Wanna Jugar with Migo?

Holiday Movie Gift Sets- Angelina, Thomas & Barney GIVEAWAY

2011-11-30T22:58:00.005-06:00

Have you thought of giving Christmas gifts that will help teach your children more Spanish? What a perfect way to introduce more Spanish to your children! I have some children's books in Spanish and other fun movies to give to my children.

I continue to be impressed with Lionsgate HIT entertainment movies like Angelina Ballerina, Thomas & Friends, and Barney. The Spanish soundtrack is great. I love the French ballerina (with Angelina Ballerina) that speaks Spanish with a French accent. The songs also are well-done with the lyrics in Spanish.

Each character now has their own Holiday gift set with 3 DVD's for $20 (or $12 on sale right now :)) It really is a great deal.
Angelina Gift Set includes The Nutcracker Sweet, Love to Dance and Ballet Dreams.
Barney Gift Set includes Night Before Christmas, Christmas Star and Frosty Friends.
Thomas & Friends Gift Set includes Merry Winter Wish, Ultimate Christmas and Holiday Express.

We also watched Shaun the Sheep- We Wish Ewe a Merry Christmas recently. I didn't know that this movie has no speaking in it. The kids still giggled in many of the parts. This would be a good movie to talk about in Spanish with your kids, explain and discuss what is happening in the story. Some of the humor wasn't my favorite (a little potty humor), but overall it was pretty cute.

How would you like to win a Thomas & Friends Gift Set with 3 DVD's?

Here is your first mandatory entry:

*Tell me something you do to help your children learn Spanish (it can be very simple, like listening to Spanish music).

*Leave your e-mail if you don't check our blog regularly

Do you want a better chance of winning?

After completing the first mandatory entry above, you can make additional entries by doing the following...

*Become a follower of this blog by clicking Follow on the box to the right. Make another comment on this post. If you are already a follower, that counts!

*Blog or Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post. Make one comment on this post. (Just one tweet or blog post :)

*Subscribe via e-mail or subscribe via feed by clicking on the box to the right. (You may need to scroll down) Make another comment on this post. If you already do, that counts.

*Like our page on facebook by clicking here. Come back and make a comment.

This contest ends December 5th at 10PM Central Time and one winner will be randomly chosen by random.org.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends Dec. 5th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on July 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Thomas the Train DVD GIVEAWAY

2011-08-17T04:00:00.003-05:00

My kids probably watch at least half of their movies in Spanish. Before I buy any DVD, I always search the back of the case for those magical audio options of Espanol! We don't watch a lot of TV/movies in our little family. With the movies we do watch, I feel good when it can give my kids a little more Spanish exposure.

Thomas and Friends has many DVD's in their series and they can be dubbed into Spanish! I have 3 girls so I didn't know how well they would like a story about trains, but when they watched Thomas & Friends: The Birthday Express, they loved it. The story always presents some kind of problem: a present that gets dirty, not knowing what to do for a talent show, etc. My kids stay so focused into the story. As the story is told, the narrator speaks very slowly. I couldn't help but thinking that this would be a good ESL DVD as well. This cute Birthday Express DVD even comes with a little train whistle as a bonus.

I also reviewed the recent movie, Thomas in Charge. Thomas & Friends movies do a great job of letting the trains show their feelings. They feel embarrassed, frustrated or sad. It is a wonderful way of letting your children understand that it is okay to have these feelings and how to deal with them.

Would you like to win a copy of Thomas & Friends: The Birthday Express or Thomas in Charge DVD's?

One winner will win The Birthday Express DVD and another winner will win Thomas in Charge DVD.

Here is your first mandatory entry:

*Click here to go to the Thomas & Friends website, come back to this post and leave a comment telling me something you like about Thomas & Friends. That's it!

*Leave your e-mail if you don't check our blog regularly

Do you want a better chance of winning?
After completing the first mandatory entry above, you can make additional entries by doing the following...
*Become a follower of this blog by clicking Follow on the box to the right. Make another comment on this post. If you are already a follower, that counts!
*Blog or Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post. Make one comment on this post. (Just one tweet or blog post :)
*Subscribe via e-mail or subscribe via feed by clicking on the box to the right. (You may need to scroll down) Make another comment on this post. If you already do, that counts.
*Like our page on facebook by clicking here. Come back and make a comment.

This contest ends August 26th at 10PM Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends August 26th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on July 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Un Pato en Nueva York GIVEAWAY

2011-06-28T18:03:00.005-05:00

"Can you put on the hipopótamo song? Please???"

This is the question I get every time we pile into our minivan.

This song and other catchy, silly tunes come with the book, Un Pato en Nueva York.

First of all, I love reading books that are completely in Spanish. Second, I LOVE it when my kids can hear it read by a native speaker. Yes, this is a book that comes with a CD with the story read aloud and it has additional fun songs to sing/dance to.

Un Pato en Nueva York is a cute little story about a duck who dreams of dancing on Broadway and he fulfills his dream. The voice 0f Inés Cánepa as the reader and singer is delightful. It is very fun and engaging for my children. The illustrations in the book are unique and fun to look at as well!

I think the biggest bonus to this book and audiobook is the additional song tracks on the CD. My children's favorite is a song about having a hippopotamus as a friend. Other songs include a pop song about washing clothes, another about loving tomatoes and a song dedicated to their ombligos (belly button!). This is definitely are current favorite CD in the car :)

We have TWO Un Pato en Nueva York books (includes CD with extra songs) to giveaway to Wanna Jugar with Migo readers!

Want to win one?

This is what you have to do:

*Click here to read more about this book and listen to one of the song. Come back to this post and make a comment telling us why you want to win this Book & CD.

*Leave your e-mail if you don't check our blog regularly

Do you want a better chance of winning?

After completing the first mandatory entry above, you can make additional entries by doing the following...

*Become a follower of this blog by clicking Follow on the box to the right. Make another comment on this post. If you are already a follower, that counts!

*Blog or Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post. Make one comment on this post. (Just one tweet or blog post :)

*Subscribe via e-mail or subscribe via feed by clicking on the box to the right. (You may need to scroll down) Make another comment on this post. If you already do, that counts.

*Like our page on facebook by clicking here. Come back and make a comment.

This contest ends July 9th at 10PM Central Time.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED: WINNERS ARE #22 Christy and #9 Artsy Momma

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. You can only win one signed book. Contest ends July 9th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on July 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Countries of Central America Song

2011-05-11T19:42:00.000-05:00

This year we are studying each continent and learning about the geography and culture of specific countries. Since I lived in Honduras for many years, I want my children to know the countries in Central America. I made up a song to the tune of "Happy Birthday to You" to help them remember the names of the seven countries in Central America.

I also helped my children make their own mini puzzle of Central America. I printed a blank map of Central America (without the country names) on cardstock. Then, I printed the same map, but I had the country names printed on them (again on cardstock). I cut out each individual country with the map that had the country names. I put a little velcro on each of the countries on the blank map and velcro on the back of the individual cut-out countries with names. I would share the jpeg's of the maps, but they are copied from a book for private use only. The kids played with them a lot. We also play a little game where one person takes away a country and the kids have to say which country is missing. Here are some pictures in case it is confusing...

Well, it has worked! My children can recognize these Central American countries!

Cascarones!!!

2011-05-05T22:56:00.004-05:00

I think we started a new family tradition this year. I want to celebrate Cinco de Mayo every year as a family! We kept it simple, but it was fun!

We started off by cracking cascarones over each others' heads! Confetti was all over the kitchen floor. This was the first time I ever have made my own cascarones. When Easter candy starts on the shelves, most Walmarts carry them (look on the bottom shelves). Next year I am going to buy them as soon as they come out on the shelf because they sell fast! Spanglish Baby has a great article on how to make your own cascarones here.

Menu-
Homemade tacos (have you tried the Tortillaland dough tortillas from Costco? YUM!)
Chips & salsa
Platanos fritos

Treat-
A little Mexican flag made out of coconut candy called Bandera de Coco (found at 99 cent only store :)

Salsa Dancing Playlist-

I love salsa music! My new favorite salsa songs are La Vida es Un Carnaval by Celia Cruz, Somos los Campeones de la Salsa by Willy Chirino and Tu Carinito by Puerto Rican Power.

I like to teach my little girls how to salsa with Oye Como Va (I think it's actually a slow chacha, but it is a great, slow song to learn the steps). I also added a Merengue and a Bachata to the mix! I love any excuse I get to dance to la musica latina!!

Las Estaciones- DVD giveaway!

2011-05-02T22:46:00.009-05:00

Whistlefritz came out with their latest DVD all about seasons! I was excited to review this movie with my kids. It goes over each season of the year as a little mouse tries to figure when his birthday is! I have always been impressed with Whistlefritz and all its products. This DVD did not disappoint.

My kids' loved all the footage of children jumping in leaves, splashing in the pool, dancing in the rain and playing in the snow. The music from the CD's, A Bailar and Cha, Cha, Cha, were integrated in the movie, as well as some new songs. By far, my kids' favorite part was when the Fritzy dressed up like a ghost for Halloween. They giggled so much and wanted to watch that part again :) I love how they taught vocabulary for each season, like different Halloween costumes.

I love how in every Whistlefritz DVD there is so much repetition that even children who know very little Spanish can follow along. They pair it with fun clips of children, catchy music and then the animated Fritzy. I think I would put Whistlefritz' DVD collection as my top recommendation for young children to be introduced to Spanish.

You can find out more about Las Estaciones DVD here and see a preview here.

CONTEST CLOSED: WINNER IS #3 Randsomed/Redeemed!....Winner #3 did not reply to her e-mail in time. I entered the numbers in random.org again and the winnter is #2 Janice! Congrats!

Want to win a Las Estaciones DVD?

The only thing you need to do to enter this giveaway is visit Whistlefritz Website and then come back here and make a comment telling me why you want to win this DVD!

Good luck!

Want additional entries?

**Become a follower of this blog and make another comment below for 1 additional entry. If you are already a follower, just make a comment below :)

**Send out a tweet for this giveaway and come back to make another comment :)

**Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry. If you do not have a blog, you may e-mail the link to the giveaway to 6 friends with a cc to wannajugarwithmigo @ gmail . com (without spaces) and then come back to comment 2 times.

Giveaway ends Monday, May 9th, at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to four times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only US addresses, sorry. After I announce the winner , the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours to get the prize. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail or include your e-mail with your comments so I can send you an e-mail if you win. In the past, winners have lost out on products they win because they didn't respond.

Moona Luna GIVEAWAY

2011-04-11T10:00:00.003-05:00

Eh, Gallina, quieres bailar conmigo?
No, vaca, no, no quiero bailar....

You will be singing this catchy tune when you listen to this fun CD by Moona Luna, Piñata Party!!

I love the Latin feel and beat in this music. It has accordian, drums and bass to give it flavor. Most songs are both in Spanish and English. I have to admit, I sometimes get bothered when music is in both Spanish and English. However, I liked the way this music put Spanish and English into the same song. Most songs in the CD start with an entire verse in Spanish and then she sings the English translation.

Check out this cute music video to one of their songs:

My daughter's favorite song is the song about a little girl that doesn't want to go to bed since there is a party going on. Seems like bedtime most nights :) My favorite is the first song, "Quieres Bailar?" I love how the chorus is fast. Once you have learned it, it's so fun to sing! When I was learning Spanish as a teenager, I memorized songs like Estoy Aqui from Shakira. I believe singing songs helped me develop part of my fluency. It just helped me get used to Spanish rolling off my tongue :) I really think listening to music and having our children sing along will help them develop fluency. It helps them gain confidence and get used to forming the sounds quickly.

I'm excited to do a giveaway, especially since we now have over 100 followers on this blog!!!

Want to win a Pinata Party CD?

The only thing you need to do to enter this giveaway is visit Moona Luna and listen to the music samples, then come back here and make a comment telling me why you want to win this CD!

Good luck!

Want additional entries?

**Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry. If you do not have a blog, you may e-mail the link to the giveaway to 6 friends with a cc to wannajugarwithmigo @ gmail . com (without spaces) and then come back to comment 2 times.

Giveaway ends Tuesday, April 19th, at 10 pm Central Time.

*****GIVEAWAY CLOSED- winner from random.org is comment #11 Adriana! Congrats!

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to three times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only US addresses, sorry. After I announce the winner , the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours to get the prize. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail or include your e-mail with your comments so I can send you an e-mail if you win. In the past, winners have lost out on products they win because they didn't respond.

Mi Guitarri Music!!

2011-04-04T23:50:00.007-05:00

My oldest daughter who is 6 1/2 is starting to resist speaking in Spanish! I always heard this would happen as my children got older, but it is still sad to watch! I think as children get older, they start to feel more conscious of their mistakes they make. I also have to confess we have not been as consistent as I would have liked. Having a new baby always changes life quite a bit. It is harder for my daughter to remember all the words she knew before. We are still trying hard to keep up the Spanish.

One way my daughter does not resist speaking Spanish is through music! This is why anytime I am feeling unmotivated, we put on some music in Spanish, then dance and sing together!

I am pleased to have received a copy of the music, Mi Guitarri, from Calico Spanish curriculum! They have a full curriculum that has everything you need for an immersion type program for elementary aged students! I enjoyed listening to the CD that goes with the curriculum. Click here to go to the website for the Mi Guitarri CD.

Things I love about Mi Guitarri:
-native speaker with a nice voice
-guitar accompaniment is fun to listen to (not cheesy kids' music)
-creative songs that are unlike other Spanish language learning songs
-music is catchy and easy to dance to

The version of Chocolate on the CD is the one we usually sing when we drink hot chocolate or eat any chocolate. I like how it emphasizes the words "A mi me gusta el chocolate" instead of just saying "Me gusta." This has helped my kids to not say "Yo me gusta..." because they remember the words from this song.

Another favorite is the song about rain falling down and it counts raindrops by tens (Gotas de Diez en Diez). What other song in Spanish practices counting by tens? I'm glad it will help my children remember more numbers in Spanish than the first ten or twenty!

I like putting on the A Limpiar song when we get ready to clean up. It talks about how happy is the moment when we get to clean up! It makes me smile because usually cleaning time is not the happiest moment in my house ;) But as we listen to the song, it puts everyone in a good mood.

Make sure to listen to their previews for all their songs at their website. They also have a songbook and DVD that go along with the CD.

School Vocab Game

2011-02-23T08:00:00.002-06:00

I mentioned before that my mom talks with my three daughters via skype once a week. She always has prepared fun games or stories to tell them in Spanish. She homeschools two of her grandchildren and teaches Spanish lessons to most of her grandchildren! I am posting a great powerpoint she put together to play a game to review school supply vocabulary.

You can use the sentences with the different objects for the first slide. Then you can play a game with the other slides. You can't see on the preview how it works (you have to download and make it do the slide show to see). You play the "Que Desaparecio?" and the child/student has to say what's missing from the group of objects.

Review Game Escuela

Isn't Abuela great for doing this?

La Pulga y Su Familia

2011-02-21T08:00:00.001-06:00

This is one of my favorite songs to sing with my kids! It's from the CD El Baile del Sombrero by Abbasubi. I just love songs that you can do movements along with it. It's a cute song!

I made a visual for my kids below. The lyrics page can found here from their site.

La Pulga y Su Familia Visuals
La Pulga y Su Family Visuals

Music Videos and More

2011-02-17T10:01:00.004-06:00

One of my favorite blogs is by Profesora Sarita called Mis Musicuentos She just wrote about her proposal to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages on problems with foreign language teaching. I found it fascinating to read and full of so many true statements! Click here to read it.

Profesora Sarita always has great ideas for how making language learning authentic and fun for teenagers. My daughters and I have loved watching some music videos she posts that she shows to her students. I'll post my favorite one, "Te Mando Flores" by Fonseca. Let me know if you want the lyrics and translation.

She recently posted her entire collection of lyrics (189 pages full!) she uses in class. Here is her post. She teaches at a Christian school, so all of the songs are appropriate (which is a huge thing for me!).

I just had to share all her ideas :) Thank you, Profesora Sarita!

Using the Webcam!

2011-02-17T09:35:00.003-06:00

I am sorry that I have not posted more! Our little baby boy is now 2 months old! Having 3 little girls and a little baby makes life busy!

Although this is a busy time, my husband and I have re-committed to speaking Spanish 3 days a week! It's amazing after a short time not being consistent with speaking Spanish how much they lose. The girls' old babysitter came back to visit from college. It had been a year since she had come over. She told me, "Wow, they have really lost some Spanish!" It was a good reminder to me to get back going.

Image from: http://www.experientia.com/

As I have written before, we have struggled to find opportunities for my kids to practice their Spanish. We have started using the webcam once a week with Abuela!!! My daughter reads her a short picture book in Spanish and shows her the pictures, then Grandma usually has a game or song to do with my girls. They love it! It motivates them to speak in Spanish more and it doesn't cost anything :)

Do you know of a friend or relative you can skype with in Spanish? What a great authentic way to practice the language!!

I want to write about my thoughts on a local immersion program and teaching my daughter to read in Spanish. I hope to share more games and activities as well that Abuela does with her nietas and other activities we are doing at home :) Now if only had a little more time...

CSN Stores!

2011-01-27T17:04:00.004-06:00

While Christmas shopping, I ran into CSN stores. Wow! They have a huge selection. They have everything from a suitcase to a sofa or children's toys and educational materials!

I found this little leapfrog drum that sings in Spanish or English on the site. One of my girls' babysitters gave this to us. It is the perfect little bilingual toy for toddlers. They love patting the drum and dancing to the fun music

Now for something on my wishlist. Wouldn't this be the perfect set-up to pretend "restaurante" with your kids? Anything to set the mood and get them to only speak in Spanish!

Some of the products can't really be found on other sites. Also, most items have free shipping! Definitely check out all the different CSN store websites!

