Cinco Monitos Activities

Cinco Monitos Story Cards

Click here to purchase Cinco Monitos Story Cards

  I created these cards I call “story cards” to encourage language development.  These cards are a great way to engage students in talking in the target language!

These story cards were created to go along with the Five Little Monkeys story; an all time favorite that kids enjoy very much.  They particularly love doing the actions involved in the story.

I read the Five Little Monkeys to them in Spanish using the story book. Even though the story in this book is in English, I tell it to them in Spanish. They have a Spanish version too but the book is significantly smaller. I prefer using this one becausethe images are bigger.

I use this story as an opportunity to create an immersion type of situation by asking questions in the target language and hearing back from the students.  So I ask the questions in Spanish.  It’s amazing how students will intuitively understand and answer correctly most of the time even is their responses are in English.  This proves that children have a natural ability to correlate and understand.

So I will share here a few extra ideas of how I use this story to create and encourage language development. Again, these are just some ideas, but feel free to share yours as well!

After students are familiar with the story, it’s a good idea to engage them by asking some simple questions. This is where the story cards come in handy.

Pick a card and show to the students. You can ask questions such as:

Click here to purchase Cinco Monitos Story Cards

1. ¿Cuántos monitos hay en la cama? 

2. ¿Qué le pasó al monito?

3. ¿Por qué se cayó el monito?

4. ¿El monito se golpeó la cabeza o la nariz?

5. ¿A quién llamó mamá?

6. ¿Qué le dijo el doctor?

You can ask the same questions for the other cards.

I normally don't ask all these questions at the same time.

I pick two or three questions and consistently ask them over again for a few weeks until students  get use to listening to the questions and be able to answer accordingly. You can help students by asking the questions and also answering them.  In no time at all they will be answering the questions all by themselves. 

For the older kids 5 and up I do the following activities to engage in listening and speaking. (This is done after children are well familiar with the story)

1.      The student becomes the doctor: (This is to help develop memory and speech)  When reading the story, I select a random student to be the doctor. So in the part where it says: “mamá llamó el doctor (I substitute a child’s name for doctor) so I will say:”mamá llamó a Jazmine y Jazmine dijo…… (at this point Jazmine should say: “que ya no brinquen los monitos en la cama”. And each time we go around the story again, I call out a different name. Students love it and they are listening and waiting to see who will be next to be the doctor. This is simple but it really encourages students to speak and in doing so it helps them in the proper pronunciation for those  that need more help in that aspect. I must say that many of the children have develop clear pronunciation.

2.      Making the correction: (This is to encourage listening skills) I start the story. At the part of the story where says: “uno se cayó y se pegó la cabeza” (I substitute another part of the body for cabeza) so for example I would say: “uno se cayó y se pegó la nariz”.  (The children have so much fun to hear me say something different and are thrill to correct me and they say to me: “¡no, it’s la cabeza!” and then I will say: “ oh! ok…..la cabeza! and so on…. so now they are very attentive listening to what I’m going to say next. (so I use, nariz, brazo, orejas, etc…) they really enjoy it and have lots of fun. At the end they will say I’m funny!

Another one I use is saying: “cinco monitos brincando en la silla”. Immediately they say: “no! it’s la cama”.

3.      Dramatization: (This is to encourage speech, TPR and listening) Here I select seven students at a time. Five of them will be the little monkeys and one the mama and the other the doctor. As I start narrating the story, the five students are jumping (doing the action) when they heard the part: “uno se cayó” one of the students will fall.  And I will continue with the story and the other students will participate at the appropriate time in the story. Again, they love it!

4.      Selecting a narrator:  This is the same as # 3 with the difference that a student is selected to narrate the story while the other students do the dramatization. (This help students tremendously to engage and feel comfortable speaking the target language. It eases the intimidation that some students might experience when learning a new language.

     To purchase the Cinco Monitos Story Cards click here.

     You may also like:

Click here to purchase Cinco Monitos Song

Click here to purchase Cinco Monitos story

Your feedback and comments are welcome!

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Thank you and….                                                                                                           

Have Fun!

