The materials here allow learners to create a beautiful wheel that they can turn to learn the words below. The song is logicallly linked to the English version, but not a direct translation.
The song counts down the number of spots on your dog as you wash him. The game will be familiar to most people, and I have put Spanish sentences on the cards to be read.
The puppet show just requires one puppet and the teacher, and is interspersed with Spanish words that the teacher and the puppet can encourage the children to say aloud.
Spanglish Fantástico is a set of video lessons. They use a mixture of strong Spanish cognates and English to present the learning. The videos have text and the sound together learners can get a good grasp of pronunciation.
These are lessons that I am teaching in class, and teachers can watch them and copy the lessons easily. There is a strong focus and emphasis on speaking Spanish in these lessons.
My learners access the videos in 2 ways: either they watch the videos before the classes to boost their confidence in class and in preparation for speaking; or they watch the videos after class to review what we have done, and to give themselves time to take it all in at their own pace. (A third way they are using the video books is to catch up with lessons that they are unable to attend).
If you are a teacher and want some ideas for your classes, or if you want to recommend some easy to watch videos to your students, then I would love to share my work with you.
Sheets to complete to keep a diary of what we learn in our Spanish club. In this lesson I always give the learners a drink, they choose the colour cup they want (in Spanish) and they sing an adapted version of a birthday piñata song before I deliver the drink. Words are on the powerpoint, and the song is on the video.
Students study words for family members - children, parents and siblings. They then study the verb tener, and talk to each other making statements and questions about possessions. They watch a video, then they practice a short dialogue in open and closed pairs asking, for example, "Do you have cousins?" "What are they called?"
This is a very structured lesson, giving maximum guidance to less confident speakers of Spanish.
Covers: the letter ñ; giving your name; yes, no and don't know with a name guessing game; tú, usted and how are you?; how are you game; review of lesson.
Give your learners a great start, with practice greeting their friends, and asking how are you? Show learners how easy Spanish is with cognates from the world of work, from taxistas to futbolistas. Present a little grammar, with personal pronouns from yo to ellos, and a few verbs including ser, hablar and tener. Study un poco de geografía en español, and talk about la familia.
Spanish e-books to support learners as they begin to speak Spanish. in total, over 300 pages of explanations, examples, exercises and resources to help and encourage your students.
Written in Spanglish, the English - Spanish mix that maximises exposure to the target language at the same time as allowing full comprehension (as long as the student is preparado to make a few guesses inteligentes). Cognates are used wherever possible.
The course is written around 10 themes: introductions, countries, occupations, the family, ordering in a cafe, the town, directions, shops, transport and restaurants. There are also lots of varied activities throughout to practice the basics of pronunciation and using numbers.
This book is designed to be easy to use in the classroom, and for learners to be able to read through and remember outside the classroom. It minimises preparation time. With plenty of pictures throughout, 14 point text and double line spacing, it is accessible to dyslexic students. This book has a friendly, conversational style and makes suggestions about how to study and how to remember new words.
Non-Spanish speakers have read this book, and told me that they were able to read it from cover to cover. One reviewer said, "You don't realise when it is Spanish or English you are reading, because it all blends in." I hope Spanish teachers and students give this book a try, because I have found it to be successful in engaging my learners and giving them the knowledge and the confidence to speak Spanish.