Weather Song

Mi girls love singing this song. It is perfect when we talk about weather in the morning. They can sing Cae la Lluvia or Brilla el Sol. At the very end, the song says "Estoy feliz" and my girls like to jump!

La letra:

Cae la lluvia alrededor
en los techos, en la flor
Cae la lluvia en mi nariz,
manos, pies y estoy feliz.

Brilla el sol alrededor
en los techos, en la flor
Brilla el sol en mi nariz,
manos, pies y estoy feliz.

Click here for a link to the pdf with the music notation (scroll down for the song). Click here for a link to download the FREE .mp3 from my church's website (You have to scroll down to Cae la Lluvia, right click on the first column with music and singing and the second column for just music and click "save target as...")

Teaching the Spanish Alphabet

Luckily the Spanish alphabet is very similar to the English alphabet. My daughter was coloring with chalk outside last summer and wrote a simple Spanish word "gato" by herself even though we have never talked about the Spanish alphabet. I think it will come quite naturally and quickly.

I found 29 Spanish Alphabet Mini-Books done by scholastic, a book full of mini books. There is a reproducible 8 page mini book for each Spanish letter. They can color them and then read the books to me. Each mini book has a blank page to write or draw other words that start with that letter.

Ways to use mini-books:

*Pretend like the kids are the teacher. They have to show me the words and I have to repeat the words.

*Make up a pretend story using all the words in each mini book. For example, Estaba lloviendo y el arbol estaba muy triste. De repente, el arbol vio un arco iris en el cielo....

*After reading the book, play charades! Have the children act out one word from the book and the other children have to guess what it is.

*Play pictionary. Have one child draw a picture and the other students have to guess which word it is from the mini book.

*Do a scavenger hunt. As you read the book, look for objects in the house that could represent each word from the mini book.

****You can find other mini books with simple language with the Kindergarten McGraw-Hill home school connection here. They are free! You could also create your own mini books by cutting pictures of words that start with the same letter out of magazines.

Spanish Immersion Kindergarten Activities

http://teachinglearningspanish.blogspot.com/, a great site with tons of resources, will be closing their teaching forum. I decided to check out the forum. It had some great resources from immersion teachers. I found a link to some wonderful Kindergarten activities through McGraw-Hill (but could be used for older, beginning students and younger students.

Each unit from their Tesoros book comes with activities and a small mini book. The thing I love about the activities is they require discussion. It is a great way to get them speaking in Spanish.

Click here to see a unit that includes an activity talking about which picture happened first, a mini book that you could talk about all the different ways people help each other, and a mini book with simple language about growing up. Click here to choose any of the 31 units on the site.
I am receiving samples of the Tesoros McGraw Hill Spanish reading program soon. I am considering using it for my daughter next year for homeschool. It might be a great idea for those of you wanting your children to learn to read in Spanish, but they are not getting it at school. I will have to tell you what I think of it...

Un Pulpito

At a recent Spanish storytime we attended, I loved the theme "Seco o Mojado." We read two informational books about wet animals. Then the teacher took out a tub of puppets. The children had to say if it was a dry or a wet animal and put it into two groups. It was great for practising animal vocabulary and mojado and seco. We then sang Un Pulpito by Charlotte Diamond, a cute song about a fish that gets eaten by an octopus, who gets eaten by a shark, etc. We are studying the ocean theme this year for homeschool, so I was so excited to have this reinforcement of vocabulary we have already learned.

Here is a video on youtube with the lyrics and the music, although if you use it, I would buy the song on amazon here.

I found some patterns online from a library website to create your own visuals either on cardstock and color or cut out of flannel and make a flannel board story. Click here for the patterns and scroll down to where it says Un Pulpito.

Flashlight Find

I love playing games with my kids. With my oldest daughter, I can have a great conversation in Spanish. My second daughter doesn't chat as much. She does enjoy playing games with me, so to practice her Spanish, we have to play a game.

I decided to use something they love- the flashlight. We took 5 objects and made sure everyone knew what they were called in Spanish. We had to find a room that could get really dark (we ended up sitting in the bathroom and they loved it!). We placed the objects in a row. Then we took turns holding the flashlight. They would shine the light on one object and then say:

"En la obscuridad, no veo muchas cosas pero sí puedo ver.... un osito de peluche!"

It was a silly way to review some vocabulary, but they loved the suspense of the dark and then using the flashlight! Hope someone else can use this little game :)

Juguemos en Español CD/Book Giveaway!

******GIVEAWAY CLOSED********

The winners are: #8 SIMONE AND #3 ADRIANA

As I search for materials to help my children learn Spanish, I find numerous songs and books that teach numbers, colors and body parts. But what can I give my children if they are beyond simple vocabulary. I want them to have a broad vocabulary in Spanish.

