As summer comes to an end and our niños get ready to head back to school we are busy trying to prepare but we also want to add some fun to the last days of summer vacation. We’ve rounded up a few activities to prepare for school and also have fun with the family.

Making Your Home Bilingual

Kali of For the Love of Spanish shared this awesome activity to get organized and make your home bilingual! We love that this is a great activity to do with kids and one that can also help them learn how to read. Click here for the instructions and list of vocabulary words in Spanish.

Picasso y el Cubismo

Aprendizaje Divertido shared a set of activities to introduce kids to Picasso and cubism. Check out the activity and resources here.

5 Simple Ways to Remember Summer Vacation with Kids

We love these simple tips by The Educator’s Spin on It. These simple activities are a fun way to say goodbye to summer and we love that they can easily be done in any language! Click here for the tips and instructions.

Take a Spanish Nature Walk

What better time to take a walk around the neighborhood than summer! Spanish Playground shared a Spanish nature walk checklist for our niños to use on their next nature walk. The list is simple enough for all the items to be found at a local park. Click here for the Spanish nature walk checklist printable.

Mommy Maestra’s Back to School Fiesta! 

Monica of Mommy Maestra is hosting a back to school fiesta with plenty of giveaways all month long! Although this is not exactly an activity we think it’s awesome that Mommy Maestra is giving readers the opportunity to take home s0 many excellent educational materials. First up is a Spanish curriculum !

Our culture is a big part of why we teach our kids Spanish. But even if Spanish is not the language of our ancestors we know that learning another language gives us and our children a deeper understanding of other people and cultures. For this week’s #BilingualKids Round-up we have focused on fun crafts for kids that celebrate culture and the diversity in our world.

Proud to be Me Self-Identity Craft

This beautiful craft by Ruby of Growing Up Blackxican is all about instilling a positive self-image in kids. It teaches kids to love their heritage whether it be from one ethnicity or many. Click here to read Ruby’s story and craft instructions.

Guatemalan Crafts and Activities for Kids

Paula of Growing Up Bilingual shared a round-up of crafts and activities for kids to celebrate Guatemala’s history and culture. Click here to view activities and crafts.

Discovering Culture Through Collage: Romare Bearden

This craft by Moms Gone Global was inspired by Romare Bearden’s art. Bearden was an African-American artist whose style was shaped by his experiences growing up as well as art from other cultures. Click here to find out more about Bearden and for craft instructions.

La Oruga Muy Hambrienta

Danielly of Un Dulce Hogar shared this simple and cute craft to do after reading the children’s book “La Oruga Muy Hambrienta”. This very popular book can be found in English and Spanish. We love that this craft is a fun way to reinforce the art of storytelling and it’s also a great catalyst for conversations in Spanish. Click here to view the craft instructions.

Food Traditions Around the World 

It’s no secret that food is a big part of every culture. The Piri-Piri Lexicon blog shared a list of simple recipes from around the world that our niños can help us prepare.  This is a great activity to introduce our kids to different foods and start a conversation about other cultures and countries, one dish at a time.

This week we’ve put together a round-up with activities that encourage kids to explore in Spanish. Whether they’ll be traveling or staying home for the summer there are plenty of ways for our kids to explore the world around them through reading, music, and play. The activities below are hands-on and prompt kids to explore beyond their own horizons while practicing Spanish.

Learn Spanish through Play: At The Park // Actions (Verbs)

This fun activity by For The Love of Spanish is all about playing at the park and learning actions and verbs en Español! Click here for a vocabulary list of verbs in Spanish to practice with you kids as you play.

Latin Children’s Song “Los Pollitos Dicen Pío, Pío, Pío“

Frances of Discovering The World Through My Son’s Eyes is providing her readers with a Spanish langauge summer program through a series of posts. The latests addition features a series of fun activities centered around the classic Los Pollitos Dicen children’s song. Click here for the Los Pollitos Dicen activities.

11 Easy Spanish Activities Using Printable Landscapes

This activity by Spanish Playground prompts kids to create a story, play, puppet show, game, and more by using a landscape for inspiration. These are all great way for kids to practice speaking, reading, and even writing in Spanish. Click here for the list of printables and instructions.

Virtual Trip Around The World

Becky of Kid World Citizen shared how using a country unit can serve as a catalyst for taking a virtual trip around the world. What’s great about this activity is that it exposes our kids to other cultures, values, and experiences reinforcing the importance each has. Click here for a list of activity resources and ideas.

Awesome Summer Activity: Explorer Journal

In Culture Parent shared this simple activity for summer: journaling! Since summer is great time to go on adventures, big or small, and practice Spanish why not record it in a journal? Journaling is a fun and simple way for kids express themselves and reflect on their growth in any area of their lives. Click here for a link to a cute explorer journal you can purchase or help your kids craft one for themselves!

