Whether your kids are beginning to learn Spanish this summer or keeping up on their skills during a break from Spanish class, these interactive websites are a great way to keep them engaged with Spanish text. These are sites that provide kids with lots of opportunity to read. Several of the sites have a variety of activities. I have tried to list the websites roughly in order of increasing difficulty. The first sites have material [...]
Reading El jardín de Douglas recently, I was happy to find two new poems that I think are especially well suited to using with Spanish language learners. I will share one today and the other one in the next few days. Douglas Wright is well-known poet, author and illustrator from Argentina. Finding his books in this country is not easy, but he generously shares his work on his blog El jardín de Douglas and also [...]
Father’s Day is coming up in a couple of weeks. It is on June 17th this year, and for those of you who want to get a head start here are a few resources. In Spanish, Father’s Day is Día del padre or Día de los padres. Making Spanish Father’s Day cards is a great language activity for kids. One of the easiest ways to make cards is using the printables on the website Correomágico. [...]
I have been having a wonderful time using the materials from Risas y Sonrisas with my students. Risas y Sonrisas is an award-winning K-5 Spanish curriculum for students in a classroom or homeschool setting. It is also excellent for after-school programs and private classes. Risas y Sonrisas takes the best of the communicative approach to teaching language and also engages a child’s academic skills to create an effective learning experience. In games and conversations, children [...]
If you are looking for ways to expose kids to Spanish during the summer, websites with Spanish audio are an excellent resource. There are sites at all levels with a wide variety of activities. I will mention eight of my favorite sources of online Spanish audio, but be sure to check out the online activities category for more ideas. These are sites with a significant quantity of online Spanish audio. They have a variety of [...]
Spanish cards and gifts for Mother’s Day, Día de la Madre, can be a good language learning activity. If you are looking for printable cards or other activities to celebrate a special mom, here are a few options. 1. La asociación mundial de educadores infantiles has a set of Spanish Mother’s Day activities for kids. There is a printable Mother’s Day card in Spanish that says Felicidades Mamá and a printable diploma that says A [...]
As part of the celebration of El Día de los Niños on April 30th, I wrote about using the PEEP and the Big Wide World videos with children learning Spanish. Peep and the Big Wide World is a science and math series for preschool children and Peep is the featured guest at El Día de los Niños celebrations all over the country. You can find my articles on SpanglishBaby: Peep Science Videos and Activities in [...]
I use background scenes and paper figures for lots of Spanish games and activities. You can find printable scenes online and I have included a few links below. Some have characters, but you can use any figures. You can find more by doing an image search for printable landscape coloring pages. These are sites with a variety of landscape scenes. Printable to learn Spanish – Landscapes in black and white or color. These have descriptive [...]
I am so excited about Bilingual is Better! The book comes out in September, but I pre-ordered mine from Amazon so that I will get it as soon as it is available. Bilingual is Better is by Roxana Soto and Ana Flores, two Latina moms raising their children speaking Spanish and English. Together they founded the website SpanglishBaby.com in 2009. I have to admit that I have a special place in my heart for SpanglishBaby. [...]
I have written about Presencias de Música in the past, but I visited again recently and was so impressed that I have to share it again. The site is maintained by a group of volunteers, under the direction and supervision of Prof. Pablo Bensaya of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The purpose of the site is to provide resources for music education to teachers in Spanish-speaking countries, but it is a wonderful resource for anyone teaching Spanish [...]
Since the time I wrote this post, Northumberland Grid for Learning has begun to charge users who are not in Northunberland for the materials. You can find the information on a subscription here: Northumberland Grid for Learning. I will leave these descriptions, but remove the links because they no longer take you to the materials. This selection of language activities and materials is a useful resource for anyone teaching children Spanish in a classroom [...]
I recently wrote an article for SpanglishBaby on a mini-book activity that my students really enjoy. It is very simple and works well with Spanish language learners at different levels. You can read about the activity and download printable mini-books here: Add-a-sticker Librito