I was so excited to try out Susy Dorn's products. We received Sal y Pimienta DVD and CD to review. Let me start telling you about the CD.

Things I love about Susy's music

-Fun, catchy music that covers a wide variety of topics (beyond colors and shapes!). Some of the topics include what foods you put salt and pepper in while you cook, a crazy lady who does all the chores in her house, a song about all the insects and animals with spots, and a space exploring all the different planets. These are all on the CD I reviewed.

-There is a lot of rhyming, great for getting my girls to recognize rhyming in Spanish, preparing them to start phonics in Spanish. I love the song about all the animals playing instruments that rhyme with their names.

-They use more advanced vocabulary, but there is repetition and simple wording, so it is easy to learn and remember the lyrics.

-My children have memorized the songs very quickly. I was surprised when my daughter could sing an entire song (using gestures) after hearing it only 3 times.

The Susy Dorn DVD Sal y Pimienta uses the same techniques she uses in her immersion program. She uses puppets and exaggerated gestures to communicate only in Spanish. I have to admit that the clown nose, mime and exaggerated gestures seemed a little strange to me at first. But I was so impressed with how effectively they teach! My girls memorized the music so fast after watching the DVD, especially my 3 year old. It really captures their attention and they love it.

The same immersion technique works with the books. The book that goes along with each CD/DVD shows the children what is sung. They don't need translation because it is all shown to them through pictures.

Susy Dorn is giving away 2 CD/Book sets, La Marcha de Las Aves and Rimas y Mas Rimas to 2 different readers of this blog!

Here is how you enter:

Go to Susy Dorn's website or listen to the song previews in the box below. Make a comment on this post telling me which song you liked. You have entered!



Want additional entries?
-Become a facebook fan of Wanna Jugar with Migo page (you must already be a part of facebook). Click on the Become a fan button on the right side bar. Come back to this post and make another comment saying you are a fan.
-Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry.
-Become a follower of this blog. Make a comment telling us that you follow our blog (even if you are already a follower)

Giveaway ends Sunday, November 8th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends Sunday, November 8th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on November 9thand the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners might lose out on products they win if they don't respond.

Animales de la Selva Lesson Plan

We have been sick for a couple of weeks. But we hope to have class next week. Here is a class we did a couple of weeks ago.


Animales de la Selva

Buenos Dias by Jose-Luis Orozco (see first lesson for explanation)
Como Te Llamas Tu tap (see first lesson for explanation)

Activity: Each child took turns drawing a stuffed animal out of the bag. I would say the names and all would repeat. They drew out un elefante, un leon, un mono y un oso.

Game: All the children covered their eyes while I hid one of the animals behind my back. Then the children opened their eyes and had to answer the question, "Cual animal no esta?" El elefante no esta. We did this multiple times.

Book/Flannel Board: Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo by by Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle
*I checked out a storytime kit from my library which came with this adorable flannel board storytelling kit from Lakeshore Learning. Check to see if your local library or one nearby lends storytelling kits :) I would pause to see if they could name the animal before me as I read the story.

Activity: I took out a barrel of monkeys (they are like $5 at walmart). The children had to help me count as I hung each monkey on top of each other. "un monito, dos monitos, etc." Of course, they loved it when one monkey would fall. After we counted to ten, I swung the monkeys so that they would fall all around the kids . Se cayeron todos los monos! The kids loved this. They helped me put them back in the barrel and we did it all over again. I think this time we even sang the song to the tune of Ten Little Indians singing:

Uno, dos, tres monitos,
cuatro, cinco, seis, monitos,
siete, ocho, nueve monitos,
diez monitos son.

*They have already sung this song with other animals and they love familiarity and repetition.

Cancion: Es Hora de Leer

Book: En un árbol, están 5 monitos by Eileen Christelow

I changed the words slightly when they got to the crocodile part and I actually sang it like this song.

Song: Cinco Monitos Columpiandose en un Arbol
(I don't own the song, just heard it and sang it myself.)
After we read the book, I brought out a glove (again from the library storytime kit, but you could easily make one) The glove had 5 little monkey heads on each finger. My oldest daughter helped me cut out a tree top shape and I pasted it onto a brown paper sack. I had the sack around my arm and the glove peaking out over the tree top.

The kids sang this song with me this time (we just sang it, no music). We did this a couple of times. They loved watching the monkeys disappear with my glove puppet. Here are the words from this website:
Cinco monitos
columpiandose en un arbol,
molestatando al caiman,
"no me puedes agarrar."
Llego el caiman
muy calladito
y agarro a un monito
fuera del arbolito.
Cuatro monitos...Tres monitos...Dos monitos...Un monito...


That is just a winter glove with monkey heads hot glued on. My oldest made the cute alligator!

Book: De Paseo por la Selva by Debbie Harter. This has such a fun CD that goes with it. We love listening to it! We listened to the book/song on CD and of course they loved it!

