Do you do any activities in your Elementary Spanish classes that incorporate phonological awareness? It’s definitely not a requirement to teach phonological awareness in an early language class but this one is hidden in a movement activity, so why not?!
El chicle mágico
I learned this magic gum game when I was a kindergarten teacher in Colombia and we could spend a lot of time playing it! I have been using it with my Spanish learners here and they seem to enjoy it.
To get ready for it, just print the template and put it together. Pretend to give your students the magic gum, tell them that it’s invisible. Pretend to eat it and then take it out and make a little ball. Choose a word. I like using my magic bag for this. I just put a few flashcards in it.
Once you have one word to play with, ask your students to use the gum and stretch it by syllables. For example, if the word has three syllables, they will stretch the gum three times. You can do it fast, slow, big and small!
Cold has finally hit Austin! It never snows here, but the cold weather makes a good opportunity to bring this song to my younger students. You can contrast the seasons and weather by sharing that in Argentina it is summer now while in the U.S it is winter. You can show picture cards for different seasons, and use TPR while asking “¿es verano?” Do the same for every season and finally get to “es invierno.” Point at the snow and say “nieve, llegó la nieve” and throw paper snow flakes that you can print from the template provided in this post. The snow flakes can be made out of paper or felt. Another idea is to use a play parachute or a large piece of fabric, and place the snow flakes and shake the fabric or parachute while singing the song.
Yoga is an awesome brain break and energizer tool. I use a few Yoga poses in my classes to get my students moving and they love it. My students learn about 10 names of Yoga poses in Spanish and we use them throughout the school year. I use them as a quick way to make them move. We play “Simón dice” with them. We also play “Haz lo que digo”, for example. I say the name of a pose, but I show a different one, then whoever does the one I am doing is out of the game. They love it! We do it fast too! I like to use cards with the picture of the pose and the picture of what it means.
I lately tried something new! I combined Yoga with storytelling and the students love it. Here is the sample of the story I create to go along with the Yoga cards.
