This time of year there are lots of plastic eggs around. If you find yourself with a few extra, consider making a language activity where kids match the two halves. You can put a sticker on one half and the word on the other, or a number and the corresponding word. Kids can also match synonyms or antonyms. I like making Spanish games for kids where they put something in the egg to help reinforce [...]
¡Qué tan grande era todo cuando yo era chico! is a Spanish poem for children. It uses basic vocabulary that is appropriate for beginning Spanish language learners and is excellent exposure to the imperfect tense. This poem is about the sensation children have that the world around them is getting smaller as they grow. Many kids remember when they could not reach the counter or the faucet, for example. The poem is by the well-known [...]
Semillitas is a Spanish language cable television channel for preschoolers from SomosTV. In Wisconsin, it is available through Charter Communications, but it is carried by other companies in different parts of the country. The Spanish videos for kids on Semillitas are designed specifically for the Latino community of the United States and Puerto Rico and dedicated to “la educación, estimulación y divertimento de niños en edad temprana a la vez de asistir a sus padres [...]
I am really excited to share this set of six little story books for Spanish language learners. The set is called Childhood Adventures and includes six Spanish stories and an audio CD with native-speaker narration. These are exactly the kind of materials that teachers and parents need: easy to use in any setting and very effective. There is an English translation at the back of each book. The vocabulary and structures in these stories are [...]
I have written about 9letras before, but with the school year starting I thought it would be a good idea to remind teachers and parents of this great resource. 9letras is a blog by Alberto Abarca Fillat of Huesca, Spain. Alberto shares educational material that he creates for teaching Spanish and his website has a huge number of printable activities for young Spanish learners. These are some of the features and pages that make 9letras [...]
These online activities are provided by the Spanish publisher Editorial Teide as support for their textbooks. They are designed for children in Spain, but many of the activities are also appropriate for Spanish language learners. These activities for Primer Ciclo (6-8 years old) deal with basic concepts, vocabulary and language structures. Some of the games are very simple, for example, categorizing objects as duro or blando. Others, like Viviendas diferentes use more language and would [...]
This traditional Spanish game, El juego de la oca, is a board game similar to Snakes and Ladders. Players roll dice and move in a spiral to reach the center of the board. If they land on la oca (the goose), they move ahead to the next oca and roll again, saying De oca a oca y tiro porque me toca. If they land on the bridge, they move to the next bridge and roll [...]
Chillola is a website designed to let children explore different languages. The site has lots of basic Spanish vocabulary accompanied by images and native-speaker audio. It also has a variety of printable activities. The vocabulary is divided into categories including numbers, colors, shapes, school words, animals, fruit, vegetables, food, the calender, weather, time, house, vocabulary, prepositions, and opposites. The activities for several of the categories show one screen with pictures of all of the vocabulary [...]
Grande y pequeño is a Spanish ebook for parents and teachers to read with young language learners. The repetition helps children absorb the sound and structure of the language. The text exactly describes the photos and teaches common nouns, the adjectives grande (big) and pequeño (small) and the verb hay (there is/there are). Scroll down for a parent/teacher guide and a translation. Just click for full screen and audio. The free PDF is available to [...]
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. [...]
I use this Spanish song for kids with preschoolers and beginning language learners. I suggested it on Spanish Playground about a year and a half ago, but I wanted to share a couple of variations and a great video from a preschool in Spain. La luna y el sol teaches basic concepts about the sun and the moon: the moon is small and the sun is bigger; the moon comes out at night and the [...]
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 [...]