Craft: Osos de Chocolate,
yummy for the kids (chocolate doughnuts like these are gross to me, but the bears are cute :)

Supplies:
1 Chocolate covered mini doughts (la cabeza)
2 chocolate goldfish (stick the fish tail in the doughnut and they look like orejas)
3 chocolate chips or raisins (los ojos y la nariz!)



Things we had planned, but we didn't do:
Animal Puzzle- My girls and I put together this adorable jungle themed animal puzzle. Then I took out 4 pieces that you could tell went to a certain animal (the lion's head, the elephant's feet, etc.) We were going to have each child have a puzzle piece. Then ask, "Quien tiene la cabeza del leon?" until we put the whole puzzle together.

Song: Cinco elefantes con una tela de arana. Next week I will be doing a fun craft to go along with the song.

*Please leave a comment if you sing a song, read a book or do any games or activities mentioned here! We would love it!

Little Pim Review and Giveaway

GIVEAWAY CLOSED! Winner from random.org is #12 Jessica. Congrats! I will send you an e-mail asap to get your address!

I have to say that I love how cute this little multilingual panda is! Little Pim is a well-done DVD series for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. They don't just have these in English and Spanish, they have the series in French, Italian, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese.


I love how the DVD's use full immersion. Many of you know that I am a big believer in complete immersion. There is no translation needed with all of the pictures and repetition. My girls and I enjoyed watching the first DVD Eating and Drinking in Spanish. Each clip is about 5 minutes long with video clips of children using the real objects or doing the real actions with Little Pim saying the words in Spanish. So many times children learn single words in Spanish classes, but can never put them in a sentence. I love how in this DVD, they say words and then use complete sentences. At the end of each clip, there is a quick review over the words learned. There can never be too much repetition!



The vocabulary taught in the DVD was easy for my children since we speak at home, but they still loved watching it. I would have them say the words before Little Pim said them. It was a great way to practice speaking more. This DVD is a perfect way to introduce children to Spanish or review those who are starting to learn. It definitely captivates even the youngest viewers. My 16 month old daughter almost leaped out of my lap when she saw the dogs and cats on the screen (there is a cute episode on pets in the 1st DVD). It gave me a great opportunity to talk with her in Spanish and introduce the new words.




I also tried out the Little Pim Spanish Bop CD. It has become our recent favorite. You have to listen to the samples. The girls and I have been doing a lot of dancing to it! It has classics from Jose-Luis Orozco, but also includes Cantare, Milkshake and Dan Zanes & Friends. I love the mix and highly recommend this CD. Listen to the samples here, my favorite is Son Borinqueño.

The Giveaway:

Would you like to win Little Pim DVD 1 Eating and Drinking in English or Spanish along with an adorable Little Pim plush Panda?

Here is what you have to do:

-Go here to Little Pim's homepage and sign up for the newsletter by entering your e-mail where is says Sign Up and Free Discount Coupon. Then come back to this post and make a comment letting us know you signed up for their newsletter. You get great coupons when you sign up :)

For additional entries:

- Follow Little Pim on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/little_pim then come back to this post and make another comment telling me you follow them on twitter.

-Blog about this giveaway by linking to Little Pim's website at http://www.littlepim.com/ and linking to this giveaway post on Wanna Jugar with Migo. Come back here to make an additional comment on this post with a link to your blog post.

-Become a follower of this blog. Come back to this post and make another comment telling me you follow :) You can make a comment if you are already a follower.

Giveaway ends Tuesday, October 13th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to four times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends Tuesday, October 13th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on October 14th and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners might lose out on products they win if they don't respond.

Once Gatitos

Tati acknowledged that I help her sometimes, but she is the one who does all the posting. I haven't posted any of my ideas in ages. Well, she reminded me of an idea. Everyone teaches children to count to ten in Spanish. But learning the next five numbers is more difficult. So I made up a little song to teach the numbers from once to veinte. I have the first numbers on my visual but I only sing the last half. Sing to the tune of "Ten Little Indians."

Once, doce, trece gatitos,
Catorce, quince, dieciséis gatitos,
Diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve gatitos,
Veinte gatitos son.

Then we sing it backward. This is more difficult. I always point to the numbers as we sing. This helps them learn the numbers with the words.

Veinte, diecinueve, dieciocho gatitos,
dieciciete, dieciséis, quince gatitos,
Catorce, trece, doce gatitos,
Once gatitos son.

I have another song I use to teach the numbers to 100. I will try to get Tati to post the music so you can hear the tune. The words go:

Diez y veinte son treinta.
treinta y diez son cuarenta.
Cuarenta y diez son cincuenta.
cincuenta y diez son sesenta.
Sesenta y diez son setenta.
Setenta y diez son ochenta.
Ochenta y diez son noventa.
Noventa y diez son cientos.

