I am participating in http://latinaish.com/’s Spanish Friday. Join us! An English translation is included in parenthesis. En la edición nov-dic de la revista Metal Floss, se publicó una lista de las 25 canciones más poderosas de los últimos 25 años. Es una lista de canciones que “han cambiado de forma fundamental el mundo en que vivimos.” Incluye Gran Vals, por el compositor español Francisco Tárrega, la melodía que Nokia tomó como ringtone y que ahora [...]
The Bilingual Baby DVD is a wonderful collection of images to support a voice-over narration of basic Spanish words and phrases. There is no story, but this DVD is surprisingly engaging and entertaining. The live action video of people and animals has wonderful colors and the pacing is just right. It holds a child’s attention and yet it is never too busy or overwhelming.
Do you have children starting Spanish in school? If you are looking for games and activities to supplement what they are doing in class, The Everything Kids’ First Spanish Puzzle and Activity Book has lots of fun ways to practice basic Spanish. Kids who like word games and activity books will love this book. It is packed with mazes, codes, word searches, hidden pictures and other puzzles that reinforce basic Spanish vocabulary and concepts. There [...]
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 [...]
I am participating once again in http://latinaish.com/ ‘s Spanish Friday. Join us! Hace unas semanas un grupo de amigos hablábamos del poder de los medios de comunicación. Nos preguntábamos qué seríamos capaces de hacer si esos medios tan poderosos intentaran influir a la gente de manera positiva. De allí empezamos a hablar de las campañas de valores que se han hecho, y un amigo mencionó ¿Tienes el valor o te vale? Son comerciales que trasmite [...]
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 [...]
Let’s Eat! / ¡A comer! is a picture book in Spanish and English by Pat Mora. This story fits into any number of my classes. It has family vocabulary, food vocabulary, simple structures, a strong cultural component, and detailed pictures that can be used for all kinds of conversation about home and family. The story line of Let’s Eat! / ¡A comer! is straightforward. A family comes to the table, and there is plenty of [...]
Children learning Spanish will identify with Juan, the little boy in this song who protests that it is too early to get up for school. Arriba, Juan is a traditional song in the form of a conversation between Juan and his mother. It is fun to have different people or groups sing the two voices. This is a great song for kids who are learning to roll the rr. Because they are singing and moving [...]
Tracy López, the author of Latinaish, created Spanish Friday. Read more about the idea and join us if you like! Hoy mi hija Maggie escribe un poco de estar aquí en México. ¿Cómo explicar el gusto que me da estar de nuevo en Guanajuato? Me gustaría explicar el placer con el que hablo ahora el español con mis amigos de aquí. Hablar como niña, hablar como hija consentida, hablar como una chica que está de [...]
Children can learn lots of Spanish while they are focused on another task. These printable charts are designed to help kids establish healthy eating habits, but they are an excellent way to teach the days of the week in Spanish. They are also great for using Spanish food words. These printables are from Nourish Interactive, a site dedicated to promoting a healthy lifestyle. Each day, children color stars or a box to show that they [...]
The Diccionario Multimedia is from the Portal de Educación – Junta de Castillo y León. It has common Spanish vocabulary for kids arranged by categories and represented by pictures. When children click on a picture, they hear the word pronounced in Spanish. There are also two games where they can practice the words that they have learned. Using the Diccionario Multimedia is good pronunciation practice, because children listen and repeat as they learn new Spanish [...]
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 [...]