I often get questions about Spanish programs for adults from parents who want to learn Spanish with their children. I recently had the chance to try Visual Link Spanish, and I thought it might be something Spanish Playground readers would be interested in. I tried Level 1: Sentence Building and Conversation. This Spanish software program is intended for adults, but it could certainly be used by motivated high school students. The Basics of Visual Link [...]
OnlineFreeSpanish has a great set of Earth Day activities for Spanish language learners. The games teach vocabulary related to the environment. There are many different activities and all of them have native-speaker audio. You can also print the word search puzzles and the coloring sheets. You will find these fun activities about the planet: – Earth Day game – Clear away paper and plastic to find Earth Day related images. The words are pronounced and [...]
This online game has falling pictures of words that contain the syllables ca, co, cu, que and qui. Using the arrow keys, players center the picture so that it falls onto the syllable contained in the word. Kids learning Spanish recognize most of the vocabulary used in this game, so it is a good activity for language learners who are starting to read. Players match the sound they know with how the sound is spelled. [...]
I am participating in http://latinaish.com/’s Spanish Friday, so this post is in Spanish. An English translation follows. This week’s Spanish Friday post is written by a guest blogger. Claudia is from Colombia and is the founder of OnlineFreeSpanish. Since 2008 her site has offered a wide variety of free activities for learning Spanish. Thank you, Claudia, for contributing to Spanish Playground! Sorprendida! Así quedé hoy cuando escuché a mi amigo Herman hablar en el almuerzo. [...]
Talk about this picture of a snowman with your child to help her learn Spanish. 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 understand what [...]
Online Free Spanish has added more syllable activities. This set uses the letter m plus the vowels: ma, me, mi, mo, mu. These activities are perfect for beginning Spanish readers and are also a good way to expose kids to new words. You can read more about why these activities work so well for children learning Spanish and find suggestions for additional activities using the printed pages here: Spanish syllable activities. These syllable activities have [...]
Magic Spanish for Kids is an award-winning audio CD about a magical trip to Mexico. Two friends, Bobby and María, take this journey with a series of conversations and songs designed to introduce children to basic Spanish. This CD by Beth Manners’ Fun French and Spanish is designed for children ages 2-6, but would also be appropriate for older children beginning to learn Spanish. In this story, María does not speak much English and Bobby [...]
Children explore a city in this online game from the Venezuelan government. There are audio explanations of parts of the city and the text appears on the screen as children hear the words. The audio is very clear. The explanations are short, basic and use general words. Kids will be able to guess a lot of the vocabulary from context. This game is excellent listening practice. Children will not understand every word of the explanations, [...]
This is a set of Thanksgiving materials and activities in Spanish from the wonderful website Nourish Interactive. The free printable materials include coloring pages, word games, bookmarks, lunchbox notes, dinner place cards and a organization sheet to help with Thanksgiving planning. All of these activities teach Spanish food vocabulary and Thanksgiving vocabulary if you talk about them with kids learning Spanish. The following activities have simple text and work particularly well with Spanish language learners. [...]
Speak Spanish with children by talking about this picture of a woman building a garden shed. 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. First, describe the photo (1). 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 understand what the [...]
This Spanish poem for kids is a happy way to greet the day! It is perfect for children learning Spanish. It is joyful and affirming. This is a short Spanish poem for kids with common vocabulary and great rhythm, and it would be an excellent choice for a class to recite to begin the day. It is also a wonderful poem to read with children at home. Hola, buen día, día is by the well-known [...]
This online Spanish game with native-speaker audio is a good way for children to practice vocabulary and listening comprehension while they are sorting, grouping and matching. Listening to native-speaker Spanish is also important for pronunciation. The set of activities is called Un poquito de orden and there are three temas (topics), each with several activities. Click on the link below to reach the online Spanish game. The site sometimes takes a little while to load. [...]