Papel Picado- Halloween Decorations!

2010-10-25T23:09:00.004-05:00

We don't have very many Halloween decorations. I saw this cute paper banner for Halloween from toymaker. It was a fun activity to do with your kids and an easy activity to do in Spanish. I highly recommend the exacto knife for all the inside parts and then letting the kids cut the outside and scallops along the bottom. Enjoy!

Here are direct links from toymaker to PDF's of each template:

Owl (buho)
Cat (gato)
Pumpkin (calabaza)
skull (calavera)

Cha! Cha! Cha!

2010-10-22T07:00:00.001-05:00

I love music that makes me want to dance. Isn't that part of the fun of learning Spanish?!? We enjoy listening to Whistlefritz' newest CD "Cha, Cha, Cha" in the car. I was so excited to review this CD since we love the A Bailar CD they already had out! Jorge Anaya does a wonderful job of putting traditional songs (and original songs) to different Latin styles and beats.

My personal favorite is the version of La Cucaracha. The additional verses talk about a girl parakeet trying to get a boy parakeet to go to the movies with her. Such fun, silly additions to the song! El Frutero is another song that is very catchy. I hope to make visuals for this song, so my kids will relate the words with the actual fruit.

I have always been impressed with all the products Whistlefritz has put out. They have received numerous awards recently for this CD. Dr. Toy named Cha, Cha, Cha one of the "Best 100 Products" of 2010 and the "Top 10 Audio/Visual Products" of 2010.

**Whistlefritz recently added a great lesson plan section to their site. They have great activities to use with children that reinforce vocabulary from the video "Adentro y Afuera". I really like the dice you can create that lets the children practice positional words (al lado, encima) and then put the mouse beside or on top of the cheese. There are adorable flash cards and other fun activities and enrichment ideas.

Calabazas, Brujas y Disfraces!

2010-10-20T23:59:00.002-05:00

It is fun to get into the seasons and holidays with the kids! I'm hoping to incorporate some fun activities in Spanish as well! Here are a few books, songs and activities that are related to Halloween/pumpkin time!

CALABAZAS!
I realized there is a cute song about Calabazas from 123 Spanish Together that I had received. It talks about 5 little pumpkins and they each have different feelings/emotions. There is an adorable activity to make pumpkin outlines and have the children act out the emotions with their faces in the pumpkins. Check out how to do it by looking at their blog post here. I'm sure my girls will love doing this!

BRUJAS

In the storytime, they shared this cute little story about a little girl that dresses up like a witch.

Also, in the storytime, the librarian shared a funny little story about a witch making her own house. You use an orange paper to tell the story and cut it out. Then, at the end, the house looks like a jack 'o' lantern. My kids really enjoyed this story. I found the story in English here but you have to scroll down to "The Witch and The Little Orange House Story." Sorry you would have to translate.

FAMILIA DE VAMPIROS
My mom showed my girls (via webcam) this fun site of Mi Mundo en Palabras. There is a fun activity that a girl introduces her Adams-type family. It's a great listening activity. My girls got a big kick out of it!

If you go to the picture that says, "Esta es mi Familia" then "El Mundo de Carlos" and then "Foto de Mi Familia" as you click on the arrows it takes you to an Adams-type family with vampiros and brujas. It's really cute.

DISFRACES

On the same site above of Mi Mundo en Palabras. They have fun activities that teach vocabulary related to costumes! Click on "Fiesta de Disfraces," then "El Mundo de Carlos" and then "De que me disfrazo?"

Dedication?

2010-10-20T23:40:00.005-05:00

We went to a wonderful hour long storytime at a downtown library. There was traffic, it was rainy, all three kids were upset in the car and it ended up taking us an hour to get there. The big library is also in a bad part of town, so it was quite the adventure. My husband met up with us and we had to laugh about the effort we were putting into just to attend a Spanish storytime. He said "Either this is dedication or an obsession!" I like to think of it just as dedication, but I have to admit I'm a little obsessed :)

All the books were about Halloween, mostly about brujas. They had a little craft to make a mini bag and then each child got to pick a Halloween toy to put in their bags. After the storytime, I noticed the HUGE Spanish section. There were 4 aisles with both sides of the bookcases stacked full of children's Spanish fiction and nonfiction books. It was so dreamy!!! They had so many great books and resources! Too bad I won't be able to hang out at this library very often.

How do you search for local events where they speak Spanish?
Where have you found good places to go?

GIVEAWAYS!

2010-10-14T08:00:00.001-05:00

I like to get new materials to use with my children as they learn Spanish. It keeps me motivated :) Here is a list of all the giveaways going on right now!!

Easy Translator by Ingenio Toys ends 10/14/10

Foreign Language Friends Year Subscription ends 10/17/10

Linea Descubriendo DVD ends 10/17/10

Caperucita Roja

2010-10-11T23:08:00.002-05:00

We had our first webcam retell of our story of the week. Every day this past week, we read this wonderful version of Caperucita Roja by Ana Lomba. I love how she uses simple vocabulary that is easy for the kids to remember and understand.

My girls' abuela speaks Spanish and is passionate about teaching as well! It was fun to have my girls retell the story to her and show her the pictures via webcam. She asked questions and made them answer with details about the story. She also had them giggling. It was a success! We will continue to do this each week. I think it is wonderful practice to be able to retell a story in Spanish. I believe it helps build confidence in the child that they can speak Spanish fluently. Eventually it will give them confidence to speak more in Spanish.

Do you know anyone you can connect with via skype or webcam? It defintely makes it more excited to speak Spanish for someone :)

Struggles and New Goals

2010-10-03T18:20:00.004-05:00

I love to share resources, products and teaching ideas, but I also want to share our struggles and progress with teaching our children Spanish. This year I have found it so much more challenging to keep up Spanish with our daughters. I don't know if it is because we moved or because my daughter is starting 1st grade. As many know, we homeschool, so with 1st grade we have more time spent reading and writing in English as well as math in English. Our amazing babysitter has gone back to college and my daughters don't have any friends that speak Spanish.
We are really struggling to find time to speak only in Spanish and to find real motivation for my daughters to speak only in Spanish. During our homeschool days (which used to be Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday) many of the time is spent in English to keep up reading, math and other subjects in English. It is frustrating that I can't find any tutors or classes at my oldest daughter's speaking level. I could hire a private tutor, but it would cost $35-$40 an hour! Have any of you had the same struggles?

We are determined to keep up the Spanish. I can already see how fast they forget the language if we don't keep up. I am so grateful that my husband really supports our family to teach our children Spanish. It's important to both of us! We have decided on some new goals for our family.

-Speaking in Spanish on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. Sunday is a great day because my husband is home all day and the kids can hear us speaking to each other!
-Attending a local storytime in Spanish every week (it is only for 6 weeks, but it is at her level and it is free!!)
-More read-alouds in Spanish, especially on Wednesday/Thursday
-Reading the same fairy tale every day of a week, then having my daughter retell the fairy tale to her grandma via webcam once a week.
-Continue to search for a Spanish-speaking babysitter or a mother's helper. A mother's helper would be a 9-11 year old girl that could come over and play with my kids while I stay at home the entire time. I love this idea because I wouldn't have to pay as much as for a babysitter and I could be there the entire time.

What do you do to keep your children/students speaking and learning Spanish?

In the upcoming weeks, I hope to share the lesson plans from the wonderful storytimes we will be attending, share the fairy tale versions we have focused on and share some new products I will be reviewing :)

The Power of Cereal Boxes

2010-09-05T23:54:00.004-05:00

Have you ever thought how much time your kids spend studying in close detail the back of the cereal box?

My kids can hardly wait to get to see the pictures or silly characters on the back. They each want to have a box sitting in front of them every morning as they eat their cheerios.

But have you also noticed how boring the backs of the more healthy cereal boxes are? Multigrain cheerios, MiniWheats and Raisin Bran are usually the three options. The backs are no fun at all!

Why not motivate kids by putting fun pages they can study on the backs of their cereal boxes?

I made a simple picture of objects that start with the letter e in Spanish. The kids are remembering these new vocabulary words. We have played I spy or given each other clues to guess which object we are thinking of. I also put a worksheet up of the word family we are focusing on for the week on another box. I think the more colorful and fun they are, the more the kids will love studying them.

Some other fun ideas would be:
*Hidden Picture puzzles from Highlights magazines here
*Make a word search here with vocabulary words
*Other worksheets that have pictures and activities, even worksheets they have already completed that they can re-read and study.

*I heard this idea from a Suzuki piano teacher trainer, Cleo Brimhall. She gives her students composer biographies or other facts about different composers to put on the backs of cereal boxes. It motivates the kids to be interested in composers and interested in practising the piano.

Teaching Letter Sounds in Spanish!

2010-08-10T21:56:00.002-05:00

I am trying to decide when to start teaching my oldest daughter to read in Spanish. She has learned to read in English. She is at a very beginner level, so I'm trying to decide if I should wait until she is more advanced or just start now. In the meantime, I need to make sure she knows the letter sounds in Spanish. Many of them will be easy to transfer, but the vowels are hard for her to remember. I have found various websites that have game ideas to review letter sounds.

Here are some links:
Cute games to review letter sounds (or names) here at Fischer Price & Scholastic
A song that covers words that start with different letters here
Activities and crafts to go with each letter here

Sometimes thinking of words that start with the different letters takes me a little while, especially thinking of vocabulary that would be good for children.

Does anyone else know of websites that have pictures to go along with letters in Spanish? Any other ideas on games to review?

I have a couple of books and plan on getting a few others to introduce the syllables and easy early readers once we have the letter sounds down. I will keep you updated as we discover what is out there!

Spanish in the Summer

2010-07-16T10:07:00.002-05:00

Summer is so fun! We are always having picnics, being outside, playing in the pool or at the beach. But it makes Spanish harder for us! As we get together with friends, everything turns English. I am fine with this and love for my kids to make good friends, but that means I need to work harder at the Spanish.

This week we are trying speaking Spanish every day! We speak it mostly at home, because I forget when we are in public and out with friends is difficult. I thought this would be hard, but it hasn't been bad.

If you speak with your kids, do you demand that they speak back in Spanish. Lately I am mostly speaking in Spanish and they are mostly speaking in English. I try to remind my oldest, but it takes a lot more work for my middle daughter to come up with the words in Spanish.

Any suggestions? How do you keep up speaking Spanish in the summer?

We're back!

2010-06-10T17:27:00.002-05:00

We have been gone for so long! Things have been very busy around here. We moved and it's really hard to do anything else except move while you are moving :)

During stressful times, I am sad to say that we take a break from Spanish. It makes it all that much harder to get back into speaking Spanish after, but it is what we have done in the past. My kids have watched more movies with the move. I only allow them to watch about 2-3 hours a week, but moving is different. They have been watching Susy Dorn and singing all her songs around the house. It has been fun to hear my youngest singing with a little Spanish accent. I love it. I'll have to post the video we did of her.

Thank you for being patient with me. I hope to post more regularly. Please enter the current giveaway Also, I plan on sending out the Diez Deditos next week and feel so bad that they haven't been sent already. Thank you for your understanding!

123 Spanish Together Review & Giveaway

2010-06-08T09:21:00.011-05:00

GIVEAWAY CLOSED: WINNER IS #8 The girl who painted trees!
"En colombia, se baila la cumbia, en Puerto Rico se baila la salsa..." this catchy tune is hard to sit and listen to. You have to get up and dance! Whatever my kids are doing, if I am playing Jump into Spanish by 123 Spanish Together, they stop what they are doing so they can listen to this fun music. 123 Spanish Together has 8 CD's with a variety of traditional rhythms and unique lyrics. Go here to listen to some song samples. Make sure to check out my favorites: Mi Cuerpo and Mi Gallo Kikiriki.

I have been searching for more of a preschool curriculum in Spanish. All the music I find only teaches colors, animals, food, and basic vocabulary. I was so excited to find 123 Spanish Together because their music is not only fun, but it covers a variety of subjects that can be used for holidays, seasons and preschool themes. They can pretend they are a pavito for Thanksgiving, follow a story of 5 Little Pumpkins for Halloween or sing a song about leaves changing colors in the Fall.

My favorite song on the Jump into Spanish CD is the song that talks about different Latin dances in different countries. I have been wanting to introduce Latin American countries to my daughters, but I didn't want to overwhelm them with just memorizing a map. Now I can introduce the first 3 and introduce Latin dances along with them. How fun!

All the singers are native speakers which is very important to me, especially since I am a non-native speaker. I love how they use drums and beats that are very traditional Latin sounds. Most of them involve movement which I think really helps children remember what the words mean.

Want to win a CD from 123 Spanish Together?

The only thing you need to do to enter this giveaway is visit 1-2-3 Spanish Together listen to the music here, then make a comment telling me which CD from the store you would like to have if you are the winner. Good luck!

Want additional entries?

**Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry. If you do not have a blog, you may e-mail the link to the giveaway to 6 friends with a cc to wannajugarwithmigo @ gmail . com (without spaces) and then come back to comment 2 times.

Giveaway ends Thursday June 24th at 10 pm Central Time.

GIVEAWAY CLOSED: WINNER IS #8 The girl who painted trees!

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. After I announce the winner , the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours to get the prize. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail or include your e-mail with your comments so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners have lost out on products they win because they didn't respond.

Winners of Diez Deditos CD's!

2010-05-06T23:00:00.001-05:00

The 5 winners from random.org are:
17 Elaine
9 Johanna
20 Susan
1 Una mama feliz
5 Joanie

Congratulations! Please send me an e-mail at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your mailing address to send you the CD.

El Dia de Los Libros: Diez Deditos Giveaway

2010-04-27T00:59:00.007-05:00

First of all, I love Dia de los Ninos/Dia de los Libros! I have fun memories of going with my children to a local library's celebration. There were free bilingual books given away, crafts, traditional dances and costumes, lunch and everyone speaking Spanish!

Look for celebrations in your area/library. Here is Dia's official site. I went to my local libraries' site and looked for celebrations. Sure enough I found one at a library about 20 minutes away. We are planning on celebrating :)

I want to celebrate reading books to our children with you. Jose-Luis Orozco has given 5 Diez Deditos (Ten Little Fingers) CD's to be given away on this blog!

This is the perfect CD to introduce or reinforce teaching Spanish to young children! I have heard this CD almost everytime I attend a Spanish storytime or talk with immersion teachers. Jose-Luis has a clear pronunciation and soothing voice with guitar accompaniment that children enjoy and will easily sing along with.

Want to win one of five Diez Deditos CD's?

Here is how to enter this giveaway contest:

*Simply make a comment on this post telling us one book you like to read with your children, either in English or Spanish.

Want additional entries?
After submitting your first entry you can do the following:

-Become a facebook fan or simply press "like" Wanna Jugar with Migo page (you must already be a part of facebook). Click on the like button on the right side bar. Come back to this post and make another comment saying you are a fan. (1 entry)

-Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry. (2 entries)

-Become a follower of this blog. Make a comment telling us that you follow our blog (even if you are already a follower. it counts) (1 entry)

Giveaway ends Wednesday, May 5th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. After I announce the winner , the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours to get the prize. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail or include your e-mail with your comments so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners have lost out on products they win because they didn't respond.

2010-04-18T05:20:00.009-05:00

I just saw the most delightful movie, The Perfect Game. I love movies based on true stories. This one is truly inspirational. It is about a Little League baseball team that is started in Monterrey Mexico. These poor boys love baseball because their priest loves baseball. They become the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series.

Rotten Tomatoes wrote this synopsis of the story:

"Living amidst the gritty poverty of 1957 Monterrey, Mexico, a rag-tag group of boys from the wrong side of the tracks discovers the joy of sandlot baseball under the guidance of Cesar, an aspiring Major League Coach thwarted by discrimination.

Armed with the dream of playing a real Little League game, the young players defy a total lack of resources, disapproving parents, and widespread prejudice to score their first Little League victory and find themselves at the beginning of a once-in-a-lifetime journey.

Relying on their faith, a warm-hearted priest and their love of the game, the nine players and their coach embark on an incredible, record-breaking winning streak that leads them across the border to America, and all the way to the 1957 Little League World Series where a miracle will cement their place in history and change their lives forever."

There are two reasons why I would love to take children to see this movie. The first is the opportunity to discuss prejudice. The movie shows the hurtfulness of racism. It is shown from a child's point of view. I have not seen as many movies about prejudice against Mexicans. I remember seeing this as a girl growing up in West Texas. We have come a long way but this is something we need to teach our children so they will be the generation to eliminate it.

The second reason is the wonderful opportunity to talk about our faith in God. I am not even Catholic but could see God working through this priest and reaching into the hearts of these boys and their parents. If all priests could be like him, wow!

I usually don't write movie reviews but wanted to recommend this one highly. You can see the trailer here.

Giveaways!

2010-04-16T12:00:00.001-05:00

I love finding books, music and DVD's to help teach my kids Spanish. I have found a few giveaways going on right now:

*Mama Latina Tips is having a giveaway for PEEP DVD! It is an adorable TV series that teaches math and science and it is in Spanish as well as English! Go here to enter this giveaway.

*Latin Baby Book Club is giving away two cute Spanish picture books, "Quien se Esconde?" and "Quieres Jugar?" Go here to enter this giveaway. They are also giving away 2 bilingual toys, one that teaches the alphabet and an animal puzzle. Go here to enter this giveaway.

*SpanglishBaby is giving away Lover Boy: A Bilingual Counting Book. Go here to enter this giveaway.

Yoga in Spanish for Children- Review & Giveaway

2010-04-02T07:00:00.002-05:00

***Giveaway Closed**** Winner from random.org was #4 Tricia.

I am always searching for genuine, real-life experiences for my children in Spanish. I like to use products that aren't particularly designed to teach them Spanish, but used to live in Spanish.

