Resources for Spanish Class {Facebook Corner}

Conversaciones de maestros en nuestra página de Facebook 

Sandra says:

“This is a crazy question but I am teaching Spanish to kids on a grant and they are asking us to spend the money that is left over which is a lot of money. I want ideas of great resources that I can us or any ideas of things I should get?”

Vero :Spanish books and movies in Spanish, and any other kind of audivisualmaterial that you can get

Joe: Buy a subscription to ESL Library. It has fantastic images and labels in Spanish. This is one of the few things I’d buy even with my own money.

Sandra: Can you write the link for ESL library?

Joe: Reading A-Z has leveled readers that you download and print. They are excellent. My heritage Spanish-speakers and their families love them too.

Marisol: Check out rockalingua.com


Mary: Grab a teacher’s discovery and go to town! Puppets are also a great investment. Lakeshore Learning Store has a great selection with a variety of races, genders and even disabilities. They also have excellent play food that will last forever. Investing in cardstock and laminating can be a great way to save materials for future years. If you do any TPRS, the Hola Niñoscurriculum is great. Enjoy!

Simone: What age are the kids? Check out the picture book collections from sonrisas spanishschool. Also, the teachers discovery website/catalog. If someone will continue to teach, look at the blaine ray tprscurricular materials. If there is technology access in the school, check out Qtalkmaterials for computer and interactive white board, or they have magnet tile version for low tech/ no tech settings.

Fun for Early and Elementary Spanish Teachers:  Do you have a Ten Thousand Villages store close to you? They have very nice crafts from all over the world. I have a few things from there in my classroom. http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/wool-baby-vicuna

Janet: I use the Sonrisascurriculum for my K-5 students and they sell four story book sets that are excellent for elementary grade levels https://sonrisasspanishschool.com/

Marlo: Technology! Books! Manipulatives!

Erzsi: Buy dictionaries, a good scheme of work if you haven’t got one, laminating pouches, ink for your printer, an ipad….how much money have you got:-)?

PepaMaria: DVDs! they love them! you can get for preschool-1st and 2nd conoce los colores, conoce los numeros, conoce las letras, rosie and andy. For 3rd-6th you can get the “Spanish for kids” collection, volumes 1 and 2 are awesome, you can find them on amazon or carlexonline. Another great dvd is from “Calico Spanish” they have great songs and videos for kids. You can also get some storybooks from lakeshore learning, they have great story books to learn the alphabet and some other stories for 1st and 2nd graders. Music helps a lot too, get “Basho and friends” volume 1 and 2, he has some AWESOME music! As mentioned before, puppets are a great investment, I got mines from Amazon, manufactured by “Aurora”, those puppets are my best friends! Also, get ipads! Depending on how many students you have, try to get at least 1 per 3 students (not sure how much $$ you can spend, but this would be awesome!). Also, download some of the apps that were mentioned here before (bilingual child, busuu spanish, gus on the go… among others). ALSO, invest on a “treasure box” for kids who do a good job, this has worked like a charm in my class, I let them pick an item from the treasure box once a month if they did a good job during the whole month. You can check orientaltrading.com for some good/inexpensive prizes….

Angela: Get Linguascope….. Great website for languages…. And get de CDs and books of Patti Lozano… Enjoy!

Michelle : Send home bilingual books with text in both languages. Or pairs (for example the same Junie B or Magic Treehouse book in both Spanish and English). Spread the wealth and give kids a way to delight in their language learning at home!

Music With Sara: Rockalingua!

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Favorite Music for Spanish Class


I remember ten years ago it was so difficult to find good music to teach Spanish to children, especially at the elementary level. I am so glad that talented teachers have created new music to enrich our classes. Here is a list of my favorite singers in random order:












11. Sonrisas 




14. This space is reserved for Shakira and Pitt Bull when they write their first song collection for teaching Spanish to kids!


Happy singing!

Warm-Up Activities for Spanish Class {Facebook Corner}

Conversaciones de maestros en nuestra página de Facebook 

I am always impressed by how the teaching community loves to share their ideas and materials. I decided to create a space on my blog where I  keep track of some of the most popular “conversations” on my Facebook page.


