Butiá is a website created by the record label Papagayo Azul to promote children’s music in Uruguay, Latin American and the Caribbean. The site has a tremendous variety of quality children’s music in Spanish and Portuguese. You can read about the artists (in Spanish), listen to music and buy albums or individual songs.
I love Butiá because I can buy music I cannot get in the United States, even on iTunes and Amazon. On Butiá you can use PayPal and download music by artists like Luis Pescetti, Susana Bosch, and Palavra cantada. Also, it is great that I can buy individual songs. There are clips of the songs on the site and lots of the lyrics are also available there.
There is too much music on Butiá to go into lots of detail, but I will mention a few of my favorite songs. These songs work well with Spanish language learners. They have basic vocabulary or vocabulary that is especially appropriate to children. They are clear, not too fast and several lend themselves to call and response or to actions.
Songs by Palavra cantada on the album Canciones curiosas :
Los niños no trabajan. This fun song has a wonderful list of kid vocabulary. It starts like this:
Lápiz, cuaderno, tortuga, balón
Sol, bicicleta, patín, chapuzón
Lío, escondite, pelota, bolita, tambor, calesita, jardín, almohadón.
This song also creates an awareness that many children in other places work. This is a perfect song to use with Los derechos del niño, if the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child is something you teach.
La bola. This song begins focusing on a ball and expands through a series of questions:
…la bola que rebota en la cabeza de ese niño.
¿Quién es ese niño? Ese niño es mi vecino.
¿Dónde vive? En aquella casa.
¿Dónde está la casa? La casa está en la calle.
¿Dónde está la calle? En la ciudad.
¿Dónde es la ciudad? Entre las montañas.
¿Cuáles montañas?
Montañas de los Andes…
It has simple vocabulary and the structure lends itself perfectly to call and response. This song is lots of fun to sing!
El bosque de las frutas. This is a call and response song on the album, although it would not have to be sung that way. The lyrics are composed of the names of fruits and the tree or plant that they grow on. It begins this way:
Naranja / naranjo
Manzana / manzano
Guayaba / guayabo
A song by Ruben Rada on the album Sueños de niño
Yo quiero. This song is about what one child wants for himself and for every child. The vocabulary is basic and useful and it is wonderfully easy to sing. It begins like this:
Yo quiero que a mí me quieran.
Yo quiero tener un nombre.
Yo quiero que a mí me cuiden
si me enfermo o estoy triste,
porque yo quiero crecer.
A song by Marcelo Ribeiro on the album Fiesta extravagante
Pies a caminar. This song is all about what feet can do, and kids will have a great time jumping like a frog, going sideways like a crab and running like a rabbit, among other things. The song begins this way:
Pies a caminar- a caminar los pies
Uno siempre va primero y el otro va después
Los dos o ninguno primero y después
A donde yo quiero me llevan mis pies
A ver señores pies los vamos a probar
Que pueden hacer además de caminar
A song by Eduardo Yaguno on the album Carrusel
Tamborcito corazón. This is a pretty, simple song about a drum that a child always has with him, his heart:
En mi gran cuerpito,
Tengo un tambor
Tic, tac,tac, toc ,toc…
A song by AguaClara & Cia on the album Sanduceros para niños
Pisando hojitas. This is a fun song for fall:
Voy caminando
pisando hojitas
es el otoño
que nos visita…
A song by Susana Bosch on the album Para escucharte mejor.
Para escucharte mejor. I love this little song because it is just so sweet. You can hear most of it on the player on the right side of your screen on Butiá. You can also hear this chlldren’s song in Spanish here.
