenting Products Gold award and a Disney iParenting Media award. Her voice and her music, for children and adults, are amazing!

Juanita has lots of great songs for kids, some of them particularly good for children learning Spanish as a second language. Her music exposes children to native-speaker pronunciation and has a strong cultural component, as it is closely tied to the musical traditions of Mexico and other Latin American countries. In addition, in her songbooks for Volumes 1 and 2 of Canta conmigo there is a teacher/parent guide that has dance, movement, and cultural explanations and suggestions.

Juanita has generously offered to share one of her songs here on the website. You can listen to all of Yo puedo contar de 1 a 10 below. I will mention a few other songs here too, and be sure to listen to the clips available on her website to get an idea of the wide variety of music she has available.

The album links take you to Juanita Ulloa’s page of music for learning Spanish. Scroll down to the album and click on listen. These are a few songs that work especially well with Spanish language learners:

¿Cómo estás, amigo? – on the CD Canta conmigo (Volume 2)
This is a wonderful call and response greeting song in two languages. It goes beyond ¿Cómo estás? Muy bien to include two common expressions that we use in Spanish when we meet someone. Mucho gusto and encantada/o are polite phrases that all children learning Spanish should know. This song would be an excellent way to begin a discussion of the importance of greetings, good-byes and related polite behavior in Latino culture.

¿Cómo estás, amigo? is also a good way to introduce, or reinforce, adjective agreement as girls sing encantada and boys sing encantado. One of the great benefits of music in learning Spanish is that children produce natural, correct structures and repeat them over and over. By making encantado/a agree with their gender, children begin to internalize the concept of agreement.
The song is in Spanish, then English. It also speeds up the second time around. The change in tempo makes is especially fun to sing.

Yo puedo contar de 1 a 10 – on the CD Canta Conmigo (Volume 1)

This is my new favorite counting song. It has a fabulous rhythm! Kids count to ten and then back down – al derecho y al revés.

You can listen to it here: Yo puedo cantar de 1 a 10

This song has something I always look for in counting songs and that is useful language in addition to numbers. As I mentioned, one of the benefits of music is that children repeatedly produce correct, natural Spanish. So, the best songs for learning Spanish have structures and vocabulary that children can use in many situations. Singing Yo puedo contar de 1 a 10, children learn and practice the verb phrase puedo + infinitive and the verb form vamos. Even beginning Spanish learners can apply both of these verb forms in other contexts.

The song lends itself to all kinds of activities and actions. The most basic is to have kids make a simple number line and keep the rhythm by drumming on the numbers as they sing them.  You can also assign numbers and have kids, in a line or circle, step forward and then back as the group sings the number. This gets trickier as the song goes faster, so another option is to have kids jump in place.

La carita – on the CD ¡Canta mi son!
I love this mariachi version of La carita. It has the emotion of mariachi music with content for children. This song is available on Juanita’s lastest CD ¡Canta mi son!

In terms of Spanish language learners, this song has lots of practical vocabulary, presented in a structure that makes it easy to learn and retain. The body parts are associated with verbs – una boca para comer, esta nariz es para oler, los oídos son para oir, etc. By adding actions, pointing to the body part and acting out the verb, children are always aware of the meaning of the words they are singing.

Wow wow wow – on the CD Canta conmigo Volume 2
This song is the perfect addition to a unit on animals. It introduces kids to the idea that animal sounds are expressed differently in different languages. The dog that says arf, arf, arf if we go to New york, si viajamos a Mexico él ladra wow, wow, wow.

The song is short and easy to learn. Children are always intrigued by animal sounds, and introducing animal sounds in Spanish adds another dimension to activities with animal vocabulary.  Juanita has another super song for kids called El pato, el pollo y el gallo. It also uses animal sounds and kids love it!

I just watched the Whistlefritz Spanish for Kids DVD – Las estaciones. It is so well done! I am going to explain why I liked it, in detail, but I understand that some of you want just the basics and to know if the product is a good investment.

