Spanish Scavenger Hunt

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I am currently setting up for my summer camps and was looking for some extra activities to do with my more advanced students that are reading. I found this set and decided to turn it into a scavenger hunt. It is used to teach young ones the alphabet, but I found that it was perfect to hide items (included in the set) for my students to find. 

In the set, there are 26 acorns (bellotas) and 26 little plastic items that can fit in the acorns. I set up the hunt to have the possibility of five teams (great for about 10-15 kids). If you have less than five teams that's ok. You can still set the game up and put all the acorns out even if they aren't going to all be picked up. It will add to the challenge. If you have around 20 kids then you will need two sets.

I have created a file with the scavenger hunt lists already set up. You can find them here. (Scavenger hunt document) You will see two versions of the scavenger hunt with five groups each. The first number refers to which version. The second number refers to the group. At the end of the file, there is the word, "Socorro" printed several times. I will hand out one of these to each team in case they need help with a word. They can hand the SOCORRO paper to me at any time during the hunt to get a definition.

Set up the acorns with the correct items according to the document. Hide them outdoors (or you could do this in a classroom if it's big enough). Give each team (groups of two or three students) one list of what they need to find and a SOCORRO paper. Tell them GO and see which team can find all their items first. 

Please note that there will be one extra acorn and item that won't be used. You can leave them out or you can tell your students that once they have collected their five items and have had them checked by the teacher that they then need to go find the last acorn (which I am going to leave empty-la bellota vacía).

Also, instruct students that if they open an acorn and it's not the one they need then they will need to make sure they put the item back in the acorn and close it tightly before putting it back in its hiding space.  Otherwise, it will be mayhem!😱

Here's the set you need: Acorn Scavenger Hunt Set

And here's the file to set it up and play: Two Versions of the Hunt

Have fun!

Seasons Activities in Spanish {Free Printable}

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Seasons are hard words to remember in another language. Over the twenty years I have been teaching I find that even though it is only four vocabulary words they can be forgotten quickly. So I was really pleased to come across a book in Spanish that beautifully illustrates the changing of the seasons...

Las 4 Estaciones Desde el Gran Arbol shows the progression of the seasons with a tree in the forest. The animals around it come and go as the year passes. The weather changes. The plants grow and become dormant or die. And during the whole time there is an owl in the tree watching the events around him. The book has cut outs that allows you to see the animals in the tree. There are several activities that you can do as you read the book and then afterwards. Let's take a look...

For my students that can write I have them re-create the four seasons with pictures and words in Spanish. (You can download this page here.)  They can draw in the way a tree would look for each season and then label the squares with the correct word. I also have them add color and weather words related to each season in the appropriate square. Another set of vocabulary that could be added are the months in the appropriate season, but be careful with this! What if you are in the southern hemisphere? This would be a great time to discuss how summer happens in December, January, and February in South America (like in Argentina and Chile).

During the reading of the book you can point out all the animals that are throughout the story. One of the reasons that I love this book is because there are so many animals and they reoccur several times on the different pages. For younger kids, I call out the name of an animal and they can count them. For older kids this is a great time to play Spot It! (the animal version) to review the names of animals. (See here how I use Spot It! as a teaching tool AND game at the same time.)

For more advanced students that know their prepositions, you can do a drawing activity with them. Students start out with a blank piece of paper and you describe a scene with a tree in Spanish that they have to draw. Here's a sample description that could be drawn:

Hay un árbol grande con un sol brillante en el cielo. En el árbol hay dos búhos y tres ardillas. Debajo del árbol, hay una familia de zorros. Un zorro persigue una mariposa. El árbol tiene manzanas en las ramas y un nido lleno de huevos.

Finally, here are some resources that are great for working with the seasons...

Y De Pronto Es Primavera-A sweet story about waiting for spring to come.

Froggy Se Viste- Frogs are not supposed to go out in the snow and play! A story filled with winter words (especially clothing).

Un Recorrido Por Las Estaciones- Scenes from all the seasons with an emphasis on each month.

A simple puzzle for younger kids.  Actually, this concept for be great for kids if you make flashcards. Can they put the objects in the right season?

Finally, I use this vocabulary sorting activity with older students. It's a great way to familiarize them with more words that they need to put into one of the four seasons.

Fall Activities for Spanish Learning

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With autumn approaching soon I thought I would consolidate all my posts of learning activities in Spanish related to the fall. The books, activities, and resources are perfect for the colorful months of September, October, and November.

