We have turned the corner on winter and the days are getting longer! There is still plenty of cold left though. For many of us, cold and winter create the context for the language we use with kids. It determines the clothes they wear, the games they play and how they feel. Spanish winter words are a natural part of our daily routine. Try these activities to talk about winter with your language learners.
Activities with Spanish Winter Words
Spanish Winter Yoga
Yoga is a wonderful way to get kids moving and teach language at the same time. Kids Yoga Stories has a post about winter yoga, part of our Easy Spanish-Easy Yoga series. You can find a link to the rest of the Easy Spanish-Easy Yoga articles at the end of this post.
The article includes a focus yoga flow where children act out snowboarding, ice skating, and downhill skiing. As kids do these yoga poses, say the names of these sports. I like to use a vamos a structure so they hear the infinitive. Doing movement that represents the meaning of the words will help kids learn and remember them. They also have fun!
Let’s snowboard. – Vamos a hacer snowboard.
Let’s ice skate. – Vamos a patinar.
Let’s ski. – Vamos a esquiar.
Spanish Winter Songs
Singing is one of my favorite activities, regardless of the season. These five winter songs work well with Spanish learners. All of them have Spanish winter words and several also have actions.
Printable Spanish Winter Words Activity: Caja de palabras
The blog Lluvia de ideas has some great activities for kids learning Spanish, including a winter pack of printables. This pack includes printables for making a Caja de palabras with a winter theme (scroll down and click on the green Descargar button). The materials consist of words and images associated with winter and can be used for a variety of activities. Read about the many activities you can do with a caja de palabras, such as matching words to pictures, identifying letters in a word, acting out words, drawing words, etc.
Spanish Winter Poem: Estamos en invierno
Many children learn the poem Estamos en invierno (author unknown) as they talk about winter in Spanish. Below you will find the most common version and you can hear the poem recited on YouTube. There is also a shorter version that omits several lines. See that version with key words replaced or reinforced by pictures.
Con la nariz colorada
y bufanda de colores,
paseo por la calle,
dando tiritones.
El sol está escondido
y el viento silbando
froto y froto mis manos
que se están helando.
Los bichitos del barrio
hoy no han salido
y en todas las casas
hay braseros encendidos.
¿Qué es lo que ocurre?
pregunto a mamá.
Pues que el invierno
ha llegado ya.
(autor anónimo)
Spanish Video with Winter Words: Tarde de invierno
This video is an animated version of Jorge Luján picture book Tarde de invierno. The book is available from Amazon. Although the language of the poem that is the text of the book does not use specific Spanish winter words, the illustrations and title lend themselves to talking about the season.
Spanish Winter Activity Book from Escuela en la Nube
Escuela en la Nube has a printable activity book about winter. The different activities use Spanish winter words and include matching words to pictures, completing words with the vowels, and completing a sentence. There is misprint on p.11; Nos constipamos is missing an n.
This post was a part of a monthly series: Easy Spanish-Easy Yoga. At Spanish Playground we are working with Kids Yoga Stories to create activities to teach children Spanish and yoga through basic concepts. We want to give you simple activities, both for Spanish and yoga, that you can work into a busy schedule. In addition to yoga, I’ll mention other language activities you can use with Spanish learners related to the theme of the month. Our theme this month is winter.
Easy Spanish-Easy Yoga
Teaching Kindness in Spanish
Spanish Thanksgiving Activities with Natural World Vocabulary
