Apr. 30, 2009
La Caja Azul - The Blue Box
Posted in Flash Card Activities
 Recently, I introduced you to my friend Sandra, and her wonderful ideas for increading Spanish vocabulary, and encouraging careful attention to Spanish phonics. If you enjoyed working with the Caja Rosa words, and are ready for the next step, she has graciously offered to share Caja Azul words with us!
Here is the link: Caja Azul The word meanings are pretty clear from the pictures, but in case there is any confusion, they are: aves - birds, amor - love, arte - art, boda - wedding, bote - can, café - coffee, coco - coconut, dama - lady, imán - magnet, isla - island, joya - jewel, mago - magician, beso- kiss, nota - note, nudo - knot, orca - whale, pasa - raisin, sofá - sofa, tela - fabric, yema - yolk, rojo - red, pico - beak, nido - nest, codo - elbow. Please refer to the Caja Rosa entry if you need to review the procedure and suggested usage for these cards. Thanks again Sandra! ¡Eres lo maximo amiga! |
Apr. 16, 2009
La Caja Rosa - The Pink Box
Posted in Flash Card Activities
 I recently had the delightful experience of making another online friend! Sandra lives in Southern California, teaches Montesorri, and originally hails from Guadalajara, Mexico. A woman from Guadalajara is called a "Tapatía" I had heard the term before, but was never sure what it meant, so I love that Sandra enlightened me. Her husband is from Spain, and the family takes summer trips there to visit relatives. What a rich, bilingual culture her children are being raised in! Sandra shared with me an idea that she uses with her Montessori kids. She has words categorized by difficulty level, with the easiest being the "pink box" words. So open up La Caja Rosa, and let's have fun with some vocabulary.... Sandra shared two files with me of vocabulary and picture flash cards of Caja Rosa words. They teach simple CVC words, and will not only expand vocab, but teach pronunciation and reading Spanish. If you need a review of Spanish pronunciation, please see the pronunciation links on my sidebar. Each word has a picture with it to aid in retaining what is learned. While most of the words are very evident from the pictures, just in case there is any confusion, these are the words presented: File 1 : sol - sun, pez - fish, col - cabbage, sal - salt, paz - peace, cal - lime, tez - skin/complexion, uva- grape, pan - bread, mar - sea, oso - bear, ola - wave File 2 : sed - thirst, tul - tulle, dos - two, tos - cough, luz - light, voz - voice, más - plus, uno - one, pie - foot, ojo - eye, ajo - garlic, oca - goose The only word that may be problematic to pronounce is "pie". It is pronounced: pyay. For the most part, Spanish is very pure in its phonics, and it is easy to read. Model, and encourage the student to sound out each word. For example, if you are teaching the word "sol" introduce each letter by its sound in Spanish, not its name. Este es el ssssssssssss (this is the sssssss) y este es el ohhh (and this is the ohhh) y este es el llllllllll (and this is the lllll) Then model blending these sounds: ssss..ooohhh...lllll - sol After practicing, these should become easy to read, and the new vocabulary will be a side benefit, as well as increased confidence in tackling reading in Spanish. Thanks again Sandra! Coming soon: Caja Azul words! |
Sep. 12, 2008
¡Vamos a cenar - en español! - Let's eat dinner - in Spanish!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
 Playing Restaurant at a family meal, or just incorporating Spanish into your meal, can teach a lot of vocabulary!
Here's a plan: first you need to frontload your lessons with vocabulary for the foods you plan to eat. You can use ideas from your flash cards, the dictionary, or a food vocab list. You will want to keep it simple at first, and just say "el pollo" for chicken, "la ensalada" for salad, etc. This youtube video is also very helpful, with a list of 30 Restaurant words being pronounced by a native speaker. You may not need all the words, like menú or mozo, but cucharra, cuchillo, and tenedor will come in handy! |
Jun. 8, 2008
Las Rompecabezas - Puzzles!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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We all know that learning can be much more effective if it is a little fun! Why not try reinforcing a vocab list or flashcard vocab by making a crossword or word search puzzle? Here is a fantastic site that will automatically generate puzzles for you. Many thanks to the creator of this site! I made two puzzles using color vocab just to demonstrate. Here is my word search:
And check out my crossword puzzle!
