Spanish Stories for Beginners

Spanish learners need to hear language  in context, and everyone loves an entertaining story. With that in mind, we created a series of short Spanish stories for beginners. These stories give learners the opportunity to hear verb forms and other common vocabulary.

We wrote these Spanish stories so beginners could focus on a few key structures. We also built in repetition to provide repeated exposure to the vocabulary and verbs. Next, we filmed them, so beginners could hear native speakers tell the stories. We filmed each story in the present tense and then with a past tense narration.

Using the Spanish Stories for Beginners

There are lots of ways to use these stories to learn Spanish. Here are a few activities to consider.

• Do a sequencing activity where students put events in order.
• Try listening practice where students fill in key words.
• Have students answer comprehension questions about the story.
• Give students a paragraph with a written version of the story and have them answer comprehension questions.
• Students can practice retelling the story to a partner.
• Ask students to illustrate the story.
• If students are at a higher level, you can ask them to change one element in the story or change the ending.

Spanish Stories on YouTube

Right now we have 6 Spanish stories for beginners in the present tense and past tenses. They are available on YouTube in these playlists:

Learn Spanish Present Tense Stories

Learn Spanish Past Tense Stories

The stories you’ll find in the playlists are:

El caballo y la manzana

El muchacho y la mochila

El niño triste

Un ratón en casa

La tienda

El perro tiene sed

Activities for Spanish Story Videos

These are examples of the kinds of activities you can make for these stories. Scroll down for activities for El niño triste.

El caballo y la manzana

Download a printable version of the activities for the present tense version of El caballo y la manzana.

I. Enumera los eventos en orden cronológico del 1 al 6.

______ Pamela ve un caballo.

______ Pamela corre a casa.

______ Pamela camina en el parque y come una manzana.

______ El caballo ve la manzana de Pamela.

______ Pamela toma la manzana.

______ El caballo come la manzana.

II. Contesta las preguntas.

1. ¿Qué hace Pamela en el parque?

2. ¿Qué ve Pamela en el parque?

3. ¿Qué ve el caballo?

4. ¿Qué hace el caballo?

III. Completa el párrafo.

Pamela está en el  ______________. Camina y come una ______________.

Entonces, Pamela ve un______________. El caballo ve la ______________.

El caballo camina y camina. ¡El  ______________ come la manzana de Pamela!

Pamela toma la______________. Corre a la______________.  En la casa, Pamela come la ______________.

El niño triste

Download a printable version of the activities for the present tense Spanish story El niño triste.

More Spanish Stories for Beginners

We’ll be publishing more of these Spanish stories for beginners in the next few weeks. They all have a limited number of target structures and built-in repetition. We film them with native speakers and add gestures and expressions to make them comprehensible for novice learners.

Your feedback helps us decide what materials to create, so we would love to hear how these stories work for you or your students.