I usually teach older children so we also do a lot of fun counting activities. We get in a circle and count by twos going around the circle. Then we time it with a stopwatch to see if we can beat our time. Then we do the odd numbers. The other day we did odd numbers backwards from 99 to 1. That was tricky. You can count by sevens, whatever. Timing with a stopwatch makes it more exciting and competitive.

Numbers is a great time to teach them how to ask how much something costs. We do this after we have studied "school" vocabulary so I use the following pages to ask them "¿Cuánto cuesta el lápiz?" I also have some musical instruments because so many of them are cognates. I want to get into the larger numbers.

Animales: Las Mascotas

I have to mention that I love having a mom that loves Spanish teaching as much as I do. I chat with her probably every week about what I am planning to do. She always has great activities and songs to suggest. A lot of these ideas come from her! Thanks, mom!

Well, I am a week behind. This is what we did last Thursday, not this morning :)

Welcome Song: Buenos Dias
Como te llamas?

Song: Los Patitos Van al Agua (the only recording I could find is not a good recording, she even says she has a sore throat. She sings other verses and leaves out the tralala at the end You can find it here.)
Los patitos van al agua, tienen ganas de nadar
En hiladas bien formadas, todos pueden caminar
tralala tralala tralalalalalala

After I sang it two times with the flannel board from last week. I had the children act like ducks and get in a line following me as the mother duck and quacking a lot :)

Book: Ven, Gatita, Ven! by Pat Mora

Activity: The children closed there eyes while I hid a stuffed animal cat. Then they took turns hiding it. The children had to say "Donde esta la gatita?" Ella encontro la gatita! as we played.

Activity: We did a simple game of charades. A children drew a picture of an animal and had to act it out while the other children guessed which animal he/she was.

Song: I passed out 10 little dog cut-outs. We sang Diez perritos to the tune of 10 Little Indians.

Uno, Dos, Tres perritos.
Cuatro, Cinco, Seis perritos,
siete ocho, nueve perritos,
diez perritos son.

Song: Soy su amiguito- this is a great song. I took a little video of my girls singing it and I also have visuals. We'll see if I have time to post them.

Book: Corre, Perro, Corre! by P.D. Eastman I skipped half of the book! I read the beginning and then when the dogs go to bed and then go to the party in the tree. I knew the children wouldn't last as long as the book. They loved the book!

Craft: We created a spin-the-animal for the kids to play at home. They have to ask Que dice el pato? every time they spin the animal.

Spin the Animal

Immersion Class: Los Animales de la Granja

Welcome song: Buenos Dias
Names: Como te Llamas tap

Puppet: El pato? Que dice? Guau, guau? No, los perros dicen gua, guau, guau. Dicen miau, miau? No, los gatos dicen miau, miau. All the kids have to ask, Que dice el pato? so that the duck can quack

Flannel Board Story- Tres patitos
Tres patitos salieron a pasear sobre las montañas, muy lejos
Mama pata dijo: "cuac, cuac, cuac"
Pero solo dos patitos volvieron con mamá.
Dos patitos salieron a pasear …
Pero solo un patito volvió con mamá.
Un patito salió a pasear…
Pero ningun patito volvio con mama.
La triste mamá pata salió a pasear …
¡Y los tres patitos regresaron con mamá!

Activity: I have a little baby chick toy that will make a chirping sound when you pet it. Each student had to say, Que dice el pollito? in order to pet the chick and listen to it say pio.

Song: Los pollitos dicen by Jose-Luis Orozco
We sang it by looking at pictures from this book's illustrations, then we sang it using basic hand movements.

Video clip: We sang the song with basic hand movements and then we watched the video here.

Activity: I gave each child a baby animal. Everyone repeated the names of the animals as I passed them out. Then, I showed them a picture of the Mommy animal and the child that had the baby had to come up. Lots of repeating the animal names.

Book: Sali de Paseo by Sue Williams

Activity: We acted like dogs, cats and ducks after I showed them those pictures:)

Video clip: I showed a short clip to introduce el burro from Los Animales Whistlefritz DVD.

Song: Vengan a ver mi granja by Jose-Luis Orozco. Each student had an animal in the song on a popsicle stick. They had to hold it up when their animal was sung.

Book: La vaca que decía oink

Craft: They colored, cut out and attached yarn to make a pig mask. They could either oink or moo when they were pigs (like the book!)

*I attached all my visuals for the class in a PDF for you to print easily! First page is the pig mask craft. Mommy and Baby animals are pages 2 & 4. Page 5 has pictures for the Tres Patitos feltboard story. Pages 6 & 7 are visuals to cut and put on popsicle sticks to give to the children while singing Vengan a Ver Mi Granja.