In our bilingual journey we know that the best way to expose our kids to Spanish is to make it immersive and fun . That’s why this week’s activity round-up is dedicated to encouraging our kids to practice speaking Spanish and, of course, have lots of fun! The activities were created by bloggers who are also on a journey to raise bilingual and bicultural kids and have found a few tips and tricks along the way.

Learning through Play: CARS // Shapes

For The Love of Spanish shared a three part series of learning Spanish through play activities all about toy cars. We love this activity because of all the Spanish vocabulary and conversation that is flawlessly woven into a simple afternoon of playing with toy cars. Click here for the vocabulary chart and directions for this activity.

5 Games to Get Your Bilingual Child Talking

This post by In Culture Parent simply shares five kids games that encourage communicating in Spanish. The only thing you need is a bilingual brain to exercise and have lots of fun talking! Click here for the list of five games and instructons.

Playing board games to increase language expression in a foreign language

Maria of the Paris Busy Bee Blog shares her tips and experiences using board games to practice a target language. Click here for her story and tips.

Parts of the Body

Cecy of Spanglish House shared this fun activity with her readers with the purpose of getting our niños talking in Spanish. The activity is very hands-on and encourages kids to sing and talk  in Spanish to learn the names of body parts. Click here for the activity instructions.

Puppets as Linguistic Catalysts

Multilingual Mama shared a story about the success of using puppets with her bilingual daughter to practice the target language, which in her case is French. Click here to read Multilingual Mama’s story.

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Summer is a great time for kids to find all kinds on bugs in the backyard or at the park. Do your niños know the names of all these bugs in Spanish? Check out these cute printables that help out niños identify these bug in Spanish and even practice a little math.

Click here for a printable version of the Spanish coloring and activity sheets on insects. 

For more Spanish educational materials for niños visit Monarca Language and like them on Facebook.

What’s summer without a good book to read while lounging under a tree? As relaxing as it sounds sometimes reading is not what our kids have in mind for their summer vacation. This week we are sharing fun activities that will get niños excited about reading, communicating, and learning about animals and insects  in Spanish. Check out each activity below and just click on the links for the full description.

35+ Ways to Keep Your Child Excited About Reading

Latinas for Latino Literature shares a list of 40 simple and easy ways to keep our niños excited about reading. These are great tips to show our kids that reading is fun and not just for homework. Check out their list and make sure to check out their summer reading program for kids!

Printable Spanish Questions with Pictures – Una Preguntita 7

Spanish Playground is currently sharing a series called Una Preguntita which encourages kids to practice their Spanish language skills. Each post in this series comes with a set of questions that parents or teachers can ask and a worksheet with images (see above) so that kids can either point or circle the correct answer. Click here for the latest post in this series and the printable version of this activity. 

Proyecto de Trabajo: Las Obejas

Actividades Infantil is sharing 10 printable activity sheets for our bilingual kids to enjoy that are all about bees. These activity sheets encourage kids to solve math problems, learns a few facts about bees and honey, and learn new vocabulary words.

Learning Spanish at the Zoo: Animals (Animales)

The zoo is a fun and educational place for our kids. Why not make it a Spanish learning experience too! Frances of Discovering the World Through My Sons Eyes shares a simple and fun way for our kids to learn the names of the animals at the zoo in Spanish. Click here for a full description of this fun activity and resources.

Manualidades con Niños: Cuadros Reciclados

Reina of Soy Mama En Casa shares this cute and simple DIY to make a decorative craft  from recycled materials. We love this craft because it is a great way to relax and enjoy a conversation with our kids.

Earth Day is fast approaching on Monday, April 22nd and to help your little ones to be mindful of the environment, Monarca Language has provided us with these cute Earth Day mini posters to teach positive habits that help protect our planet. Each poster includes Earth Day vocabulary in Spanish to inspire our niños!

For a printable version of these mini posters click here. 

For more Spanish educational materials for niños vista Monarca Language and like them on Facebook.

It’s officially Easter weekend! The kids and I have been busy preparing for our holiday. Recently my son asked me why not all bunnies had tails. Confused, I thought what he may have seen and where? I asked him why he asked. He didn’t have a straight answer — he’s only 4 years old. I decided to create a fun game just in time for Easter but great all year!

I explained to both my kids that we needed to help the conejito find his colita. I told him we had to toss these fuzzy tails into his bowl and if it landed then maybe it could be his. Our bunny was a boy because my son insisted the bunny was Peter Rabbit.