I was so excited to try Umbral Yoga by Lina Navia. I went to her website and saw this wonderful preview of the yoga class for children in Spanish from her DVD.

Lina's soothing voice instantly captured the attention of my children. She takes them on adventures to the beach, flying to visit Africa and the farm. My girls favorite part is acting like a lion and then putting him to sleep. The DVD uses sound effects to help the kids imagine (roaring lion, trumpeting elephant, waves at the beach, etc). It has the perfect variety of fast and slow movements, soft and loud sounds, that kept my girls full attention for the 26 minute class. My girls were all trying each pose even if it was difficult. They practice balance, focus and strength.

At the end of the DVD, I was amazed how my children relaxed completely. I have never seen them lay so still (except when they are asleep!). I did the class beside them and I even felt a little sore after doing this exercise with my children (la bicicleta y remando el barco gets your abs!). The adult work-out of 49 minutes is another bonus with the DVD. I highly recommend this product for children learning Spanish. Children who are just learning Spanish will be able to watch and follow her simple instructions. They will learn animal vocabulary, colors and be able to follow instructions.

I loved interviewing Lina and understanding why she decided to create yoga in Spanish for children in the US. She felt that there is so much offered in English, but not in Spanish. She mentioned why she feels yoga is important for children. She said, "What I like about yoga is that it is a non-competitive way to exercise and an opportunity to connect with themselves. Yoga gives them the chance to relax in a way because it connects them with their own bodies and their breath." We talked about how important it is for children to build confidence in themselves and their bodies. This will especially be important as they grow older and become teenagers. I plan on doing this exercise with my girls at least weekly. Learn more about Lina Navia by clicking here.

Want to win a Umbral Yoga DVD by Lina Navia?

Here is how to enter this giveaway contest:

*Go here and come back to this post, make a comment telling us one thing you learned about Umbral Yoga or Lina Navia

Want additional entries?

After submitting your first entry you can do the following:
-Become a facebook fan of Wanna Jugar with Migo page (you must already be a part of facebook). Click on the Become a fan button on the right side bar. Come back to this post and make another comment saying you are a fan.
-Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry.
-Become a follower of this blog. Make a comment telling us that you follow our blog (even if you are already a follower)

Giveaway ends Sunday, April 11th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. After I announce the winner , the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours to get the prize. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail or include your e-mail with your comments so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners have lost out on products they win because they didn't respond.

Weather Song

2010-03-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

Mi girls love singing this song. It is perfect when we talk about weather in the morning. They can sing Cae la Lluvia or Brilla el Sol. At the very end, the song says "Estoy feliz" and my girls like to jump!

La letra:

Cae la lluvia alrededor
en los techos, en la flor
Cae la lluvia en mi nariz,
manos, pies y estoy feliz.

Brilla el sol alrededor
en los techos, en la flor
Brilla el sol en mi nariz,
manos, pies y estoy feliz.

Click here for a link to the pdf with the music notation (scroll down for the song). Click here for a link to download the FREE .mp3 from my church's website (You have to scroll down to Cae la Lluvia, right click on the first column with music and singing and the second column for just music and click "save target as...")

Teaching the Spanish Alphabet

2010-03-29T07:00:00.000-05:00

Luckily the Spanish alphabet is very similar to the English alphabet. My daughter was coloring with chalk outside last summer and wrote a simple Spanish word "gato" by herself even though we have never talked about the Spanish alphabet. I think it will come quite naturally and quickly.

I found 29 Spanish Alphabet Mini-Books done by scholastic, a book full of mini books. There is a reproducible 8 page mini book for each Spanish letter. They can color them and then read the books to me. Each mini book has a blank page to write or draw other words that start with that letter.

Ways to use mini-books:

*Pretend like the kids are the teacher. They have to show me the words and I have to repeat the words.

*Make up a pretend story using all the words in each mini book. For example, Estaba lloviendo y el arbol estaba muy triste. De repente, el arbol vio un arco iris en el cielo....

*After reading the book, play charades! Have the children act out one word from the book and the other children have to guess what it is.

*Play pictionary. Have one child draw a picture and the other students have to guess which word it is from the mini book.

*Do a scavenger hunt. As you read the book, look for objects in the house that could represent each word from the mini book.

****You can find other mini books with simple language with the Kindergarten McGraw-Hill home school connection here. They are free! You could also create your own mini books by cutting pictures of words that start with the same letter out of magazines.

Spanish Immersion Kindergarten Activities

2010-03-24T07:00:00.002-05:00

http://teachinglearningspanish.blogspot.com/, a great site with tons of resources, will be closing their teaching forum. I decided to check out the forum. It had some great resources from immersion teachers. I found a link to some wonderful Kindergarten activities through McGraw-Hill (but could be used for older, beginning students and younger students.

Each unit from their Tesoros book comes with activities and a small mini book. The thing I love about the activities is they require discussion. It is a great way to get them speaking in Spanish.

Click here to see a unit that includes an activity talking about which picture happened first, a mini book that you could talk about all the different ways people help each other, and a mini book with simple language about growing up. Click here to choose any of the 31 units on the site.
I am receiving samples of the Tesoros McGraw Hill Spanish reading program soon. I am considering using it for my daughter next year for homeschool. It might be a great idea for those of you wanting your children to learn to read in Spanish, but they are not getting it at school. I will have to tell you what I think of it...

Tres Pececitos

2010-03-22T06:00:00.001-05:00

I remember my mother singing this song to me in English. Three little fishes is the perfect song to go along with our ocean theme this year for homeschool Here is a video on Youtube made by KidsConceptCorp. Below are the lyrics taken from their website here.
Tres Pececitos

La Letra:
POR LA PRADERA EN LA LAGUNA ELLOS VAN
SON TRES PECECITOS CON SU LINDA MAMA
ELLA DECIA: NO DEJEN DE NADAR!
Y NADANDO AL DIQUE QUERIAN LLEGAR
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
HACIA EL DIQUE NADARON JUNTOS SIN PARAR
ALTO! LES DIJO LA MAMA AL OBSERVAR
QUE PUEDEN PERDERSE SI MUY LEJOS SE VAN
SI VIERON QUE JUNTOS LO PODRIAN LOGRAR
Y NADARON Y NADARON HASTA LLEGAR AL MAR
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHUY
PRONTO LLEGARON HASTA EL INMENSO MAR
VIVA!! GRITARON , LO PUDIMOS LOGRAR!!
NADAREMOS TODO EL DIA HASTA QUE LLEGUE EL FINAL
Y PRONTO ACERCANDOSE SE PUDO AVISTAR
UN GRAN TIBURON QUE LOS HIZO TEMBLAR
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
EL GRAN TIBURON YA MUY CERCA ESTA
SOCORRO!!! GRITABAN CON UN MIEDO FATAL
QUERIAN QUE ALGUIEN LOS PUDIERA AYUDAR
LAS GRANDES BALLENAS PUDIERON ESCUCHAR
Y EL FEROZ TIBURON SE EMPEZÓ A ALEJAR
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
Y DEL MAR SE ALEJARON PARA AL DIQUE LLEGAR
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
BOOP BOOP DIT-TEM DAT TEM WHAT-TEM CHU
Y SEGUROS VIVIERON JUNTO A SU MAMA

Sing-A-Lingo Review and Giveaway

2010-03-19T06:00:00.003-05:00

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED****

Winner from random.org is Adriana #13. Congratulations!

Kids love to sing, so why not sing about everyday activities in Spanish?

Sing-a-Lingo has created an upbeat music CD for children to learn Spanish. Each song narrates regular activities like opening the refrigerator to eat, washing your hands, getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting ready for bed, etc. The music is so catchy and repetitious, my kids immediately start dancing and singing along when I put the music on.
Here is a cute video clip of the creators, Piña and Michael Madera, dancing along with their song, "Hola, Amigos".

"Hola, Amigos" is our new favorite song to sing in the morning while we eat breakfast. It's a perfect reminder for my children to speak in Spanish (on our Spanish days). My youngest who is only 21 months can sing the words "Como estas?" and it is adorable. This would be a great way to introduce Spanish for anyone with small children. It would naturally flow with your normal routine!

Things I love about Sing-a-Lingo:
-music is catchy
-easy to dance to
-very simple and repetitious, perfect for learning fast
-completely in Spanish with no English

Sing-a-Lingo has created an all-day program which includes 2 CD's one for home and one for the car (great idea!), Singable Book for Bedtime, Lyric Cards, & Word Notes to put around objects at your house. What a great way to introduce children to Spanish all day long!

Want to win a copy of the CD En Mi Casa by Sing-a-Lingo?

Here is how to enter this giveaway contest:

*Go here and come back to this post, make a comment telling us one thing you learned about Sing-A-Lingo (awards, songs you listened to, etc.)

Want additional entries?
After submitting your first entry you can do the following:
-Become a facebook fan of Wanna Jugar with Migo page (you must already be a part of facebook). Click on the Become a fan button on the right side bar. Come back to this post and make another comment saying you are a fan.
-Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry.
-Become a follower of this blog. Make a comment telling us that you follow our blog (even if you are already a follower)

Giveaway ends Thursday, March 25th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. After I announce the winner , the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours to get the prize. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail or include your e-mail with your comments so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners have lost out on products they win because they didn't respond.

Un Pulpito

2010-03-17T10:00:00.002-05:00

At a recent Spanish storytime we attended, I loved the theme "Seco o Mojado." We read two informational books about wet animals. Then the teacher took out a tub of puppets. The children had to say if it was a dry or a wet animal and put it into two groups. It was great for practising animal vocabulary and mojado and seco. We then sang Un Pulpito by Charlotte Diamond, a cute song about a fish that gets eaten by an octopus, who gets eaten by a shark, etc. We are studying the ocean theme this year for homeschool, so I was so excited to have this reinforcement of vocabulary we have already learned.

Here is a video on youtube with the lyrics and the music, although if you use it, I would buy the song on amazon here.

I found some patterns online from a library website to create your own visuals either on cardstock and color or cut out of flannel and make a flannel board story. Click here for the patterns and scroll down to where it says Un Pulpito.

Spring Cleaning!

2010-03-15T18:22:00.003-05:00

I felt like this blog needed some organizing. There may have been a few old posts sent to you via feed and I apologize. I have now categorized every post we have done under the following labels:

Activities (32) find games, worksheets, visuals to help children learn Spanish

Advanced Level (4) more advanced level activities, songs and videos

Beginner Level (38) activities, songs, resources for more beginner level focusing on more simple vocabulary

Bilingual Life (14) experiences, frustrations and thoughts as I raise my children in both Spanish and English

books (20) links to books to read and our reviews

giveaways (22) all past and current giveaways

Intermediate Level (14) activities with more intermediate vocabulary (using more past tense, etc.)

interviews (8) interviews we have written up of authors, musicians and companies that create products to teach Spanish to children

Lesson Plans (6) immersion preschool lesson plans I have used while teaching ages 3-5

links (16) links to products, other Spanish teaching sites, etc.

reviews (20) what we think of products, music, videos and other resources to help teach Spanish to children

Songs (29) lyrics, music accompaniment, activities to go along with songs, etc.

videos (20) links to video clips or DVD's to purchase and our reviews.

**There were a few requests to put all of the immersion preschool lesson plans in the same spot. You can find them by clicking on Lesson Plans on the label links on the right bar below followers!

I hope you can get more out of this site and it will be more useful for you by organizing it a little more! Just click on the right bar that says labels with any of these catergories. Thanks for reading our blog!

Put on a Play!

2010-03-15T09:34:00.006-05:00

Giveaways are coming back! I have a lot of fun, exciting giveaways coming this week and the weeks to come! I also want to start posting more regularly :)

My children love to pretend and act out stories, the more dramatic the better. My second daughter (age 3 1/2) sometimes will not speak completely in Spanish. If I am using a silly voice in a play, she will repeat it all in Spanish! Lately we have been enjoying reading out of Horas Encantadas by Dorothy Sword Bishop, a book full of simple plays. Some stories include Cinderella, Snow White, Jack and the Beanstalk, Don Quijote, etc. They have a lot of repetition and simple vocabulary so they are perfect for beginners/intermediate level.

We choose characters (I usually give my second daughter the smallest part). Since my children cannot read, I usually whisper in their ear what they have to say. I encourage them to really act the part (have a deep voice, a mean voice, a sweet princess voice, etc.) We will practice the same play multiple times and soon I don't have to repeat some of the words. Last week, the girls acted out Don Quijote and my second daughter was the horse. You can find options for buying it here. I bought mine used and it looks like new.

Dialogues are a perfect way to get children speaking in another language. The more they practice the dialogue, the better it is. When I was younger about 8 years old, I remember waking up before breakfast and my Dad teaching me a simple dialogue he had learned while studying Spanish. We memorized it and had a lot of fun with it. I could say my part quickly and it gave me confidence that I could speak Spanish.

Sarita at her Musicuentos blog posted a perfect dialogue the kids would love to act out- DORA! Here is a link to her simple, fun play acting out a Dora episode. This is a perfect, FREE play to try out.

Do you know of any books that have simple Spanish plays to use with children?

Flashlight Find

2010-03-04T16:30:00.006-06:00

I love playing games with my kids. With my oldest daughter, I can have a great conversation in Spanish. My second daughter doesn't chat as much. She does enjoy playing games with me, so to practice her Spanish, we have to play a game.

I decided to use something they love- the flashlight. We took 5 objects and made sure everyone knew what they were called in Spanish. We had to find a room that could get really dark (we ended up sitting in the bathroom and they loved it!). We placed the objects in a row. Then we took turns holding the flashlight. They would shine the light on one object and then say:

"En la obscuridad, no veo muchas cosas pero sí puedo ver.... un osito de peluche!"

It was a silly way to review some vocabulary, but they loved the suspense of the dark and then using the flashlight! Hope someone else can use this little game :)

Giveaways!

2010-02-25T20:01:00.004-06:00

I wish I could update this blog more. I have so many ideas of topics to share and discuss, but so many things have come up! Life is getting busy.

I didn't want you to miss out on two fabulous giveaway going on right now on Mama Latina Tips blog. Click here to win a Spanish music CD for children from 123 Spanish Together. I love how the songs have fun rhythms and have a variety of topics.

I'm also hoping to sin a copy of this fabulous yoga DVD in Spanish. It is completely in Spanish and includes a work-out for children that looks adorable! Click here to enter the contest. Good luck!

Video: Sami el Heladero

2010-02-05T08:00:00.001-06:00

This is an adorable movie about a little penguin that sells ice cream. He decides to go to Africa and sells ice cream there, but when he wants to leave, the animals put him in jail. Well, Sami makes such a ruckus and puts ground nails and wet pepper (?) in the ice cream until the animals let him go back home. The vocabulary might be alot, but it covers some fun flavors and foods. The way the kids in the video dance in it is pretty funny. My favorite part is the rhyming like "Para el león helado de limón para el tigre feroz helado con arroz para el elefante un helado gigante para toda la pandilla un helado de vainilla" Enjoy!

Lyrics from Source here

Samy el Heladero

Samy el heladero
es un pingüino feliz y gordito
vive en su patria de hielo
vendiendo helados y empujando su carrito
Los helados que Sammy vende
los hace con agua y con risa.
A veces le pone leche, nueces molidasy un poco de brisa
Samy un día partió al Africa
empujando su carrito
los animales salvajes comieron helado
y quedaron fresquesitos
Para el león helado de limón
para el tigre feroz helado con arroz
para el elefante un helado gigante
para toda la pandilla un helado de vainilla
Samy el heladero quiso volvera su patria de hielo
los animales salvajes del Africa
lo tomaron prisionero
Samy en su calabozo lloraba gritaba
y pataleaba y a los helados le echaba
clavos molidos y pimienta mojada
Pero por fin lo soltaron
porque se cansaron de oírles sus gritos
y Samy el heladero volvió a su patria
empujando su carrito
Para el león helado de limón
para el tigre feroz helado con arroz
para el elefante un helado gigante
para toda la familia un helado de vainilla

Bajo El Agua and other informational books

2010-02-03T15:14:00.005-06:00

For homeschool science and social studies this year we are doing an ocean theme. Last semester we focused on boats and sailors. This semester we are focusing on animals of the sea and shore. The nonfiction books I find in Spanish are either too simple or too difficult. Some books have one word on each page or way too much information that it will lose my girls.

When I find a nonfiction book that they can understand, it is a big deal! We recently found Bajo El Agua by TwoCan publishers at the library. I searched on amazon and found they have a series of these informational books in Spanish. Here is a link to the search I did.

It has information explained in pretty simple language. I also loved the back page with questions. It was great for a discussion and to see that my kids really did understand the book.

Do you have any other informational books or series in Spanish that you use or like?

Songs to Shine About/ Canciones Para Brillar :)

2010-01-19T10:00:00.003-06:00

I haven't blogged about anything religious that I do with my girls, but this is a big part of what we do! I love teaching my children about their Heavenly Father. It's fun to help them learn this vocabulary in Spanish as well.

I have started doing devotionals in the morning in Spanish. Our church has a website that includes children's songs in Spanish. I just love the songs about shining and being a good example to others.

Here are two songs we love to sing and we just learned in devotional.
**If you teach Spanish, these would be two perfect songs to teach about when to use subjunctive and not to use subjunctive.

Cristo Me Manda Que Brille (click on to see written music)

*The site has both the accompiament with voice and music and then just music if you go here scroll down to Cristo Me Manda Que Brille and click on the mp3 buttons. The mp3 on left is letra y musica and the mp3 in middle is just musica. you can save target as and save on your computer. It's free!

Letra: Cristo Me Manda Que Brille
Cristo me manda que brille, que brille para el
siendole siempre humilde, y siempre siendo fiel
Que brille, que brille, cristo me manda que brille.
Que brille, que brille, Yo brillare para el.

