A music teacher for the Spanish immersion program in Glendale, California sent me this video to share on Spanish Playground. This is a song that Sara’s kinder students wrote last year. As she says, there are not that many Thanksgiving songs, and fewer still in Spanish! Read more about Sara and her songs in Spanish for kids. Her CD of Spanish songs for kids is also available on cdbaby. The words to the song follow [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Los esqueletos, The Skeletons, is a great song for kids learning Spanish. It fits in well if you are doing anything related to El día de los muertos or Halloween, but it is also just a fun song to sing and teaches lots of language. When the clock strikes the different hours, skeletons come out of their graves and do all sorts of things. Kids learning Spanish get practice with the structure for telling time, [...]
Talk about this photograph of taxis in Mexico City to help your child 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 [...]
Todos los patitos is a children’s song in Spanish that tells the story of a family of ducks that goes swimming. As with all traditional songs, there are many variations. In some versions, the verb for to swim is nadar and in others it is bañar. Both are common equivalents for to swim. In the traditional lyrics the mother duck gets angry and tries to spank one of the ducklings, but that has been changed [...]
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 [...]
My students really like clapping patterns with Spanish words. I keep it simple by using a combination of beats on the table and clapping. We all do the rhythm and say the words in unison. For example, the most simple rhythm we do is to these words: Sí, sí No, no No sé. I use this simple pattern: 1. Sí, sí – Two beats on the table – palms down, both hands at the same [...]