To print- click on the title link to go directly to Scribd. Then click print on their website right above the title of my document.
granja animales

Wonderful Storytime Resource

**Remember it is the last day to enter all the giveaways!!
Boca Beth Backpack
Bilingual Fun DVD set
Spellable Puzzle
Crossword Blocks

I had to share an incredible resource I found! The Texas State library has a resource for librarians with full lesson plans for incredible bilingual storytimes with different themes. You can read the intro as to why they created this manual here.




For each theme, they list great bilingual books, fingerplays, games, activities, crafts, songs, everything!

For preschool age, they have storytimes about:
Exploring El Mercado
Quíquiri-Mú / Cockadoodle-Moo
Sapos cachones y ranas saltonas / Horny Toads and Jumping Frogs

For toddlers, they have storytimes about:
Hats Around the World
Los Animales
Volando sobre Texas / Through Texas with Wings
Texas quiere decir: amigos / Texas Means Friends
Craft Patterns

Programs for families include:
Cuentos de Animales / Animal Stories
Exploring Our Festivities and Fiestas
¡Es hora de festejar! / Fiesta Time!
Nuestras familias / Our Families
Las estrellas resplandecen sobre Texas / Stars Shine Bright in Texas
¡Aventúrate! Vamos al Oeste / Be Adventurous: Hitch a Ride to West Texas

WOW!!! Check it out!

I love reading all the fingerplays. They have pictures that they use for flannel board stories. Don't have a flannel board or figurines? I like to print mine on card stock and attach a little magnet piece to them and then use a magnetic mini white board. Or if you have a simple felt board (just a board with felt on it!) you can hot glue a little felt on printed out papers and then stick papers on the felt board. Make sense?

Teachers and parents can use these with their children so easily. It is all right there! I will definitely be looking here for ideas for my immersion class!

Ingenio Toys Giveaway Part 2!

***Giveaway closed. Winner from random.org is #11: simone/ thebubbledies said...
I like the Alphabet Learning Cards. Thanks! thebubbledies(at)gmail(dot)com
September 18, 2009 3:37 PM

Ingenio wants to give away another toy! Did I mention they have incredible bilingual toys for affordable prices? Now I think that it is a rarity.

But first let me finish reviewing the wonderful toys we received. We also received a large animal puzzle with the animals' names in English and Spanish. In all honesty, I didn't think that it would be the best tool for teaching, but I was wrong. It provided me with an opportunity to speak in Spanish as we put the puzzle together (Donde esta el leon, donde esta la cabeza del leon, etc.) As she gets older and can read, I know it will make a difference to have games and puzzles that are actually written in Spanish. I think that she will value Spanish more knowing that there are games and puzzles in Spanish and not just in English.

The opposite learning cards we received are not your normal flash cards. They are magic motion cards, so depending on how you look at the cards, they flip between opposites like day and night. What a fun way to review opposite vocabulary.

Now for the product you could win. The Cross Word Blocks game is definitely on my wish list! What an incredible teaching tool! It has blocks with letters and then has a picture that needs to be spelled. It comes with 20 bilingual blocks and 6 English and 6 Spanish crossword puzzles. I'm trying to introduce Spanish letter sounds to my oldest daughter and this would be so fun!



Want to win Crossword Blocks?

How to Enter:

Go here to Ingenio's website and look at their products. Come back to this post and make a comment telling us another toy that interests you (other than Crossword Blocks). You're done, unless you want a better chance of winning....

Additional Entries:
-Grab the banner for this week's giveaway's Learning Spanish Together here. Post the banner on your blog with a link to http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/. Come back and make 2 more comments, yes this is 2 more entries.

-Become a Follower of the this blog by clicking on "Follow" on the right side bar. Come back and more 2 more comments, yes, this is 2 more entries. If you are already a follower, make sure to make 2 more comments :)

Giveaway ends Sunday, September 20th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Want more giveaways?

Head on over to http://www.spanglishbabyfinds.com/ to enter a contest for a Dancing Dora Doll. Dancing and speaking in Spanish- what could be more fun than that? They are also giving away a Little Pim DVD set and CD! Wow!

Ingenio Bilingual Toys Giveaway

*****Giveaway closed. Winner from random.org is #4 Diane said...
My boys love puzzles! This would be a great activity to get them speaking Spanish. Animals puzzle is really cute, & I always love maps.
September 17, 2009 9:36 PM

Sorry for the later post. I had to teach my immersion Spanish class this morning (I'll post the lesson plan when i get a chance).

It felt like it was Christmas when I received a big package from Ingenio filled with bilingual toys for my kids to review. I knew I would love toys that teach Spanish and English, but would they? The ultimate test as to whether a toy really teaches is having the kids play with it. My kids loved the toys!