Five Fun Activities with Magnet Boards and Numbers

Five Fun Activities with Magnet   Boards & Numbers!

Here is another activity I found to be very helpful and engaging with children ages 4 and up.

These activities are great for teaching and reinforcing numbers in any language. But I use it for teaching Spanish.

I purchased some small magnet boards I saw at a fabric and craft store. I thought these would be great for my students. I already had some magnet numbers so it was a great buy!

So here are some ideas I use for reinforcing what has been taught with numbers.

1.     Give each student a magnet board and a set of magnet numbers from 0 to 10. (Most of the time I don’t have enough to give everyone at once, so I select a few at a time.) Call out a number in the target language and have children place that number on their magnet board.

2.    You can also form teams and see which team places the correct number on the board.

3.    Have children sit in a circle. The instructor puts random numbers on the board and students say what number it is.

4.    You can create math games and concepts from these boards and numbers.

5.    You can introduce “antes y después” game, where students say in target language the number that goes before and after or in the middle.

Hope these ideas were helpful. There are many more ideas and creative things you can do with these magnet boards and manipulative. You can purchase bigger magnet boards for other activities. In another post, I will share more ideas!

Wishing lots of fun with these ideas!

Please share your comments and feedback!

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Thank you and….                                                                                                      Have Fun!

Conjugation Cubes

Conjugation Cubes for practicing Spanish Conjugations

Conjugation Cubes were created to help students practice Spanish conjugations in a creative and fun way.

To create the game you will need two cubes. On one of cube tape 6 different actions on them. On the other cube tape the subject pronouns.  Throw the two cubes.  The action and subject pronoun on the top must be conjugated in the selected time period or tense.

At the end of this post will be information on cubes size and the free download!

Here are some suggestions:

1.      Instructor selects a student to come up and throw the cubes. Student should conjugate correctly in Spanish the subject pronoun with the action in the time period selected by instructor. Student gets five points is the conjugation is done correctly.  A variation to this game is to allow students to select the time period they want to use to conjugate.

2.      You can have two or three actions cubes to alternate with while focusing on that one subject pronoun. Or vice versa, you can use one action from the cube and just throw the other cube  with the subject pronouns several times, each time conjugating accordingly. 

3.      For more advance students, instructor throw the cubes and have students create short sentences in Spanish using a specific time period or tense.

4.      Another way to play the conjugation cubes is in a group setting.  And it came be done several ways: Instructor can select time period then throw the cubes and the first group to say the conjugations gets the points. (you can select the amount of points)Another way is to have a student within a group select the tense and another student within the group to throw the cubes. Give the group a 1 or 2 minutes to figure out their answer. If not then the chance goes to the next group and so on.

5.      As the instructor, you can choose to focus only on one particular tense to help students in the learning process. On another time you can choose to focus on a different tense. You can also choose to use two tenses at a time back and forth. All these different games and combinations of games will greatly help your students learn how to conjugate which is essential for proper grammar and expression.

6.      These are just some ideas. I’m sure you will come up with yours as well. If you have any ideas or something that have worked well, please share!

So I have included a free download of the actions and subject pronouns to cut and paste on your cubes.  Instructions are included. The actions and subject pronouns to be printed and cut goes with the following cube dimensions:  2- 7/8 In x 2- 7/8 In x  2- 7/8 In  (73 mm x 73 mm x 73 mm)

Click here to access your free download!

You may also like : Spanish Conjugation Cards Bundle and Verb Tenses Conjugation Cards.

Conjugation Task Cards! Great for reviewing and practicing conjugation in Spanish!

Conjugation Task Cards

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Christmas Theme Math & Spanish Fun Work Sheets

Free Math and Spanish Fun activity sheets

Here we are again at the end of another year. At this time of the year, kids are looking forward to all the holidays and activities ahead. 

With my Spanish learning group of young children, I embrace this time of the year to do lots of reviews and fun activities for reinforcement.  I created some fun Spanish and math worksheets with Christmas holiday theme to keep the expectation of the upcoming holidays engaging, fun and alive. 