This group of teachers was sharing ideas for warm-up activities at the beginning of the class. 


Dianis says:
“What kind of warm-up activities do you use in your classes? I use the calendar, but my students look bored. I teach K-5. Thanks for your help!”

Kristina: We song a buenos Dias song and sing a weather song b4 picking the weather for the day. I vary the way we sing so they don’t get bored- girls vs boys, loud then soft etc.

Lisa:  Following

Kristina: *sing

Elizabeth: I do the calendario every day since my 5th graders read the date over the PA system for morning announcements, they have to practice!

Caitlin: We sometimes pass a ball around and ask each other questions, such as ¿Cómo estás?/¿Cómo te llamas?/¿C´mo es tu familia? and questions based on what we are doing at that time. Or I will pass around an object (a plastic food during the food unit) and they have to say something about it in Spanish. They also love counting while stretching and exercising. Also I use a smartboard for daily routines, in gr 2-4 students come up and have to ask the class about the calendar, weather and their feelings, students respond by clapping or raising their hand (whatever the student leader tells them in Spanish). They enjoy this! But always looking for new ideas too.

Ellen:  I make one student the weather person. They hold pictures of different types of weather, and they ask the class “Hace frio hoy” Hay niebla hoy?

Ellen: The class has to answer.

Nathan: Use the Thumball.

Joe:I use these songs for warm-ups in the lower grades, K-2.

Pam: Following too.

Brittany:  I draw a circle or square on the dry erase board. For the I’ll say como estas hoy and someone will come up and illustrate their emotion and the class will guess. The square is either a window and we say como esta el tiempo ? A student draws a weather scene and classmates guess. We’ve done it for clothing, seasons, etc they love illustrating and having friends guess. Eventually they can identify 5-10 items in a detailed seasonal picture.

Caroline: I have a warm-up smartboard lesson that my students love. It has the Buenos Dias and Hola amigo song, calendar activity with Cuenta song, meses with Macarena song, weather and other songs and dances. I can email you the lesson if you’d like. I also use commands, such as hands up, hands down, move them fast, slow. Jump 5 times, sit down, stand up, etc.

Sarah: I do 3-4 brain-friendly activities to get them in the zone for class. All of my classes come after they just had lunch and recess.
While they are standing up:
1. El espejo – move your hands around slowly and have students mirror you. I usually like to do something silly like a mime-box or the macarena to keep them entertained. Or let a student lead, but then everybody wants a turn
2. Countdown stretches – We throw our hands up in the air and say diez. Then we “count down” while touching various body parts (nueve-top of head, ocho- sides of face, siete- shoulders, seis- hands on heart, cinco- hands on hips, cuatro- hands on thighs, tres- hands on knees, dos- hands on shins, uno- hands on toes, cero- hands on the floor.) Then we count back up. I may throw in a couple other stretches too afterwards like stretching to the sides (izquierda, derecha), etc.
3. Partner talk greetings – Turn to someone near you and say “hola!” shake their hand and say “buenas tardes” ask them “¿cómo estás?” give them a thumbs up and say “muy bien” wave “adiós”. They are just repeating but eventually I will build in the conversation skills of taking turns, looking each other in the eye, waiting to hear the answer, listening closely, and hopefully they will eventually actually have the conversation on their own with out repeating.
4. Rhythm patterns, clapping, a song, etc.

Simone: Strangely, my young students really enjoy pantomiming the classroom rules:
1.Yo levanto la mano para hablar.
2.Yo escucho cuando la maestra habla.
3.Yo sigo direcciones rapidamente.
4.Yo no hablo inglés durante los cuentos.
5. Las manos y los pies están quietos.

Cecilia: @ joe. I like the screener deal I’m going to try it out what a great resource. More practical than what I was doing.

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Fun For Spanish Teachers


Bilingual Blog Hop!

I am so happy to be part of this amazing blog hop! Some of the most awesome teacher have teamed up to make this happen.

Make sure to mark your calendars!

See you soon!
Carolina