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May. 15, 2008
Los olores
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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Los olores - scents - can be one of our most pleasurable senses (and sometimes one of the least!). Let's talk about how we talk about smells and scents in Spanish. The irregular verb oler is used to say something smells good or bad, or smells like something else. When conjugated in present tense, the verb oler turns into huele (singular) or huelen (plural). I don't usually write out pronunciations on this blog, because it is often awkward, but huele is a word most folks needs a little help with the first time they encounter it. Huele is pronounced way-lay, and huelen is pronounced way-len. Here is the basic formula:
NOUN + huele + bien/mal - _______ smells good/bad NOUN + huelen + bien/mal - ________ smells good/bad To ask whether something smells good, use this formula: ¿Huele bien el/la + noun? - Does the ______ smell good? ¿Huelen bien los/las + plural noun? - Do the ______ smell good? Let's give it a try!  ¿Huelen bien los flores? Sí, los flores huelen bien.  ¿Huele bien la pizza? Sí, la pizza huele bien.  ¿Huele bien el jabón? Sí, el jabón huele bien.  ¿Huelen bien los zorillos? ¡No, los zorillos no huelen bien! Los zorillos huelen mal. You can even make this more emphatic by saying: ¡Los zorillos no huelen nada bien! (Literally - Skunks don't smell the least bit good!) Another way to say it: ¡Los zorillos huelen feo! (Literally, skunks smell ugly)  ¿Huelen bien las galletas? ¡Síiiiiiiiiiii, las galletas huelen muy (very) bien! Blogging makes me hungry for some reason..... P.S. This topic naturally ties into your flash cards! Select cards that depict anything that you can smell (from a flower, to bread, to a foot - yuck!) and practice plugging this formula in to talk about how things smell. |
Apr. 14, 2008
Anyone for a tengo?
Posted in Flash Card Activities
 No, not that kind of tango.... I'm talking about tengo, a form of the common and important verb tener. Let's look at some present tense forms of tener:
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Apr. 1, 2008
Me duelen los oidos
Posted in Flash Card Activities
Ok, I have been one of those MIA bloggers for over a week! Pues, es que me duelen los oídos. In other words, my ears hurt. But life goes on, and it occurred to me that you can still get sick while speaking Spanish, so why not offer an entry dealing with this favorite topic?
Ok, vamos al médico (let's go to the doctor) and say what hurts.... Practice with these formulas: Me duele ___________ or Me duelen ________
**Good questions! An HSB friend asked me how we say: I hope you're feeling better soon. That would be: ¡Espero que te repongas pronto! And thanks for the well wishes! Her other question is about this: ñ¡¿áéíóú You can teach your keyboard to speak Spanish too.  |
Mar. 19, 2008
¡Yo sí puedo! Yes I can!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
 Nothing like that boost of confidence that comes from talking about the things we CAN do! Let's talk about what we can do using one of the most common verbs in the Spanish language, poder, meaning can or be able to.
The basic formula for saying "I can...." is to say Yo puedo.... However, the pronoun I/yo is built into your verb ending, so it is actually a little redundant in Spanish to always use the Yo. (except when you want to make an emphasis, such as I did in this entry title) So here is our formula..... Puedo + an unconjugated verb = I can (verb) . A simple no in front of puedo makes the sentence negative. Examples:
 The possibilities are endless! Think about things you want to say you can do, and look them up to plug into your sentences. Y tú.....¿qué puedes hacer? And you.... what can you do? |
Mar. 4, 2008
¿Dónde está? Parte dos...backing up a bit.
Posted in Flash Card Activities
 Sometimes I get ahead of myself. I have grand plans for some lesson to teach my kids, and it flops. I realize that a solid foundation needs to be in place before they are ready to take a more complicated step. Most homeschoolers find that this is true when you are trying to get your child to respond in Spanish. They need to take it in, assimilate it, and let their brain chew on it awhile before it really clicks and they are ready to respond to you.