Yo Soy Como Estrella Que Brilla is another really sweet one. Here is my oldest singing the song with a cough in the middle :)

Letra: Yo Soy Como Estrella Que Brilla
Yo soy como estrella que brilla
para todo el que la ve
con felicidad, mostrare bondad
porque me ama mi padre lo se.

*You can get this one with music and with words as well. go here scroll down to Yo Soy Como Estrella. The mp3 button on left is letra y musica and the mp3 in middle is just musica. You can "save target as" and save on your computer. It's free!

I'm Trying My Best

2010-01-19T09:49:00.006-06:00

A while ago I posted about feeling frustrated that I couldn't find a friend that only spoke Spanish to my daughter. I wondered if I am really succeeding at teaching my children Spanish. Yes, I still would love to find a friend for her that would only speak in Spanish. But I have realized that I am trying my best and that is all I can do!

I decided to get all the Spanish books I could find within their reach. (I might add, we haven't been to the library for Spanish books lately, this is mostly our own books). We do read a lot in Spanish. They love these books just as much as the English ones. Sometimes my oldest daughter starts playing Barbies in Spanish and comes out with a word that I know I didn't teach her. Then I remember hearing if from a book we have read together. I know that I am succeeding, even if just a little bit.

I look for opportunities in the area for her to practice Spanish. Our latest babysitter (that would only speak Spanish, see this post) didn't work out as well as our babysitter where we lived before. She just seemed like she wasn't really enjoying playing with my children, instead she was more doing it just for the money. So I am trying to find another babysitter. Now, I am a little impatient finding another babysitter, but I decided I am going to try my best and then relax. I have googled "Spanish storytime" so many times in my area, maybe something will show up closer to me. Trying my best is all I can do!

Sometimes I get frustrated and think, "Maybe my accent is not good enough or my grammar isn't always correct." I hear their mistakes and wonder whether other children their age make the same mistakes. But then I remember something is better than nothing and I'm trying my best!

Por fin...a chapter book to read aloud!

2010-01-16T01:42:00.004-06:00

My oldest daughter loves reading chapter books. She get excited about what will happen next and gets very involved with the story. Well, it seems like every Spanish chapter book I have found to read-aloud used more difficult language than she could handle. As we read the story, we would need to stop so often because she asked what was happening. I wanted to find something at her level that she could understand.

The book series I found works wonderfully for girls (sorry, I don't know which books for boys?!) It is called Rainbow Magic series. We checked out Ambar, El Hada Anaranjada, and my daughter loves it. The language is simple enough to understand and complex enough to really stretch my daughter. I'm very excited :)

Any other good, simple chapter books in Spanish that you like to use with your children or students?

What to do?!

2009-12-30T10:27:00.004-06:00

I have had this same frustration many times before! I hope that you can help me! Please comment with any suggestions.

I feel like my kids need more Spanish!! They need more than just me and my husband (we do have a babysitter that speaks only in Spanish, thank goodness!). I am a part of a wonderful group of moms that speak Spanish to their children. The problem: my oldest daugher (5 1/2) needs a friend that only speaks in Spanish with her. There are a few boys her age in the group. She enjoys playing with boys, but loves playing with girls. Some of the boys speak Spanish, but most of them switch into English pretty quickly. My daughter can really speak Spanish and carry on great conversations with me, but if the conversation goes English, she does, too! Don't get me wrong, I still want her to build friendships in this group. It is wonderful, but I feel like she needs to really feel a need to speak in Spanish. Her Spanish would take off and she would have the motivation she needs.

I have to say there have been a few times that I have felt like giving up. One time we went to a park playdate. Another 5 year old little girl was coming from the Spanish speaking group. My daughter was so exctied to meet someone her age that spoke in Spanish. We got there and the mom with the 5 year old only spoke English to the other moms. Her daughter was shy, but eventually she went to the sandbox. My daughter went over and started playing with her (in Spanish). The girl moved away from her and didn't say a word. This went on for about an hour. My daughter wanted to go home eventually because she wouldn't play with her! Driving home, I wondered why I am even teaching my kids Spanish if no one will talk to them!

My biggest pet peeve is when Spanish speakers meet my daughter and then they switch into English instantly and don't even try to let her speak in Spanish. I tell them she speaks Spanish and I know they are thinking "Oh, yeah, I bet she knows her colors and watches Dora." I don't know how to communicate that she really can speak Spanish!

I have thought about starting an older playgroup, but I don't know if the kids will really speak Spanish or if there is any interest in doing this because of busy schedules. As many of you know, I am homeschooling her right now. She is in Kindergarten and we do a lot in Spanish. Schedules are getting busier with kids her age. But I really feel that if I don't find a friend soon, she will lose motivation. I have been known to go up to strangers in the park and try to get to know any child I see speaking Spanish. I feel like people think I am strange and fanatical!!

There are several Spanish classes in the area (all immersion). Some are about $22 an hour and, again, there really are kids to play with, just the instructor speaks Spanish. They are also teaching and reviewing things she already knows (colors, shapes, parts of the body).

I just don't know what to do!

Thanks for letting me express my frustrations. I read amazing articles from Spanglish Baby like this one. I feel like I want to do those things, but they don't seem possible. Please let me know any suggestions you have.

Book Reviews and Discounts!

2009-12-10T09:54:00.005-06:00

I love giving my children books for Christmas. They love them, sometimes even more than toys. They also never get bored of them. I think reading a variety of books has increased my girls' Spanish vocabulary more than any other thing. We always have at least 20 books in Spanish checked out from the library. Here are a few places to buy books.

Barefoot Books is having a sale of 30% off and free shipping. This is a great deal! They have a great selection of books in Spanish. My personal favorite is De Paseo por La Selva with the music CD. It would be $7 with free shipping with the discount. It is such an adorable book and song. Another great book I recommend is El Nabo Gigante. I'm definitely taking advantage of this great deal and buying some for my kids for Christmas.

A beautiful book that we gave my siblings for Christmas to read at Nochebuena is The Legend of the Poinsettia. There are many versions, but I do love Tomie de Paola's version. It is not completely in Spanish, but it is great to introduce your children to some cultural traditions in Mexico. There are Spanish words introduced throughout the book. You have to read this precious book at Christmas time!

Language Lizard has a large selection of books in English along with your choice of 40 other languages. They sent me two books to review. Las Navidades de Marek y Alice was a sweet book about two children celebrating a Polish Christmas. It is fun to learn about other cultural traditions especially around Christmas time. I liked the pictures, although a few sentences seemed a little confusing to me. Ricitos de Oro y Los Tres Osos was a cute version of this loved story. The illustrations were adorable.

As a special contest, my mother offers her grandchildren a money prize if they learn every word in the First Thousand Words in Spanish book. They study each page and then have to talk with her over the phone to pass them off. She asks them in Spanish to tell her each word, for example, "¿Cuál animal dice mu?" I have really enjoyed reading this book with my girls. We use the First Thousand Words in Spanish Sticker Book that you can find here. It is only $10 and there are 500 stickers included. The illustrations are adorable and perfect for having a conversation. The girls don't lose interest because they get to take turns find the missing sticker and pasting it on the page. I have increased my vocabulary as well. Do you know how to say tadpoles? I didn't. Usborne books has a great selection of other books in Spanish

I wish I had time to post a few pictures, but things are crazy busy right now!

'Tis the Season...

2009-11-20T11:04:00.006-06:00

for giving and giveaways! I didn't want you to miss out and me to miss out on extra entries. All are giveaways that can help your child learn Spanish...

El Baile del Sombrero CD here until November 22nd

Table Topics for a box full of conversation starters here. They have a family version in Spanish/English!

Little Pim Spanish Bop and DVD here.

$10 gift card to Baskin Robbins here! Make it a special outing in Spanish with your kids.

Recommended Toy!

2009-11-19T10:53:00.005-06:00

Leap Frog is coming out with the leapster and all sorts of other games. I am still buying My First Leap Pad and its books. Why? My kids love playing with it. It's simple, easy to follow, shaped like a book and they have a lot of book completely in Spanish. I bought about 4 books for My First Leap Pad in Spanish for my daughter. It is great to following instructions, learning vocabulary and comprehension. Although I still have to limit the amount she plays with it, I feel like it is better than watching a movie or even a computer game because she is actively involved, reading, playing a game, etc. My kids don't get bored of this and it's a great supplement to speaking Spanish to them.

This Christmas, my oldest is getting a Leap Pad with 2 Spanish books. Don't tell :) I bought my daughter's new Leap Pad for $10 on craigslist (had 3 books in English included) and then bought 2 Spanish books for $15 total.

Here are links to some books on amazon in Spanish. Make sure to check out the Leap Frog website as well and search for Spanish. They seem to be phasing out of these products, so many of them are cheap, so hurry!

This is part of the Toys My Kids Actually Plays With McLinkey. You can find Adriana's posts here.

El Baile del Sombrero Review and Giveaway

2009-11-13T15:39:00.011-06:00

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***

Winners are: #8 Adriana, #1 Queen to my 3 boys
and #6 Tricia

The biggest smiles come on my daughters' faces when El Baile Del Sombrero comes up on our CD changer in our car. They almost want to leap out of their seats to dance along. This has become our latest favorite children's music in Spanish to listen to.

Although it is created for children in mind, I think adults will enjoy the variety and fun lyrics on the CD. Charles and Fati, a couple raising their two children bilingually, decided to create children's music since they already sang and danced with their children during the day. Fati, a native from Argentina, always speaks in Spanish to her children. Charles from Washington D.C. and Brooklyn always speaks in English. Charles and Fati have always communicated this way, even before they had children. What a natural way to raise your children bilingually! They have loved performing in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Lujan, Argentina to other families who speak Spanish or want to learn. Learn more about their story here

The name of their website, Abbasubi, captures the fun, playful style of their music. In Charles' family, his mother would say "Abbasubi" instead of "No!" if the children were getting into mischief. This would usually result in giggles from the silly word instead of getting upset.

Like our last giveaway, this music goes beyond the simple Spanish vocabulary in countless Spanish children's music. They don't teach colors, shapes and parts of the body. They use the Spanish as you would naturally use it in everyday life. I love this!

Things I love:

-Song lyrics talk about the everyday experiences of a child

-The songs teach vocabulary beyond simple words and phrases, so they are perfect for children that have had some exposure already to Spanish

-Each song has a different style, salsa, lullaby, reggae feel and mariachi. We love to dance to the songs after dinner :)

-The songs encourage hand and body movements. My kids know what the songs are about because we dance whatever is being sung. La esponja goes to your head, your nose, etc. You have to move the sombrero between your legs and put it on again.

-Fati and Charles have more Argentine accents. My children haven't really met any Argentine people and so at first they noticed the different accent. I think it is wonderful to expose children to all the varieties of native Spanish accents. Then when they travel or meet people from all over Latin America or Spain, they can easily communicate with them.

By far, our favorite song is La Pulga y Su Familia. A song about a little flea who invites her family to come with her to visit different animals on a rainy day. My girls know every word and love to itch all over as the animals itch in the song.

You have to check out this music. All the creative lyrics to the songs are on their website. You can listen to samples of all songs on their CD by clicking here. You can also listen to full versions of several songs by visiting here.

Fati and Charles are giving away 3 El Baile del Sombrero CD's to 3 lucky readers of this blog!

How to enter:
Go here to listen to samples of songs from El Baile del Sombrero CD's. Come back to this post and make a comment telling us the name of your favorite song you listened to. That's it!

Want more entries?
Blog about this giveaway giving them a direct link to this post and receive 2 more entries. If you don't have a blog, you can e-mail 6 people and cc a copy of the e-mail to wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com. Please come back here and make 2 additional comments so this can count!

You can have up to 3 entries in this contest (this will increase your chances of winning, although you can only win 1 CD)

Contest Ends November 22, 2009 at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to three times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends Sunday, November 22th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on November 23rd and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners might lose out on products they win if they don't respond.

Giveaways for Christmas

2009-11-13T09:00:00.001-06:00

I love giveaways! I love hosting them and I love winning them :) I have recently won Ice Age 3 DVD, Dora DVD and an incredible picture book in Spanish. What am I going to do with them? Wrap some up and give them to my kids for Christmas!

I didn't want you to miss out :)

Adriana at My Bilingual Boys is giving away a $25 amazon.com gift card here
SpanglishbabyFinds is giving away An Easy Alphabet by Bilingual Readers here
SpanglishbabyFinds is giving away Up! DVD/Blue Ray pack here
CafeMom is giving away Little Pim DVD set here

Good luck!

Tatilandia Videos

2009-11-04T08:00:00.002-06:00

I have heard of Tatiana and I think I saw some of her TV show she did a while ago. I found these videos and they are very fun. I'm not a fan of her mini skirt. But the first song does mention some fun ways of transportation. The girls love them and sing along. Enjoy!

Babysitter Turned into Immersion Teacher

2009-11-02T08:46:00.006-06:00

To this day, my oldest daughter still believes Melissa only speaks Spanish. Who is Melissa? (name changed to be published online) She was my children's babysitter/teacher.

After reading The Bilingual Edge, I began to realize that my children would soon figure out that they didn't need to speak Spanish. I spoke Spanish and English. So did my husband. Most everyone they met that spoke Spanish also spoke English perfectly well. The Bilingual Edge talks about how children have to feel a need to speak the second language or they will lose motivation. Yes, I can insist with my children that they speak in Spanish, but they know I can understand them if they speak in English.

When my oldest daughter turned 3, she was starting to speak Spanish. She would still switch into English and Spanglish and then a little more Spanish. I wanted her to learn to only respond in Spanish when she was spoken to in Spanish.

We knew a Chilean man from our church. He told us about his granddaughter that was a senior in high school who wanted to study elementary education. I explained to him that I needed someone to speak Spanish with my girls. I e-mailed his granddaughter, Melissa, and asked her if she would be willing to teach my kids Spanish by playing games and actively playing with them. I told her the one rule is that she could never speak English in front of my kids. We could e-mail and talk over the phone together in English, but if we were ever in front of the kids, we had to speak Spanish. I was very adamant about this rule. I asked her to come 1-2 hours once or twice a week.

Since she was still a teenager, I didn't expect her to prepare lessons and activities every time she came. I knew that I didn't want her to just sit back and let the kids play by themselves or watch a movie. So, I e-mailed her games that she could play with them (Simon says, memory, etc.) and borrowed a stack of good Spanish books from the library. When she arrived the first time, I didn't leave her to babysit, I stayed the entire time. I played a game and included her to show her how much I wanted her to repeat words and how I wanted her to insist that my daughter say words in Spanish. Then I let them read books and do an activity alone. We did this many weeks until finally, I left for half of the time. Then I started leaving the entire time. She continued to do fun activities (make rice krispies, play dress-up and read the stack of books I would leave each time). My daughter really took off with her Spanish after having this immersion-type babysitting. I highly recommend it. We actually had her sister come babysit a few times, but after talking to my daughter afterwards, I found out she spoke in Spanglish not only in Spanish.

There are tutors who will charge an enormous amount for playing with your children. I suggest finding a teenager or young adult that could watch your children who is fluent in Spanish. You can help her know what you expect. We had a great experience with this. Obviously your child needs to feel comfortable with the language and be able to understand it so that this can work :)

Steps to have a babysitter become your "immersion teacher":

E-mail or meet with the babysitter (must be fluent in Spanish :) emphasizing your expectations of only speaking Spanish to your child and the activities/books you want her to do with your child. Have the activities/books ready when the babysitter comes.
When your babysitter comes for the first few times, remember that you can only speak with her in Spanish as well (this way your child thinks they don't speak English). You have to be strict about this or the babysitter will just be like any other babysitter.
Stay with your child and the babysitter if needed. Depending on the babysitter, show the babysitter how much you want her to insist on speaking in Spanish and how much you want her to repeat by modeling.
Continue to leave activities and stories each time and make sure they continue speaking only in Spanish to your child!
Pay her a little more than the average babysitter so she will keep coming and because she is doing a little extra work.

My mom gave me this wonderful idea and it has been so successful for our family. Now that we are settled since we moved, I spoke with numerous people I knew (through our church and other friends). I found someone that I think will be great at becoming my children's new "immersion teacher." She comes tomorrow afternoon. I will tell you how it goes :)

Try it out! Good luck!

Please share: How do you create a need to speak in Spanish as you teach your children?

Juguemos en Español CD/Book Giveaway!

2009-10-30T15:27:00.007-05:00

******GIVEAWAY CLOSED********

The winners are: #8 SIMONE AND #3 ADRIANA

As I search for materials to help my children learn Spanish, I find numerous songs and books that teach numbers, colors and body parts. But what can I give my children if they are beyond simple vocabulary. I want them to have a broad vocabulary in Spanish.

I was so excited to try out Susy Dorn's products. We received Sal y Pimienta DVD and CD to review. Let me start telling you about the CD.

Things I love about Susy's music

-Fun, catchy music that covers a wide variety of topics (beyond colors and shapes!). Some of the topics include what foods you put salt and pepper in while you cook, a crazy lady who does all the chores in her house, a song about all the insects and animals with spots, and a space exploring all the different planets. These are all on the CD I reviewed.

-There is a lot of rhyming, great for getting my girls to recognize rhyming in Spanish, preparing them to start phonics in Spanish. I love the song about all the animals playing instruments that rhyme with their names.

-They use more advanced vocabulary, but there is repetition and simple wording, so it is easy to learn and remember the lyrics.

-My children have memorized the songs very quickly. I was surprised when my daughter could sing an entire song (using gestures) after hearing it only 3 times.

The Susy Dorn DVD Sal y Pimienta uses the same techniques she uses in her immersion program. She uses puppets and exaggerated gestures to communicate only in Spanish. I have to admit that the clown nose, mime and exaggerated gestures seemed a little strange to me at first. But I was so impressed with how effectively they teach! My girls memorized the music so fast after watching the DVD, especially my 3 year old. It really captures their attention and they love it.

