Thanksgiving is almost here and before we have a house full of food, family and friends I wanted to take time with my kids to make cards to thank those that are in our lives.

My kids love quick crafts and I love easy clean up!  These DIY washi tape turkey Thanksgiving gratitude cards are definitely fast and so easy, not to mention the little turkey is adorable! My son is now learning to write sentences so this will be a great way to document his milestone this holiday.

To make these Easy DIY Thanksgiving Cards you will need:

• cardstock- brown and white
• glue spots — 3d or popup work best
• washi tape in festive colors
• scissors
• marker
• optional- circle punches in 2″ and 2.5″

Let’s get started!

If you have punches go ahead a punch out one of each, if not feel free to freehand your circles on the brown cardstock. You will need one for the body of your turkey and one for the head.

Using the body circle (the larger on) adhere the washi tape to the back. We used about 2 inches long and folded over 3/4 of the way leaving a sticky edge for adhering to the back of our turkey body.

Yours should look like the picture above. Add as many washi-tape feathers as you’d like!

At this time prepare your card. Take the white card stock, fold the long way, cut and fold again. This makes 2 cards. The crease of the card will be at the top.

Have the kids adhere the washi tape. Washi tape is forgivable and can be repositioned. No mistakes no hassles!

Once all your feathers are on, using a glue spot, adhere the head of your turkey.

Flip your turkey over and add some wash tape legs. We cut a stip in half and added them on just like the feathers.

Add three glue spots to the body part and adhere to your card towards the top. Set aside.

‘

Add a beak and some gobble! Cut a triangle out of washi tape turn it upside down. Crinkle some red washi tape for the gobble, adhere to the back of the upside down triangle and stick to the head circle.

Add a sentiment — follow this easy tutorial.  Decorate with some washi tape,  add to card with some glue spots and done!

Make a few more and don’t forget to have the kids write inside! Ready to be given to those you are most thankful for!

In our family, card games and language go together. Whether we are playing escala cuarenta in Peru or cribbage in Wisconsin, there is constant banter and conversation. When my kids were little, simple card games often led to delightful interactions. Now that they are older, I appreciate the language and social skills they learned from the games.

Children of any age can play Batalla de Velocidades and Batalla de Tamaños. They are based on the traditional game La guerra (War) in which two players each have a stack of cards and turn over the top card at the same time. The higher card takes the lower card. If the cards are the same, players put three cards face down and then another face up. The higher value card takes all of the others.

With these printable cards, kids compare the speeds of animals or the area of countries. The information is on the cards, so the comparison is easy. Before they start, players decide which cards are going to have more value. Bigger and faster do not have to win. As children know from Aesop’s Tortoise and the Hare fable, the fastest animal does not always win the race. They can choose to have slower animal cards take faster animal cards and smaller countries be of more value than larger countries.

There are 12 animal speed cards and 17 country area cards. To play, print 4 sets on card stock and cut them apart for a total of 48 animal cards or 68 country cards. The cards are in black and white, so kids may want to color them.

The PDF’s below include information about using articles (el, la) with country names and about agreement when numbers are used as adjectives.

Click here for the printable Animal Speed Cards (Batalla de Velocidades)

Click here for the printable Country Size Cards (Batalla de Tamaños)

Speaking Spanish with Kids as You Play

Depending on the age of the players and their level of Spanish, you may want to talk about the vocabulary and the numbers before you play. Kids do not have to say any numbers to play the games. They can tell which card wins just by looking at the numbers. The information is interesting though, and the country cards in particular are a low-pressure way to practice saying large numbers.

If the vocabulary is new, talking about the words before you play lets kids hear the words pronounced correctly. For children who read in English and are learning Spanish, there is a tendency for written language to influence their pronunciation, especially with cognates like Japón and Rusia. Batalla de Tamaños is an excellent way to learn the names of countries in Spanish and how to pronounce them.

In addition to vocabulary and numbers, children will practice comparisons with these games. Below are examples of sentences you can use as you play.