Oh by the way, in looking for ways to help young children learn and identify numbers in Spanish randomly, I created “number recognition sheets.” These sheets present two or three target numbers to help students learn them faster. After students have mastered these number recognition sheets they are ready to do the fun activity sheets pages 1 to 3. More detailed explanation is included in the free download!

Here are short videos of the “number recognition sheets” been used with 4 year old students.

The Christmas theme math and Spanish fun worksheets can be used at the beginning of your class or at the end or even as a break in between assignments.

This is the time of the year when we mostly give and share. So I’m so happy to share with you as a holiday gift until the end of the Christmas season some of my worksheets I created for my students.

I hope you find these activity sheets useful and helpful as we approach the Christmas break.

You can access the free Christmas Spanish fun worksheets here.

You can access the free Christmas fun math worksheets and games here.

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Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year 2016 and as always don’t forget to ….

Have fun!

Spanish Sentence Cards

            Spanish Sentence Cards

Spanish Sentence Cards are manipulative that engage children at an early age to build short and simple sentences as well as help them with Spanish sight words. Even though these cards are to be use with children 5 to 7 years of age, I have had success using it with some 4 year old as well.  So depending on your group you can decide is you will use it with the 4’s.

Instructions on how to use the cards are provided along with the product.

I will share here some games and additional suggestions on how Spanish Sentence Cards can be use.

1.      The pairing game: Make sure to have an even number of students for the pairing game. Give cards with words to half of the students and to the other half pictures. At your command have students find their partners by matching the correct word with the picture.

2.      Memory game: Students sit in a circle. Have cards with words and pictures face down on the floor in a structured order. Students take turn turning over one picture card and one word. If it matches, the students take the pair. The student with the most pairs of cards wins.

3.      The asking game:  Have students sit down in a circle. Place the picture cards facing up on the floor. Ask students questions like these: “¿qué es azul?” students should respond: “la mesa es azul.” If they do not know how to respond, then the instructor should respond. Another questions could be: “¿qué es blanco?” students response should be: “el muñeco de nieve es blanco”.  Another question could be: “¿qué es anaranjada?” response: “la pelota es anaranjada.” And so on. Suggestion: It is preferable for the students to respond in complete sentence as reinforcement in building Spanish sentences with the cards.

4.      Select the adjective game: With this game students have the opportunity to select the correct adjective to complete the sentence. Have students sit in a circle. Place a picture card on the floor and start the sentence and allow students to take turn picking the appropriate adjective to complete the sentence. For example you could have the picture of the car, and then place the word below it that says: “El carro es….. A student selected by the instructor select the adjective that describe something about “el carro”. And so on.

Suggestion: To help students learn these sight words even faster you can make several copies of two or three words and have students repeat after you. Doing this over a short period of time will greatly increase students ability to recognize and pronounce the words easily as well as increase their ability to correlate each word with the correct image. You can even have a specific number of words you want to teach and make several copies and have students turn the words over and read it. Because you have several copies of the same words, it will become more and more familiar when students encounter the words over and over again.

To purchase Spanish Sentence Cards click here.

Your feedback, comments and suggestions are welcomed. Please share any of your experiences using the Spanish sentence cards and as usual…….

Have fun!

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Discover a fun game for reinforcing any subject ¡Bárrelo!

Bárrelo (A fun game for reinforcement)

Bárrelo is a fun game to help reinforce anything you are teaching in Spanish. But it’s equally useful for any language.  I use the game bárrelo for reinforcing numbers, shapes, and vocabulary words in Spanish.  I came up with the idea of this game when I was at the dollar store earlier this year looking for things to use with my students.  Then I saw this mini cute brush and dust pan set. 

So I bought it even though I did not know then how I will use it. Then the bright idea came to me to use it for some type of game and that’s how “bárrelo” which literally means “sweep it up” came into existence. I ordered a few more sets online since the dollar store didn't have any more.

