Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Foreign Language-Spanish

I wanted to put together a list of free resources for teaching Spanish. There are a lot of links out there that lead nowhere (or to things that just don't click with me). These are things I've found interesting.

Printable Spanish Lessons/Worksheets (These look really good. I'm loving the variety. Not just the everyday numbers/colors. Includes some verb pages.)
Alphabet Coloring Pages (for the younger crowd. I like that they include an animal in spanish on each page.)
Spanish for Kids (some nice nursery rhymes to teach--also has other resources that I haven't checked out yet)
Enchanted Learning (a plethora of labeling worksheets--I don't use these too much but I may print out the ship ones for Pooh--one of his favorite subjects)
Online Free Spanish(A very useful tool! I just checked this out and I think it's great. It has audio with pictures. For instance, the one for How Is He Feeling? shows the different feelings with the word heard and read both quickly and slowly--then! they use it in a sentence like "Estoy cansado." Brilliant and free!) And here is the main page with other resources.
123 Teach Me (Beginning vocabulary categorized and spoken clearly in spanish.)

I have several other resources of my own. What I'm having trouble with is pulling it all together. How to do simple 5-10 minute sessions with the boys of things that they'll remember. I have a book that they enjoyed last year called La Tortuga Azul. It's a very pre-k type book but I tried using it to teach them some words. They can remember a word or two while we're doing it, but then forget the words once in a different situation or even from one day to the next. We also tried doing simple greetings such as "Me llamo _______." or "Como estas?" (I don't know how to show the accent marks on here.) We can practice it 3 times in a row and they forget one minute to the next.

I'm not sure if it's just lack of interest on their part or if there is something else that I could be doing. They do like these old spanish comedy shows we have on dvd about the comedian Cantinflas. Evidently, he was/is very popular in the spanish community. They have tried imitating several of the things they've heard on those dvd's. These are very silly, slapstick type humor. Fluff if you will. My Latin King loves it! LOL They learned how to say great, great, great, great, great grandfather from one of those dvd's. ;D Tigger was in here a little while ago telling me a word for thief (verifying it) that I'd never heard before. I told him to go ask Dad. (after asking dad-this was a slang way of saying thief (ratero) as opposed to the formal way I learned (ladron)).

Here is my list of books/resources that I have and yes, I know I have a lot:

Eres mi mama? P.D. Eastman board book
Pesca! Go Fish game cards
The Everything Spanish Phrase Book
Spanish on the Move for Kids-22 bilingual songs cd and booklet
El Patito Feo-2 versions-abridged
Salta y Sube by Alan Rogers
La Tortuga Azul by Alan Rogers
Corre, perro, corre -P.D. Eastman
El Sol y la Lluvia del Amazonas by Ximena de la Piedra
Yo tenia un hipopotomo by Hector Viveros Lee
Let's Sing and Learn in Spanish by Neraida Smith (very good songs)
El Canguru tiene mama? by Eric Carle
Hay un molillo en mi bolsillo! Dr Seuss
Hola, Hombre Mosca by Tedd Arnold
Ivasores Extraterrestres Lynn Huggins Cooper
Schaum's Foreign Language Course-Communicating in Spanish-Elementary Level
De Colores & Other Latin-American Folk Songs for children by Jose Luis Orozco (just a book of tunes which means I have to try to plunk away on the keyboard to see if I can figure out the tune. sigh)
Los Viajeritos Venturosos (book from 1957)
Huevos verdes con jamon Dr Seuss
Manana, Iguana by Ann Whitford Paul
Bizcocho by Alyssa Satin Capucilli
Buenas Noches a Todos
La Mochila de Dora
Let's Speak Spanish-A first book of words
El Alfabeto
La gallanita roja
Chubby Books: Que color?; Vamos a comer; Vamos a jugar
Del uno al diez, cuenta otra vez board book
Spanish Vocab cards from VisEd--my grandmother owned these
Say Hola to Spanish by Susan Middleton Elya
Twin Sisters Spanish Activity book and cd
Two different translation dictionaries

So, ya know, I daresay I have enough to start. It's just knowing the best way to go about it so that they actually remember something. FYI--Several of these books I picked up recently at a Scholastic Warehouse Sale. A good resource if you have one close by.

I did have a bit of success with one book we worked on today. It's about numbers. The "Del uno al diez, cuenta otra vez" one. They were able to remember some of the numbers and a couple of the words that went with the numbers. For instance: dos changuitos and diez barquitos. I had them 'narrate' to dad when he got home. Pooh remembered how to say penguin (pinguinos). So maybe that's my answer--narrate to dad when he gets home.

Any other suggestions? Things you've tried that work? I really like free stuff. Especially since both parents know enough here to get by (well, the Latin King more than gets by LOL). Eventually, I'll need some type of course so I can teach proper sentence structure in Spanish (I wing it mainly. I learned 'on the fly' more than with books.) For now, however, I just need good, short ideas for two rambunctious boys who don't always want to learn it but are happy when they know a word. :D

3 comments:

Mrs. Darling said...

I would love to teach Tink spanish but alas, she cant even talk english!

live4evermom said...

We will be learning about Mexico this year and thought of Cantinflas movies. I remember laughing at them when I was growing up.

walking said...

I love the Online Free Spanish! I think Pamela would love this, and, if she stims off it, she might even pick up some Spanish!