Oso en casa is a wonderful story for children learning Spanish. It has rhythm and rhyme, concrete language relevant to their lives, beautiful illustrations to support the text and plenty of language and content to expand on as children acquire more Spanish. Reading this Spanish story for kids is an absorbing experience for language learners and also is an effective way of introducing them to basic house vocabulary.
This lovely Spanish story was written by Stella Blackstone and illustrated by Debbie Harter. You can purchase Oso en casa from Amazon.
The sentences in this story follow a pattern, naming a room and an action that Oso does in that space: Y éste es el comedor donde Oso se sienta a comer. This is a structure that introduces verbs in a logical context and takes advantage of word families to associate related vocabulary.
The beautiful illustrations are focused to support the text; you always know where Oso is and what he is doing. They are also rich in charming detail that engages children and provides material for expanding on the vocabulary of the Spanish story.
On the last pages of the book there is a floor plan of Oso’s house. This is an excellent resource for talking about the story in Spanish, providing more of the repetition children need to acquire language. You can also reinforce and expand on the language in this Spanish story for kids. Here are a few suggestions.
Emphasize the association between the room name and related words.
The words in italics below are not used in the text, but are supported by the illustrations and related to the room name. Point to the illustrations to clarify what you are saying.
– En la cocina, Oso cocina la comida. Usa la estufa y la olla para cocinar. (Point to the pot on the stove.)
– En el comedor, Oso come. Come miel. Come fruta. Hay una manzana, un plátano, una naranja. (Point to the honey, the fruit and Oso eating).
– Oso juega en el cuarto de juegos. Tiene muchos juguetes.
– En el cuarto de baño, Oso se baña. Se baña en la bañera.
– En el dormitorio, Oso duerme.
Use the floor plan on the last pages of the book to reinforce language in the Spanish story.
Use simple sentences and point to the rooms.
– Aquí en la sala de estar, Oso descansa.
– ¿Qué hace aquí en la escalera? Sube, sube, sube. ¡Está arriba!
– ¿Qué hace aquí en la cocina? Limpia y barre.
– En la biblioteca hay libros. Oso lee los libros en la biblioteca.
Make a small paper Oso to play with on the floor plan.
You can base your bear on the picture on the front cover. Move Oso in the rooms on the floor plan and talk about what he is doing.
– Oso está en el cuarto de baño. Se baña.
– Oso está en el dormitorio. Se va a acostar. Oso duerme en la cama.
Refer to Oso and the Spanish story as you go about your daily routine.
– Limpiamos la cocina como Oso.
– Oso lee libros. Leemos libros como Oso.
– Oso come manzanas. Tú comes una manzana como Oso.
Make the floor plan of Oso’s house with blocks.
Read the story and move the paper bear you made from room to room as you read. Later, just play with your child, using the vocabulary from the book. You might want to make two bears.
Act out the book with your child.
Go from room to room and do the things that Oso does. This is extra fun if you really sweep and eat some honey. You can even make it a bedtime activity and really take a bath and go to bed.
Use phrases from the Spanish story with kids in other situations.
Certain phrases in the book have words that are commonly used together. These are words that children in immersion situations hear together all the time. Use these phrases whenever you have the opportunity and there is visual support to make the meaning clear.
– Una escalera para subir – Anytime you go upstairs, you can say una escalera para subir. You can also point to staircases in books and in TV shows and use the phrase.
– Hay que limpiar – This means I (We, You) have to clean. You can use it whenever you are cleaning or whenever you can point to something that has to be cleaned.
– Abre la puerta – Open the door. You can say this to your child or anyone else you would like to open a door for you.
– Libros para leer – Books to read. You can point to books anywhere and use this phrase.
– Vivos colores – Bright colors. Use this phrase to comment on clothes, pictures, or anything colorful you can point to.
– Peces del mar – Fish of the sea. This sounds perfectly normal in Spanish, although you would say it differently in English. If you have books with pictures of sea life, or see ocean fish on television, you can say Son peces del mar.
Introduce additional house vocabulary using the illustrations.