Here is what we used to create our Conejito sin Colita Game: 

• 2 foam sheets- 1 colored and 1 white
• A round lid- cardboard works best
• White Poms or Cotton Balls
• 2 Wiggly eyes
• Glue or glue dots
• A Marker
• Conejito Template -optional- (download below)

 DOWNLOAD TEMPLATE HERE

Let’s get started!

1- Cut a strip of foam sheet. Depending on your lid length will vary but we used a 2.5 inches wide strip. Having a gap is ok. It will get covered up with our bunny.

2-Glue around your lid. You may need to hold in place until it sticks.

3- Cut and trace your template onto the foam. Cut our the bunny shape in the colored foam and the ears in white. Glue them in place.

4- Add some wiggly eyes and a cute nose and smile. Glue to the back of your lid where the gap is. Hold in place until secure.

5-All done! Time to play!

We hope you are having a fantastic Spring season and Easter weekend. ¡Felices Pascuas!

Miren, lo que vamos a hacer es esto. Vamos a compartir primero un poco de cómo nos fue el año pasado. Y después, cada uno va a decir lo que espera del año que viene.

That would be my youngest daughter speaking, a natural organizer who believes strongly in the power of reflection, sharing, family and language. We were in a small town south of Lima, Peru ringing in 2012. At her direction (yes, that really was her tone), all of us – friends and family from many countries and generations – offered thoughts on the year that was ending and our wishes for the one to come. It was a perfect way to end the year and start another.

New Year’s Eve is a wonderful opportunity to share our memories and our hopes with people who are important to us. If your child speaks Spanish or is learning Spanish, it is also an opportunity to use the language in a supportive environment.

Not every family has someone as dedicated to organizing a group as my daughter is, so I made a printable activity to help you get started. To fill some of the time before midnight and make the sharing process easier, kids (and adults too) can write answers to the questions. Then the group shares their thoughts.

Click here to print the New Year’s activity.

Here are a few tips for using the activity with Spanish language learners:

- Before you start, point out to kids that most of the questions can be answered with one or two words such as a place, a person’s name or a verb.
- Make sure that children understand the prompts. Focus on key words like lugar interesante, feliz, and triste. Give examples to make the meaning clear.
- Encourage kids to write their answers. Even if they know what they plan to say, writing it will help them process the meaning of the question and their answer more deeply. It will also come in handy when it is their turn to share if they forget what they were going to say.
- Modeling is important. Fill out your own sheet as your child does hers. Read the prompts out loud and talk about your answers as you record them. Encourage other family members and friends to participate too.
- When you are ready to share your answers, choose a time and place without too many distractions.
- If you have a number of people, you can draw names, go around the room or go from youngest to oldest to determine who speaks next.
- Everyone does not have to share everything. Start with one prompt for everyone. Then go on to another. Jump to a hope for the coming year if the group starts to get restless.

Children learning Spanish need the chance to speak the language with different people and in different situations. Filling out the New Year’s activity lets them think about what they are going to say and ensures that they will be able to participate successfully. Their answers also makes a great keepsake; years from now, they will be a fun way to remember 2012.

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

When they were little, my children made comecocos with all kinds of messages and fortunes inside and played the game with their amiguitos. This traditional toy is made of folded paper and is also called a sacapiojos. In English, it is called a cootie catcher, a chatterbox or a fortune teller.

You can make a comecocos for Spanish learners of any level. It is an excellent language activity because kids speak, hear and read Spanish as they play.

If you are not familiar with the game, it involves folding paper to make a toy that fits over a child’s fingers and opens and closes. A friend chooses a picture or color on the outside and the child with the comecocos opens and closes the toy as she spells the word. For example, if the friend chooses green, she opens and closes it five times as she spells out v – e – r – d – e. Then, the friend chooses a number from the inside and the child opens and closes the toy as she counts to that number. Finally, they lift the flap to find a saying or a prediction. You can make a comecocos to answer questions by putting answers like sí, no, tal vez, and ¿quién sabe? on the inside. Kids also love simple predictions like these:

• Se resolverá un conflicto.
• Tu deseo se cumplirá.
• Un regalo tuyo le hará muy feliz a alguien.
• La buena fortuna te espera.
• Te invitarán a un evento emocionante.
• Viajarás a muchos lugares hermosos.
• Tu futuro inmediato trae algo emocionante.
• Algo que se te perdió pronto reaparecerá.
• Te espera una sorpresa agradable.

A comecocos is easy to make. Click here for a blank game with fold lines and instructions. Then write in words, add drawings or use stickers to make your game. If you want to see a video of how to fold them, just search “cootie catcher” on YouTube.

You can click here to print a finished comecocos with positive messages inside. If your niños are just learning Spanish, this game is a fun way to practice personal information questions. Click here for a comecocos with questions for beginning language learners. There are folding instructions on both of the games.

¡Que se diviertan jugando y hablando español!

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