Ingenio is a great new company that is "the first bilingual educational toys and games brand in the USA. Every Ingenio product is designed to be bilingual, innovative and fun." How fun is that! I love bilingual toys and now there is a website where all the toys, games and puzzles are bilingual.

We received a Smart Projector that projects pages for the children to trace. All you do it put a paper under and turn on the light (so easy to use!). It teaches how to write all the letters and numbers. My daughter loves coloring the 24 animals and then the animals names' are written out in English and Spanish. She loves tracing now!! This is such a creative product. It's my favorite!

Ingenio wants to give one of their toys to someone reading this blog! Spellable is a unique product where children can spell 3 letter words in English and Spanish. What a great way to learn sounds in Spanish and English!



Want to win a Spellable puzzle?

How to Enter:
Go here to Ingenio's website and look at their products. Come back to this post and make a comment telling us another toy that interests you (other than Spellable). You're done, unless you want a better chance of winning....

Additional Entries:
-Grab the banner for this week's giveaway's Learning Spanish Together here. Post the banner on your blog with a link to http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/. Come back and make 2 more comments, yes this is 2 more entries.

-Become a Follower of the this blog by clicking on "Follow" on the right side bar. Come back and more 2 more comments, yes, this is 2 more entries. If you are already a follower, make sure to make 2 more comments :)

Giveaway ends Sunday, September 20th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Come back each day this week for reviews and giveaways!

Bilingual Fun Giveaway

****Giveaway Closed. Winners from random.org are
#13 Bunsy said... I posted the banner, and am posting it again.
#27 Cristina said... I follow this blog, it's so much fun!


I'm glad I can have this week to do giveaways that anyone and everyone can enjoy! I focus so much on complete immersion, but I hope all parents will let their children learn some Spanish, even it is just a few words.

Today's giveaway is Bilingual Fun's DVD series Spanish for Children. Mark and Jennifer Manriquez Jen created the Bilingual Fun company. They not only have classes in Michigan, but have created an award winning DVD series Spanish for Children. It received the 2008 Preferred choice award for Creative Child Magazine.

I was able to review both DVD's. What cute teaching videos! I learned great activities, songs and games that I would love to use in my class and with my children. They alternate between showing a classroom setting with children and real-life pictures and videos of the vocabulary taught. I love how they ask children questions and they have to respond. Volume 2 even includes a practice quiz to see if your children can remember the words they learned. English and Spanish are used throughout to make this a very comfortable way to introduce Spanish to children.

My favorite song was using 1, 2, 3 Chocolate to practice counting. My children love singing that song. Mark Manriquez plays the guitar during the singing. My favorite activity was how they taught colors and fruit. They had the children sort the fruit by their color by putting them in colored bowls. Parents can do the easy activities with their children.

Lastly, I have to mention, Maestra Jen has a blog and I love reading her ideas and games she uses as she raising her children bilingually.


Maestra Jen will be giving away 2 award-winning DVD sets. 2 people will receive the DVD set of both volume 1 and 2.



Volume 1 includes:
Los Colores (colors)
Los Numeros (numbers)
Los Animales (animals)

Volume 2 includes:
Los Saludos (greetings)
El Cuerpo (Body parts)
La Comida (food)

How to Enter:
Leave a comment on this post telling us why you want your child to learn Spanish.



Additional Entries:
-Grab the banner for this week's giveaway's Learning Spanish Together here. Post the banner on your blog with a link to http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/. Come back and make 2 more comments.

-Become a Follower of the this blog by clicking on "Follow" on the right side bar. Come back and more 2 more comments.

Giveaway ends Sunday, September 20th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Come back each day this week for reviews and giveaways!

Giveaway: Boca Beth

****Giveaway Closed. Winner from random.org: simone/ thebubbledies said...
My fav is the Me Gusta Contar / I Like to Count. I love this CD! Thanks! thebubbledies(at)gmail(dot)com


Hi everyone! Make sure to enter Whistlefritz Spanish Immersion DVD's. Today is the last day to enter.

I'm excited to offer a lot of giveaways this week! We're going to start it off with a giveaway from Boca Beth.

Boca Beth sent us First Songs in Spanish and music videos now seen on the Education Channel in Tampa, Florida. The music is very catchy and easy to memorize. Every word or phrase is paired with the English equivalent. This helps parents that don't know the language understand and learn along with their children. My children loved playing with the mini maracas and I love using puppets that only speak and understand Spanish!

Boca Beth has generously offered to give away a child-sized backpack full of fun!

It includes:

-Our first music CD My First Songs in Spanish
-Our recently revised DVD I Like Animals
-BOCA the lovable puppet
-Our bilingual coloring/activity book with more than 40 pages of Spanish & English fun
-A How To Guide for second language instruction
-Spanish fun learning for kids all conveniently packaged inside our Boca Beth see-thru vinyl child-sized backpack

What a fun way for children to be introduced to Spanish! They will love having their own backpack with Spanish toys, music and videos. This backpack is on sale for $49.99 right now. Even if your child speaks Spanish fluently, this would be a great gift to friends that want to learn.