Here is a list of children's books for the fall months.

Chumba La Cachumba is a traditional song that introduces telling time with skeletons.

One of my favorite books for teaching emotions along with a printable activity for the fall.

A pumpkin unit in Spanish!

How about some shape monsters to review colors, body parts, and shapes?

Bats at the library? A delightful book about the joys of reading.

Enjoy learning through the fall!

El Nabo Gigante {Book Activities}

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Whenever I can use a story or a children's book to help my students learn it is so much more enjoyable. There is something about a story that sucks kids in and once you have their attention you can teach them more than through straight memorization or lecture. Let's take a look at a great book about a farming couple who grow a giant turnip. How will they ever be able to get the huge veggie out of the ground? El Nabo Gigante is a delightful tale of problem-solving and a group of farm animals.

First of all, there is a plethora of vocabulary to teach your students...lists of animals and veggies. Some of the colors are touched on in the story which can be a springboard for reviewing the colors with beginners. Also, three of the four seasons are mentioned which means you can review and/or teach those words.

Another opportunity with this book is to teach the parts of plants. Please see my post on the plant unit I use with my students.

Another great aspect of this book is that there are tons of words with the letters c and g. I take time to focus on these two sounds with my students that are learning to read Spanish. You can do this one of two ways...First, of all I create cards with some of the words from the book. {See the list below if you would like to make your own cards.}

Then I either teach my students the phonetic rules for c and g or I read off the cards and see if they can come up with the rules. In case you need a refresher, here are the rules.

• The letter "c" makes the "s" sound when it is followed by "e" or "i". It makes the "k" sound when it is followed by "a", "o", or "u".
• The letter "g" make an "h" sound when followed by "e" or "i". It makes the hard "g" sound (like in the word "gorilla") when followed by the other vowels.

Here is a list of words from the book you can put on cards for your students to practice reading:

"C" words: cama, crecer, arrancar, cintura, campesino, torcida, canarios, cocina, encima, cinco, ratoncito, cuello, cerditos, vaca, cabeza

"G" words: jugosa, gansos, agujero, gigante, gallinas, gatos, guisantes

Here is a drawing activity: At the beginning of the story you will notice that there are several animals that are described. For example: seis canarios amarillos, cinco gansos blancos, cuatro gallinas pintas, tres gatos negros, dos cerditos barrigudos, and una enorme vaca

Using this vocabulary, give your students instructions on what to draw, but mix up the vocabulary. So for example, say "tres cerditos amarillos" or "cinco vacas pintas" and see if they can draw them correctly.

You can also work with ordinal numbers with this story. On this page (just below) you can discuss in Spanish who is first, second, and so on.

Here is a great story sequencing activity (you would just need to write the cards in Spanish instead.) to go along with ordinal numbers.

And finally, you can always do a cooking project after reading this book. Make a stew with the vegetables mentioned in the book!

If you would like to read about more book activities in Spanish, visit here.

Teaching Seasons in Spanish

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There are only four, but at times they are really hard to remember. The seasons can be a challenge to learn especially for younger kids. Here are a few teaching ideas for the seasons...

When I teach the seasons and if the students are old enough {junior high and up} I try to give them tips on how to memorize the names. Here are the ideas I use...

El otoño - It sounds similar to the word "autumn".

El invierno - This word actually comes from the word "to hibernate". I also teach my students that it is the "inverse" (opposite of summer). "Invierno" kind of sounds a little like "inverse" so sometimes that helps students remember.

La primavera - Spring comes from two words "prima" (We have words in English like "prime" and "premiere" which refer to "one" or "first") and "vera" (This is similar to the word "green", verde). So basically this word means "first green" which totally fits for spring!

El verano - Summer starts out with "ver" similar to "verde" the season that is all green.

One of the activities we do after I have introduced the seasons and months is to categorize the months into the four seasons. I do this with cards...I have four different pictures of trees to represent the seasons and twelve cards with the months on them. We do it for the northern hemisphere and then talk about the southern hemisphere since there are many Spanish-speaking countries in which the seasons are flipped like Argentina and Chile. Another version of this activity is for my students to categorize clothing and/or weather into the appropriate season.

For older students I have them do this page which lets them work with other vocabulary related to each season.

If you are exploring the seasons with younger kids then children's books are the way to go. Un recorrido por las estaciones covers all the seasons and months. It also has some cool information on the days of the week in the back.

