Kids love treasure hunts, the games where each clue leads to another clue and eventually to treasure. They also have fun with scavenger hunts, where they have a list of things to find. The term Búsqueda del tesoro is used for both activities in Spanish and they can be excellent language activities for kids learning Spanish. I attached a few of my hunts at the end of the post, but you can easily make your own.

Treasure and scavenger hunts can done inside or outside, and there are many different kinds of hunts and pistas (clues). Lots of hunts can be adapted to language learning. They can also be designed for children who read or do not read yet. A online search will turn up a variety of websites and books with suggestions for having successful hunts. Regardless of the kind of hunt, here are a few suggestions for structuring a Spanish game for language learners.

- Use familiar Spanish vocabulary. Hunts are an excellent way to reenter vocabulary that children have been introduced to. If kids are looking for something that they do not know the Spanish word for, they will need more support – a picture and an adult who repeatedly uses the new word as they search for the object. As a general rule, children should hunt for objects they can recognize the Spanish word for.

Unfortunately, using familiar Spanish vocabulary changes the nature of a scavenger hunt. If kids are using their first language, it is perfectly reasonable to have them find a ribbon or a toothpick. With kids learning Spanish, I focus on general, useful vocabulary, so these are not words they know. You can specifying the color of some objects to make them harder to find, like a black sock or a red crayon. With older kids, you can also have them search larger spaces (a neighborhood, a zoo, a park) and use a digital camera to take pictures of what they find. This increases the options for items to search for. You can include things like un camión azul, and una flor amarilla.

- Keep the kids together. Hunts can be organized for one group, several small groups, or individuals. To provide support and reinforce the language it is easier to have kids hunt as one group. I am lucky to work with small groups. With familiar vocabulary, small groups or pairs do well too, depending on the age of the children. Because I want my students to say what they are looking for or read clues aloud, I have kids search in at least pairs rather than individually.

- Provide a key Spanish phrase. Before you start, teach or review a phrase that you will use throughout the hunt. For example Ahora bucamos … (Now we’re looking for), Tenemos que encontrar… (We have to find), Necesitamos… (We need), or Vamos al / a la (We going to the…) The phrase will depend on the hunt, but it is a good way to keep kids speaking Spanish as they get more excited.

- Repeat key words. Use the key words (the object you are looking for or key words in the clue) over and over. The kids will be busy moving and looking once they know what they are searching for or where they are going. Speak lots of Spanish to relate their activity to the language. This is especially important for kids who do not read and are using picture clues.

- Use a pattern for the clues. Make clues that follow a pattern in terms of language structure. This will help kids understand what they read/hear. For example: 1) Yo te ayudo a comer la sopa, pero no soy un plato. 2)Yo te ayudo a cepillar los dientes, pero no soy un cepillo de dientes.

- Use pictures. With picture clues, treasure hunts and scavenger hunts can be great activities for children who do not read yet. If you want more complicated clues, you can read them aloud and it is a good listening activity.

- Review when you are done. When kids have finished a scavenger hunt, go through the whole collection of objects as a group to review and reinforce the words. With little ones, you can give every child a object and when you call off the word they can stand up and repeat it.

Treasure hunts and scavenger hunts have to be adapted to different locations and students. The vocabulary will vary with what kids know and what is available to search for. Clues can be very simple or more complicated, depending on the level of the kids.  For example, all four of these are possible clues for vaso:

1.
2. un vaso
3. Está en la cocina. Es de plástico. Se usa para beber.
4. Soy de plastico o de vidrio. Me llenas de agua y después te lleno de agua.

I have attached several of my scavenger and treasure hunts for you to print and use or adapt to your needs.

Learn Spanish hunts with picture clues:
1. Learn Spanish treasure hunt – Los colores (can be done in a classroom or at home)

2. Learn Spanish treasure hunt – La casa

3. Learn Spanish scavenger hunt – Encuentra estas cosas (a hunt for things found in most households)  This pdf has 2 versions. One with just the picture clues and one with labeled picture clues.

Learn Spanish hunts with text-based clues:
1. Learn Spanish scavenger hunt – Encuentra 20 cosas (10 of the clues are objects found in most households and 10 of the clues use common adjectives, for example, algo grande, algo verde.)
2. Learn Spanish treasure and scavenger hunt – ¿Qué es? The pdf has both a scavenger and a treasure hunt. The clues describe what objects are used for.

