A fun way to teach commands

A Fun Way to Teach Commands

A command is a specific instruction to do something.

Children learn their natural language at a very young age by hearing commands from their parents, family, caregiver and so on. 

This same idea can be practice when teaching a foreign language. 

One of the things I incorporate in my classes are commands in Spanish. Some examples of these commands are: marcha (march) salta (jump) corre (run) camina (walk), etc....

When giving commands to students try to avoid translating what a command means. Instead physically show them what to do as you say the command. Student will retain it much better and will most likely remember what the command means as they do the action along with you. My students and I have lots of fun as we command each other to do different things. Once students are familiar with the commands they can practice giving commands to each other. Students really enjoy doing that especially giving their teacher commands and I do them :-)

To teach these commands I created a set of cards called: Las Acciones (Actions) 

I select the actions I'm going to teach and show students the cards that goes with each action.  So for example I would say: "marchar" and I do the marching action; or I would say "saltar" and I do the jumping action. Students repeat and follow. Once students are familiar with these actions, saying a command becomes easy and understandable for students. All I say for exmple is "marcha" or "salta" and students automatically understands what to do.

Another idea to use with these cards is to have students say the actions they like. For example they can say: "Me gusta marchar" (I like to march)

Another idea  is to have students say the actions they can do. For example they can say: "Yo puedo saltar" (I can jump)

These are just some ideas. There are many more ideas you can use with these cards. Creativity is all that's needed!

If you would like to purchase Las Acciones click on the link below.

Click here for Las Acciones

Create a book of colores!

   Los Colores

Teaching colors to young children is fun. I find creative ways to teach them the colors in Spanish. With young children I start out with one or two colors at a time until we complete the first six colors: yellow, red, blue, green, orange, and purple.

To reinforce each color that is learned I created : "Mi Libro de Colores para Colorear" (My coloring book of colors)

This will be the cover to assemble the booklet.

Each sheet represents a color to be reinforce. When learning a specific color  we do activities involving that color, then after doing those activities over the next week or so we start the project of creating the coloring book of colors. If yellow is the color we've been working on then children color the yellow page as a reinforcement. I do the same for all the other colors. This activity is intended to create a booklet.  After all six colors are completed the book can be assembled .

We are working on yellow here. I encourage my students to say the color in Spanish.

Another set of students working on the color red. Lots of fun!

This activity is great for preschoolers and kindergartners. To access this free activity click on the link below. Have fun!

Click here for coloring book of colors!