Images of these words appear in the illustrations. You can introduce them with the pictures and reinforce them in your home. These images appear several times in the Spanish story, are included in the design on the inside covers, or are repeated in the floor plan.
la ventana – window
la llave – key
la flor – flower
el gato – cat
la olla – pot
la escoba – broom
la fruta – fruit
la taza – cup
la mesa – table
el paraguas – umbrella
la lámpara – lamp
la bañera / la tina – bathtub
los bloques – blocks
Find the black and white. The illustrations include a fun motif of black and white designs. With your child look for the blanco y negro in the illustrations. Name the items you find.
You may also be interested in this post: Spanish Story for Kids – 7 Brown Bear Activities and Free Printable
Disclosure: Barefoot Books provided me with a copy of the book so that I could write this article. All of the ideas and opinions are my own.
Linda
Sep 3, 2013
I would love to have this book for my little Spanish learners that are 9 and 5. Thank you for this awesome review of the book and the fun activity ideas to go along with it.
Allison
Sep 3, 2013
This would be a great book to use for my Spanish 1 class!
Susan
Sep 3, 2013
I would love to share this book with my 2nd graders as a supplemental activity to go along with our parts of the house unit!! 🙂
Victoria
Sep 3, 2013
Hi! I teach ELL at a school with 100 English Language Learners. I would LOVE to have this book for my pre-K, Kindergartners and first graders, as we are trying to promote literacy in the first language. Also for our older newcomers this would be great.
Jana Kimbrough
Sep 3, 2013
I have 22 Spanish learners who are 5 and 6
Mary Coppinger-Fraser
Sep 3, 2013
I teach 8th graders and collaborate with 9 teachers in my school teaching k-2. My students love reading, singing and playing with their little amiguitos and the k-2 students are crazy about the big kids teaching them.
Gracias for these engaging activities, I look forward to using them!
Susan
Sep 3, 2013
What amazing ideas you have!! We own this book and I love it. But my creativity ended with “Dondé está…..? Can’t wait to try some of these ideas. If I win, I’m going to donate the book to my kids’ school. Thank you!!!
Maggie
Sep 3, 2013
Sounds great – thanks for all the reading ideas!
My little readers are 5 and 2
Kristel
Sep 3, 2013
My learners are grades K-3. I love using the barefoot books with my students who find them easy to understand and fun to read.
Lucij
Sep 4, 2013
This looks like a great idea to our small but growing Spanish book library!
Denise
Sep 4, 2013
My little learners are 6 and 7! They would love this book.
Dana
Sep 4, 2013
My Spanish learners are 6-10 years old. This looks like a great book!
Melissa
Sep 5, 2013
I would love to use this book for my two bilingual girls and for my Spanish tot class I teach.
Barbara
Sep 5, 2013
I teach Preschool to 8th grade Spanish. I have students ages 3-14.
Selena
Sep 5, 2013
My little one is 2 years old. We checked this book out from the library in English and she loved it. I would just read it to her translating it into Spanish myself. I had no idea there was a Spanish version. ¡Qué maravilla!
Patricia
Sep 5, 2013
This would be a great addition to our Spanish classes at our local homeschool co-op. Kids ages 6-10. Thanks for the chance 🙂
Rosana
Sep 5, 2013
I would love to have a copy of the book. My girls are 3 and 6. I also teach preschool and kinder Spanish.
Jodi Monroy
Sep 5, 2013
I have 4 young Spanish learners, ages 3, 6, 8 and 9!
Olivia S.
Sep 5, 2013
This sounds like a wonderful book for my little Spanish learners! They are 2 and 7. 🙂
Yanett Garcia
Sep 5, 2013
I have 1st graders!
Montse
Sep 5, 2013
I would like to use this wonderful book in my class. I teach Spanish to a co-op group of homeschoolers of 3-4 grade.
Pam
Sep 5, 2013
I teach K-12 and I would read this book to all my Spanish levels. I love all the activity ideas!
Brendaliz Lorenzo
Sep 5, 2013
Me encantaría tenerlo en mi colección de libros. Lo quiero para mis estudiantes de Kindergarten (5 años) ya que en PR trabajo con lectoescritura. Sería fabuloso tenerlo, espero tener suerte.