You may be interested in:
Spanish game – Printable cootie-catchers

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

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.

With these free printable pictures, kids find the differences and practice common Spanish words. These Spanish activities, Encuentra las diferencias, are from Minihogar Kids, the children’s section of El Minihogar. The puzzles are designed for native-speakers, so the solutions are in Spanish. Kids can use the words as they look for differences and then see the written Spanish words when they check their answers.

There are three Hello Kitty scenes and two scenes with the Simpsons. Children do not have to be familiar with the characters for the activities to be good Spanish language practice. If you play online, you can zoom in to see the details. If you print the activities, print them in landscape (except the house), so that they are not scaled down to fit the page.

To make the most of these Spanish activities, talk about the picture with your child first. Use the vocabulary from the lists below to name the things in the picture before you start to look for the differences. You can use simple sentences like Veo un avión (I see an airplane), Hay tres casas (There are three houses) or Me gustan los globos (I like the balloons).

Point out differences in the two pictures by naming the object that is different: El pez es diferente. When your child points out a difference, say the word: Sí, la flor es diferente. Often there is no need to explain the difference; you can both see it.

Sometimes the difference is in the number of something or when an object is missing. Then it is easy to say No hay un caracol (There is no snail.) or Hay tres peces en este dibujo. Hay cuatro allí. (There are three fish in this picture. There are four there.).

The solutions to these Spanish activities are below each picture and list the key words. For example, if a picture of a fish on a beach umbrella is different, the answer key says: pez sombrilla (fish umbrella).

These are the links to the Spanish activities and the words that are used in the solutions. Be sure to use the words as you talk about the pictures and look for the differences.

Spanish activities  -  Hello Kitty and friends in front of houses
azul – blue
la camiseta – t-shirt
el caracol – snail
la casa – house
la chimenea -chimney
la gaviota – sea gull
el humo – smoke
el lazo – bow
la nube – cloud
el ojo – eye
el pelo – hair
la pelota – ball
el pico – beak
la puerta – door
la rana – frog
el rayo de sol – sun rays
roja – red

Spanish activities  -  Hello Kitty at the beach
la bandera – flag
el bocadillo – bubble for words
la bolsa deportiva – sports bag
el corazón – heart
la estrella de mar – star fish
la flor – flower
el flotador – swim ring
la gorra – cap
las gotas de agua – drops of water
la hamaca – hammock
el lazo – bow
el lunar – polka-dot
la nariz – nose
roja – red
la sombrilla – umbrella
el velero – sail boat

Spanish activities  -  Hello Kitty with a piano
la copa – glass
el cuadro – picture
el delantal – apron
la flor – flower
las fotos – photos
las gafas – glasses
el lazo – bow
el lunar – polka-dot
los ojos – eyes
la pata de piano – leg of the piano
las patillas – ear pieces on glasses
el perro – dog
el péndulo – pendulum
el reloj – clock
la silla – chair

Spanish activities  - The Simpsons’ house
el árbol – tree
la avioneta – small plane
el avión – airplane
la chimenea – chimney
la cola del perro – the dog’s tail
el cubo de basura – garbage can
la hoja – leaf
izquierdo – left
la linea de viento – wind line (behind the plane)
el lunar – polk-dot
la maceta – potted plant
el motor – motor
la nube – cloud
el número – number
la pata de la silla playa – leg of the beach chair
la puerta – door
la sombra – shadow
el tejado – roof
el tronco – trunk
el vestido – dress

Spanish activities  - The Simpsons at the lake
la araña – spider
las burbujas – bubbles
el flotador – swim ring
las gafas – glasses
la gorra – cap
el lazo – bow
el lunar – polka-dot
la margarita – daisy
el pañuelo – head scarf
el pelo – hair
el pez – fish
la sombrilla – umbrella

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 

A find-it jar (or scavenger hunt in a bottle) is a great toy for kids who are learning Spanish. I have played with these in stores and love them. Searching for the tiny boat, discovering the dinosaur – it is captivating! Find-it jars can be a good language learning activity, so I was happy to discover that making your own is not complicated at all.

A find-it jar is a plastic or glass jar filled with colored rice, sand, beads or glitter with tiny objects in it. You can put any variety of small things you find around the house into the jar. Children turn the jar looking for the objects. Take a picture of the objects before you assemble the jar, so kids know what they are looking for. It is a good idea to glue the lid closed with super glue or a hot glue gun. There are detailed instructions for making a find-it jar here and another good explanation for making a find-it jar here. This site calls them Lookie Loos – a scavenger hunt in your hand and also has instructions.