It's wonderful to meet educators who love the Spanish language and want to share it with children. Boca Beth recently read a story on Cody's Cuentos called El Sandwich de Carla. My kids loved listening to this story and her wonderful Spanish accent. If you sign up for her newsletter you will get tips on teaching your children languages, games and activities.

How to enter:

Go here to listen to My First Songs in Spanish CD. Come back to this post and tell us your favorite song that you listened to.

Additional Entries:

-Grab the banner for this week's giveaway's Learning Spanish Together here. Post the banner on your blog with a link to http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/. Come back and make 2 more comments.

-Become a Follower of the this blog by clicking on "Follow" on the right side bar. Come back and more 2 more comments.

Giveaway ends Sunday, September 20th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Come back each day this week for reviews and giveaways!

Immersion Class: La Ropa

Greeting: (see other days for links or explanation)

Buenos Dias
Como te llamas tu

Song: Cabeza, cara, hombres, pies (link on past entry)

Puppet: Carlos el Caballo Puppet comes out and wants to put on socks. He first wants to put them on his ears, then his nose and finally his feet. I ask the children after putting them on each part if that is where they should put them. We count each sock together as I put them on his feet (un calcetin, dos calcetines, etc.)

Video Clip: I showed a 2 minute video clip from Whistlefritz Vamos a Jugar video. It is an adorable clip of Maria trying to decide what to put on her head. She puts pants, a sock, a skirt and then finally a hat on her head. Lots of repetition and little kids think it is so funny!

Song: Así nos ponemos.. (to the tune of This is the way we..)

I took each piece of clothing out of a bag, said it's name and then we would pretend we were putting it on as we sang.

Así nos ponemos los pantalones, los pantalones, los pantalones…

Así nos ponemos los pantalones, todas las mañanas
-la camiseta
-la chaqueta
-los calcetines
-los zapatos

Activity: Clothes Line with clothes on them
As I hung up each piece of clothing, all the children repeated its name. Then I asked each child to run and get me each piece. Then we would say, "Jack (name of the child) quito la camiseta" together.

Cancion: Quiero mis botas donde estan? A cute song from Lango Kids about a person looking for their clothes and they are actually already on them.

Reading song: Es hora de leer
Libro: Azul el sombrero, Verde el Sombrero By: Sandra Boynton

Game: All the children closed their eyes while I hid pictures of clothes around the room. Then I asked each child to find a piece each time. After they found it, we would all say "Jack encontro la camiseta" all together.

Song: Si llevas....To the tune of If you're Happy and You Know It.

We would see who is wearing a shirt and then sing.

Si Llevas camiseta, saltaras. Si Llevas camiseta, saltaras.

Si Llevas camiseta, que divertido es! Si Llevas camiseta, saltaras.

Then we would see who is wearing pants, a dress, shoes, etc. and then sing a new verse.

Reading song: Es hora de leer

Book: Juguemos en el bosque By: Claudia Rueda. Easy to translate especially since it is a traditional game in Latin America
I wrote a post about this and other possible activities here.

Craft: Dora and Diego paper dolls

Immersion Class: Parts of the Body Part 2

We continued learning vocabulary of parts of the body on Thursday's class.

To answer a few questions that were asked in the comments:

I charge for the classes (although I offer a free trial class for anyone that wants to try it out)

Each week there has been a different number of students. Only 3 students have officially signed up for the classes, but my classes have ranged from 4-9 children in the classes. I have my two older girls in the classes as well. I hope to get more committed students if I decide to continue in the Fall. I have advertised in the Spanish speaking moms group that I am a part of. Another homeschooler that is part of my church also has her daughter in the class. I use so many different resources. If you didn't notice my hobby is finding all the music, DVD's and activities to teach my kids Spanish. I have written about products (CD's and DVD's) I use in the past.

**I like using lots of repetition. A lot of the activities are the same as last week or build on each other. This way the children feel comfortable with what they have learned and really learn it :)

Parts of the Body Part 2

Song: Buenos Dias by Jose-Luis Orozco

Game: Como te llamas? This is a good way to introduce everyone if there are new faces :) We patted our laps 2 times, clapped our hands 2 times and repeated again and again to keep in rhythm. We would say to the beat Como te llamas tu? and each child would say Yo me Llamo... (or I would say it with them) to the beat.

Puppet: La tortuga came out. I had him sleeping and all the children had to yell "Despiertate" so he would wake up. It took them 3 times to tell him to wake up before he actually woke up :).

