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. [...]
Debajo de un botón (Under A Button) is a traditional Spanish song for children. Children love this song because it is tells a little story, and it is short and fun. It has great rhythm, as it repeats the last syllable of the last word of each line. It is one of the most common children’s songs in Spanish. Although there are a couple of different versions of Debajo de un botón, there is less [...]
I use this Spanish song for kids with preschoolers and beginning language learners. I suggested it on Spanish Playground about a year and a half ago, but I wanted to share a couple of variations and a great video from a preschool in Spain. La luna y el sol teaches basic concepts about the sun and the moon: the moon is small and the sun is bigger; the moon comes out at night and the [...]
This make-your-own online puppet show is a great way to get kids speaking Spanish or any language. Start by choosing scenery and characters. Then you can move the characters around and have them talk to each other. They automatically turn toward each other, and you can move them below the level of the stage. There are four scenes to choose from and four pairs of characters. This activity is on UpToTen – one of the [...]
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 was excited to see Juanita Ulloa’s name in my inbox recently. She wrote suggesting that Spanish Playground readers might be interested in her songs for children learning Spanish. Juanita Ulloa is one of the nation’s leading bilingual performers and songwriters. You can read more about her wonderful music on the Juanita Ulloa website. Juanita’s latest CD of music for children, ¡Canta mi son!, has won a National Association of Parenting Products Gold award and [...]
Every now and then, I get questions about Spanish programs for adults from parents learning Spanish with their children. So when I had the chance to try Visual Link Spanish, 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 could certainly be used by motivated high school students. The Basics of Visual Link Spanish [...]
This is a collection of videos to use in the classroom, and many of them are short and appropriate for children learning Spanish. The government of Chile makes these videos available on the education portal Educarchile. You can download the videos to use with children learning Spanish. You can also watch them on the site, but they sometimes load slowly. Downloading them is easy and then they play really well. You can find the Spanish [...]
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 [...]
I just watched the Whistlefritz Spanish for Kids DVD – Las estaciones. It is so well done! I am going to explain why I liked it, in detail, but I understand that some of you want just the basics and to know if the product is a good investment. The DVD is intended to introduce kids ages 2-7 to basic Spanish related to the seasons. María is explaining to her friend Fritzi the mouse when [...]
OnlineFreeSpanish has added a section of activities on Spanish syllables and the first one is ready to go! I am excited to use these with students of all ages who are beginning to read in Spanish. If my students can already read in English, I delay reading in Spanish until they have a good sense of the sound of the language and a range of vocabulary and structures. This is because children who already read [...]
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 [...]