I will love to have for my kindergarten students. I wish I have good luck.
Susan
Sep 6, 2013
Our little bilingual guy is 18 months. his first Spanish word 1 month ago (pato) has morphed into a new word each day! Reloj is his new favorite along with peach!
Priscilla Arce
Sep 6, 2013
I would love to have this book to read to my daughter and also I read in Spanish to a class from 3 to 6 years olds.
Betty
Sep 6, 2013
My learners are grades K-12. I love using the barefoot books with my students who find them easy to understand and fun to read.
Switchqueen
Sep 6, 2013
A great resource to use with my Scottish primary kids, aged 5-12 years.
Stacy Watson
Sep 6, 2013
My Spanish learners are all under 8 years of age. I work at a rural community health clinic in northern California. We are trying to do more outreach to our Hispanic population,we have children s music & movement classes and we have recently added a Little library where they can bring in books and trade them for different books 🙂
Joanna
Sep 6, 2013
My preschoolers will LOVE this book! Can’t wait to read it to them!
Martha
Sep 6, 2013
I would like to have this book. I teach grade one Spanish.
molly burr
Sep 6, 2013
My PreK kids will
get a kick out of this. I teach 3-5 year olds in a preschool.
Norma
Sep 6, 2013
My bilingual learners are 4 and 6 years old. I would love to have this wonderful book for them.
Ed
Sep 6, 2013
As a teacher of a dual language school. This book would be an excellent addition to our classroom library. Soy un maestro de trecer grado de las dos idiomas. Este libro cera un excelente libro para nuestro biblioteca te nuestro salon.
Ernestine ventura
Sep 6, 2013
Wow my students are third graders and are newcomers they would really treasure this book. Hopefully we as a classroom can win so we can add it to our school library.
Charlyn
Sep 7, 2013
This would be wonderful for my Spanish 1 learners!
Helena
Sep 7, 2013
Thanks for the great ideas and review of the book. I have just started teaching Spanish in a primary school with ages ranging from 3 – 11. I love reading about all the experiences and ideas seasoned Spanish teachers share. I hope that once I gain more experience I too will be able to share lessons and outcomes.
In any case it would be great to incorporate this book into units of work with the upper years, as well as use it in story time with the younger classes. Having Spanish books as part of a lesson in addition to songs and active games can truly motivate students to learn an additional language.
If you have any other books that you recommend for teaching Spanish as an additional language that would be great! I would particularly like to know which Hispanic authors to look for? I have found many translations of English to Spanish books, but can’T find many written by Spanish children’s authors. Gracias =)
Jenny
Sep 7, 2013
Pat Mora has great books, and so does Alma Flor Ada. Heritage Language also publishes book that were written originally in Spanish. You are right that most books are still translations, and it is frustrating. I buy books when I am traveling and keep hoping that the situation changes!
Lindsay
Sep 7, 2013
I would love to share this book with my students. I teach Kindergarten through 6th grade. I also have two small children (1 & 2) who are learning Spanish at home!
Cody
Sep 8, 2013
My babies are preschool through 8th grade and I can’t think of one of them who wouldn’t love this.
Cherish Reale
Sep 8, 2013
My Spanish learners range in ages from 6-12. I would love to have this book to share with all my students.
Sandy R
Sep 8, 2013
I have boys who are 5 and 7, but I would donate this book to our Spanish Immersion K class.
Kristen
Sep 8, 2013
My daughters are 4 and 2 but I also teach an elementary Spanish class at our local co-op and they would love it too!
Daniel Clark
Sep 8, 2013
Fun reading times ahead with my 3 boys: 6, 4 & 3 years old.
Katty
Sep 8, 2013
I would love to share this book with my Spanish students in First Grade!
Elle
Sep 8, 2013
My multilingual nena is 5 years old and would love to add this book to her collection!
Kim K
Sep 8, 2013
My little Spanish learners are 5 and 7 years old and we need more books in Spanish.
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