With a find-it jar children can learn new Spanish vocabulary or practice words they know. They can also practice noun-adjective agreement, the verbs buscar (to look for), ver (to see) and encontrar (to find), and direct object pronouns. These are a few suggestions for how to make and use a find-it jar specifically to practice Spanish with children:

• One option is to make the selection of objects completely random, based on what you find around the house. These are a few of the things that we found and the Spanish vocabulary:

el dado – die
el caballo – horse
el león – lion
el perro – dog
el zapato – shoe
los lentes de sol – sunglasses
la concha – shell
la moneda – coin
el clip – paperclip
el tornillo – screw
la cuenta – bead
la canica – marble
el candado – tiny pad lock
la piedrita – little stone
el imperdible – safety pin
la casa – house (from Monopoly)
las uvas – grapes
el plátano – banana
la manzana – apple
la taza – cup
la llanta – a tire
el botón – a button
la carita feliz – a smiley face (a button)
el toro – a bull
el conejo – a rabbit
el anillo – a ring
el oso – a bear
el delfín – a dolphin

• When you take the picture of the objects, you can label them if you like. This will depend on whether or not your child reads in Spanish and how familiar she is with the words.

• You can focus on a theme like animals or colors.

• You can choose objects that start with different letters and put in the letters, too. Kids can look for the letter and the object that begins with that letter. There are lots of craft beads with letters and also tiny alphabet blocks for crafts ($.99 for the set at our craft store).

• This is a great activity to practice describing. Kids will probably say things like Veo el zapato azul (I see the blue shoe) anyway, but you can focus on adjective placement and agreement by listing or labeling some of the objects with an adjective. It does not matter if the adjectives are obvious; it is still good practice. Describe objects by using phrases like:

un botón redondo / un botón cuadrado – a round button / a square button
una canica vieja – an old marble
un toro negro – a black bull
un león feroz – a fierce lion
un perro bonito – a pretty dog
una casa pequeña – a small house

• Regardless of the objects that you put in the jar, children can practice these verbs. Just use veo and no veo if your child is a beginner.

Busco – I’m looking for
Veo – I see
No veo – I don’t see
No encuentro – I’m not finding
No puedo encontrar – I can’t find
Es el (la)… – It is the..
Allí está el (la)… – There is the..
Creo que es el (la)… – I think it is the …
Vi el (la)… – I saw the…
Encontré el (la)… – I found the…
Ya vi el (la)… – I already saw the …
Ya encontré el (la)… – I already found the…

• The verbs above are easily combined with object pronouns when kids are playing with a find-it jar:

El perro. Busco el perro. ¡Lo veo! – The dog. I’m looking for the dog. I see it!
La casa.  Ya la vi. – The house. I already saw it.

9letras is the blog of Alberto Abarca Fillat of Huesca, Spain. Alberto shares educational material for teaching Spanish and the website has an impressive number of printable activities for young Spanish language learners.

All of the material is created by the author, and lots of the activities have pictures to help Spanish learners interpret the language. Many of these activities with pictures are designed for beginning readers. They also work well with children who do not read yet, if you do them together, talking through the activities. These printable resources are Word documents, so that you can modify them to suit your needs.

There are so many activities on 9letras that you have to take some time to explore. I will just point out a few activities I find useful.

The page Español L.E. (Español como lengua extranjera) is a good place to start. The first section of the page has Tarjetas, or picture cards, for vocabulary in many different of categories. All the cards have images with Spanish words, and many are accompanied by at least one activity. There are vocabulary picture cards for these categories:

COSAS DE CASA / Household objects
ANIMALES / Animals
COCINA / Kitchen ( 2 sets of cards and activities)
COSAS DE CLASE / Classroom objects
COMIDAS / Food
VERBOS / Verbs ( 2 sets of cards and activities)
VESTIDOS / Clothes
OFICIOS/ Jobs
LA CALLE / The street
FRUTAS / Fruit
CUANDO / When
CUERPO / Body (3 sets of cards and activities)

Following the cards, there are several sections of vocabulary resources.
The first, Vocabulario nivel 1, has many categories. In all the documents, the vocabulary is presented with images, labeled and followed by activities using the pictures and words. There are often several activities with a set of vocabulary, such as matching the words to a picture, labeling a picture and completing the word.

