These are three simple and easy to understand stories that I have written for elementary students, although I have also been delighted to hear from middle school teachers that they have used them with their beginner classes. These stories have a lot of repetition in them.
Make sure to download the free resources that go along with them. Just click on each picture below, and it will take you to a new link to download the stories and activities.
This is a short story with a simple goal, to raise students’ awareness about the negative environmental impacts of latex, plastic, and other materials. I created a story after being inspired by another video (further below in this post) that demonstrates why releasing balloons into the air can have such terrible consequences for animals, especially birds.
In my short and comprensible story, a red balloon listens to two birds talk about how another bird died after eating a piece of a popped balloon. This makes the red balloon sad, and it wishes never to be big. Download the story to see what happens next!
Earth Day is on April 22nd, and using this story is a great way to introduce this celebration to class. You can download the story for free from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.
You might also take a look at organizations such as Greenpeace to complement the story. Greenpeace has YouTube channels for some Spanish speaking countries: Argentina, Colombia, México, Chile with many videos that are short, sweet and simple and can inspire many interesting lessons and reflection.
Here is a link to the video that I came across, made by Mexico-based Pamela Quibec, which served as inspiration for Simón el globito:
I had a lot of fun making this sock puppet book so I thought it was a good idea to share with you here the template I used. I printed the pages on stock paper, and it was easy to create. What took the longest was the puppet, but there is no science behind it.
I included in the video below a quick tutorial on how I made my puppet, but there are more elaborate ones on YouTube – just search “How to make sock puppets,” and you will get tons of results.
I included a blank template you may use to add more emotions in the book. You can also write a story about the puppet. Ready to make your book? Click HERE to download the files.
“Froggy se viste “*** – written by Jonathan London – is one of my favorite books to use during the clothing unit. I mostly use it with first and second graders, but third graders enjoy it, too. The story is engaging to young learners and the pictures are vivid. The amount of repetition is key, and the vocabulary is presented in context, making it easier for children to decode the meaning of the sentences. I always use the cover of the book as a conversation starter in class.
Here are some useful questions you could use to introduce the book.
¿Qué animal es Froggy? ¿Es un perro o un gato? ¿Es una vaca o una rana?
¿De qué color es Froggy? ¿Es de color negro? ¿Es de color morado? ¿Es de color verde?
Froggy es una rana. ¿Las ranas vuelan? ¿Las ranas saltan? ¿Las ranas vuelan o saltan?
¿Las ranas se visten? ¿Las ranas se visten con pantalones y chaquetas?
¿Cuál es la estación? ¿Es el invierno? ¿Es el verano?
I also ask questions while reading the story:
¿Qué canto Froggy? ¿¡Sol, sol!? ¿¡Nieve! ¡Nieve!?
¿Quién dijo “vuélvete a dormir, Froggy”? ¿La mamá de Froggy o el papá de Froggy?
¿Qué se puso Froggy? ( You can go over the vocabulary pointing at the pictures)
¿Quién llamó a Froggy?
¿Qué olvida ponerse Froggy esta vez?
¿Cómo se siente Froggy? ¿Triste? ¿Emocionado? ¿Cansado?
Froggy se regresó a su cama para terminar de dormir durante el invierno. ¿Cuál es la siguiente estación?
I found some cute props by Kiz Club, which are perfect to retell the story! Click on the picture to download them.
We also stretched the story a little further and a talked about the different seasons and clothes for different kinds of weather. To make it a little silly, I show pictures of different seasons and types of weather, and we pretend to be the mom calling him to dress according to the season. For example,
¡Frooooogy, hace calor, no necesitas tu chaqueta!
¡Frooooogy, está lloviendo, necesitas tu paraguas y tus botas para la lluvia!
¡Frooooogy, hace sol, necesitas tus lentes!
¡Frooooogy, es la primavera! ¿Qué te vas a poner?
And so on!
I put together a set of props that are available in my TpT shop. The children really enjoy dressing Froggy, and I also incorporated this in our calendar routine in which we dress Froggy according to the weather for the day.
Since in many of my classes my students read “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, and also to support the butterfly unit they explore in their homerooms, I came up with an adapted version which I love calling “la versión criolla” of Eric Carle’s story. This oruga decides to take a trip around Latin America and tries different traditional dishes. I used a picture of a caterpillar, a big colorful map, and pictures of the different traditional dishes and places where they originate that la oruga visited. Children had fun learning about the different dishes, and it was also an opportunity to learn about geography and the butterfly life cycle in Spanish!
La Oruga Comelona
En un día en el que hace sol, la oruga sale de su huevo para cantar una canción:
“Tengo hambre, tengo hambre, debo crecer muy grande. Mis maletas debo empacar y por Latinoamérica me voy a viajar”
El lunes comió en Colombia un sancocho que la dejó como un ocho.
El martes fue a México, comió un pozole y luego se durmió sobre unas flores.
El miércoles fue a la República Dominicana, comió mofongo y se quedó dormida sobre un hongo.
El jueves fue a Cuba, comió tostones y se quedó dormida sobre un par de cajones.
El viernes se fue a Argentina, se comió unos alfajores que después le dieron dolores.
El sábado fue a Perú y comió ceviche como loca que otra oruga la confundió con una foca.
El domingo fue a Ecuador y sintió que comer una hoja sería mejor.
Después de tanto viajar, a su casa en Colombia tenía que regresar. Había ganado tanto peso que ya no cabía en la hoja de su árbol de cerezo.
¡Upa, upa, es hora de construir una pupa! Y después de tanta fiesta en su nueva casa decidió tomar unalarga siesta.
En la mañana, junto al sol, de la pupa una linda mariposa salió.
