Spanish Preschool Fun

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I recently purchased two games to use with the youngest of my students (preschool through early elementary). Pengoloo and Snug as a Bug in a Rug are great games to review colors in any language. And Snug as a Bug in a Rug also reviews shapes, some simple numbers, and the words "big" and "little".

Pengoloo  is a wooden game with hollow penguins who "sit" on different colored eggs. Each player gets an "iceberg" with the numbers 1-6. Players roll a die with colors on them (the colors of the rainbow). The goal is then for them to collect penguins that have that colored egg underneath them. To win the game a player has to collect six penguins. While we play I have my students tell me the color they rolled and also the color of the eggs that they choose.

Snug as a Bug in a Rug has three levels of play and is a cooperative game in which the players try to get all the colored bugs "under the rug" (the game board) before the three stink bugs get on the board. As students play I have them identify the items they are looking for on the bug (i.e. rojo, cuadrado, tres, etc.).

Both of these games created a lot of high interest and motivated my students to review the vocabulary. I also like the fact that I can use these games with two of my Spanish units: Polar Animals and Insects.

Do you have any great game suggestions that can be used in Spanish (or another language) to review vocabulary? I would love to hear about them!

Shape Monsters

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 Learning the names of shapes in another language is a great activity for preschool age kids or those in the lower elementary levels.  These are the shapes that I tend to teach my students...

El círculo-circle

El triángulo-triangle

El cuadrado-square

El rectángulo- rectangle

La estrella-star

La medialuna-crescent, half moon

El corazón-heart

El óvalo-oval

El diamante-diamond

I create little packets of colored shapes that I hand out to my students.  Their job is to create a shape monster or two with the shapes by gluing them together or onto a piece of paper.  I then have my students present their creations to me by telling me in Spanish what each body part is made of.  For example, "Los ojos son circulos."  or "El cuerpo es un diamante."  You can also have them tell you the colors of the body parts.

To create the shapes I used the following items:

Fiskars 196920-1001 Portable Paper Trimmer, 12-Inch (Good for creating the larger shapes with straight edges.  You will need a couple of  big shapes in each packet that can be used as bodies.)
Fiskars Circle Cutter (Good for bigger circles for the bodies)
Fiskars Shape Template, Ovals (Bigger ovals for the bodies)
Circle Punches
Square Punches
Paper Punch Set, Mini, Heart and Star

Triangles are easily made by cutting squares in half. Crescents can be made with by punching out circles and then hand cutting the curve out of one side of the circle.

I use astrobright paper to cut everything out, and then I pack Ziploc sandwich bags with a variety of shapes. Not every packet is the same and they aren't required to use all the shapes.  I just want them to be creative and come up with some kind of monster.  Such a fun and cute activity!

Books to Use with Shape Monsters

Fuera de Aquí, Horrible Monstruo Verde
El Monstruo de Colores
El Monstruo de los Monstruos

Oso Books for Vocabulary Building

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The Oso books by "Barefoot en Espanol" are awesome for vocabulary building!  These simple books work well with younger kids to introduce them to a variety of topics like days of the week, places, profession,etc. Here is a list of the books available and the topics they cover.


Bear in Sunshine/Oso Bajo El Sol  (Weather, Seasons, Favorite Activities)
Oso en la Ciudad (Places, Days of the Week)
Oso En Bicicleta (Places, Transportation)
Oso En Un Cuadrado (Shapes, Colors, Counting)
Oso en el Trabajo (Professions, Places)
Bear at Home/Oso En Casa (Rooms and Items in a House)
Bear's Busy Family/ La familia ocupada de Oso (Family, The Five Senses)

Many of the books at the end have a picture review of the vocabulary and/or a list of key words.  Like for example in Oso en Casa there is a floor plan of the house.

Or a review of shapes and colors in Oso en el Cuadrado...

Great little books for language learning!