The DVD is intended to introduce kids ages 2-7 to basic Spanish related to the seasons. María is explaining to her friend Fritzi the mouse when his birthday will be. The video moves through the seasons, presenting key vocabulary for each and supporting it with great images. This is an entertaining video that your kids will love, and it will teach them lots of Spanish. The presentation is clear with plenty of repetition, so that kids will not feel overwhelmed. To balance that, there is enough content to keep them interested and learning as they watch the video over and over. The DVD comes with a translation for parents. Is it a good investment? The answer is an enthusiastic ¡Claro que sí!  It is an excellent investment for anyone who is teaching children Spanish.

That was the short answer. When I recommend great Spanish language materials however, I feel compelled to explain what makes them effective. This is partly my excitement at how it is done. Also, I think that the more parents and teachers understand about how kids learn language and see the different ways material can be presented well, the more effective we become working with kids learning Spanish. Plus, what is the fun of having your own website if you cannot indulge your obsessions?

The Whistlefritz DVD – Las estaciones might seem like a straightforward introduction to the seasons in Spanish, but it is very carefully created to help children learn language. The idea of immersion depends on combining the Spanish children hear with enough visual support that they truly understand what is being said. This is not always easy to do in person, and yet at Whistlefritz they have found a way to make immersion work on video.

This DVD presents kids with 30 minutes of entertaining, natural Spanish that they will understand. This immersion works because the images are carefully crafted to exactly support the language that the children are hearing, and there is enough repetition to let them associate the two.

The people at Whistlefritz manage this by creating captivating animation that exactly conveys the meaning of the Spanish you hear. They also use lots of fun live action footage of children playing to illustrate actions like tirar bolas de nieve (throw snow balls) and nadar (swim). They combined these video sequences with songs to make the repetition of the images and the language natural and entertaining. The live-action video and animation create an experience where everything children see reinforces the meaning of the Spanish. There is nothing extraneous, and nothing to distract from the meaning. The language is equally focused. Everything children hear relates to what they see. There is no extra, distracting language that would be meaningless without a context for understanding it.

In addition to the carefully crafted images, this DVD effectively combines the visual potential of video with the support that you get from a good teacher in a class.  María, the narrator, is Fritzi’s friend. She is happy, enthusiastic and very genuine. Although she is not formally introduced as a teacher that is the role she plays. And Maria is not just any teacher -she is an amazingly effective teacher. Her gestures and expressions perfectly communicate what she is saying. Her voice is lovely and she uses it to best advantage. As you will see, each time María says niños, she will have the children’s attention. She clarifies and repeats, focuses the attention of the children and engages them so that they participate. The content of the DVD is excellent in any case, but María’s interctions and support help children get the most out of the video.

This DVD is intended for children ages 2-7. I assume the upper age range of seven takes into account the concept of seasons and what is considered visually engaging at different ages. In terms of language learning, this DVD would be just as effective for older children or adults learning Spanish. In fact, adults could learn more useful Spanish from Whistefritz than from many products geared to older learners.

Those are just some of the reasons this video works. You would not believe how much I left out! Your kids will just think it is fun, but you will appreciate how much they learn. Is it a good investment? Yes, Whistlefritz Spanish for Kids DVD – Las estaciones is a great investment for children, or anyone, learning Spanish. Enjoy!

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

The songs from two of my favorite CDs for teaching Spanish to children are now available on iTunes. We Love Spanish and Sing, Move and Dance in Spanish, both from Spanish Together, are wonderful collections that teach Spanish to kids through great music.

You can read a detailed review of another Spanish Together CD Hands on Spanish here and about why I like the the song El Cuerpo (also called Cabeza, hombro) so much. You can also find specific suggestions for using the song Las Vocales here (also called A,E,I,O,U).

The songs on these CDs are based on familiar concepts, like the days of the week, opposites, and farm animals, so they teach lots of common Spanish vocabulary. All of the songs are short, fun to sing and lend themselves well to actions.  I really love the clear, native-speaker pronunciation – it is perfect for getting kids who are learning Spanish off to a good start with the vowel sounds.

