In addition to these 2 books with sentences about manners that learners earn points for using, I like learners to make a poster of 'las palabras mágicas' - please, thankyou, pardon, etc. in Spanish.
Children practice the numbers 1-12, and learn the words of the phrases in this game:
'What's the time Mr Wolf?'
'It&'s 3 o clock'
'It&';s dinner time'
The children play the game with sheep counters on a board.
A short story with threes that the children can respond with 3 actions to each page. The pages can then be altered to other numbers so the children can give different number of reponses. There is a little book for the children to colour and take home.
Simple statements which can be introduced with pictures, acted out in a drama class, then followed up by illustrating a mini book. The document is printed on both sides of one sheet, then it will cut down the middle long-ways to fold into a book.
There are sentences to trace over and space for children to put their faces. I like to get passport photos of the children and they can cut out their faces and stick them in.
Count the hands and say what they do - clap, wave, talk etc.
Read the words that come up and put your hands in if you have that strip. Count how many hands are in.
Over 170 pages of Spanish activities that you can copy and use in class to teach students about the following topics: the town, directions, shops, public transport and restaurants. The emphasis is on fluency and pronunciation. This course is Spanglish Fantástico, designed to give students the confidence to get on with speaking Spanish.
In this lesson I explain how to preparar una fiesta de Halloween to help your niños learn un poco de español.
The key words are:
• Bruja = witch, say “brooha”
• Araña = spider, say “aranya”
• Telaraña = spider’s web, say "telaranya"
Las actividades (keep track of los campeones)
Preparar la casa or la clase by decorating it with araña chains or streamers.
Escribir invitaciones to amigos, using un poco de español.
Put araña and bruja pictures about for a competition: ask los niños to go and find
¿Qué color is araña número 1, 2, 3?
¿Qué animal does bruja 1, 2, 3 have?
Make telaraña pictures on black papel, using glue and flour. You have to wait until la telaraña is seca. Who made a good one?
Make imágenes de arañas or brujas on your plato with la comida. Who can make a good araña or a great bruja?
Sing “Las brujas de Halloween” song.
Play the Simon Says game with Brujas. Actions could include:
fly on your broomstick
stroke your cat
cast a spell
walk like a zombie
stir the cauldron
jump out and frighten someone
Memorizar the short poema that teaches gracias and adiós … el adulto should take out one word at a time, and los niños keep trying to read the whole thing even with words covered.
Celebrar with prizes.
The importante thing is to use español with los niños for words that they can guess from el contexto, or because they are very similar to the translation en inglés, without it ever being too difícil. And claro, es importante to have fun!
1: Decorate your books with cognates and other Spanish you already know.
2: LL sound and What is your name?
3: Good morning, how are you?
4: Christmas in Spain (insert at relevant date in course, obvs!)
5: Where do you live?
6: Numbers 1-20
7: Review and test
A bilingual English girl experiences bullying while living in Spain for the summer. A gentle, enjoyable story about two cultures that includes lots of Spanish words for your class to learn. The children’s friendship issues are resolved by talking, working and playing together.
The story is parallel text English Spanish by new author, Natalia Simons and is available from Amazon. https://amzn.to/3pxoIIH Your children will enjoy reading the book and I recommend you buy a copy for your classroom, but you can access this complete lesson before your book arrives. There is a reading of the book available to you on YouTube accompanied by the book artwork and endorsed for use in school by the author. https://youtu.be/drGtlvFntxU
In this beautiful cross-curriculum lesson the first sheet, WORDS AND IDEAS, focuses on 7 high-frequency and strong cognate items of vocabulary, followed by discussion questions on the main themes of the story: having two homes and cultures and the difficulties of being different. The second sheet gives children a chance to play with the word RARA, meaning strange, with a focus on rolling the letter r and creating Spanglish sentences using the word RARA. There are then two vocab tests so you can assess children’s understanding and openess to Spanish as a second language. There is no need to teach this vocab if the children have watched the video of the story.
The third sheet provides flashcards for 18 key vocab items from the story. You can use these however you like to use flashcards. There is a suggestion for a game of bingo. Make sure you are comfortable with the pronunciation by watching the video https://youtu.be/drGtlvFntxU or play using an excerpt of your choice from the video (if you fancy paying very close attention to the Spanish words that are being used!)
The last sheet for students is a vocabulary list of all the Spanish used in the video to present the story. You can challenge the students to re-tell the story using as much of the Spanish vocabulary as possible, or perhaps they can create new stories of their own. It is nice for children to have a choice, after all.
Finally, I have included a Spanglish text for teachers, explaining the use of Spanglish as a teaching method. Having tested this text on non-Spanish speaking colleagues, I am confident that you will be able to access this text, whether or not you are already a Spanish speaker. I hope you and your students enjoy the lesson, and I hope that your school buys a copy of THE SPANGLISH GIRL for your classroom. Thank you for looking!
I have marked chapters in the video to make it easier for you to navigate in class. By hovering the mouse over the bottom of the video you should find bars to indicate where the chapters start and finish: Intro, Story, Outro.
In lockdown 2020 I set out to create an accessible Spanish course for beginners by making one video lesson per day for 100 days. The complete set of 100 videos is now available on YouTube, and to compliment them I made notes outlining what I thought were the key learning points from each day. I include these notes as a PDF for your students.
Most of the people who use my lessons are older, but there are some school age children that I know who subscribe and they have been really successful in learning to speak Spanish. I believe that learning languages doesn’t have to be a formal thing. Learning languages is a natural thing. When you already have a language, the easiest way to learn a language and the most natural way to learn a language is to mix your new language with the one you already have. I create my resources in line with this view, which means I can optimize the amount of Spanish that learners are exposed to without compromising on understanding. This gives learners confidence to engage with Spanish and to speak Spanish. That is what I have found with my learners, and I hope you will find the same with your learners.
A delightful story that makes a good first reader. Possible to use as a little play with a narrator and parts, which can be delivered entirely in Spanish as a performance!
Learners earn the right to colour in a province of Spain for their team. Rewards can be given for the most coloured map each session or the first to complete the map, rather like marbles in the jar.