Fun Ideas for Teaching Colors

Fun Ideas for Teaching Colors

Hi, thanks for stopping by! Today I’m going to share some fun ideas and a song to help young children learn the colors in Spanish!

Music is an important part in helping kids to learn; that’s why I’m always looking for a tune or song that goes with whatever subject I’m teaching. Using familiar tunes is a fun and great way to introduce any subject you are teaching. Kids will learn it faster since it’s a tune they are already familiar with. In my previous post I shared how I use a well know tune by kids to teach and reinforce the days of the weeks in Spanish while reviewing emotions in Spanish. Today I will share another well known tune by kids to teach and reinforce colors while learning a new sentence involving the subject they are learning. The tune I use for the colors is: “If you’re happy and you know it. 

My students have already learned their colors well. I’m so proud of them! So I started to introduce one way they can use the colors they have learned in Spanish in a short sentence. They are learning how to say what their favorite color is. (Mi color favorito es…) so we sit in a circle and we go over the colors and I will instruct them to listen as I point to each color and say slowly: “mi color favorito es azul, mi color favorito es rojo…and so on. After I will ask someone: “¿cuál es tu color favorito?” and of course I will help them. As usual they catch on to it so quickly! At first their pronunciation will not be perfect but don’t worry, as the activity is done over and over again they will get it right. Another reason I like incorporating music with language it’s because I noticed how it helps students with the proper pronunciation.

So the tune I use goes well for this little activity.

Here is what I do:

Have children sit in a circle. Put the color cards in the middle. Any color cards will work but if you like the ones I use shown in the picture above you can access them for Free Here J

Teacher ask: ¿Cuál es tu color favorito? 

Student respond by singing to the familiar tune of if you’re happy and you know it.

Student respond: “Mi color favorito es azul, mi color favorito es azul,

azul, azul,  azul, azul, mi color favorito es azul.

Teacher ask: ¿Cuál es  tu color favorito? 

Student respond: “ Mi color favorito es amarillo, mi color favorito es amarillo

amarillo, amarillo, mi color favorito es amarillo.

So you keep going until each child has the opportunity to say what their favorite color is. At first, help students sing the song slowly. After children are familiar with words and pronunciation, it can be sung faster. Another reason I like using this particular tune is because of the opportunity for repetition within the tune itself.

This activity/song is appropriate for ages 4 up to 9. 

Another activity we do with these little color cards is to have students point to the color you call out. You can also embrace the opportunity to introduce: “Dónde está…” (where is…)

Here are two short videos with examples:

Another activity you can do is have students match the colors with the words. They love doing this! This is the time they get to work collaboratively to find and match the word with the color. It’s great as a literacy activity!

You can access these cards and words here for Free. There is also a bonus page included!

Hope these ideas were helpful! Your comments and feedback are appreciated.

If you are looking for additional material to teach colors, you may like:

Coloring book of colors (this is perfect for younger children 2 and 3 years of age. You can access it here for Free!

For older kids 4 and up Mi Librito de Colores is appropriate. To purchase it click here.

Flash Cards Los Colores are also available by clicking here.

Click Here for song Los Colores

Click Here for song Más Colores

Follow me on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/musicandspanish/

Follow me on TpT by clicking on the green star right under my store name “Music and Spanish Fun”: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Music-And-Spanish-Fun

Thank you and….                                                                                                      

Have Fun!

Teaching Days of the Week with Emotions in Spanish

Fun idea with Days of the Week and Emotions in Spanish!

Click here to access these FREE Days of the Week Cards

Looking for a creative way to teach or reinforce the days of the week while reviewing emotions in Spanish? I ‘m always looking for ways to reinforce what has been learned already because repetition helps students remember what has been taught.  Implementing old material with new is a good idea in order to keep students always engaged and helps them to not forget.

So for teaching the days of the week in Spanish while reinforcing emotions, I decided to use a well known tune by kids. The tune for this little activity is: “She’ll be coming round the mountain”

Click here to access Caritas

So here is what I do:

Children sit in a circle. I start singing the tune of the song she’ll be coming round the mountain using the days of the week in Spanish. I use a drum to keep a rhythmic beat. I will write the words here and the part where students get a chance to express the emotions in Spanish.  (At the end is a sample of the song so you can hear it and have a better idea)

So here go the words:

Teacher sings: Hoy es domingo, domingo, domingo, ¿cómo estás?

Student responds: ¡Estoy feliz! (Or they can choose any emotion they want. I’m just choosing one as an example)

Teacher sings: Hoy es domingo, domingo, domingo, ¿cómo estás?

Student responds: ¡Estoy feliz!

Teacher sings: Hoy es domingo, domingo, domingos, hoy es domingo, domingo, domingo, hoy es domingo, domingo, domingo, ¿cómo estás? 

Student responds: ¡Estoy feliz!

*****************************************                                                                                                                             

Teacher sings: Hoy es lunes, lunes, lunes, ¿cómo estás?

Student responds: Estoy triste

Teacher sings: Hoy es lunes, lunes, lunes, ¿cómo estás?