 Case in point: my own three children. My middle child is always the first to understand the concept. Never mind that she is not the oldest, I just think she is the one who will truly have more of a knack for picking up the language. The eldest tries to answer a ¿dónde está? question by putting dónde in the answer. The youngest repeats whatever I say. He doesn't understand that he needs to respond. Maybe at his age repeating is a good place to start, and to gear my efforts for him. Maybe all this makes me sound like a homeschooler who just crawled out from under a rock, but I am learning from my kids, and tweaking my approach to them every day. That having been said, here is what we ended up doing... I introduce the phrase ¿dónde está......?, and explained that if there is more than one of something, we say ¿dónde están...? I will then ask the ¿dónde está....? questions, and the kids responded by pointing to the object! It looked like this:
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Mar. 1, 2008
¿Dónde está......?
Posted in Flash Card Activities
 One fun way to plug in vocab you have learned, and practice making sentences, is to ask where things are. Two new words will help us accomplish this. ¿dónde? is how you ask "where?" in Spanish. The verb that goes with statements or questions about location is estar. We've already talked on this blog about the verb ser being one way to say "is" ; estar is the other. Think of estar as the real estate verb: location, location, location! So here is our formula for asking location: ¿Dónde + está + el/la + singular noun? And for a plural noun: ¿Dónde + están + los/las + plural noun? Let's give this a try using vocab from our Flash Kids Spanish Flash Cards
Ok, how about "there"? Ahí refers to the "there" where the person you are talking to is located, whether it is across the room, or a thousand miles of phone line. In a sentence like, "What is the weather like there?", we would use ahí. To refer to a "there" where neither you nor the person you are talking with is located, you will use allá. Say we are talking about Sydney, Australia, and someone says "The famous Sydney Opera House is there". We would use allá. (Based on blog tracking, we have had just a peek on this blog from Australia. So if you are peeking again, and you are in Sydney, that last example doesn't apply to you mate!) Ok, enough explanations.... once you are familiar with these formulas you can make a little game out of it. Here is how: divide into two groups, and use your flash cards or household objects that you know the names for in Spanish. Put a few cards/items with one team, a few with another, and a few in a third location where nobody is. Take turns asking where the card/item is located. The other team answers using:
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Feb. 4, 2008
Bingo ¡Loteria!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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Playing Bingo is a great way to add some fun to school work, and turn what otherwise might be a dull task into something to look forward to. What a great way to reinforce numbers or vocabulary in Spanish! This website allows you to create and print your own Bingo cards. Fill them with vocab from your flash card set, or any other vocab list you are working on.  For a more cultural angle: There is a traditional Mexican picture bingo that builds vocabulary. Here is an example. If you are considering ordering this for young children, just know that some of the drawings might be inappropriate for very sensitive children, such as a skull and crossbones, and a skeleton. I also took the liberty of drawing a swim top on the mermaid in my set. The pictures in this set are traditional Mexican cultural symbols, and my kids have fun playing! |
Dec. 10, 2007
How Many? ¿Cuántos hay?
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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Quick field trip announcement: I have not been able to keep up with posting weekly field trips. I'll plan a special field trip for Christmas, and then go to posting one or two per month after the new year. Deal? ¿Trato hecho? On to our regularly scheduled entry.... Counting to ten in Spanish is pretty universally known in the US. But once you know those numbers/los numeros, what good do they do you if you can't form a sentence to say how many of something there are? It's easier than you think! Let me introduce you to one of the Spanish language's most handy and easy verbs: haber. It is used to say "there are", as in: "There are 20 people in that Volkswagen", or "There are 50 pink flamingos on my lawn." The two most common forms are the following:
Another fun idea... practice saying your phone number in Spanish! (Cero means zero): ocho-cuatro-seis-siete-cinco-cero-tres Get counting! |
Dec. 4, 2007
It's broken!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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Here is yet another activity to do with the flash card set, or with any vocabulary list. My kids came up with this idea - they wanted to know how to say that something is broken! Warning - grammar ahead! We have talked about how a certain American president once famously commented on what the meaning of is is, and I just know that he must have been having a flashback to a Spanish class. In Spanish there are two words that are used for is and they are the verbs ser and estar. We have already learned to use ser in one of it's forms to describe things: La manzana es roja (The apple is red). When we say that something is broken, we use estar, and our sentence might look like this: La taza está rota.(The mug is broken or chipped)Here is the formula we will use with the flash cards.... pick out cards that represent things that can be broken. You will say: El/la noun está roto/a. If your noun is plural, it will look like this: Los/las noun están rotos/as. Note: están (they are) is the plural form of está (it is). The word roto is an adjective meaning broken. The ending of this word changes depending on whether your noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural. In other words, the adjective modifies the noun. There are additional meanings for roto. When referring to cloth or clothing, it can mean ripped or torn. A downed tree can be said to be roto, as can a non-functioning car. A plate or bowl could be chipped, and roto would express that. Here are some example sentences:
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Nov. 25, 2007
The clothes horse
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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Clothes are on my mind a lot, because people in this house keep growing out of them! I know every family can relate. Let's talk about clothes a little. Since they make up part of our daily routine, we need to be able to converse about them. Let's start with this simple formula, using vocabulary from flash cards, or a list like this one. Let's practice with these sentences:
Now add a vocab word to the blank. You sentences will look like this...
