Spanish in a Basket was such a treat to get in the mail! It is a lovely wicker picnic basket filled with bright, beautiful toys to help introduce children to Spanish. When I opened the basket, I found colorful wooden fruits and vegetables, hand-knit finger puppets, soft animal friends, and a bright table-setting. There were also 4 CDs and a DVD with 20 audio Spanish lessons for kids ages 3 to 8. Beth Manners, creator [...]
Los pajaritos is one of my favorite Spanish songs for children. It combines common animals, the places they live and the way they move into a pretty song that is perfect for kids learning Spanish. Children can move like the animals or use their hands to show how the animals move. You can also add different animals to make the song as long as you like. This is a traditional song, so there are several [...]
Se hace de noche is a traditional rhyme in Spanish that tells the story of a vampire, or a witch in some versions. It does not really have anything to do with Halloween originally, but it fits in well with other Halloween vocabulary. The story starts out sounding spooky and the suspense builds. Then there is a silly, harmless ending that makes children laugh. It is really a Spanish joke, and kids love it. This [...]
Butiá is a website created by the record label Papagayo Azul to promote children’s music in Uruguay, Latin American and the Caribbean. The site has a tremendous variety of quality children’s music in Spanish and Portuguese. You can read about the artists (in Spanish), listen to music and buy albums or individual songs. I love Butiá because I can buy music I cannot get in the United States. I live in a small city in [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
A text-rich environment is very important for children learning Spanish. One of the difficulties of teaching Spanish as a minority language is that children are not exposed to the written language the way they constantly see signs, labels and advertisements in English. It is important to keep an interesting, changing flood of Spanish text at home and in classrooms. Here are 15 ways to create a world of Spanish words in your home. 1. Make [...]
This is a song with pictures, perfect for the very littlest children learning Spanish. Luna has the words luna (moon), sol (sun), caracol (snail), girasol (sunflower), ruiseñor (nightingale) and corazón (heart). The idea of labeling common objects to a familiar tune is one that you can easily adapt and use with your own pictures. The tune here is a variation of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. In general, words used in context are best for language [...]
What is your ringtone? You might want to try something different when you hear this one. This idea is from the new blog Children and Parents Having Fun in Spanish Together. It is an example of how you can have your child record a ringtone in Spanish and English. I think it is really cute, and it also is a clever way to let a child use her bilingual skills. This is a brand new [...]
Teaching Spanish to kids is amazing fun, but it can be taxing. We all need materials to draw on and to motivate us. One of the best resources available is Ana Lomba’s Spanish for Preschoolers and there is a new edition on the way! Ana is a recognized authority on teaching language to children and teaching preschool Spanish in particular. Her new teacher’s guide offers educators the best of her expertise and experience. Spanish for [...]
This set of 14 pages to color teaches values like generosity, cooperation and friendship to children who are native speakers of Spanish. Each one has a sentence in Spanish describing a concept and a drawing to illustrate it. They are great for Spanish language learners because they use common abstract nouns, related vocabulary, and have a drawing to help support the language. They are also great for hanging on the refrigerator or in a classroom [...]
1. There are 51 million Latinos in the US today, and I want my children to be able to talk to any of them. 2. I want my kids to get the job interview that someone else doesn’t. 3. I want them to understand and appreciate other cultures and their own. 4. I want them to have another perspective on history. 5. I want them to test out of the language requirement in college. 6. [...]