In that section, I have used Contrarios, which presents prepositions as opposite pairs. There is a set of cards with an image and a phrase describing the image. It is followed by a set of cards with the same picture and phrase, but with the key word missing. Once children are familiar with the vocabulary, the second set is great for all kinds of games.

The activities in Numbers- 10 can be used with very young Spanish learners and give lots of counting practice. Cosas de la casa 2 has pictures of the vocabulary, a matching activity and an activity where kids complete the word by putting in the missing letter or syllable.

On the page Español L.E. there are many other materials, including practice with three levels of vocabulary, verbs, and reading comprehension. Take some time to open the files and see what might be helpful to you.

Another useful page on 9letras is Infantil. There are dozens of activities with basic vocabulary and most include images.

For example, the documents titled Frases INF6 – Frases INF20 are good for beginning readers. All of these documents include four different activities supported by pictures. Kids copy a short phrase associated with an image, match the phrase to the picture, complete the phrase with the missing word, and finally put the words in order. These exercises use all capital letters. There are also activities for individual letters and many power point presentations to practice reading skills.

On the page Vocabulario, Alberto Abarca Fillat has included the complete set of vocabulary that he uses to teach beginning Spanish learners. I know that a lot of us spend time choosing the words we are going to focus on and I always find it interesting and helpful to see what someone else has decided. To see the list, click on the link Vocabulario Básico.

On the same page you will find power point presentations with the vocabulary game Encadena where you make a chain by associating words. There are also lots of power points to teach vocabulary.

As I said, there is so much on 9letras that you will have to explore to find what is helpful to you. I am sure you will find material that you can adapt and use in your Spanish classes for kids or at home with your little Spanish learners.

 Learn Spanish Today 

There are endless ways that the beautiful illustrations on this site can be used as a teaching tool. For the moment, I will make a few suggestions about how you can use Storybird with Spanish language learners without even creating an account. Of course, you will want to create an account, because it is free and fabulous! With an account you will be able to make stories, save them and take full advantage of all the features of Storybird.

The art on Storybird lends itself to all kinds of Spanish language activities, many that are simpler than telling a story with a series of pictures. Each of the pictures can be considered individually in terms of creating activities. Also, because you can use the themes (tags) to see a selection of art related to one subject, you can easily find pictures that have elements in common.

The easiest way to see the wide selection of art available is to click on Art under the Read/Explore heading at the foot of the page. To choose art related to a theme, click Tags under the same heading. (The tags are also called themes on this site.) You can also click Create to see a selection of pictures and from there click See more art.

These are just a few suggestions of how to use the art on Storybird to speak Spanish with children. Look at the art and use your imagination. You will think of many more!

1)  Choose pictures related to a subject and describe what you see in the pictures.
- To talk about the weather, try the tag winter or rain.
- To find pictures to describe people, try tags like girls or dad.
- To talk about family, try tags like this one for daughter.
- Find pictures to talk about color by using the tags, like blue.

2) Talk about one character to focus on actions (to practice verbs) or emotions.
- From a selection of art, choose a character that interests you. Click the artist’s name and then See all art. There will often be several illustrations with the same character. Give the character a name and ask ¿Qué hace? about the different pictures.
- To talk about emotions, give a character a name and ask ¿Cómo se siente? about different pictures.

3) Play guessing games from a selection of pictures.
- Use a theme (tag) to see pictures with a common subject. One person chooses a picture to describe and the other person identifies which picture it is.
- From a selection of art, one person describes an object in one of the pictures and the other tries to find it. You can get a random selection of art by clicking Create and then See more art.
- Play 20 questions choosing an object or person in a selection of pictures. You can get a random selection of art by clicking Create and then See more art.

4) Create information for a character in a picture.
- Answer questions like ¿Dónde está?, ¿Cómo se llama?, ¿Cuántos años tiene?, ¿Qué hace?.
- Tell what the characters in a picture are saying. This is good for understanding point of view and practicing verbs in the first and second person.
- Tell what a character in a picture is thinking.