How do you tell a child to put on certain clothing? The command form is: Ponte _______. For example: Ponte la gorra/put a hat on! Doesn't every mom want to know how to tell their kids to put their dirty laundry in the laundry hamper or basket? We say it all the time in English, why not in Spanish too....
Some additional vocab:
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Nov. 8, 2007
Mine! Mine! Mine!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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How many of us have heard that rant in our own homes at one time or another? Guess what - it happens in Spanish speaking homes too! Ok, I am not really advocating that you teach children how to rant, since so many of them come by it naturally. But is it easy to teach a few possessive forms with your trusty stack of flash cards, or a vocab list. The word for my in Spanish is mi. The plural form is mis. Let's use the Flash Kids Spanish Flash Cards (or vocab list) to practice saying that some things are "mine". For this exercise we use es to mean is (the plural form being son). Here is what this looks like:
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Nov. 5, 2007
Yay Grammar! Woo-hoo!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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Did the title of this entry convince you that grammar is something to get excited about? I didn't think so. I am one of those of the slim minority that thinks grammar is interesting. I discovered just how slim this minority is when I taught a homeschool Spanish class. If you are teaching kids to speak Spanish, the best bet is just to model correct grammar, which means that you need to be aware of it. We have already talked a little about the word "the" in Spanish. Just to review, Spanish nouns can be masculine, feminine, singular or plural. The form of "the" that they use depends on these factors. Here is a rundown with examples:
Let's take one more step. In English "the" is a definite article, but we frequently also use the indefinite articles "a" and "an". Here is how you form them in Spanish:
A wise sage named Mary Poppins once said, "A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down". As a wholehearted believer in this philosophy, I offer you this authentic Mexican flan recipe that my family has enjoyed many times. I keep a copy in my cookbook. I tweak the recipe sometimes to my own whim, substituting the vanilla extract with almond, coconut, or rum flavor. ¡Qué rico! |
Nov. 1, 2007
Simon says.... Read this entry!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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Simon says is a game we all know from childhood, right? Why not play it in Spanish? It is a fun way to learn a few command forms, and to review vocabulary. For this game, use Flash Kids Spanish Flash Cards or vocab that you are working on learning. It is especially helpful to use things related to these vocab words that you have available around the house. New vocab for this game:
Simon dice.... señala la mesa. Simon dice.... toca el libro. Simon dice..... mira la puerta. Señala la manzana. Ha! got ya! Simon dice.... leave Señora B a nice comment after you read this entry. |
Oct. 25, 2007
Color my World
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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If you have been working with your children on flash cards for vocabulary, such as I describe in a previous entry, it is time to add a new dimension to this exercise. If you are not using Flash Kids Spanish Flash Cards , never fear, this activity can be done with any vocabulary list, and is best done with some sort of visual. First off, in case you haven't heard, there are two ways to say is in Spanish. When a former president said that it all depends on what you mean by is, maybe he was thinking of Spanish, do you suppose? Instead of going into depth and teaching young kids a bunch of rules about which is to use, I believe that it is best just to teach the uses in context. That is how we learn English, and then when we speak, we say what sounds right. So for this exercise, we will use the verb ser. The form es is is in the singular, and son is the plural form are. Yikes, enough grammar already- it is easier than it sounds! Go over the color cards, reviewing or introducing them if necessary. We will use es (or son if the item is a plural word) to make sentences with a noun and a color. Take a sheet of notebook paper, and write es in large letters in the upper half, and son in large letters in the lower half, or write these words on index cards. If your child is not yet reading, then do this orally, still using the cards for visuals. Let's make the sentence: El vestido es azul. Take the card for el vestido and put it in front of the es on the paper/index card , and then put the card for azul after the es. Show how this makes a complete sentence, and say it for your child. Then have your child say it with you, and once on his own if he is ready. Some children will get this right away, and be able to make their own sentences, some will just need to repeat them with you. If your child knows the color cards well, you may not even need to show them. You may want to try this exercise a variety of ways until it becomes very comfortable. Here are some sentences to try:
El arco iris es rojo, anaranjado, amarillo, verde, azul, añil (indigo), y morado. Note: y means and. Add colors to your daily conversations as well! Even if you don't know the name for an object, you can point it out and say, "es blanco", or "es marrón". Yay! You are learning more vocabulary, and internalizing an important aspect of the verb ser, and it didn't hurt a bit, did it? |
Oct. 6, 2007
Things we like and things we don't!
