This song and music video have a wonderful message for Mamá on Mother’s Day. The song is upbeat and fun and you will love Mariana Iranzi! Mariana is originally from Argentina. An accomplished professional musician, she also composes and performs Spanish songs for children. Her personality comes shining through in this video; it is sure to have both kids and adults singing along with smiles on their faces. Looking at language, this song works well [...]
Update – Storybird has made some changes so the stories cannot be embedded here. The links in the post below work though, so you can read them on the Storybird site. Enjoy! The last ebook I made, La primavera llegó, was a big hit with my students, so I thought I would share these two stories in Spanish, too. Like the last book, these were made using the beautiful art on Storybird. In this post [...]
Cantoalegre is an amazing resource. This fabulous organization from Colombia offers free downloads of their Spanish songs for kids. They explain their generosity saying Porque la música es de todos, te traemos canciones para descargar gratis. Because music belongs to everyone, we bring you songs to download free. Cantoalegre is a non-profit cultural organization in Colombia dedicated to the creation, study and performance of children’s music. The group performs, produces CDs, and has founded numerous [...]
This printable activity consists of a short Spanish reading, photos and questions. The topic is el Día del Peatón, an excellent subject for Earth Day or any day. El Día de la Tierra, Earth Day, is April 22nd this year. The city of Cochabamba, Bolivia has observed el Día del Peatón, or Pedestrian Day, for 13 years. Three times a year the city is closed to all motor vehicles and people take to the streets [...]
Update – Storybird has made some changes so the story cannot be embedded here. The link in the post below works though, so you can read it on the Storybird site. I made this ebook in Spanish using Storybird. In this post about Storybird in 2011, I discussed different ways of using the website with Spanish language learners. You can share the stories you write by emailing the link. Do be aware that any [...]
Many of us teach units on los sentidos, or the five senses. This familiar material works well for using common verbs in the first person: toco, veo, oigo, huelo, saboreo. It is also easy to introduce common objects and food vocabulary as you talk about what we see, touch, taste, smell and hear. When I teach this unit, I include activities where children engage all their senses. They love smelling, tasting and touching different things. [...]
I think this is a wonderful Spanish song for kids to sing as Mother’s Day approaches. It is called Yo solito Mamá (By myself, Mama) and is by Rossana Conte of Torreon, Mexico. The song has lots of simple verb forms. It also has vocabulary that children hear right away as they start to learn Spanish. The song is about wanting to be independent, a feeling that all children can identify with. Unfortunately, the song [...]
Many of you are familiar with MisCositas.com and the wonderful collection of resources available on the website. In addition to thematic units, videos and other resources, the site offers a set of illustrated Spanish words and phrases that are commonly used in the classroom. These printable words and phrases can be colored and hung in the room or adapted to different activities. This set of Passwords Perfectos, as they are called on MisCositas.com, includes common [...]
1, 2, 3 Momia Es is a playground game kids play in South America. In Mexico, the same game is called 1, 2, 3 Calabaza. In Spain, it is 1,2,3 Escondite Inglés and in English it is Red Light, Green Light. Elizabeth Carmona of Chile has written a very fun song called 1, 2, 3 Momia Es that incorporates parts of this familiar game. In the traditional game, one player faces a wall or a [...]
I am so excited to be able to share this book with Spanish Playground readers. Sofía en una aventura por la selva (Sophia’s Jungle Adventure) is published by Kids Yoga Stories. The book integrates yoga for children into a story in Spanish and creates an amazing language-learning experience. Yoga poses were inspired by the natural world. Kids Yoga Stories weaves those poses into a picture book. Children do the poses, imitating [...]
Talk about this photograph of teenagers playing soccer in the rain to speak Spanish with your child. The questions that follow, like all the Learn Spanish with Pictures activities, are ordered to help children master the vocabulary and gain confidence with the language. Start with Describe the photo (1) and be sure to point to the objects in the picture as you talk about them. Use gestures, facial expressions and actions to help your child [...]
These free Spanish coloring pages from Song School Spanish include lots of basic vocabulary. The pictures are big, clear and labeled in Spanish. There are pictures for many common nouns related to topics like food, animals, weather and the parts of the body. There are also sheets for numbers and colors. In addition to common nouns, there are Spanish coloring sheets for the question words, emotions and most common verbs forms, like tengo, tienes, quiero [...]