The same immersion technique works with the books. The book that goes along with each CD/DVD shows the children what is sung. They don't need translation because it is all shown to them through pictures.

Susy Dorn is giving away 2 CD/Book sets, La Marcha de Las Aves and Rimas y Mas Rimas to 2 different readers of this blog!

Here is how you enter:

Go to Susy Dorn's website or listen to the song previews in the box below. Make a comment on this post telling me which song you liked. You have entered!

Want additional entries?
-Become a facebook fan of Wanna Jugar with Migo page (you must already be a part of facebook). Click on the Become a fan button on the right side bar. Come back to this post and make another comment saying you are a fan.
-Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry.
-Become a follower of this blog. Make a comment telling us that you follow our blog (even if you are already a follower)

Giveaway ends Sunday, November 8th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends Sunday, November 8th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on November 9thand the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners might lose out on products they win if they don't respond.

Susy Dorn Interview

2009-10-30T15:03:00.005-05:00

A blogging friend recommended that I look at products by Susy Dorn. I am sure glad that I did!

Susy Dorn is a native Spanish speaker from Peru that has created a fun, immersion approach to teaching Spanish to young children. From her website, "she is director and founder of “Juguemos en Espanol”. She has a degree in Early Childhood Education from the Universidad Catolica de Lima-Peru. She is a musician, performer and puppeteer with fourteen years of experience working with children. She has recorded CDs and has created DVDs and books for children in Spanish."

I had the pleasure of speaking with Susy on the phone. Here is my interview:

How do you teach Spanish to young children?

We use puppets and music and a different theme each week to motivate the children to come to class every week and to be able to introduce the children to different things. Music and puppets are the biggest things we use in the class. Of course, we repeat a lot. Every week we have a different theme, transportation or colors, the house, you name it. There are a bunch of CD’s we have created. There are 20 songs in each CD and in each song there is a different theme that we teach every week. Then when they get home and they listen to the CD and the books, they get to review whatever they did in class.

Why do you use music and puppets primarily? Why are they effective?

When you learn something through music, you will always remember it. Even people with Alzheimers , they don’t remember much, but they can sing songs from when they were 2 or 3. If you learn something through music, it stays in your head forever . I remember in college I was horrible on tests and I had to remember a lot things, so I would just create a song. Puppets are huge. Where the adults don’t reach, the puppets will. Both are very effective techniques that teach children. I have been using them for a long time since I was in Peru. We have more than 3,000 puppets. Every week there is a different puppet on the puppet show. Their little faces light up every time. “Vamos a ver los titeres” and everybody runs to the puppet house and they can stay there for hours.

How do you use complete immersion?

It is very different because we have a lot of props, a huge amount of props for children. We don’t need to speak in English because they see everything that we say. We don’t really need to speak in English in the class. It works really great, we have been doing this for 10 years. Of course, the materials are huge because even if they are not taking the classes, the materials are a great way for children to learn at home with their parents. The classes are only offered here [in California Bay Area ] right now, but we have an idea to offer this to other people who want to teach it around the country but we don’t know how long it is going to take. However, the materials are right there for parents to buy and learn Spanish at home with their kids in a really fun way. That’s why we created the books, because the children can listen to the CD’s and they have a book of reference to understand what the words of the songs are. The songs are very simple and catchy. In the books, there are the illustrations of the words of the songs.

**Check out the current giveaway of CD and Book sets by Susy Dorn!

Pin Pon in Shrek

2009-10-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

La Profesora Sarita posted this on her blog and I had to share. It made me laugh.

Usually movies or books aren't translated perfectly. They lose their charm when they are translated. But when they dubbed over Shrek, they even took out the funny part when they are torturing the gingerbread man and he confesses that is was the muffin man. Well there is no muffin man in Spanish, so they switched it to Pin Pon. Pin Pon es un muneco y se lava la carita. I love it! Here is what La Profesora Sarita wrote about it here.

Moving Picture Books Review & Giveaway

2009-10-20T14:35:00.009-05:00

***Giveaway Closed***

Winners are: #9 TRICIA, #12 SUSAN, #6 ADRIANA. Thank you for entering!

I am always on the look-out for materials that my children can listen to or watch to add to the Spanish they hear from my husband and me. It gives them a wider range of vocabulary and motivates them to speak more Spanish. One of the most important aspects for me personally is that it is a native speaker reading or narrating, since I am not a native speaker :)

Moving Picture Books takes adorable children's picture books and then animates, adds sound effects and puts music to them. They have them in English, English with read-along text and Spanish! The animation is well-done and perfect for kids to help them understand even if they know only a little Spanish.

Here is one preview of "On Top of Spaghetti" in Spanish:

My girls love watching them and giggle as they see the stories come to life. My oldest daughter was fascinated with the "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." "Como puede tragar un caballo?"

Things I love:
-how children see what is spoken so they understand it
-you can buy individual episodes for only $1! I can pick out my favorites that weren't on the DVD I reviewed :) Very Affordable!
-they are short and could be digitally downloaded to an video MP3 or iPhone easily (imagine waiting in a doctor's office and showing your child a quick clip)
-they have adapted some of my favorite books.

Things to watch for:
-the Spanish translations are direct translations. The ABC stories or The Day Pigs Fly don't translate so well. But you can preview all of them and decide which ones your children would love the most!
-Most of the stories are narrated by native speakers. There are a few stories read by children which is adorable. But there are also a few read by someone who Spanish is their second language. She has a great accent, but I am picky and I notice even the slightest accent. To some this would be an advantage, because the speaker's Spanish might be easier to copy.

Moving Picture Books has generously offered to give away 3 DVD's to 3 different readers of this blog!! You may request which DVD you would like and they will send you that DVD depending on availability. The DVD's have English, English with read-along text and Spanish versions on them! Isn't it wonderful!!!

Here is how to enter:
- Go here to look at their previews. (All previews are in English and Spanish!) Come back to this post and make a comment telling us which was your favorite story that you previewed.

Additional entries:

-Become a facebook fan of Wanna Jugar with Migo page (you must already be a part of facebook). Search for Wanna Jugar with Migo. Come back to this post and make another comment saying you are a fan.

-Blog about this giveaway with a link to this post and receive 2 more entries in the contest. Remember to come back to this post and make 2 more comments with a link to your blog entry.

-Become a follower of this blog. Make a comment telling us that you follow our blog (even if you are already a follower)

Giveaway ends Tuesday, October 27th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to four times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends Tuesday, October 27th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on October 28th and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners might lose out on products they win if they don't respond.

Facebook!!

2009-10-14T18:55:00.003-05:00

We have a facebook fan page!

I know sometimes e-mails and readers don't get checked. Facebook is an easy way to keep you updated on giveaways or links and ideas we find.

*I only want to post once or twice a week, because I don't want to fill up people's walls too much.

Become a fan to help us spread the word! We really appreciate it :)

Search for Wanna Jugar with Migo if this link doesn't work.

Oh, yeah. There is an exclusive facebook fan giveaway coming up! Don't want you to miss it!

Animales de la Selva Lesson Plan

2009-10-14T16:14:00.006-05:00

We have been sick for a couple of weeks. But we hope to have class next week. Here is a class we did a couple of weeks ago.

Animales de la Selva

Buenos Dias by Jose-Luis Orozco (see first lesson for explanation)
Como Te Llamas Tu tap (see first lesson for explanation)

Activity: Each child took turns drawing a stuffed animal out of the bag. I would say the names and all would repeat. They drew out un elefante, un leon, un mono y un oso.

Game: All the children covered their eyes while I hid one of the animals behind my back. Then the children opened their eyes and had to answer the question, "Cual animal no esta?" El elefante no esta. We did this multiple times.

Book/Flannel Board: Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo by by Bill Martin Jr., Eric Carle
*I checked out a storytime kit from my library which came with this adorable flannel board storytelling kit from Lakeshore Learning. Check to see if your local library or one nearby lends storytelling kits :) I would pause to see if they could name the animal before me as I read the story.

Activity: I took out a barrel of monkeys (they are like $5 at walmart). The children had to help me count as I hung each monkey on top of each other. "un monito, dos monitos, etc." Of course, they loved it when one monkey would fall. After we counted to ten, I swung the monkeys so that they would fall all around the kids . Se cayeron todos los monos! The kids loved this. They helped me put them back in the barrel and we did it all over again. I think this time we even sang the song to the tune of Ten Little Indians singing:

Uno, dos, tres monitos,
cuatro, cinco, seis, monitos,
siete, ocho, nueve monitos,
diez monitos son.

*They have already sung this song with other animals and they love familiarity and repetition.

Cancion: Es Hora de Leer

Book: En un árbol, están 5 monitos by Eileen Christelow

I changed the words slightly when they got to the crocodile part and I actually sang it like this song.

Song: Cinco Monitos Columpiandose en un Arbol
(I don't own the song, just heard it and sang it myself.)
After we read the book, I brought out a glove (again from the library storytime kit, but you could easily make one) The glove had 5 little monkey heads on each finger. My oldest daughter helped me cut out a tree top shape and I pasted it onto a brown paper sack. I had the sack around my arm and the glove peaking out over the tree top.

The kids sang this song with me this time (we just sang it, no music). We did this a couple of times. They loved watching the monkeys disappear with my glove puppet. Here are the words from this website:
Cinco monitos
columpiandose en un arbol,
molestatando al caiman,
"no me puedes agarrar."
Llego el caiman
muy calladito
y agarro a un monito
fuera del arbolito.
Cuatro monitos...Tres monitos...Dos monitos...Un monito...

That is just a winter glove with monkey heads hot glued on. My oldest made the cute alligator!

Book: De Paseo por la Selva by Debbie Harter. This has such a fun CD that goes with it. We love listening to it! We listened to the book/song on CD and of course they loved it!

Craft: Osos de Chocolate,
yummy for the kids (chocolate doughnuts like these are gross to me, but the bears are cute :)

Supplies:
1 Chocolate covered mini doughts (la cabeza)
2 chocolate goldfish (stick the fish tail in the doughnut and they look like orejas)
3 chocolate chips or raisins (los ojos y la nariz!)

Things we had planned, but we didn't do:
Animal Puzzle- My girls and I put together this adorable jungle themed animal puzzle. Then I took out 4 pieces that you could tell went to a certain animal (the lion's head, the elephant's feet, etc.) We were going to have each child have a puzzle piece. Then ask, "Quien tiene la cabeza del leon?" until we put the whole puzzle together.

Song: Cinco elefantes con una tela de arana. Next week I will be doing a fun craft to go along with the song.

*Please leave a comment if you sing a song, read a book or do any games or activities mentioned here! We would love it!

Little Pim Review and Giveaway

2009-10-07T01:23:00.009-05:00

GIVEAWAY CLOSED! Winner from random.org is #12 Jessica. Congrats! I will send you an e-mail asap to get your address!

I have to say that I love how cute this little multilingual panda is! Little Pim is a well-done DVD series for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. They don't just have these in English and Spanish, they have the series in French, Italian, Hebrew, Japanese and Chinese.

I love how the DVD's use full immersion. Many of you know that I am a big believer in complete immersion. There is no translation needed with all of the pictures and repetition. My girls and I enjoyed watching the first DVD Eating and Drinking in Spanish. Each clip is about 5 minutes long with video clips of children using the real objects or doing the real actions with Little Pim saying the words in Spanish. So many times children learn single words in Spanish classes, but can never put them in a sentence. I love how in this DVD, they say words and then use complete sentences. At the end of each clip, there is a quick review over the words learned. There can never be too much repetition!

The vocabulary taught in the DVD was easy for my children since we speak at home, but they still loved watching it. I would have them say the words before Little Pim said them. It was a great way to practice speaking more. This DVD is a perfect way to introduce children to Spanish or review those who are starting to learn. It definitely captivates even the youngest viewers. My 16 month old daughter almost leaped out of my lap when she saw the dogs and cats on the screen (there is a cute episode on pets in the 1st DVD). It gave me a great opportunity to talk with her in Spanish and introduce the new words.

I also tried out the Little Pim Spanish Bop CD. It has become our recent favorite. You have to listen to the samples. The girls and I have been doing a lot of dancing to it! It has classics from Jose-Luis Orozco, but also includes Cantare, Milkshake and Dan Zanes & Friends. I love the mix and highly recommend this CD. Listen to the samples here, my favorite is Son Borinqueño.

The Giveaway:

Would you like to win Little Pim DVD 1 Eating and Drinking in English or Spanish along with an adorable Little Pim plush Panda?

Here is what you have to do:

-Go here to Little Pim's homepage and sign up for the newsletter by entering your e-mail where is says Sign Up and Free Discount Coupon. Then come back to this post and make a comment letting us know you signed up for their newsletter. You get great coupons when you sign up :)

For additional entries:

- Follow Little Pim on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/little_pim then come back to this post and make another comment telling me you follow them on twitter.

-Blog about this giveaway by linking to Little Pim's website at http://www.littlepim.com/ and linking to this giveaway post on Wanna Jugar with Migo. Come back here to make an additional comment on this post with a link to your blog post.

-Become a follower of this blog. Come back to this post and make another comment telling me you follow :) You can make a comment if you are already a follower.

Giveaway ends Tuesday, October 13th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to four times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends Tuesday, October 13th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on October 14th and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

*If you think you will not check back when we announce winners, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your e-mail so I can send you an e-mail that you win. In the past, winners might lose out on products they win if they don't respond.

Giveaway Winner: Jen

2009-10-06T02:05:00.001-05:00

Update: Sorry, Cristina, I waited longer than I had said. I wanted to let you know that you had won, but you didn't respond. I used random.org again and got the winner Jen Beckstead. E-mail me with your address and you will the Bilingual Fun DVD set.

Congrats, Jen!

Once Gatitos

2009-10-04T06:36:00.013-05:00

Tati acknowledged that I help her sometimes, but she is the one who does all the posting. I haven't posted any of my ideas in ages. Well, she reminded me of an idea. Everyone teaches children to count to ten in Spanish. But learning the next five numbers is more difficult. So I made up a little song to teach the numbers from once to veinte. I have the first numbers on my visual but I only sing the last half. Sing to the tune of "Ten Little Indians."

Once, doce, trece gatitos,
Catorce, quince, dieciséis gatitos,
Diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve gatitos,
Veinte gatitos son.

Then we sing it backward. This is more difficult. I always point to the numbers as we sing. This helps them learn the numbers with the words.

Veinte, diecinueve, dieciocho gatitos,
dieciciete, dieciséis, quince gatitos,
Catorce, trece, doce gatitos,
Once gatitos son.

I have another song I use to teach the numbers to 100. I will try to get Tati to post the music so you can hear the tune. The words go:

Diez y veinte son treinta.
treinta y diez son cuarenta.
Cuarenta y diez son cincuenta.
cincuenta y diez son sesenta.
Sesenta y diez son setenta.
Setenta y diez son ochenta.
Ochenta y diez son noventa.
Noventa y diez son cientos.

I usually teach older children so we also do a lot of fun counting activities. We get in a circle and count by twos going around the circle. Then we time it with a stopwatch to see if we can beat our time. Then we do the odd numbers. The other day we did odd numbers backwards from 99 to 1. That was tricky. You can count by sevens, whatever. Timing with a stopwatch makes it more exciting and competitive.

Numbers is a great time to teach them how to ask how much something costs. We do this after we have studied "school" vocabulary so I use the following pages to ask them "¿Cuánto cuesta el lápiz?" I also have some musical instruments because so many of them are cognates. I want to get into the larger numbers.

Animales: Las Mascotas

2009-10-01T17:59:00.006-05:00

I have to mention that I love having a mom that loves Spanish teaching as much as I do. I chat with her probably every week about what I am planning to do. She always has great activities and songs to suggest. A lot of these ideas come from her! Thanks, mom!

Well, I am a week behind. This is what we did last Thursday, not this morning :)

Welcome Song: Buenos Dias
Como te llamas?

Song: Los Patitos Van al Agua (the only recording I could find is not a good recording, she even says she has a sore throat. She sings other verses and leaves out the tralala at the end You can find it here.)
Los patitos van al agua, tienen ganas de nadar
En hiladas bien formadas, todos pueden caminar
tralala tralala tralalalalalala

After I sang it two times with the flannel board from last week. I had the children act like ducks and get in a line following me as the mother duck and quacking a lot :)

Book: Ven, Gatita, Ven! by Pat Mora

Activity: The children closed there eyes while I hid a stuffed animal cat. Then they took turns hiding it. The children had to say "Donde esta la gatita?" Ella encontro la gatita! as we played.

Activity: We did a simple game of charades. A children drew a picture of an animal and had to act it out while the other children guessed which animal he/she was.

Song: I passed out 10 little dog cut-outs. We sang Diez perritos to the tune of 10 Little Indians.

Uno, Dos, Tres perritos.
Cuatro, Cinco, Seis perritos,
siete ocho, nueve perritos,
diez perritos son.

Song: Soy su amiguito- this is a great song. I took a little video of my girls singing it and I also have visuals. We'll see if I have time to post them.

Book: Corre, Perro, Corre! by P.D. Eastman I skipped half of the book! I read the beginning and then when the dogs go to bed and then go to the party in the tree. I knew the children wouldn't last as long as the book. They loved the book!

Craft: We created a spin-the-animal for the kids to play at home. They have to ask Que dice el pato? every time they spin the animal.

Spin the Animal

Spanish Teaching Blog List

2009-09-30T07:30:00.002-05:00

First of all, I wanted to share a few successes! I started this blog to get support from others trying to teach their children Spanish. Yesterday and today my oldest daughter, Princesa, has surprised me with some vocabulary and phrases that I don't feel I have told her. Yesterday at dinner she was telling a story in Spanish and in the story there was an "arbol espinoso." I know I don't use those kind of words. I guess all the books, music and some movies have helped her learn more! Also this morning, I asked her what an avestruz was, I had forgotten. "It's an ostrich!" she told me effortlessly! Also, my immersion classes have really helped my middle daughter (3), Super Nina, to speak more Spanish. She is starting to say phrases and really remembers all of the vocabulary we sing and play games with in the classes!

