It has been a wonderful week sharing summer camp activities along with Julie of Mundo de Pepita. As a last activity to end our sharing, I propose making an origami boat, but first I suggest you teach this repetitive traditional song called “El barquito chiquitico.” There are different versions on YouTube, but this one is short and the animation is fun!
Había una vez un barquito chiquitico Había una vez un barquito chiquitico, Que no podía, que no podía, Que no podía navegar. Pasaron una, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete semanas,
Pasaron una, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete semanas.
Y si esta historia no les parece larga,
Y si esta historia no les parece larga,la volveremos, la volveremos a empezar.
Done singing? Time to make the “barquitos de papel” with your students. This is an opportunity to talk about colors and sizes. The video tutorial below will show you how to make the paper boats step by step.
This is a fun game that is played in many Latin American countries. It’s simple, fun, and doesn’t require much preparation. There are different versions of this game. I am sharing with you the one I remember playing with my friends in a (then) small neighborhood outside of Cali, Colombia. You will need a minimum of six participants to play the game. Each team will have three participants. One person is placed in the middle in a squatting position, grasping their hands between their legs. The two other members of the team have to pretend to prepare el “sancocho,” which is a traditional soup in Latin America. They have to pretend they are adding the ingredients to the bowl while saying the lines below:
Para preparar el sancocho, pongo el pollo, pongo la yuca, pongo la papa, pongo la mazorca, lo pongo al fuego.
¡El sancocho ya está listo!
When everyone is done making the sancocho together, the game turns into a competition. You will need to set a finish line for everyone to get to. The team who makes it to the finish line first wins the game. You can continue playing until everyone gets tired of it. I recommend playing the game on a field with grass so nobody gets hurt.
This is a video of a Scout Troop playing a version of “las ollitas” game.
Variation: You can use visuals for the students to use while playing the game.
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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WELCOME
¡Hola! I'm Carolina, a Colombian Spanish teacher with over 20 years of experience. I'm here to support you on your journey as a language educator!