Then he asked for their help in finding the parts of his body. The children showed him where ojos, boca, cabeza and manos are. They all touched their eyes and then one child got to touch the tortuga's eyes.

Song: Cabeza, cara hombros pies (I love this version because there are only 4 parts of the body they need to know.) We sang this song only 3 times. Each time the kids picked a card that would have a different way to sing it (sad, happy, loud, soft)

Activity: Senor papa comes out again. They gave him a face by pulling things out of the bag. Then we played a game where all the children closed their eyes and I took one part of the face away. They all opened their eyes and they had to answer. Que le falta al senor papa?

Fingerplay: Saco una manito, la hago bailar, la cierro, la abro, y la vuelvo a guardar.

Song: El Baile de Las Manos

Game: Bingo! I made the exact same bingo sheets with the same 8 parts of the body, but I just switched which square the pictures were in. I called out each picture and before they could put a cheerio on their picture, they had to say the word. Then after it was finished, they got to eat their nine cheerios!

Song: Los Ninos Cuando Bailan. I love the Whistlefritz A Bailar CD. It's very fun like Jose-Luis Orozco.

Reading Song: We always sing a little song I made up before we read our stories. It is magical, they are so quiet! I will have to record it sometime.

Book: Donde esta el ombliguito por Karen Katz

Activity: I brought out a sleeping baby doll. They had to touch the different parts of the body that were told in the story.

Craft: I bought butcher paper from Lakeshore Learning. The children each laid down on the big sheets and the moms outlined them. They then had to color their ojos, nariz, pelo, etc. Even if the drawings ended up looking like monsters, they loved it :)

I hope you will use these ideas in your classrooms and homes! I am also giving my student's moms a link to this so they can practice fingerplays or activities with their children at home.

Immersion Class: Parts of the Body

I have started an immersion Spanish class for 2-5 year olds. I am having a lot of fun with it. Some of the children are native speakers and some know just a little Spanish.

The reasons I am enjoying teaching the class:
*My kids get so excited about having the class with their friends
*They get to practice doing the class with me, reading the books and singing the songs throughout the week.
*I get to do one of my favorite things- teach!

Challenges:
*Getting people to commit with busy schedules
*Trying to figure out class times and what ages I should have in classes.

Here is what we did today:
Song: Buenos Dias by Jose-Luis Orozco

Game: Como te llamas? We patted our laps 2 times, clapped our hands 2 times and repeated again and again to keep in rhythm. We would say to the beat Como te llamas tu? and each child would say Yo me Llamo... (or I would sing it with them).

Puppet: The puppet comes out and asks everyone their names. I have been making some interesting voices lately :)

Song: Cabeza, cara hombros pies (I love this version because there are only 4 parts of the body they need to know.) We sang this song about 4 times. Each time the kids picked a card that would have a different way to sing it (sad, happy, loud, soft) Repetition is so important and kids really love it (even if it gets old for adults). By the end, the kids that didn't speak Spanish could sing the song. Here's the recording.

Fingerplay: De la cabeza a los pies from Ana Lomba

Activity: Senor papa no tiene una cara. Each child got something out of the bag for Mr. Potato Head (eyes, nose, etc.)

Activity: Cuantos narizes hay? We counted how many noses of children there were in the room. I took out some magnetic numbers and put them on a little white/magnetic board with a picture of the noses. We did the same with eyes, ears and mouths :)

Song: Baila, Baila con tu cuerpo by Lango Kids They make a CD, but you have to buy it through mail with one of their teachers.

Book: De La Cabeza a Los Pies por Eric Carle

Craft: We made faces with English muffin with peanut butter. Raisins for eyes, banana slice for nose, apple slice for mouth, half grapes for ears and licorice for hair :) The result: una carita de mono

Let me know if you find this useful! You can do this at home with just your own kids!

Online Spanish Games!

There are some cute games and programs out there for young children that cost money, like Foreign Language Friends. I always want games that are age appropriate for my children that don't require Spanish reading skills. Most games for teaching Spanish do require reading because Spanish is usually taught when children are older.

But I found some great games that repeat words and phrases and are perfect for my kids.
Did I mention they are free? They came from one of my favorite blogs from Spain(http://www.marife.wordpress.com/) You have to check them out!

They are created by la Junta de Castilla y León. They have juegos infantiles you can find here. There are games for body parts, musical instruments, cleaning the forest, letters and seasons. The Juega y Aprenda birdhouse games would not work on my computer. Did they work on yours? Here is a screen shot of the page. You can click the image to go to the site :)

La Junta de Castilla y Leon comes out with new games each summer. This summer has not yet come. Some of the games did not work on my computer, but click here or the image below to play some of the summer games.

If you go to the website above and then click on the Juega y Aprenda button, then click Aprende Jugando button. It will then take you to the screen shown below (there is no direct link to these games). They were some of our favorite games.

Enjoy!