I love sharing links to other blogs. There are so many ideas to learn from. I updated my blog list on the right side bar. I know I have left out some, so I apologize if I didn't include your blog on the list.

If you want me to include your blog on this list, they must....
-at least occasionally post about raising your children bilingually or share tips on teaching Spanish.
-not include profanity or crude language
-not focus only on advertising one product. It must share a variety of resources, products and ideas!

Please comment on this post if your blog shares the qualities as mentioned above and I would love to include your blog on the list!

By the way, Tricia, thank you for sharing all of your ideas when you comment on my blog! You really need to start a blog! You have incredible ideas! Everyone should read comments because many times they share ideas and resources there as well!

Immersion Class: Los Animales de la Granja

2009-09-23T18:16:00.006-05:00

Welcome song: Buenos Dias
Names: Como te Llamas tap

Puppet: El pato? Que dice? Guau, guau? No, los perros dicen gua, guau, guau. Dicen miau, miau? No, los gatos dicen miau, miau. All the kids have to ask, Que dice el pato? so that the duck can quack

Flannel Board Story- Tres patitos
Tres patitos salieron a pasear sobre las montañas, muy lejos
Mama pata dijo: "cuac, cuac, cuac"
Pero solo dos patitos volvieron con mamá.
Dos patitos salieron a pasear …
Pero solo un patito volvió con mamá.
Un patito salió a pasear…
Pero ningun patito volvio con mama.
La triste mamá pata salió a pasear …
¡Y los tres patitos regresaron con mamá!

Activity: I have a little baby chick toy that will make a chirping sound when you pet it. Each student had to say, Que dice el pollito? in order to pet the chick and listen to it say pio.

Song: Los pollitos dicen by Jose-Luis Orozco
We sang it by looking at pictures from this book's illustrations, then we sang it using basic hand movements.

Video clip: We sang the song with basic hand movements and then we watched the video here.

Activity: I gave each child a baby animal. Everyone repeated the names of the animals as I passed them out. Then, I showed them a picture of the Mommy animal and the child that had the baby had to come up. Lots of repeating the animal names.

Book: Sali de Paseo by Sue Williams

Activity: We acted like dogs, cats and ducks after I showed them those pictures:)

Video clip: I showed a short clip to introduce el burro from Los Animales Whistlefritz DVD.

Song: Vengan a ver mi granja by Jose-Luis Orozco. Each student had an animal in the song on a popsicle stick. They had to hold it up when their animal was sung.

Book: La vaca que decía oink

Craft: They colored, cut out and attached yarn to make a pig mask. They could either oink or moo when they were pigs (like the book!)

*I attached all my visuals for the class in a PDF for you to print easily! First page is the pig mask craft. Mommy and Baby animals are pages 2 & 4. Page 5 has pictures for the Tres Patitos feltboard story. Pages 6 & 7 are visuals to cut and put on popsicle sticks to give to the children while singing Vengan a Ver Mi Granja.

To print- click on the title link to go directly to Scribd. Then click print on their website right above the title of my document.
granja animales

Wonderful Storytime Resource

2009-09-20T17:48:00.005-05:00

**Remember it is the last day to enter all the giveaways!!
Boca Beth Backpack
Bilingual Fun DVD set
Spellable Puzzle
Crossword Blocks

I had to share an incredible resource I found! The Texas State library has a resource for librarians with full lesson plans for incredible bilingual storytimes with different themes. You can read the intro as to why they created this manual here.

For each theme, they list great bilingual books, fingerplays, games, activities, crafts, songs, everything!

For preschool age, they have storytimes about:
Exploring El Mercado
Quíquiri-Mú / Cockadoodle-Moo
Sapos cachones y ranas saltonas / Horny Toads and Jumping Frogs

For toddlers, they have storytimes about:
Hats Around the World
Los Animales
Volando sobre Texas / Through Texas with Wings
Texas quiere decir: amigos / Texas Means Friends
Craft Patterns

Programs for families include:
Cuentos de Animales / Animal Stories
Exploring Our Festivities and Fiestas
¡Es hora de festejar! / Fiesta Time!
Nuestras familias / Our Families
Las estrellas resplandecen sobre Texas / Stars Shine Bright in Texas
¡Aventúrate! Vamos al Oeste / Be Adventurous: Hitch a Ride to West Texas

WOW!!! Check it out!

I love reading all the fingerplays. They have pictures that they use for flannel board stories. Don't have a flannel board or figurines? I like to print mine on card stock and attach a little magnet piece to them and then use a magnetic mini white board. Or if you have a simple felt board (just a board with felt on it!) you can hot glue a little felt on printed out papers and then stick papers on the felt board. Make sense?

Teachers and parents can use these with their children so easily. It is all right there! I will definitely be looking here for ideas for my immersion class!

Ingenio Toys Giveaway Part 2!

2009-09-18T08:00:00.002-05:00

***Giveaway closed. Winner from random.org is #11: simone/ thebubbledies said...
I like the Alphabet Learning Cards. Thanks! thebubbledies(at)gmail(dot)com
September 18, 2009 3:37 PM

Ingenio wants to give away another toy! Did I mention they have incredible bilingual toys for affordable prices? Now I think that it is a rarity.

But first let me finish reviewing the wonderful toys we received. We also received a large animal puzzle with the animals' names in English and Spanish. In all honesty, I didn't think that it would be the best tool for teaching, but I was wrong. It provided me with an opportunity to speak in Spanish as we put the puzzle together (Donde esta el leon, donde esta la cabeza del leon, etc.) As she gets older and can read, I know it will make a difference to have games and puzzles that are actually written in Spanish. I think that she will value Spanish more knowing that there are games and puzzles in Spanish and not just in English.

The opposite learning cards we received are not your normal flash cards. They are magic motion cards, so depending on how you look at the cards, they flip between opposites like day and night. What a fun way to review opposite vocabulary.

Now for the product you could win. The Cross Word Blocks game is definitely on my wish list! What an incredible teaching tool! It has blocks with letters and then has a picture that needs to be spelled. It comes with 20 bilingual blocks and 6 English and 6 Spanish crossword puzzles. I'm trying to introduce Spanish letter sounds to my oldest daughter and this would be so fun!

Want to win Crossword Blocks?

How to Enter:

Go here to Ingenio's website and look at their products. Come back to this post and make a comment telling us another toy that interests you (other than Crossword Blocks). You're done, unless you want a better chance of winning....

Additional Entries:
-Grab the banner for this week's giveaway's Learning Spanish Together here. Post the banner on your blog with a link to http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/. Come back and make 2 more comments, yes this is 2 more entries.

-Become a Follower of the this blog by clicking on "Follow" on the right side bar. Come back and more 2 more comments, yes, this is 2 more entries. If you are already a follower, make sure to make 2 more comments :)

Giveaway ends Sunday, September 20th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Want more giveaways?

Head on over to http://www.spanglishbabyfinds.com/ to enter a contest for a Dancing Dora Doll. Dancing and speaking in Spanish- what could be more fun than that? They are also giving away a Little Pim DVD set and CD! Wow!

Ingenio Bilingual Toys Giveaway

2009-09-17T10:00:00.002-05:00

*****Giveaway closed. Winner from random.org is #4 Diane said...
My boys love puzzles! This would be a great activity to get them speaking Spanish. Animals puzzle is really cute, & I always love maps.
September 17, 2009 9:36 PM

Sorry for the later post. I had to teach my immersion Spanish class this morning (I'll post the lesson plan when i get a chance).

It felt like it was Christmas when I received a big package from Ingenio filled with bilingual toys for my kids to review. I knew I would love toys that teach Spanish and English, but would they? The ultimate test as to whether a toy really teaches is having the kids play with it. My kids loved the toys!

Ingenio is a great new company that is "the first bilingual educational toys and games brand in the USA. Every Ingenio product is designed to be bilingual, innovative and fun." How fun is that! I love bilingual toys and now there is a website where all the toys, games and puzzles are bilingual.

We received a Smart Projector that projects pages for the children to trace. All you do it put a paper under and turn on the light (so easy to use!). It teaches how to write all the letters and numbers. My daughter loves coloring the 24 animals and then the animals names' are written out in English and Spanish. She loves tracing now!! This is such a creative product. It's my favorite!

Ingenio wants to give one of their toys to someone reading this blog! Spellable is a unique product where children can spell 3 letter words in English and Spanish. What a great way to learn sounds in Spanish and English!

Want to win a Spellable puzzle?

How to Enter:
Go here to Ingenio's website and look at their products. Come back to this post and make a comment telling us another toy that interests you (other than Spellable). You're done, unless you want a better chance of winning....

Additional Entries:
-Grab the banner for this week's giveaway's Learning Spanish Together here. Post the banner on your blog with a link to http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/. Come back and make 2 more comments, yes this is 2 more entries.

-Become a Follower of the this blog by clicking on "Follow" on the right side bar. Come back and more 2 more comments, yes, this is 2 more entries. If you are already a follower, make sure to make 2 more comments :)

Giveaway ends Sunday, September 20th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Come back each day this week for reviews and giveaways!

Bilingual Fun Giveaway

2009-09-16T07:00:00.004-05:00

****Giveaway Closed. Winners from random.org are
#13 Bunsy said... I posted the banner, and am posting it again.
#27 Cristina said... I follow this blog, it's so much fun!

I'm glad I can have this week to do giveaways that anyone and everyone can enjoy! I focus so much on complete immersion, but I hope all parents will let their children learn some Spanish, even it is just a few words.

Today's giveaway is Bilingual Fun's DVD series Spanish for Children. Mark and Jennifer Manriquez Jen created the Bilingual Fun company. They not only have classes in Michigan, but have created an award winning DVD series Spanish for Children. It received the 2008 Preferred choice award for Creative Child Magazine.

I was able to review both DVD's. What cute teaching videos! I learned great activities, songs and games that I would love to use in my class and with my children. They alternate between showing a classroom setting with children and real-life pictures and videos of the vocabulary taught. I love how they ask children questions and they have to respond. Volume 2 even includes a practice quiz to see if your children can remember the words they learned. English and Spanish are used throughout to make this a very comfortable way to introduce Spanish to children.

My favorite song was using 1, 2, 3 Chocolate to practice counting. My children love singing that song. Mark Manriquez plays the guitar during the singing. My favorite activity was how they taught colors and fruit. They had the children sort the fruit by their color by putting them in colored bowls. Parents can do the easy activities with their children.

Lastly, I have to mention, Maestra Jen has a blog and I love reading her ideas and games she uses as she raising her children bilingually.

Maestra Jen will be giving away 2 award-winning DVD sets. 2 people will receive the DVD set of both volume 1 and 2.

Volume 1 includes:
Los Colores (colors)
Los Numeros (numbers)
Los Animales (animals)

Volume 2 includes:
Los Saludos (greetings)
El Cuerpo (Body parts)
La Comida (food)

How to Enter:
Leave a comment on this post telling us why you want your child to learn Spanish.

Additional Entries:
-Grab the banner for this week's giveaway's Learning Spanish Together here. Post the banner on your blog with a link to http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/. Come back and make 2 more comments.

-Become a Follower of the this blog by clicking on "Follow" on the right side bar. Come back and more 2 more comments.

Giveaway ends Sunday, September 20th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Come back each day this week for reviews and giveaways!

Giveaway: Boca Beth

2009-09-15T08:00:00.004-05:00

****Giveaway Closed. Winner from random.org: simone/ thebubbledies said...
My fav is the Me Gusta Contar / I Like to Count. I love this CD! Thanks! thebubbledies(at)gmail(dot)com

Hi everyone! Make sure to enter Whistlefritz Spanish Immersion DVD's. Today is the last day to enter.

I'm excited to offer a lot of giveaways this week! We're going to start it off with a giveaway from Boca Beth.

Boca Beth sent us First Songs in Spanish and music videos now seen on the Education Channel in Tampa, Florida. The music is very catchy and easy to memorize. Every word or phrase is paired with the English equivalent. This helps parents that don't know the language understand and learn along with their children. My children loved playing with the mini maracas and I love using puppets that only speak and understand Spanish!

Boca Beth has generously offered to give away a child-sized backpack full of fun!

It includes:

-Our first music CD My First Songs in Spanish
-Our recently revised DVD I Like Animals
-BOCA the lovable puppet
-Our bilingual coloring/activity book with more than 40 pages of Spanish & English fun
-A How To Guide for second language instruction
-Spanish fun learning for kids all conveniently packaged inside our Boca Beth see-thru vinyl child-sized backpack

What a fun way for children to be introduced to Spanish! They will love having their own backpack with Spanish toys, music and videos. This backpack is on sale for $49.99 right now. Even if your child speaks Spanish fluently, this would be a great gift to friends that want to learn.

It's wonderful to meet educators who love the Spanish language and want to share it with children. Boca Beth recently read a story on Cody's Cuentos called El Sandwich de Carla. My kids loved listening to this story and her wonderful Spanish accent. If you sign up for her newsletter you will get tips on teaching your children languages, games and activities.

How to enter:

Go here to listen to My First Songs in Spanish CD. Come back to this post and tell us your favorite song that you listened to.

Additional Entries:

-Grab the banner for this week's giveaway's Learning Spanish Together here. Post the banner on your blog with a link to http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/. Come back and make 2 more comments.

-Become a Follower of the this blog by clicking on "Follow" on the right side bar. Come back and more 2 more comments.

Giveaway ends Sunday, September 20th at 10 pm Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Come back each day this week for reviews and giveaways!

Learning Spanish Together Week

2009-09-10T15:20:00.003-05:00

There are so many parents out there that don't speak Spanish but want their children to learn. As I have mentioned before, I am a believer in complete immersion. But what about parents that want to expose their children to Spanish and don't care about how fluent they will be. There are many benefits to learning even a little bit of a foreign language. I believe children are more confident when they can speak even if just a little of a foreign language. They are aware that there are different cultures and people speak different languages.

Starting September 15-18th, we will be presenting ideas and giveaways for parents who want to introduce Spanish to their children. The parent will learn a little Spanish along the way :) We have some great giveaways of artists and teachers that have contacted us or that we have contacted. We hope you will spread the word, so everyone can join in on the fun! Copy the banner above and link it with http://www.wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

Whistlefritz Review & Giveaway

2009-09-08T14:06:00.011-05:00

I am so excited to review one of my favorite Spanish language products for kids! I highly recommend their products! They are wonderful! I normally don't go on and on about products, but I really must when talking about these DVD's and CD.

Whistlefritz has 3 DVD's and 1 CD out that are completely in Spanish. It's complete immersion, but even children who have not been exposed to any Spanish can understand it! I love how they have plenty of repetition, sing songs that gets the kids dancing and show silly skits that get the kids giggling.

My kids love the DVD's! They remember what they watched and even try to re-enact what happens in the pictures. In Vamos a Jugar, they cover parts of the body and clothing. There is a cute scene where Maria tries to put something on her head. After putting on a sock, a skirt, and pants, she finally realizes she needs a sombrero. Without fail, my girls giggle when they see this part. I caught my daughter repeating what Maria did while she was getting dressed the other day. I love how it gets them talking!

Los Animales DVD covers much more than animals. They learn how to say "Que dice el perro?" and other phrases. They count dogs, see dogs chasing cats and much more! They also integrate in traditional songs like Los Pollitos and Vegan a Ver Mi Granja. I love the burro skit when the donkey is kicking things and Maria doesn't know what is happenning. The kids love it and it catches their attention.

I had already purchased the first DVD's and Whistlefritz sent me the newest DVD to review: Adentro y Afuera. It covers rooms in the house and where something is while trying to find a cute little mouse. It covers yummy food and even getting ready for the day. My favorite part is a skit where Maria counts cookies, but then some are missing as the kids take them away. They count multiple times- what a great way to practice counting!

I also received the wonderful A Bailar CD by Jorge Anaya. Someone asked what music I liked to use with my children and in my immersion classes the most. We use this CD probably the most. They are wonderful and are lively enough to dance to. The clear, easy-to-understand singing reminds me of Jose-Luis Orozco, except the accompaniment is more lively and fun! I love El Baile de Las Manos with its simple wording. All the kids in my class love this song!

The giveaway

Want to win the newest DVD Adentro y Afuera by Whistlefritz?

Here is what you do:
Go here, then click on the green button "View DVD Clip" to view a sample clip of one of their products. Come back to this post and leave a comment telling me what you liked about the clip.

After your first entry, you may do the following for additional entries:

-Go to Whistlefritz and find out what awards they have won. Come back to this post and make one comment telling me an award they have won.
-Become a follower of this blog by clicking on "Become a Follower" on the right side bar. Make one comment telling me you did.
- Blog or e-mail 5 friends (cc to wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] come) about this giveaway giving them a link and come back to this post. Make 2 comments for blogging or e-mailing.

Giveaway is now closed

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. Contest ends September 15th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly by random.org. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on September 16th and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

***Random.org found commenter #20 as the winner- Bunsy!

Immersion Class: La Ropa

2009-09-08T13:33:00.010-05:00

Greeting: (see other days for links or explanation)

Buenos Dias
Como te llamas tu

Song: Cabeza, cara, hombres, pies (link on past entry)

Puppet: Carlos el Caballo Puppet comes out and wants to put on socks. He first wants to put them on his ears, then his nose and finally his feet. I ask the children after putting them on each part if that is where they should put them. We count each sock together as I put them on his feet (un calcetin, dos calcetines, etc.)