Also, I have several posts on books for each season of the year...

Fall books

Winter books

Spring books 

Just recently I came across a cute book about waiting for spring called Y de pronto la primavera . Well worth the read to young kids!

Summer books

So how do you teach the seasons? I would love to hear your ideas!

Murciélagos en la Biblioteca

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Are you getting geared up for fall yet? I recently came across a children's book in Spanish that would be great for the fall or the month of October. I actually read it to some of my students this summer. They adored it! Murciélagos en la Biblioteca is a cute story about bats. For me, the words "bats" and "cute" don't normally go together, but the story line and the illustrations are just so precious that I couldn't help but love this book. One night a whole group of bats find that a window in the library is open. They fly in and spend a night of reading.  The book has been translated from English in such a way that it is still written in rhyme which adds more fun to the reading of the story. Brian Lies has written other bat books in the series, but unfortunately I don't see them available in Spanish. Maybe in the future...

Here are some other great books for the month of October...

Chumba la Cachumba- This is a great book to teach the concept of telling time in Spanish to young children. The illustrations are humorous and the words come from a traditional Hispanic song. Here is Luis Pescetti singing the song with a group of kids in Mexico.

Así me siento yo  is a great book for teaching emotions. After reading the book we do pumpkin faces based on the emotions we read about. Here is the post with more information and a FREE printable.

Another list of books for the fall.

A pumpkin unit in Spanish for October contains a vocabulary list, free printable, and children's books suggestions.

So what are you doing this October with your Spanish students? I would love to hear your ideas!

Spanish Books for Fall {for Kids}

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If you have been reading here for awhile you know that I have a vast collection of children's Spanish books. I collect books for the unit studies I do with my students. I have series of books {like the Froggy books or Oliver Jeffers' books} because they are favorites for my students. I also collect seasonal books. You can see my other posts for seasonal books with the links below...

Winter books

Spring books

Summer books

Here is a list of books to read during the autumn months to your students/children...

El Otoño -A simple book describing the many aspects of fall. There are a couple of activities in the back to do with kids.

Calabaza, Calabaza- The pumpkin life cycle in story form.

Chumba la Cachumba- I love this book because it is a traditional rhyme/song that introduces the concept of telling time. The illustrations of skeletons are humorous. A favorite!!

Froggy va a la escuela- Froggy goes to school.

Froggy y el Día de Halloween -Froggy's Halloween

Calabazas- A beautiful informational book on pumpkins.

Ana Cultiva Manzanas


La Calabaza Rodante- Let's try to catch the runaway pumpkin!

Murcielagos en la Biblioteca -Bats have storytime at night in the library. {This book is in my cart, ready for me to order soon! Can't wait!}

If you are looking for some fall activities or unit studies, check out these links...

Spanish Pumpkin Unit {Free printable}
Teaching Emotions with Pumpkins {Free printable}

Mi Calendario {Teaching Dates, Seasons, and Weather with a Free Printable}

Over my years of teaching Spanish to young kids, I have found that the calendar, seasons, and the weather can be a challenge for them to cement in their brains. It takes a lot of review, and the best way is to talk about it each day for awhile until the concept of the passing of time becomes familiar to them. I recently purchased this calendar at half price and have been using it with my students. I am seriously wondering if I bought the last one available {I know I did from the company I ordered it from}. I wanted to have a smaller take-home version for my parents to be able to use with their kids at home.

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So I created this calendar that reviews yesterday, today, tomorrow, the date, season and weather for the day. You can download it and print it using the link below. {On the screen the page looks off, but print it out and it will be fine.} I then laminated these pages using this laminator {If you are looking for a laminator to use at home this is it! Inexpensive and works really well!!}. By laminating them I can give one copy to each parent and they can have their kids use a dry erase marker to pick the date, days, etc. It can be used over and over again. {Note: Some colored dry erase markers are harder to remove. The black seems the easiest. Also, rubbing alcohol helps the cleaning process.}

So here is the file...There is also a second page with questions in Spanish that parents can use as they review the calendar each day.

Mi Calendario

Here are some more items to use with kids to teach weather and seasons...




Weather and Clothes Puzzle-With this puzzle you can go over clothes, weather, colors, and seasons.




Pink "Mi Calendario"-Similar to the one above that is no longer available.


Laminated Weather Chart in Spanish