Sticky Paper Collage for Spanish Conversation {Activity}

This sticky paper collage is facilísimo and provides an opportunity to speak lots of Spanish with your kids, regardless of their level. Best of all, ¡a los niños les encanta!

To make the collage you need a piece of cardboard or poster board, contact paper, pictures cut from magazines and any other lightweight material your child would like to put in her collage. Tape the contact paper to the cardboard with the removable backing facing up. Peel off the backing to expose the sticky surface. Then, make a collage by putting pictures onto the sticky paper.

Before you begin to put on the pictures, it is a good idea to let kids touch the surface to see how sticky it is. ¡Es muy pegajoso! I also warn them that the pictures are going to stay where they put them. They are not going to be able to move them at all: Las fotos se pegan. No las podemos mover después.

If your niños are learning Spanish, you may want to focus the collage around a theme like los Juegos Olímpicos, los animales, los colores, or los vehículos. Kids can also collect leaves, twigs, grasses, flowers, seeds, and feathers to add to the collage. They may want to fill the empty spaces with glitter or confetti.

As you can see, we were using pictures of animals.

Here are a few suggestions for making the most of the collage as a language activity.

First, as you find and cut out pictures, talk about them with your child. If some of the words are new, this will give her a chance to hear them and start to learn them.

Regardless of your child’s level of Spanish, use language that expands her vocabulary. This is a simple activity, but the language you use does not have to be simple. For example, if you are making an animal collage with beginners, you can focus on the names of the animals as you cut them out. If your child speaks more Spanish, you can describe the animals and talk about where they live and what they eat. This is a perfect opportunity to introduce words like mamífero, reptil, anfibio, carnívoro, herbívoro, omnívoro, nocturno, and diurno.

As your child makes the collage, repeat new words and talk about key concepts again. If she is beginning to learn Spanish, you can do this by describing what she is doing: Pusiste el caballo al lado de la vaca. ¿Qué vas a poner ahora?

When your child has finished her collage, hang it at her eye level in a place where you can talk about it together. You can comment on pictures you like, ask her questions or take turns describing a picture and guessing which one it is.

Special thanks to Spanish Playground for providing this activity. Visit their site for more activities to teach Spanish to kids.