Having CDs and songs from Spanish Together on iTunes makes it even easier to expose our kids to more Spanish and have fun at the same time. Thanks Spanish Together!

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 park.  The second book My Way / A mi manera – A Margaret and Margarita Story is a story of friendship. It tells how these independent girls each have their own way of doing things. Sometimes though, they like to do things the way their best friend does, and they always like to do things together.

Bilingual books can be really tricky to read aloud. In general, my goal is to have children learn Spanish from context and to avoid translation whenever possible. Depending on how dual language books are used, they provide children with different experiences, but they are not necessarily easy to use effectively with Spanish language learners.

The great thing about the Margaret and Margarita books is that both languages create the story in a structure that makes sense. For a Spanish language learner, the English text makes the Spanish clear, but the English is not just a translation. Rather, it is the voice of Margaret, and Spanish is the voice of Margarita.

Margaret and Margarita are from families that speak different languages, but they have many things in common. The experiences they share in English and Spanish will be familiar to readers. Parents and children everywhere will identify with these active, independent characters.

I like the amount of common, practical Spanish in these books. The sentences are short and straightforward, but there are lots of them! For bilingual picture books, they have a substantial amount of text. The narrative and repeated structures keep the meaning of the language clear.  Also, the bright illustrations have lots of detail and are carefully crafted to support what Margaret and Margarita are saying.

Both of these books offer children an engaging, effective introduction to Spanish or English. Kids love these girls (the first book has been around since my children were little), and I love reading bilingual books where both languages create the story!

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 use with students whose first language is not Spanish – the equivalent of materials that would be used in ESOL classrooms in the United States. The target age for these activities is six to nine, but many of the materials can be used with older students too.  Scroll down to the bottom of the article and click on the PDF icon to download the book.

Each of the units includes objectives, detailed lesson plans (in Spanish) and the handouts you need. The activities are engaging, and the handouts have clear drawings and bright colors.  There are 110 pages in the book, so you might want to choose selected pages to print.

These are the units and the main concepts in ¡Aprendo jugando! Actividades de Español para niños y niñas de 6 a 9 años.

1. El alfabeto / The alphabet (letters, distinguishing between consonants and vowels)
2. Yo me llamo  / My name is…(introducing yourself, asking someone’s name)
3. ¿Me prestas la goma?  / Will you loan me your eraser?  (common classroom phrases)
4. Aprendemos los números  / Learning numbers (numbers)
5. ¿Puedo hablar? / Can I talk? (asking and giving permission, poder + infinitive, common actions and places)
6. La canción de los colores  / The color song (colors, adjective agreement)
7. Hoy somos frutas  / Today we are fruit (fruit, shapes, colors, taste – sweet, sour, etc)
8. Estoy feliz / I’m happy (feelings, present tense of estar and tener)
9. La familia, mi familia  (family, practice with tener, practice with me llamo/se llama)
10. Nuestra mascota  / Our pet (animals, parts of the body, possessives)
11. ¿Dónde está nuestra mascota? / Where is our pet? (prepositions, questions, estar)
12. Describe el juego / Describe the game  (describing, game vocabulary, ser, estar and hay in the present tense)
13. Me gusta – no me gusta / I like it- I don’t like it (the verb gustar)
14. Mis personajes favoritos / My favorite characters (describing people, the verbs ser, estar, tener, llevar in the yo and tú forms)
15. Nuestro calendario / Our calendar (months of the year, days of the week)
16. Las estaciones del año y la ropa / Seasons of the year and clothes (seasons, weather, clothes, the verbs llevar and ponerse, sentences with cuando)
17. ¿Para qué sirve? / What is it used for? (common household objects)
18. El trivial de la clase / Classroom trivia (review)
19. ¿Cómo seguimos? / What’s next? (practice listening comprehension, speaking skills)
20. El árbol de las palabras / Word tree (review)