Children play Frío o caliente in Spanish the same way they play Hot or Cold in English. There are just a few Spanish phrases to learn, and this game can easily be adapted to review Spanish vocabulary. It works well with just two or three children or a larger group. To play Frío o caliente, choose one person who will look for something. That person leaves the room, and the others hide a small object [...]
Spanish jokes are a fun way to expose children to the language. There are jokes at all language levels, and kids learning Spanish love it when they can understand the word play that makes a simple joke work. These Spanish jokes use slightly more complicated structures than First jokes for children learning Spanish but are still simple enough for language learners to understand. Some depend on the way sounds combine in Spanish, or on how [...]
I have to admit that a lot of the Spanish jokes my children told when they were little, or English jokes for that matter, did not make me laugh. They were usually basic word play or just silly. Of course, even when I didn’t think they were very funny, the kids thought they were hilarious. There are lots of simple Spanish jokes that children can understand. Some depend on the double meaning of a word. [...]
This song teaches the days of the week in Spanish. It is from Los pimpollos, an educational television program from Peru. There is an official YouTube channel where you can hear lots of educational songs from Los pimpollos. As this song says, the days of the week give our lives order. Learning the days of the week helps children place events in time and understand routines. When they learn the days of the week in [...]
This is a set of online activities to introduce and teach the body parts in Spanish. It is part of the website El Diálogo – La web de los profesores de educación permanente de Almería in Spain. There are eleven screens of simple activities and you can move forward or back using the arrows in the lower right corner. Most of the activities involve reading the words for the parts of the body in Spanish, [...]
I am a big fan of mini-books, so I was happy to see that OnlineFreeSpanish.com has added a selection of bilingual mini-books to their website. I was even happier when I saw that these books include online Spanish audio! Printable mini-books let kids make the language their own. They can color the pictures, read the books to their family and friends, and even cut out the pictures if they want to. If they use a [...]
I love teaching with Spanish poems for children, and I am so impressed by how fun and useful Douglas Wright’s poems are with Spanish language learners. It is authentic language that really works with my students! Douglas Wright is a well-known children’s author and illustrator from Argentina. As a humorist, artist and author, his work consistently includes literature suitable for many levels. I also appreciate the content; his poems deal with the experiences of children [...]
I have a great time playing toma todo, or pirinola, with children learning Spanish. The phrases are simple and practical, and kids love spinning the top. My kids grew up playing at home and in Mexico, where the six-sided top is a pirinola. In some countries it is a perinola. We get wooden tops in Mexico, but they are available in many Latino markets in the USA too. You can also make your own out [...]
This online activity was designed for native Spanish speakers, but works well with Spanish language learners too. The concept is simple – the player is given a set of pictures. In the space below the pictures, she writes the first letter of each image in order to build words and discover a phrase. If the player cannot identify a picture, she can see a hint (the word) by passing the mouse over the picture. There [...]
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 [...]
The deadline for this contest has been extended until May 15th! Encourage schools to enter! My Bilingual School Library Contest is the idea of Ana Flores and Roxana Soto at SpanglishBaby. This is a fabulous contest! Please keep reading and then spread the word. This contest will award a school library $500 worth of bilingual and Spanish language books. It is a wonderful prize and schools should definitely participate on that basis alone. However, please [...]
These printable cards in Spanish are from Interpeques. The questions are about the natural world and the answers include images that help clarify the vocabulary. There are two sets of naturaleza question-answer cards and they can be used for a variety of games. They can be glued back to back so that the question and answer are on one card, or you can keep them separate so that children can do activities matching the correct [...]