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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¡Buenas tardes! This activity is suitable for beginning learners, and is ideal for use with Flash Kids Spanish Flash Cards If you don't have flashcards, you may want to write out some vocab words on index cards. Here are the basic steps:
¿te gusta el pan? Sí, me gusta el pan. ¿te gusta el perro? sí, me gusta el perro ¿te gusta el vestido? no, no me gusta el vestido You may need to practice and prompt the phrase "me gusta" many, many times. Here is how this exercise went in my house the first time I did it.... the 6 year old parroted back to me what I said to him. The 9 year old got it pretty quickly, but needed help remembering and practicing "me gusta" for about the first 20 cards. My 12 year old knew what she was supposed to do, but kept saying "me gusta" incorrectly, for example, "Medussa"! So be patient.... After the kids have gotten the hang of me gusta... then you can try it with plural nouns. That looks like this: ¿Te gustan los/las_____? Reply: Sí/no me gustan los/las ____________. Note: do not use this formula to say that you like people. When used in reference to people it implies physical attraction. A proper and always safe & appropriate way to say that you like someone is, "Me cae bien (insert name)". Got it? ¿preguntas? Questions? |
Oct. 1, 2007
101 uses for flash cards
Posted in Flash Card Activities
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1. Bookmarks 2. clip with a clothespin to bicycle spokes for a cool clicking sound blah....blah....blah.... fast forward 101. Teach Spanish! I recommend Flash Kids Spanish Flash Cards They couldn't be cheaper! Add in the beloved B&N discount, and they are even less. I found them on the shelf next to the Usborne cards, which were about three times as expensive. Nothing against Usborne, but hey.... If you have taken my advice and learned how to pronounce Spanish, you can get a couple of years of elementary Spanish out of this inexpensive deck of cards. Here's the plan: 1. Pick 4 cards per week, or let the kids pick them. Pick by any system you want, such as easiest words first, or by topics like numbers, colors, food, etc. 2. Put those cards in a prominent place where they will be seen daily, such as a bulletin board or the fridge. 3. Practice the words daily with your children. It takes one minute! 4. Fold a paper in half and half again, creating 4 rectangle shapes. Have your children copy a word from the flash card, and draw a picture to go with it. This would make a nice start for a Spanish notebook! 5. Every week, add 4 new cards. Put the previous cards in a special pile, and review them 4-5 times per week. 6. Explain to your children that in Spanish, some words are boys (masculine) and some words are girls (feminine). Masculine words begin with el and feminine words begin with la. The plural forms are el -> los, and la -> las. This does not need to be drilled, just introduced. If students get in the habit of learning and remembering nouns as masculine and feminine, that will help in the future with numerous grammar issues. Stack & practice the cards so that all masculine are practiced together, and likewise for feminine. 7. Plug these new vocab words into daily life. This is a hard habit to get into, but so worth it! Do you want a manzana or a naranja for lunch? Please wear your calcetines, otherwise it makes your zapatos stink! Who left the pantalones in a wad on the floor? Get it? Coming soon... more advanced uses for flashcards! |
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