Using stories to teach Spanish to young learners can be an effective and engaging way to introduce children to the language and is a great tool for language acquisition. Here are some tips and ideas to help you make the most of this approach:
Choose age-appropriate stories: When selecting stories, it’s important to consider the age and language proficiency level of your students. For younger learners, simple stories with basic vocabulary and repetitive phrases can be helpful. As they progress, you can introduce more complex stories with a wider range of high-frequency vocabulary.
Use visuals: Including pictures or illustrations can help children better understand the story and increase their engagement. Use visuals to introduce new vocabulary or help children make connections between words and their meanings.
Ask questions throughout the story: Encourage children to participate and interact with the story. You can ask yes or no questions or provide choices for students to respond.
Act out the story: Acting out a story can help children better understand the plot and vocabulary. Use props to make it more fun and interactive. You can use students as actors while telling or reading the story.
Incorporate music: Including songs or rhymes related to the story can help children remember new words and phrases. Music can also create a fun and engaging atmosphere in the classroom. You can come up with your own songs to support the story!
Follow-up activities: After reading the story, incorporate activities to reinforce learning and keep children engaged. These can include games, crafts, or writing activities related to the story. You can also have students retell the story in their own words or pictures, or create their own versions of the story.
Use diverse stories:ry to incorporate stories with diverse characters and cultures as well. This can help children develop empathy and understanding for people from different backgrounds. Bring both fun stories and stories where your students can see themselves represented.
Stories provide a rich and effective way to aid in language acquisition. Sometimes, children forget that they are hearing a different language because they become so immersed in the plot.
“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.
I like approaching the first days of school in a very low key manner. We are all getting ready and adjusting to the new routine, and as some suggest, it may take up to 6 weeks for children to finally feel ready for your class. This is especially true as I am an specialist, and I see my students two times during the week. I am not a lucky homeroom teacher who gets to see them everyday! I like to use my first classes to show my students how my class works and what I expect from them, but before I dive into rules and procedures, I introduce myself.
Every year I make a book or presentation where I share with my students a bit about myself, my family, my country of origin, and something fun I did during the summer. I create a short story book and use pictures to illustrate it. I call this book “Todo Sobre Mí.” Students really want to know who their teachers are, and they really appreciate the information you can give them, even telling them my first name, but letting them know that I prefer to be called “Señora Gómez” (however, note that this is not true anymore; this year I am going to make the shift to allowing them to use my first name, just like my students always did in Colombia.)
This is how mine looks!
Would you like to make your own? Grab materials to create yours HERE!
After sharing information about myself, I inform them about what I expect from each of them in my class. I predominantly use the target language for this purpose, but I also speak about 10% of the time in my students’ shared language, as suggested by ACTFL. To convey my expectations clearly, I rely heavily on visuals, simplifying my class guidelines as much as possible. In fact, the expectations I use are as follows:1.Respeto 2. Bondad 4. Español
And of course, I don’t want to end my first class without knowing students’ names and introducing or reviewing “Yo me llamo…”
