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 [...]
It is fall, and in Wisconsin we have calabazas, or pumpkins, everywhere! 1,2,3 Calabaza is a traditional game children play in Mexico. It is a good game for even the youngest children learning Spanish. I do not know if it is played in other Latin American countries or not, but in Spain it is called 1,2,3 Escondite inglés. If you know the game Red Light Green Light, this is basically played the same way. Children [...]
These Spanish poems for children are by Douglas Wright, a well-known author and illustrator from Argentina. He writes poems and songs and, in addition to his numerous books, publishes his work on his blog, El jardín de Douglas. He also generously gives me permission to share them here. I love these two short poems about fall. They are perfect to use with Spanish language learners. The vocabulary is not too complicated, and the rhythm makes [...]
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 [...]
This online activity from Chateau Meddybemps is a great tool for teaching Spanish prepositions. There are four animals in a scene with a few objects. Children can drag and drop the animals anywhere in the scene including into a doghouse. As they play with the scene, they can practice using Spanish prepositions like entre (between), adentro (inside) and afuera (outside). They can stack the animals up to practice encima de (on top of) and debajo [...]
Muchas veces les explicaba a mis hijos por qué todos los veranos los llevaba a la misma ciudad de México. Mientras otras familias viajaban a Noruega o a Tanzania, regresábamos a la misma casa, para quedarnos con los mismos amigos. —El acento— les decía— y el vocabulario. Toda la vida escucharán expresiones de otros países pero siempre podrán decir con confianza que en Guanajuato así se dice. Volvíamos a Wisconsin con El guía escolar para [...]
Where did the summer go? Lots of us are going to have new Spanish learners in just a few weeks, and some of you have already started classes. Whether you are a teacher with new students or a parent who is teaching Spanish at home, simple songs are one of the easiest ways for children to produce the language. Songs provide lots of repetition and the rhythm helps kids pronounce words correctly. Songs to familiar [...]
In this video, two children are describing a common word in Spanish. The video is just one minute long, but they give lots of clues so that you can guess the word. At the end of the video, the Spanish word appears on the screen. This is one of a series of videos called Adivina la palabra de hoy (Guess Today’s Word). The series is produced by the Fundación de la Lengua Española, a private [...]
The blog, Pequeños Artistas, Grandes Obras (Little Artists, Great Works), is the collaborative work of preschool and elementary teachers in Spain and Argentina. The site is a wonderful record of the art education they are doing in their classes, and it is also a great Spanish language resource. Several of the posts include comments from the students about paintings. The comments are funny and imaginative and hearing what Spanish-speaking children say about the pictures is [...]
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 [...]
Hand clapping games are a good way to engage children actively with the Spanish language. Por aquí pasó un caballo is a traditional hand clapping game that begins with a simple rhyme and ends with counting to 16. Estaba la Catalina is a song and hand clapping game that tells the story of a woman who is waiting for her husband to come home from war. Putting the emphasis on the correct syllable is essential [...]
PBS has launched the web-original series Noah comprende to introduce children to Spanish and also to the process of language learning. Using animated video with embedded games, the series teaches basic Spanish vocabulary and creates a context where children hear Spanish and can begin to understand what is being said. The premise of the series is that Noah is visiting his grandmother in a community where no one speaks English. He is trying to learn [...]