This game can be played with one student but it is definitely more fun doing it in pairs or even three or four at a time depending on how many of the brush and dust pan set you have. So here is how the game works:

I will use for example numbers since it’s the most common one I use with this game activity. Select the number of students who will be playing at the same time. Give each one a brush and dust pan set. The game is to be played on a smooth and hard surface.  I recommend using the table.  At first try two students, one on each end of the table.  Give each student small number cards from 0 to 10. They can arrange it however they want on the table but it’s preferable to arrange it in random order.  Tell each student that you will call out a number but only when you say “bárrelo” is when they can sweep that number in the dust pan.

 

If a student sweeps in the number before you say “bárrelo” the number is taken away from that student. After calling out a number, give a few seconds for students to visually locate the number and then say “bárrelo”.  When playing the game, do not call out all the numbers because it would not make it possible to know who the winner is. So after calling six or seven numbers (you can use a little more or a little less. It all depends on your group) then you can check and see who has all the numbers you called out, in the dust pan.

Recommendation for keeping score of the numbers you call out:

You can have a sheet of paper with the numbers 0 to 10 or up to whatever number you are teaching. As you call out the numbers you can cross them out helping you to remember which numbers you called out. At the end the winner or winners are the ones who have all the correct numbers you called out. 

This game is a favorite with my students, especially the 5 years old. They always say to me: “are we going to play bárrelo today?” Here is a short video of the game to give you an idea. This was with one of my 5 year old groups.

To engage the other students that are not participating as yet in the game, you can have those students take turns calling out a number and then the whole group can say “bárrelo” . You could also select students to cross out the numbers that are been called out.

As I mention earlier, this game can be played with pretty much any subject you are teaching. Here are some suggestions you can use this game with:

·         shapes

·         vocabulary words

·         alphabet

·         animals

·         sight words

·         colors

·         etc…

The numbers, shapes and vocabulary pictures to be used with this game can be obtained here for free! Make as many copies needed, laminate and cut them out and use over and over again!
You can create your own sheets for keeping track of the numbers, shapes and vocabulary and so on, but if you prefer you can use the free ones I have provided here. 

Your feedback, comments, ideas are welcomed! Please share and as usual:

Have Fun!

Fun Ideas for Teaching Colors

       Fun Ideas for Teaching Colors        

Fun activities for teaching colors in Spanish to young children.

Hello and thanks for visiting! Today I will share some activities I recently did with my preschool students for reinforcing colors.

I was at a dollar store sometime ago and I saw party plates in different colors. I then thought of the idea of buying a set of each color to engage my young students while teaching them the colors in Spanish.

Here are some ideas.

1.      Have a basket full of different color items.  Introduce a color and take out everything in the basket that is that color.

2.      Do the same activity above but instead of taking out the target color have students take it out instead.

3.      Use a cloth bag and place the different color items in it. Display on the floor  4 to 6 different color plates. Have students sit in a circle and pass the bag around taking out an item. Student say the color of the item in the target language and place  it on the same color plate. (Here are some pictures to illustrate)

4.      For the older preschool students and kindergarteners you can do a variation by putting items of the same color on a plate and an extra item of a different color. (you can say something like this: “este objeto no pertenece en el plato verde.” Then you can go ahead and ask the question: “¿a dónde pertenece?” “pertenece al plato amarillo”. You can even go further and give a command to a student by saying for example: “Felipe, ponga el objeto amarillo en el plato amarillo.”  These are just some  ideas of what you can say to engage students in thinking, speaking and listening. The ideas are endless.  Obviously they will not be speaking the target language right away but what I have noticed is that as time goes by and they  listen to me speak the language, imitation and repetition starts to take place; so after they are comfortable they start to repeat what they hear me say. Some students do it sooner than I expect! Activities like these are excellent for language development.

5.      Another activity that my students love very much and have great fun is when I tell them to help me find a color. I will use “rojo” for example. So I tell my students: “voy a buscar el color rojo” then I pick something out of the bag that’s azul for example. Then I will ask: “¿es rojo? they all will laugh and say no it’s azul! and so on. Once I pick the right color out  I encourage them to say: si es rojo! It’s a good time to introduce affirmative and negative in the target language.

Hope this was helpful. I will share more on my next post!

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Thank you and….                                                                                                      

Have Fun!