I have a suggestion about using the tags, or themes, on Storybird. The website shows a selection of tags and you can reload them to see others. If you are looking for something specific, it is easier to put the word you are looking for into the url. For example, this is the url for the tag animal: http://storybird.com/tags/animal/artwork/
If you would like to see the art tagged dog, just change the word animal to dog in the url at the top of your page: http://storybird.com/tags/dog/artwork/

Teaching language to children in any setting,  we often depend on pictures to help communicate ideas and establish context. At times, the pictures are just functional. When the pictures are also beautiful and engaging, teaching and learning have another dimension. Being able to incorporate the art on Storybird into our work with children learning Spanish is a wonderful opportunity.

Let’s Eat! / ¡A comer! is a picture book in Spanish and English by Pat Mora. This story fits into any number of my classes. It has family vocabulary, food vocabulary, simple structures, a strong cultural component, and detailed pictures that can be used for all kinds of conversation about home and family.

The story line of Let’s Eat! / ¡A comer! is straightforward. A family comes to the table, and there is plenty of delicious food. A child points out how fortunate they are, and her father, observing his family, agrees. The illustrations are bright and clear and support the text. There is lots of extra detail in the pictures, something that I look for in books I use with Spanish language learners. The cat on the fence, the flowers in the yard, the dishes in the sink, and the bright green chairs are all things I can talk about with kids learning Spanish.

In terms of language, Let’s Eat! / ¡A comer! repeats a few common verbs to tell the story. Forms of venir, ver and mirar appear several times and in structures that can easily be used with children. For example, we read Papá y Abuelita vienen a la mesa. Mis hermanitos, Tina y Danny, vienen también. Then I can ask, ¿Quién viene a la mesa en tu casa? and talk about who comes to the table using the same verb form, viene. We read, Vemos un montón de tortillas calientitas. Vemos una ensalada de lechuga. Then I can ask, En tu casa, ¿qué comida ves en la mesa?  And talk about the food on the table using the verb ver. Because the story deals with the everyday event of mealtime, it is easy to personalize.

This is a dual language book, but it uses vocabulary that many beginning Spanish learners know, like family words, food words, tener hambre, and mirar. Because the illustrations support the text, lots of Spanish learners will not need to hear the story in English. This a picture book that children can hear over and over, both for the language and for the message that it is our families that make us rich.

El juego de Beenny (Beenny’s game) teaches children correct Spanish pronunciation, to read and write the sounds of Spanish, and lots of vocabulary. The game is from OnlineFreeSpanish and it is very entertaining!

To play, kids guide a bee through a maze. Each time there is a frog blocking the path, the player writes a word by putting the letters in order. There is a picture of the word and a speaker to click to hear native-speaker audio. Before starting, players choose a category of vocabulary and a level of difficulty. There are 32 different categories, from colors and parts of the face, to farm animals and bugs.

To make the most of this game, it is important to use the audio. The game will say that the sound is a hint, but it makes the game much more useful for kids learning Spanish. When a player clicks to hear the word, a native speaker pronounces it, then breaks it into syllables, and then pronounces the whole word again.

Children learn and practice several things with this game. They learn to associate the sounds of Spanish with the correct letters, they develop and practice correct pronunciation and they learn vocabulary.

This game is a good lesson in sounding out words for beginning readers. Children hear a word and learn how that word is written in Spanish by sounding it out, pronouncing it as it was pronounced by the native speaker. In the game, there are a limited number of letters for each word, so kids do not have to sort through the whole alphabet. They are matching the letters to the sounds they hear. Children learn the vowel sounds and vowel sound combinations (diphthongs) and learn which letters represent these different sounds.

Recognizing the sounds in Spanish words is an important ability. Children have to be able to hear the correct sounds to repeat them, and to be able to read and pronounce words correctly. Matching sounds to letters is a check that they are hearing the correct sounds.

This game is also great because the audio gives a word as syllables and then pronounces it normally again. Many common words in Spanish have three, four and five syllables. These longer words take practice to pronounce. To hear the words broken down and then pronounced is useful for learners and helps them become comfortable with the rhythm of longer Spanish words.

In terms of learning vocabulary, there are pictures for all of the words in this game. Children always know what the word that they are hearing and spelling means.  Of course, more context is better, so if you are playing with your child, it is best to use the words in sentences and relate them to each other. This is easy to do because the words are grouped in categories.

Children learn from games that they will spend time playing. Beenny’s game is fun! Kids love mazes, and these are entertaining and not too long. The game holds their attention, exposes them to native speaker Spanish and teaches specific skills they need as language learners.