Summer in Spanish: Bubble Time!



Last year, Julie from Mundo de Pepita shared some ideas for summer camps. We decided to keep the tradition alive and here is my first sharing.

Bubbles are always fun to add to your summer camp! It’s a great opportunity to learn some opposite words such as sube, baja, grande and pequeño. You can also count the bubbles while popping them. I was able to find *bubbles that stick for a long time so it allows me to play with the language. 


This song is a really great opportunity to take your class outside to play with bubbles while singing in Spanish. Introduce the word burbujas in Spanish.

Have the children call out the bubbles along with you: ¡BUUUUUURRRRRBUUUUJAS!

Play the song while children play with the bubbles.

Stop by Mundo de Pepita’s blog to read her awesome activity for summer camps in Spanish!
Happy Summer!
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Canción: El Monstruo de la Laguna

Canción: El Monstruo de la Laguna

En una de mis exploraciones por canciones en YouTube me encontré con esta joya. Es una canción divertida que enseña las partes del cuerpo a ritmo de Cumbia. Además de ser divertida, usa un ritmo tradicional, tiene mucha repetición, lo que hace que sea de uso fácil en una clase de ELE (español como lengua extranjera) para niños. No se diga más, los dejo con “El monstruo de la laguna”, interpretada por el grupo argentino “Canticuénticos”.



Al monstruo de la laguna…. 
le gusta bailar la cumbia…. 
Se empieza a mover seguro 
de a poquito y sin apuro. 
 
El monstruo de la laguna 
empieza a mover la panza, 
para un lado y para el otro, 
parece una calabaza. 
 
Mueve la panza….. 
pero no le alcanza.
 
El monstruo de la laguna 
empieza a mover las manos, 
para un lado y para el otro 
como si fueran gusanos. 
 
Mueve las manos, 
mueve la panza….. 
pero no le alcanza.
 
El monstruo de la laguna 
empieza a mover los hombros, 
para un lado y para el otro 
poniendo cara de asombro. 
 
Mueve los hombros, 
mueve las manos, 
mueve la panza…
pero no le alcanza.
 
El monstruo de la laguna 
empieza con la cadera. 
Para un lado y para el otro 
pesado se bambolea. 
 
Mueve la cadera, 
mueve los hombros, 
mueve las manos, 
mueve la panza…
pero no le alcanza.
 
El monstruo de la laguna 
empieza a mover los pies, 
para un lado y para el otro 
del derecho y del revés. 
 
Mueve los pies, 
mueve la cadera, 
mueve los hombros, 
mueve las manos, 
mueve la panza…
pero no le alcanza.
 
El monstruo de la laguna…
se para con la cabeza… 
con las patas para arriba…
¡Mirá que broma traviesa! 
 
Mueve la cabeza, 
mueve los pies, 
mueve la cadera, 
mueve los hombros, 
mueve las manos, 
mueve la panza… 

Hasta que se cansa.


          

Using Centers in Spanish Class {Facebook Corner}


This space has been created to save all those awesome conversations happening on Fun for Spanish Teacher’s Facebook page.

Xtine says:

“Hi all! My district is moving more towards a centers based learning and I was wondering if you have any suggestions for centers for K-2 Spanish? We are currently working on numbers 1-10 and wanted to see if I could somehow incorporate centers. I have no curriculum so I’m all on my own. I have 19 classes with the class size ranging from 8-22 students. Any advice or help would be great!”

Kelly: using color sticks at one table, numbers at another, vocabulary matching at another, copying printed words in Spanish (lots of web sites for this) just a few ideas off the top of my head

 Joe: If you can get some internet-connected devices then one or two centers can provide online activities. tackk.com/colorsinspanish


Janet: Calico have some great ideas: Calico


Susan: I do centers every Friday. Some favorites are:
Candyland (say colors and count in Spanish) 
UNO cards with toss across ( they earn a bean bag to throw for every color and number they can say correctly from the UNO CARD) 
Puzzle: One center is a puzzle of the world to help them with geography. 
I usually have groups of 5 students and rotate every 5 minutes. If one of the centers was a worksheet, I let them use the rest of class to work on it so they are calm by the time their teacher picks them up. Hope this helps!

Jessica: With 2nd graders I do a conversation center, a listening center, a game center, technology center (Spanish apps on tablet generally), independent work center & one with me. I do centers with 1st grade too, though I don’t generally do conversation center with them. With kinder I do “actividades” = sort of center like with lots of games and puzzles. (example shape memory, number memory, body parts puzzle match up etc)

Diane: get some of the shape cutouts from dollar store and make matching cards. Pictures & words or just some in English and same ones in Spanish. We have table races where groups match up the pairs. Sometimes individuals match so I can assess. Other times kids play memory with the cards in small groups.

Amy: I got a number puzzle and labeled the numbers in Spanish so they can say the numbers as they take it apart. The puzzle also has a plus, minus, and equals sign, so they can use it to make math problems. I also got a fishing set with fish in different colors on one side, and numbers on the other. They can “fish” by number or by color. I also got a Zing-O game, several varieties of Bing-O games, and books they can read alone. I still don’t have much, but it’s a start!


I got some Legos and labeled them with days of the week. They have races to put the days of the week in order. A Twister game that I covered up the English with Spanish. I am currently trying to come up with some Go Fish games. I also have a “free draw” corner and some Sp-Eng dictionaries. They can put their name in a box for prize drawings if they do any writing in Spanish.


I also have a puzzle of South America, a dice game, and an emotions game. ha… I guess I have more than I realized. It still doesn’t seem like a lot of variety, though. It’s almost all vocabulary-based except for the books.


Fun for Early and Elementary Spanish TeachersHere is just one more idea: https://bit.ly/2hmWqk6


Soyla: Check out my Bilingual Pinterest boards for ideas: https://www.pinterest.com/castilloesc17/

Xtine: Thank you all for your help!!! I’m going to definitely incorporate some of your ideas!



Enjoy,

An Activity to End the School Year … and Look to the Future

A few months ago I shared an ice-breaker activity to help students warm up after returning from winter break. It turns out that this activity can also be used as one to close the school year.  It’s a great activity to get everyone moving, using the language, and talking about plans for the summer break.

This activity is set up as an interview. Students have to move around the room asking different classmates about their future plans. I usually give them five to ten minutes to complete the activity. My rules are that they need to use Spanish and need to find one person per box.

At the end of the activity, you can count and see which student got the most names. You can also graph the activities to identify the most popular summer plan.

Enjoy!