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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Escucha, hermano, canción, alegre, nuevo, día, ven, canta, sol, vive, estrellas: these words could come from any picture book or a basic vocabulary list, but they are the words in a classic Spanish song. Miguel Ríos recorded Himno a la alegría in 1969. It became popular all over the Spanish-speaking world and has since been [...]
This is a song with pictures, perfect for the very littlest children learning Spanish. Luna has the words luna (moon), sol (sun), caracol (snail), girasol (sunflower), ruiseñor (nightingale) and corazón (heart). The idea of labeling common objects to a familiar tune is one that you can easily adapt and use with your own pictures. The [...]
This song about summer is a good example of authentic language that can be used effectively with Spanish language learners. It is from Músicaeduca and they have lots of other resources to use with children of a variety of ages and language levels. Many thanks to them for permission to embed the video! The simple [...]
What a fun way to review basic vocabulary in Spanish! This video is by a speech and language therapist in Spain. Children see a scene and then hear the sound of something in the picture. They identify what makes that noise. After a moment, a picture of the object and the Spanish word come on [...]
This song teaches the days of the week in Spanish. It is from Los pimpollos, an educational television program from Peru. There is an official YouTube channel where you can hear lots of educational songs from Los pimpollos. As this song says, the days of the week give our lives order. Learning the days of [...]
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 [...]
My kids played lots of different hand clapping games in Spanish and English. There are many juegos de manos (also called juegos de palmas, or juegos de palmadas) in Spanish, and they have fun songs and actions. Also, in Spanish it is common to play these games in groups, not just in pairs. It takes [...]
This is a very short, fun Spanish-language video from Discovery Kids about keeping water clean. It’s perfect for El día de la tierra, Earth Day. The audio is at a natural rate for native Spanish speakers, so it is great exposure for Spanish language learners. They will not understand every word, but that is fine. [...]
This is fun and effective song for teaching Spanish to children. The tune and the actions make it fun. The actions and the association of related words make it a great learning tool. There is enough repetition that kids quickly learn the chorus and also enough variety to make the song interesting. Arriba, abajo is [...]
Feel free to contact me at playground.spanish gmail.com
