There are tropical forests in many Spanish-speaking countries. As kids learn about the rainforest, they explore geography and culture, as well as learn language. These rainforest activities are part of the Easy Spanish-Easy Yoga series. You can find more information about the series at the end of the post.
Rainforest Activities for Spanish Learners
Spanish Rainforest Unit
Mis Cositas has an entire thematic unit on the rainforest available as a free download. The unit is designed for beginning Spanish learners. There are 13 lesson plans with rainforest activities, worksheets, games and resources.
Yoga
Yoga is an excellent Spanish learning activity. Kids Yoga Stories has a new post on rainforest yoga with a 3 pose yoga flow. In this yoga flow, kids act out a toucan, a waterfall and a monkey. See the rainforest post on Kids Yoga Stories for how to do the poses. Say the Spanish words or use them in sentences as you do the poses: el tucán, la cascada, el mono. Soy un tucán. Ahora soy una cascada. Tú también eres una cascada. Soy un mono.
Kids Yoga Stories has a wonderful book about the rainforest. Sofía en una aventura en la selva is a yoga story. Children learn about the rainforest as they read the story and do yoga poses. Doing the poses, kids act out animals and other natural elements. The movement, story and illustrations all contribute to language learning as you do this rainforest activity.
Kids Yoga Stories also has a Spanish coloring book of Sofía en una aventura por la selva and a set of yoga cards for the story. The cards are in English, but once a child has read the book, you could certainly use the yoga cards in either language.
Songs
There are many songs about animals that live in the rainforest, such as la rana, la tortuga or el mono. One of my favorites is La Guacamaya (macaw) by Spanish Together. You can hear a clip of the song and purchase it on iTunes.
Another fun song about animals that live in the rainforest is La iguana y el perezoso
(The iguana and the sloth) by Canticuentos. This song is a classic and one that schools sing and act out. There are many videos of the song on YouTube and quite a few have the lyrics on the screen. You can hear the song in this video.
Books
You can do lots of rainforest activities using books. Barefoot Books has several beautiful Spanish language picture books about the rainforest. De paseo por la selva, and Cha-cha-cha en la selva both are available with a CD. Un recorrido por la selva is also about rainforest adventures. All three books are excellent choices for Spanish learners.
Crafts
If you are looking for rainforest activities to engage kids with lots of language, try a craft. There are many crafts related to the animals and birds of the rainforest. Two of my favorites are by Learn Create Love. Check out the easy-to-make snake craft. I also love the free printable quetzal craft and you can find facts about this beautiful bird in the post.
Video and photos
Video and photos are an important resource to give kids a better sense of what a rainforest is like.
Lola Aventuras: En el corazón de la selva is a short video, where Lola travels to la Selva Amazónica de Colombia. The video focuses on how all animals have a heart that beats and uses the animals of the rainforest as examples.
Un viaje a la selva para los más chiquitos is another short video to introduce kids to the rainforest. There is a lot of repetition of key words and clear footage of animals.
National Geographic has galleries of tropical rainforest wildlife photos and tropical rainforest pictures. Rainforest Education also has photos sorted into categories.
Apps
Finally, Kitu Kids has a two bilingual apps about the rainforest. Amazon Rainforest Discovery and Deep in the Rainforest can both be used successfully with children learning Spanish. Read my detailed review of the Kitu Kids apps with suggestions for using them with Spanish learners.
These rainforest activities are part of the Easy Spanish-Easy Yoga series. At Spanish Playground, we are working with Kids Yoga Stories to create activities to teach children Spanish and yoga through basic concepts. In a series of monthly posts, we give you simple activities that you can work into a busy schedule. In addition to yoga, you will find other language activities you can do with Spanish learners related to the theme of the month.
Easy Spanish-Easy Yoga
Spanish Thanksgiving Activities with Natural World Vocabulary
Celebrate Earth Day in Spanish
Animals in Spanish: Wild Animal Activities
See you next month for more Easy Spanish-Easy Yoga!
Photo Credit: Mike Juvrud via Compfight cc
