Book review: I want my “sombrero” back

I like to read children’s books to my students that have one word or phrase that is repeated a lot, that way I can read the story in English and just translate one word or phrase into Spanish so that they are hearing it in it’s context, over, and over, and over again.

I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klassen is a lovely book and perfect for learning a language this way – the children never seem to get tired of listening to it.  With this book the English word “hat” is repeated many times, so I replaced it for the Spanish word “sombrero”.  To encourage the children whenever the word “sombrero” was coming up, I put my hand on my head.  They LOVED saying “sombrero” with me!

Book review – Arriba, Abajo y Alrededor

Arriba, Abajo y Alrededor = Up, Down and Around

by Katherine Ayres & Nadine Bernard Westcott is a wonderful book that was a great hit with all the children.  It is simple to read with lovely bright illustrations.  I used it to accompany a food unit I did during the Autumn.

With the older children, we read it together, taking turns as we passed it around the class. This was a great exercise for them to practice reading with vocabulary they recognised but in short sentences.

With the younger one as well as simply reading it, we played a game. Whenever I said each of the words in the title the children had to act out the meaning.  So when I read (arriba) they stretched up as high as they could, get down on the floor as low as they can when I read (abajo) and spin around for (alrededor). This is great fun and really gets the children listening and understanding first prepositions while learning new vocabulary.

“Plant People” Game

This is a great game to accompany a food unit. The children have to think of 10 fruits and vegetables. Once they have ten items s/he is required to draw that person using only the items on the list.  Then they can label the body parts in Spanish.