Student responds: Estoy triste

Teacher sings: Hoy es lunes, lunes, lunes,  hoy es lunes, lunes, lunes,   hoy es lunes, lunes, lunes, ¿cómo estás?

Student responds: Estoy triste

And so on using all the days of the week and they can use different emotions. For each day of the week I ask a different student. Go around the circle until all the students have gotten a chance to participate. Here is a short sample of what I just explained)

My students really enjoy this little activity. For some reason they love saying they are “enojado” or “enojada”

The different emotions students can use and can be found in my free product called caritas are:

feliz, triste, enojado(a) aburrido (a) asustado (a) sorprendido (a) cansado (a)

You can have the little emotion faces (caritas) on the floor in the middle of the circle and have each student pick up the one that represent the emotion they choose. Encourage students to show facial expression with each emotion! They so love it!

I hope you find this idea helpful. Your comments are welcome!

You can access the free emotion faces (caritas) here.

You can access the Free days of the week cards in Spanish by clicking here.

 

Click here to purchase the days of the week song in Spanish.

You can also hear a sample of the song by clicking  here.

Thanks for visiting!

Follow me on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/musicandspanish/

Follow me on TpT by clicking on the green star right under my store name “Music and Spanish Fun”: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Music-And-Spanish-Fun

Thank you and….                                                                                                   

  Have Fun

Musical Fun Ideas with Numbers

Musical Fun Ideas with Number Mats

Number mats are great for teaching, practicing and reinforcing numbers.

After introducing the numbers to students, these games will serve for practice and reinforcement purposes.

Here are a few fun ideas you can use.

·         Place number mats on the floor in random order. (There should be the same amount of mats as children). Have lively music at hand to play while children walk around the mats. Another option is to use a percussion instrument with a rhythmic beat.

·       Once the music stops, each student should step on a mat. Ask each student what number they are stepping on. Encourage them to say the number they are stepping on in Spanish. Example: “¿qué número estás pisando? student answer: “cuatro”. (or whichever the number is)

Another way to do this game is to sing or chant a little tune to “¿qué número estás pisando?” and have student respond by saying: "estoy pisando cuatro". I created a little tune and I was trying to share it here but for some reason I'm unable to do so. Once I figure it out I will upload it so you can hear how it goes so you can use with your students if you wish. When singing or chanting the little tune you can use a percussion instrument such as a drum, tambourine, maracas or claves. Ok so here is the little tune I created called: "¿qué número estás pisando?"

·         Have several mats of the same number on the floor along with the other numbers. So for example you could have three or four mats with the number 3. Explain to students that at the specified clue, everyone should go forward to find and step on the number 3. I usually give my instructions in Spanish even though I am teaching children with no previous background in the language. I speak to them in Spanish and I must say that I’m glad I do because it creates an immersion experience for them and I also realize that it is the best way to actually learn, at lease for young children. It has also proven to me that children more often than not intuitively understand what I am saying.

So here is how this game goes: you will need a drum and a triangle.

Tell students when they hear the drum they will start walking around the numbers. When they hear the triangle they will find the number 3 and step on it. The other students that did not find it fast enough comes back to the initial position. The game can be done several times. As a variation, you can decide to omit the triangle and use only the drum and instead of using the triangle as a clue, you could just say: “Busca y pisa el número 3”. 

·         A variation to game number one is to ask general questions for the children to respond. Example you can ask: “¿quién está pisando el número 5?” and so on. Students respond by saying who is it.

It is recommended that children take off their shoes while playing the mat games. This will prolong the life of the mats. Stepping on them with shoes on will put more ware and tear on the mats. It also helps to keep them clean.

Another fun way to use the number mats is to have children sit on them when its circle time. I often have problem with children been too close to each other which creates distractions and complaints. Sometimes they want to move from one location to another, and so on. Arranging the number mats on the floor helps to give each child their space and it’s a good way to continue to reinforce the numbers. You can say something like: “Sara, siéntate en el número 2 and so on…..

I got these number mats at Lakeshore teacher’s store, but you can also make you own number mats using yoga mats and number stencils.

Number Flash Cards in Spanish

If you are looking for number flash cards you can check out the ones above here.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Hope these ideas were helpful. Your comments and feedback are appreciated. Stay tuned for more ideas on Music and Spanish Fun!

Follow me on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/musicandspanish/

Follow me on TpT by clicking on the green star right under my store name “Music and Spanish Fun”: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Music-And-Spanish-Fun

Thank you and….                                                                                                     

 Have Fun!

      

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!

Follow me Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/musicandspanish/

Follow me on TpT by clicking on the green star right under my store name “Music and Spanish Fun”: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Music-And-Spanish-Fun

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!

Follow me on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/musicandspanish/

Follow me on TpT by clicking on the green star right under my store name “Music and Spanish Fun”: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Music-And-Spanish-Fun

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

Follow me on Pinterest:  https://www.pinterest.com/musicandspanish/

Follow me on TpT by clicking on the green star right under my store name “Music and Spanish Fun”: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Music-And-Spanish-Fun