Video Clip: I showed a 2 minute video clip from Whistlefritz Vamos a Jugar video. It is an adorable clip of Maria trying to decide what to put on her head. She puts pants, a sock, a skirt and then finally a hat on her head. Lots of repetition and little kids think it is so funny!

Song: Así nos ponemos.. (to the tune of This is the way we..)

I took each piece of clothing out of a bag, said it's name and then we would pretend we were putting it on as we sang.

Así nos ponemos los pantalones, los pantalones, los pantalones…

Así nos ponemos los pantalones, todas las mañanas
-la camiseta
-la chaqueta
-los calcetines
-los zapatos

Activity: Clothes Line with clothes on them
As I hung up each piece of clothing, all the children repeated its name. Then I asked each child to run and get me each piece. Then we would say, "Jack (name of the child) quito la camiseta" together.

Cancion: Quiero mis botas donde estan? A cute song from Lango Kids about a person looking for their clothes and they are actually already on them.

Reading song: Es hora de leer
Libro: Azul el sombrero, Verde el Sombrero By: Sandra Boynton

Game: All the children closed their eyes while I hid pictures of clothes around the room. Then I asked each child to find a piece each time. After they found it, we would all say "Jack encontro la camiseta" all together.

Song: Si llevas....To the tune of If you're Happy and You Know It.

We would see who is wearing a shirt and then sing.

Si Llevas camiseta, saltaras. Si Llevas camiseta, saltaras.

Si Llevas camiseta, que divertido es! Si Llevas camiseta, saltaras.

Then we would see who is wearing pants, a dress, shoes, etc. and then sing a new verse.

Reading song: Es hora de leer

Book: Juguemos en el bosque By: Claudia Rueda. Easy to translate especially since it is a traditional game in Latin America
I wrote a post about this and other possible activities here.

Craft: Dora and Diego paper dolls

Immersion Class: Parts of the Body Part 2

2009-08-29T16:00:00.011-05:00

We continued learning vocabulary of parts of the body on Thursday's class.

To answer a few questions that were asked in the comments:

I charge for the classes (although I offer a free trial class for anyone that wants to try it out)

Each week there has been a different number of students. Only 3 students have officially signed up for the classes, but my classes have ranged from 4-9 children in the classes. I have my two older girls in the classes as well. I hope to get more committed students if I decide to continue in the Fall. I have advertised in the Spanish speaking moms group that I am a part of. Another homeschooler that is part of my church also has her daughter in the class. I use so many different resources. If you didn't notice my hobby is finding all the music, DVD's and activities to teach my kids Spanish. I have written about products (CD's and DVD's) I use in the past.

**I like using lots of repetition. A lot of the activities are the same as last week or build on each other. This way the children feel comfortable with what they have learned and really learn it :)

Parts of the Body Part 2

Song: Buenos Dias by Jose-Luis Orozco

Game: Como te llamas? This is a good way to introduce everyone if there are new faces :) We patted our laps 2 times, clapped our hands 2 times and repeated again and again to keep in rhythm. We would say to the beat Como te llamas tu? and each child would say Yo me Llamo... (or I would say it with them) to the beat.

Puppet: La tortuga came out. I had him sleeping and all the children had to yell "Despiertate" so he would wake up. It took them 3 times to tell him to wake up before he actually woke up :).

Then he asked for their help in finding the parts of his body. The children showed him where ojos, boca, cabeza and manos are. They all touched their eyes and then one child got to touch the tortuga's eyes.

Song: Cabeza, cara hombros pies (I love this version because there are only 4 parts of the body they need to know.) We sang this song only 3 times. Each time the kids picked a card that would have a different way to sing it (sad, happy, loud, soft)

Activity: Senor papa comes out again. They gave him a face by pulling things out of the bag. Then we played a game where all the children closed their eyes and I took one part of the face away. They all opened their eyes and they had to answer. Que le falta al senor papa?

Fingerplay: Saco una manito, la hago bailar, la cierro, la abro, y la vuelvo a guardar.

Song: El Baile de Las Manos

Game: Bingo! I made the exact same bingo sheets with the same 8 parts of the body, but I just switched which square the pictures were in. I called out each picture and before they could put a cheerio on their picture, they had to say the word. Then after it was finished, they got to eat their nine cheerios!

Song: Los Ninos Cuando Bailan. I love the Whistlefritz A Bailar CD. It's very fun like Jose-Luis Orozco.

Reading Song: We always sing a little song I made up before we read our stories. It is magical, they are so quiet! I will have to record it sometime.

Book: Donde esta el ombliguito por Karen Katz

Activity: I brought out a sleeping baby doll. They had to touch the different parts of the body that were told in the story.

Craft: I bought butcher paper from Lakeshore Learning. The children each laid down on the big sheets and the moms outlined them. They then had to color their ojos, nariz, pelo, etc. Even if the drawings ended up looking like monsters, they loved it :)

I hope you will use these ideas in your classrooms and homes! I am also giving my student's moms a link to this so they can practice fingerplays or activities with their children at home.

John De Mado giveaway Winner!

2009-08-25T13:28:00.003-05:00

I generated a winner from random.org! The winner of the John De Mado's Spanish rap CD/DVD is: #1!
Bunsy said...
I remember feeling very vulnerable in my high school Spanish classes and very self conscious about making mistakes. I learned that I don't need to stress about correcting my kids all the time.

Send me an e-mail with your mailing address at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com. Congrats!

Tons of giveaways are coming and my next preschool lesson. I'm really excited about it!

Confusing Post

2009-08-22T23:18:00.004-05:00

I want to apologize for a different post that I sent out a few days ago (I deleted it right after). I have various blogs and I recently started a blog of my study of the Bible and New Testament. I wrote my entry and published without realizing that I was posting on Wanna Jugar with Migo and not on my new blog.

It will not happen again! I'll double check which blog I am posting to :) Sorry for those of you who were confused that subcribe to this blog and received it in their reader or e-mail inbox. I will only post Spanish teaching ideas and giveaways from now on :)

Make sure to enter the Spanish rap CD/DVD giveaway here before Monday night!

Many of you were interested in buying the CD/DVD that was offered. Go here and print a product order form. Select the CD's or DVD's you want to buy and send it in.

Immersion Class: Parts of the Body

2009-08-20T16:57:00.006-05:00

I have started an immersion Spanish class for 2-5 year olds. I am having a lot of fun with it. Some of the children are native speakers and some know just a little Spanish.

The reasons I am enjoying teaching the class:
*My kids get so excited about having the class with their friends
*They get to practice doing the class with me, reading the books and singing the songs throughout the week.
*I get to do one of my favorite things- teach!

Challenges:
*Getting people to commit with busy schedules
*Trying to figure out class times and what ages I should have in classes.

Here is what we did today:
Song: Buenos Dias by Jose-Luis Orozco

Game: Como te llamas? We patted our laps 2 times, clapped our hands 2 times and repeated again and again to keep in rhythm. We would say to the beat Como te llamas tu? and each child would say Yo me Llamo... (or I would sing it with them).

Puppet: The puppet comes out and asks everyone their names. I have been making some interesting voices lately :)

Song: Cabeza, cara hombros pies (I love this version because there are only 4 parts of the body they need to know.) We sang this song about 4 times. Each time the kids picked a card that would have a different way to sing it (sad, happy, loud, soft) Repetition is so important and kids really love it (even if it gets old for adults). By the end, the kids that didn't speak Spanish could sing the song. Here's the recording.

Fingerplay: De la cabeza a los pies from Ana Lomba

Activity: Senor papa no tiene una cara. Each child got something out of the bag for Mr. Potato Head (eyes, nose, etc.)

Activity: Cuantos narizes hay? We counted how many noses of children there were in the room. I took out some magnetic numbers and put them on a little white/magnetic board with a picture of the noses. We did the same with eyes, ears and mouths :)

Song: Baila, Baila con tu cuerpo by Lango Kids They make a CD, but you have to buy it through mail with one of their teachers.

Book: De La Cabeza a Los Pies por Eric Carle

Craft: We made faces with English muffin with peanut butter. Raisins for eyes, banana slice for nose, apple slice for mouth, half grapes for ears and licorice for hair :) The result: una carita de mono

Let me know if you find this useful! You can do this at home with just your own kids!

La Señal Secreta

2009-08-20T15:00:00.003-05:00

It's working.

I was getting so tired of saying, "¿Puedes decirlo en español?" "¿Como dices eso en español"
"¡¡Tienes que hablar en español!!!"

Now all I have to do is give her our señal secreta- the secret hand sign. It's simple and easy and I don't have to say a thing. Three fingers makes an E shape. ¡E es para Español! We don't say anything.

She switches instantly into Spanish. She thinks it's funny and silly.

I even have her little sister reminding her with the sign and she tells her "Hoy es martes. You have to peak panish"

I love it and I'm hoping it keeps working for a long time.

Try it, it may work for you! Or what does work for you?

Spanish Rap Giveaway

2009-08-18T11:00:00.002-05:00

What could be more catchy and fun than listening to rap to learn Spanish? I came across a sample video of Spanish rap by John de Mado and my kids loved it. I have to admit I enjoyed it too! The great thing about this CD and DVD it is for all ages. Kids and teenagers will love it the same!

From his website:

"John De Mado has been a vocal advocate for language acquisition in the United States for many years. John De Mado is fluent in English, French and Spanish. He has co-author of various foreign language textbooks published by Holt McDougal and McGraw-Hill, Inc. Since 1993, Mr. De Mado has directed John De Mado Language Seminars, Inc., a full-service consulting firm dealing exclusively with language acquisition issues. He has also been the Foreign Language Instructional Leader to Shepaug Valley Regional School District #12 in Connecticut where his primary task was to articulate a K-12, content-related language program. "

Here is a clip with family vocabulary:

I learned a lot by interviewing John De Mado. It helped me understand the language acquisition process better. It made me feel better about teaching my children Spanish and the mistakes I make. He talked about how we think language is "fossilized" like set in stone and never changes, whereas, it is constantly changing. If my children or I make a mistake, it doesn't mean they can't change it later.

Want to win an incredible Spanish rap DVD and CD called Festejemos?

This is what you need to do:

Click here to read the interview. Come back to this post again and comment telling me one thing you learned from about language acquisition from the interview.

For additional entries:

After reading the interview and making a comments you may do one or more of the following things to increase your chances of winning!

*Go to John De Mado's website here and come back and make a comment telling me one thing you learned about him.

*Become a follower of this blog. Click on the Follow button on the right side bar. Come back to this post and comment saying you are now a follower. (Comment even if you are already following :)

*Blog about this giveaway, come back, comment and give me a link to your giveaway post. Or e-mail 4 friends about this giveaway with a cc to wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com. Come back and make another comment telling me you sent e-mails.

Good luck!

Contest ends Monday August 24th at 10 PM Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. You can only win one signed book. Contest ends August 24th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on August 25th and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

John De Mado Interview

2009-08-18T10:07:00.003-05:00

Here is my interview with John De Mado:

What do you believe the role of “error” is in the language acquisition process?

Here is the bottom line. The research comes from a gentleman by the name of Larry Selinker. His book is entitled Rediscovering Interlanguage. Selinker basically tells us that students come to us with one language or L1. That’s the native tongue. We then try to help them acquire another language or L2. Try as we may, humans cannot move directly from L1 to L2. We naturally move L1 into L2, thus creating a 3rd language of sorts. It is the single most common language learning strategy employed by human beings pandemically. This 3rd language is a less than accurate language, but a language nonetheless. Its name... Interlanguage.

When children begin speaking their native tongue, they don’t begin by speaking it perfectly. “I eated, I runned, I writed, etc.” What they are entering is a period called 'Interlanguage'. 'Interlanguage' is a primordial stage in the language acquisition process. Characteristically, it is riddled with errors... not mistakes... but errors. Errors are caused by 'dynamic' attempts to use the new language. They are not 'mistakes' as the language learner knows no better at that point.

One large problem with language instruction arises when we try to move from no language directly to 'standard' language by eliminating the interlingual stage. Thus, we subvert the entire language acquisition process. Contrary to most instructional belief and practice, error is critical to language acquisition. Generally, language instructors believe that if they allow for errors, these errors will “fossilize”, meaning they will embed. And it’s really not true, any more than it’s true with a little child that says at age three, “I eated, I runned, I writed” and at age six, “I ate, I ran, I wrote.” If you don’t allow for error, that is, Interlanguage, then the psycholinguistic aspects of language acquisition are negated . What do I mean by this?...

There is a certain personality profile or platform that supports language acquisition. It is inherit in all young children. As a mother yourself, you will be able to identify with this very easily. All young children exhibit three salient psycholinguistic characteristics: The ability to risk-take linguistically; the willingness to be vulnerable; and a heightened usage of intuition.

By risk-taking, I mean a tacit willingness on the part of the language acquirer to confront more language than what he/she currently owns. Clearly this is what all youngsters do to acquire their L1. No matter how you, as a parent, pare language down for them, it is greater than what they own. That’s what I’m looking for in the world language classroom. Language students can only risk-take to the degree that the language teacher is a risk-taker.

Vulnerability reflects the willingness, on the part of the language acquirer, to err freely for the broader goal of communication.

Language is essentially insufficient for human communicative needs. If language were sufficient, we wouldn’t have war, we wouldn’t have divorce, we wouldn’t have arguments, we would have no confrontation, everyone would understand one another 100%. These are certainly not the circumstances. As a result, humans essentially intuit messages from one another. We don’t really understand each other verbatim. Much, if not most, of human discourse is guided by intuition.

If you can find a classroom that supports risk taking, vulnerability and intuition, then basically what you have is the foundation for language acquisition. It happens in most households. Kids are allowed to be risk takers, to being vulnerable and to be intuitive. Once they move into the academic environment, however, it is systematically extracted starting at about the third grade. By the time we run into these same kids in 7th grade, all they want to know is what is going to be on the test. "Tell me the answer... And then I’ll take the test." They are virtually devoid of the capacity to risk-take, be vulnerable and to use intuition. Ironically, in many school districts, that's when we decide to begin second language study... After the 'psycholinguistic' profile has been reduced, if not destroyed.

Latin Baby Book Club Giveaways

2009-08-07T09:18:00.006-05:00

5 incredible giveaways are happening at Latin Baby Book Club! Visit them- you have only until midnight tonight.

Here are a few things you could win:

I am hoping for the $50 gift card to their adorable shop. I have been wanting a Pio Pio Pio T-shirt for a long time for my girls, but it's just not in the budget :)

I'm also going to start posting more teaching games on the blog. I will be starting an immersion Spanish class for kids 2-5 years of age soon. I will share how it goes and the activities we do!

Online Spanish Games!

2009-07-21T09:29:00.013-05:00

There are some cute games and programs out there for young children that cost money, like Foreign Language Friends. I always want games that are age appropriate for my children that don't require Spanish reading skills. Most games for teaching Spanish do require reading because Spanish is usually taught when children are older.

But I found some great games that repeat words and phrases and are perfect for my kids.
Did I mention they are free? They came from one of my favorite blogs from Spain(http://www.marife.wordpress.com/) You have to check them out!

They are created by la Junta de Castilla y León. They have juegos infantiles you can find here. There are games for body parts, musical instruments, cleaning the forest, letters and seasons. The Juega y Aprenda birdhouse games would not work on my computer. Did they work on yours? Here is a screen shot of the page. You can click the image to go to the site :)

La Junta de Castilla y Leon comes out with new games each summer. This summer has not yet come. Some of the games did not work on my computer, but click here or the image below to play some of the summer games.

If you go to the website above and then click on the Juega y Aprenda button, then click Aprende Jugando button. It will then take you to the screen shown below (there is no direct link to these games). They were some of our favorite games.

Enjoy!

Build a Burrito Winners

2009-07-21T00:45:00.003-05:00

I used random.org and the two winners who receive a signed copy of Build-a-Burrito are:

#16 Stephanie who said:
I learned from her site that Denise Vega has always enjoyed writing, and produced a "really bad novel" at age 15. I also found that (in my opinion) she has a great sense of humor!

#22 Susan who said:
I subscribed to this feed via Google Reader. The lesson plan is wonderful! I teach Spanish to kindergarten - 8th grade and I'm always excited about finding lessons for the little ones.

Hope you enjoy. Stephanie and Susan, please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com with your mailing address!

Build a Burrito Giveaway

2009-07-13T00:06:00.008-05:00

Giveaways are back! We have a lot planned, so get ready!

I am thrilled to do this giveaway of one of my favorite Bilingual children's books, Build a Burrito. Shaped like a tortilla, it counts your way to 10 with different ingredients in a burrito. At the end one eager mouth eats the wrapped up burrito- yum! It teaches numbers, food and cooking :) My kids love it. It is perfect for beginners and has it printed in English as well as Spanish. I highly recommend this book, if you couldn't tell :)

The talented author, Denise Vega, wrote this book. At her website, she has wonderful teaching materials including visual aids, color graphs, food graphs to reinforce the learning with hands-on activities to do with your kids. They are very fun! I plan on printing up the cute ingredients and letting my kids color them to play games with. Click here to find the PDF with activities.

I have two signed copies of Build a Burrito to giveaway to readers of this blog.

Want to win one? This is what you have to do:

*Click here to read my interview with Denise Vega or click here to go to her website.
Then come back to this post, make a comment telling me one thing you learned about Denise Vega or her books.

Do you want a better chance of winning? Additional entries can be made by doing the following:

*Become a follower of this blog by clicking Follow on the box to the right. Make another comment on this post.

*Blog or Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post. Make one comment on this post. (Just one tweet or blog post :)

*Make another comment on this post telling me two books (in Spanish if you can:)) that you love to read to children.

*Subscribe via e-mail or subscribe via feed by clicking on the box to the right. (You may need to scroll down) Make another comment on this post.

*Take the poll on the right sidebar called "What should we blog about?" Make another comment on this post!

Contest ends Monday July 20th at 10 PM Central Time.

