The short Spanish poem La ardilla is by the Mexican poet Amado Nervo. It is a fun poem to share with children because many of them are familiar with squirrels.
Kids know how squirrels run and jump. They also learn the verbs correr, volar and saltar. This makes it easy for them to visualize the first lines of the poem.
Be sure to check out our poetry resource page Spanish Poems for Kids. It has more poems for children and information about sharing them with language learners.
The poem La ardilla has concrete, familiar vocabulary. The word locuela is the most difficult vocabulary, but many kids know loco and will recognize that root. They also know how crazy squirrels can act!
You can download two printables of the poem La ardilla below. One has questions to talk to kids about the poem. The other has the poem and a word search with some of the vocabulary.
If you are sharing the poem with younger children, reading it together and then illustrating it is a good way to help them understand and remember the language.
With kids of any age, try watching a few squirrel videos on YouTube. With many of them you can use several words in the poem.
La ardilla
La ardilla corre,
la ardilla vuela,
la ardilla salta,
como locuela.
-Mamá, la ardilla
¿No va a la escuela?
Ven, ardilla,
tengo una jaula
que es muy bonita.
No, yo prefiero
mi tronco de árbol
y mi agujero.
Poem La ardilla – Questions and Printables
¿La ardilla es tranquila o activa? Y tú ¿cómo eres?
¿Qué le pregunta el niño a su mamá?
¿Qué tiene el niño para la ardilla?
A la ardilla ¿dónde le gusta vivir?
¿Por qué crees que prefiera la ardilla el tronco de árbol a la jaula?
Download a printable of the poem La ardilla with questions.
Download a printable of the poem La ardilla with a word search.
All of Amado Nervo’s poetry is in the public domain.