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to five times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. You can only win one signed book. Contest ends July 20th at 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on July 21st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Denise Vega Interview

2009-07-12T23:54:00.005-05:00

First of all, I love the book in this giveaway! Click here to enter the giveaway. It is so adorable, perfect for beginners, fun to read and lends itself to lots of related activities. I enjoyed interviewing the author, Denise Vega. Click here to go to her website. You can get to know her a little better...

Why did you decide to create bilingual books?
The short answer is I didn’t! I originally submitted the manuscript for Build a Burrito in English-only as I am not bilingual. Once they accepted it, they contacted me to see how I would feel about doing it bilingual. I told them I wasn’t and worked with some bilingual friends for some of the words and the publishers Spanish editor also helped with the Spanish in the book.

What would be some advice you would give parents who are trying to teach their children Spanish?
IMMERSION if at all possible. If the parent is not fluent, surround the child with the language – on television, radio, books, music. Enroll them in classes if possible. See if you can find a bilingual speaker to talk with them. And learn it yourself so you can converse with them! If you don’t use it, you lose it.

Tell us a little about the book, Grandmother, Have the angels come? that you wrote.
This book came from watching my own grandmother go through what we all go through as we get older – some of our parts don’t work as well as they used to! And we often complain about all of our aches and pains and what we can no longer do. I began to explore some of the positive aspects of aging and the story grew into a relationship between a grandmother and a granddaughter, with the granddaughter noticing a deficiency and the grandmother pointing out the gift it has given her.

How did you up with the idea for Build a Burrito?
Wow. It was so long ago that I don’t recall specifically! I do remember that I was exploring the Mexican side of my heritage (and still am) and wanting to write stories that connected with that. I probably was looking at different concept books and wondered how I could combine looking at my heritage with a counting book. And of course, I love burritos (even though I hate cheese!) and they can have lots of ingredients so it seemed like a good fit.

Meetup.com

2009-07-08T07:00:00.001-05:00

Since I just moved to a new area, I wanted to meet some other moms that are teaching their children Spanish. I searched and found a wonderful group! You can search groups and then show up to see if it is the right fit for you. The group I found is very friendly and nice. One of the rules of the group is to speak only in Spanish (no matter the level). Most of the moms are native speakers (there are only a few gringas :) It is so fun to let the kids play with other children that speak Spanish! Another Great way to find groups is to google your area or look at the SpanglishBaby forums. Try it out in your area- there might just be a perfect group waiting for you!

Disney Cantar y Jugar CD

2009-07-06T06:15:00.004-05:00

My old library had an incredible collection of great Spanish children's music. I checked this one out thinking it might have something to do with Disney Music. Instead, it is collection of native speakers singing catchy versions of traditional Latin music. I love how it uses a variety of music styles- merenge, cumbia, reggae. Not only do my kids love it, I don't get tired of listening to it and I even love to dance around the house with them while listening :)

You can buy individual songs. Some songs on the CD are better than others. You have to listen to Que Llueva version. It is so fun! Click here to hear samples of all the different songs and buy individually or buy the whole CD for $8. Or you can just click below to hear samples :)

Video: Las Tres Mellizas

2009-07-01T17:23:00.004-05:00

These little triplets are adorable. My girls love their names: Ana, Teresa y Elena. I love how they repeat words and phrases and speak very clearly. My kids love them! I believe if you have direct TV they come on a channel, but I don't know for sure.

***PLEASE be extremely careful with letting your kids watch movies on You Tube. My girls were watching this clip while I was doing something else in the same room. After the clip was finished, they clicked on another Tres Mellizas, then they clicked on another cartoon that was extremely inappropriate. I didn't know they had clicked something else, but I felt like I should check what they were watching and I caught it after only a few seconds. I'm so thankful they did not see more of this awful cartoon. I am now going to be extremely careful. Please be careful, too!

Summer Fun Giveaways

2009-06-30T17:23:00.005-05:00

Make sure to visit Spanglish Baby every day this week. They will be having a giveaway everyday, but you must enter only on that day! If you haven't checked them out yeat, Spanglish Baby is an incredible resource!

Make sure to comment today to enter the giveaway for Bilingual Fun DVD! I have been wanted to try out this DVD for a long time!

I won the cute kid's cookbook that was posted yesterday! Yeay!

To Brazil and Back

2009-06-11T10:20:00.007-05:00

We have been busy travelling and moving! We are finally somewhat settled in our new home. We had a fun time visiting Sao Paulo, Brazil where my husband's parents are serving a mission for our church.

We had a wonderful time. Traveling was not as hard as I thought it would be. Some highlights were: spending time with family, going to church in a small pueblo, eating at a Brazilian family's home, spotting a group of monkeys on a walk in the Botanical gardens (not the zoo), relaxing at the beach, going to the zoo and eating yummy Brazilian food every day!

Monkey in between my girls. Picture below is up close.

It reminded me a lot of when I lived in Honduras. It got us excited about living overseas someday. The kids were a little confused by portuguese. My oldest daughter, Princesa, actually played with a Brazilian girl on the playground with Princesa speaking Spanish and the girl speaking Portuguese. I love how children really don't need to speak perfectly to make new friends and have fun. Super Nina is still convinced that she speaks Portuguese. She just starts speaking in jibberish (with inflection and all) sometimes and says she speaks Portuguese.

It has been hard getting back a schedule, including speaking with my girls in Spanish. I would say we have been spending about half of our Spanish days only speaking Spanish :(. I did join a great group of moms who speak Spanish to their kids. They all want their children to meet friends that they will only speak Spanish with them. We also met a mom with a 2 year old who goes to the same park everyday. The little girl loved Princesa and they had fun speaking Spanish together. We are also going to try out an immersion Spanish class on Monday.

I'm excited to get back posting, it might not be as often as I was posting before. It motivated me to see I have more followers :) I have 4 giveaways that I have just left hanging. I'm sorry about that. I'll have to figure that out soon!

We're back!

De Colores CD Winners!

2009-05-01T08:00:00.003-05:00

We have 5 winners! They are:
Amy
Tara
Tina
Happy Birdycake
Bridget

Congrats! Please e-mail me at wannajugarwithmigo [at] blogspot [dot] com with your mailing address to get your De Colores CD! Here are all the random numbers with my first 5 tries:

(I took 38 entries because those were the entries before the deadline. I really wanted to do them all, but I decided to play by the rules I set up :))

El día de los libros and Giveaways!

2009-04-30T14:47:00.006-05:00

Things are pretty busy right now, but I had to share with you some great giveaways going on right now!

*The Latin Baby Book Club is giving away a book a day this week to celebrate El día de los niños/El día de los libros! Be sure to check out their giveaways every day. Right now they are giving away what looks like a cute book called The Bossy Gallito. Click here to enter the giveaway. This contest ends tonight at midnight, but there will be more giveaways for the rest of the week :)

*Spanglish Baby (an incredible resource if you haven't checked it out yet) is giving away a book called Book Fiesta that has beautiful illustrations. Click here to enter this giveaway. It ends at midnight on Sunday, May 3rd.

****Today is the last day to enter the giveaway for Jose Luis Orozco's CD called De Colores. We will be giving away 5 CD's and I will announce the winners tomorrow. Click here to enter the CD giveaway. CONTEST CLOSED

Video of the Week: La Vaca Lola

2009-04-24T07:00:00.001-05:00

This video is great for beginners! It is very simple. The whole song is traditional Cumbia music and it says one sentence over and over again. Kids could understand it even if they never have heard a word of Spanish before.

Lyrics:
La Vaca Lola, la vaca lola, tiene cabeza y tiene cola y dice Muu.
Lola, the cow, has a head and has a tail and says moo.

Get the kids dancing on this one!

SUPER activities

2009-04-21T07:00:00.001-05:00

This post is dedicated to my almost 3 year old daughter that I call Súper Niña . She loves to run around with an intense look on her face and yell out Superman! Well, here are a few fun super hero type activities.

We went to a story time with the most incredible immersion teacher I have met, Super Maria. She reads her stories so dramatically. I have tried to read my stories more expressively, because it just makes it so much more fun. She read this book and when the words are big, she says them loudly and like a super hero would. Now my girls are hooked and love this book!

Superconejo is about a little rabbit that thinks he is a superhero that must fight all the bad guys. When he gets a splinter while playing, he comes crying to his mother. After he is brave while getting the splinter out, he goes back to being SuperConejo with the splinter as his super sword.

SuperConejo By:Stephanie Blake

Click on the picture for the link to walmart to buy it.

I actually have a funny story that goes along with this book. In the book, Super Conejo gets a splinter (una astilla), but he pretends that it is a trozo de espada (piece of a sword) in his finger. The other day at the park, Princesa found a friend and heard her mother speaking Spanish to her. Princesa went up to the girl and started speaking only in Spanish. I was on the other side of the playground and she came up to me and said, "Mami, tengo una amiga y habla español!" The rest of the time they played together only speaking in Spanish. (A very proud Mommy moment :)) Anyways, as they were climbing on the playground, Princesa got a splinter and she yelled out, "Tengo un trozo de epada en mi dedo!" I had to let her know it was only an astilla.

Another favorite of my girls is Pocoyo. Here is a cute episode with him pretending to be a Super Pocoyo.

*We will be moving in the next month, I will be stopping my Juego del Jueves for a while. I will still try to post ideas, songs and other activities as much as I can!

Jose-Luis Orozco De Colores CD Giveaway

2009-04-16T20:00:00.005-05:00

Jose-Luis Orozco created a beautiful collection of Latin American Folk Songs for children. This is a wonderful way to introduce the Spanish language to your children.

To learn more about Jose-Luis Orozco, go to his website here or read my interview with him here.

He is not just giving away one CD, not just two, but FIVE De Colores CD's to five readers of this blog!

Do you want to win one of these CD's? You could be one of five winners! You have a great chance of winning!

How to enter:

-Go here, scroll down and listen to at least one of the songs on the CD. Post a comment telling us which song you listened to. You have entered!

Do you want to increase your chances of winning?
-For one extra entry, blog about this giveaway giving a direct link to this post: http://wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/2009/04/jose-luis-orozco-de-colores-cd-giveaway.html Come back here and comment giving us a link to your blog post about this giveaway.
-For one extra entry, e-mail 5 people (CC our e-mail: wannajugarwithmigo [at] gmail [dot] com) about this giveaway giving a direct link to this post: http://wannajugarwithmigo.blogspot.com/2009/04/jose-luis-orozco-de-colores-cd-giveaway.html Come back and make a comment telling us that you e-mailed.

*You can enter multiple times to increase your chances of winning, but you can only win one CD. Five different people will get the CD's.

This giveaway ends Thursday, April 30th at 10:00 P.M., Central Time.

****Contest Closed ************************

Contest Rules- You can enter only up to three times for the contest by doing each one of the instructions above. You can only win one CD. Contest ends April 30th 10 PM Central Time. The winner will be chosen randomly. Comments must provide a name, no completely anonymous. Only USA addresses, sorry. I will announce the winner on Friday, June 1st and the winner must e-mail me within 72 hours. If you provide an e-mail, we will e-mail you.

Jose-Luis Orozco Interview

2009-04-16T19:45:00.003-05:00

I had a wonderful time interviewing Jose-Luis Orozco. He is a well-known children’s author, songwriter, performer and recording artist. I was given his CD, De Colores, along with the beautiful picture book as a gift from my sister when my first daughter was a baby. I love the way he sings traditional Latin songs and rhymes. Visit here to learn more about him.

What motivates you to write bilingual music?
I am very lucky to work for public schools in California. There are many communities that speak Spanish. It is very important to reach all children through the English and Spanish language. I am an educator and I like teaching languages through music.

How do you think children are best motivated to learn a second language?
In my case, I think music is a BIG motivator because I am a musician and an educator. Music is a great motivator to teach language, history, culture and movement.

Did you teach your children to speak Spanish? If so, how did you do this? Did you only speak in Spanish? What challenges did you find as you taught them?
Yes! At an early age, we were in a bilingual setting in California. We did it all: speaking, dancing and singing in Spanish. We took them on many trips to Mexico to visit with relatives and to live the Mexican culture. They picked up both languages as they attended a bilingual school. Their mother is a bilingual teacher. They had both cultures in their home. The challenge was to pay for the trips to Mexico. They have also participated in many multicultural community events.

What tips would you give parents that are teaching their children Spanish?
- Talk, sing and play with them in Spanish.
- Read books to them.
- Visit the local library.
- Participate in multicultural community events.

He is giving away 5 De Colores CD's to 5 different readers of this blog! Click here to enter.

Juego del Jueves: ¿De quién es?

2009-04-16T18:06:00.007-05:00

Juego del Jueves: ¿De quién es?

This is a simple game that helps practice using possessives and new vocabulary words. Take things from each child (shirt, hat, shoes, toys, etc) I took them even from toys like the jacket from the Barbie. Put everything in the box and everyone could say it all together as you put each object in the box like "Hay un anillo en la caja." After you have quite a few items in the box. Then you have each person take something out and ask, “De quién es la gorra?" and then someone else has to say whose it is, like "Es de Maria." Kids get a big kick out of seeing things that are theirs so you will probably hear, "Es mio!" a lot.

La Playa

2009-04-13T18:59:00.012-05:00

I was teaching my classes a lesson about places we go. One of the places was "la playa." Everytime I hear the word "playa" I start singing "Coge tu somprero y pontelo." I decided to look up the song and I was excited to find a video of "Maria Isabel." It is as fun as I had remembered. I am going to teach the whole song to my classes. The first video is basic.

Click here for another version that is more fun but has some girls dancing which you might need to make sure you approve of before showing it to young children.

La Pascua

2009-04-13T16:18:00.011-05:00

We had a wonderful Easter and celebrated with some good friends of ours. Our friends are from Chile and the two daughters (both college age) babysit our girls and always speak Spanish with them. We met them through the church and have really loved having someone we trust to watch our kids and teach them Spanish! We ate Easter dinner with them. The entire time, everyone pretty much only spoke Spanish. It was so fun to see Super Niña (my almost 3 year-old) really trying to speak only in Spanish. Princesa (my 4 year-old) loved rattling off in Spanish and loved the attention she gets when she speaks in Spanish.

I was reminded yet again how wonderful the Latin culture is. I have only met with the mother a few times, but I have asked a few favors (like having her daughters watch my girls when I left for my grandma's funeral, emergency dentist appointments, etc.) I know that they would be willing to sacrifice anything to help us out. They are such giving people. After dinner, they had prepared an Easter egg hunt with little toys and candies for the kids. They had bought chalk for the kids to draw on the porch. As we left, they even gave Super Nina a little tambor that speaks in Spanish. They showered us with gifts and love! I was again amazed at how generous and giving our friends were. It gave me even more motivation to continue teaching these niñas Spanish, so they can get to know a wonderful culture that is full of warmth, love and giving.

Super Niña, Angelita y Princesa

Let your children get to know Spanish speaking people and really develop a friendship with them. It is motivating for you and for them.

By the way, I have GREAT giveways in the making that I am really excited about. You won't want to miss multiple products being given away at a time.

Wanna Jugar with Migo?

Holiday Movie Gift Sets- Angelina, Thomas & Barney *GIVEAWAY*

Thomas the Train DVD *GIVEAWAY*

Un Pato en Nueva York *GIVEAWAY*

Countries of Central America Song

Cascarones!!!

Las Estaciones- DVD giveaway!

Moona Luna GIVEAWAY

Mi Guitarri Music!!

School Vocab Game

La Pulga y Su Familia

Music Videos and More

Using the Webcam!

CSN Stores!

Papel Picado- Halloween Decorations!

Cha! Cha! Cha!

Calabazas, Brujas y Disfraces!

Dedication?

GIVEAWAYS!

Caperucita Roja

Struggles and New Goals

The Power of Cereal Boxes

Teaching Letter Sounds in Spanish!

Spanish in the Summer

We're back!

123 Spanish Together Review & Giveaway

Winners of Diez Deditos CD's!

El Dia de Los Libros: Diez Deditos Giveaway

Giveaways!

Yoga in Spanish for Children- Review & Giveaway

Weather Song

Teaching the Spanish Alphabet

Spanish Immersion Kindergarten Activities

Tres Pececitos

Sing-A-Lingo Review and Giveaway

Un Pulpito

Spring Cleaning!

Put on a Play!

Flashlight Find

Giveaways!

Video: Sami el Heladero

Bajo El Agua and other informational books

Songs to Shine About/ Canciones Para Brillar :)

I'm Trying My Best

Por fin...a chapter book to read aloud!

What to do?!

Book Reviews and Discounts!

'Tis the Season...

Recommended Toy!

El Baile del Sombrero Review and Giveaway

Giveaways for Christmas

Tatilandia Videos

Babysitter Turned into Immersion Teacher

Juguemos en Español CD/Book Giveaway!

Susy Dorn Interview

Pin Pon in Shrek

Moving Picture Books Review & Giveaway

Facebook!!

Animales de la Selva Lesson Plan

Little Pim Review and Giveaway

Giveaway Winner: Jen

Once Gatitos

Animales: Las Mascotas

Spanish Teaching Blog List

Immersion Class: Los Animales de la Granja

Wonderful Storytime Resource

Ingenio Toys Giveaway Part 2!

Ingenio Bilingual Toys Giveaway

Bilingual Fun Giveaway

Giveaway: Boca Beth

Learning Spanish Together Week

Whistlefritz Review & Giveaway

Immersion Class: La Ropa

Immersion Class: Parts of the Body Part 2

John De Mado giveaway Winner!

Confusing Post

Immersion Class: Parts of the Body

La Señal Secreta

Spanish Rap Giveaway

John De Mado Interview

Holiday Movie Gift Sets- Angelina, Thomas & Barney GIVEAWAY

Thomas the Train DVD GIVEAWAY

Un Pato en Nueva York GIVEAWAY