Batalla de Velocidades  (Animal Cards)

La jirafa corre más rápido que el cerdo.
El elefante es más veloz que la ardilla.
El león le gana al conejo.
Gana el león.
La cebra corre 40 millas por hora. El ratón corre 8 millas por hora. La cebra le gana al ratón.
La cebra no corre tan rápido como la chita.
El canguro corre más despacio que el caballo.
El caracol es muy lento. Es más lento que la ardilla.

Batalla de Tamaños  (Country Cards)

Rusia es más grande que Egipto.
Canadá le gana a Estados Unidos.
Gana el Perú.
Italia es más pequeña que la India.
Estados Unidos es más grande que la Argentina.
El Perú es más pequeño que la India.
Kenia tiene 224,081 millas cuadradas.

Voltea una carta.
Yo gané.
Tú ganaste.

You can make cards for other animals and countries to add to the sets. Of course, these cards can be used for other games too. So, when summer afternoons get long and kids are looking for something to do, try a game of Batalla de Velocidades or Batalla de Tamaños and have some summer fun en español.

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

Click on image to download cards

Easter Sunday, known as Domingo de Pascua in Spanish-speaking countries, falls on April 24 this year.  While many of us are getting ready to decorate eggs and fill up baskets with treats and other pastel-colored goodies, you can add to the list to print these adorable ¡Felices Pascuas! greeting cards that our amigas over at Viva Greetings created just for you.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD VIVA GREETING’S ¡FELICES PASCUAS¡ PRINTABLE CARDS

We are just a weekend away from one of the cutest holidays to celebrate with kids:  Valentine’s Day.  This holiday is known in Spanish-speaking countries as either San Valentín or  El Día del Amor y la Amistad.  I love calling it El Día del Amor y la Amistad because it not only celebrates romantic love, but also love in friendship and family. Viva Greetings has created these special Valentine’s coloring cards just for you–our dear SpanglishBaby friends!  You can print a sheet with four cards for your kids to color and give to the special people in their lives. You can also print several and use as a classroom activity.  Or just print the full-color version on stock paper, cut and use as ready-made cards. Whatever you do, spread the love,  share the links and have a beautiful Día del Amor y la Amistad!

Click here to download the Viva Greetings Valentine’s  Coloring Sheet

Cick here to download the Viva Greetings full color Valentine’s cards

A huge ¡Gracias! to Viva Greetings for the gift. Check out their goodies!

Check out all the Valentine’s goodies we have for you here and our Valentine’s Pinterest board is really cute too!

I had been waiting for someone to finally come up with exactly these type of bilingual and bicultural greeting cards and Viva Greetings hit the mark.  When Carla, owner and designer, contacted me so I could find out about her online shop I clicked over not expecting much.  Then, first thing I saw when her page loaded up was a simple, yet beautifully designed, red gallo (rooster) saying ¡Hola¡ to me.

Trapped, I started furtively clicking through the site to happily discover she had hit the nail on the head with the Mexican kitsch, retro and classy designs for her boxed notecards, wrapping paper, notebooks, magnets and more.

The text on the cards is as simple, playful and dead on as the design and completely reflects the way we express ourselves.  Bilingual and Spanglish phrases such as  “TQM (Te Quiero Mucho) / Love ya,” “Miss you.Mucho/Te Extraño.Lots,” “Ay mi amor, que guapo eres /You are so handsome my love,” and “Besitos/Kisses” adorn the front and back of these greeting cards.  I smiled when I saw the set of birthday cards that say “¡Feliz Cumple!” but I became a total fan when I ran into this pan dulce magnet set with conchas and donas (yes..the word for donuts in Spanish!).  I mean, it even comes with cute mini thongs like the ones in Latin pastelerías.  I want these glued to my fridge door. Now.

The cards have motivated me to start sending hand-written notes to friends, just because I want them to ask me where the heck I found such unique cards.  Well, I´ve let you in on my little secret first hand.  Not only that, but you´re getting a chance to win some of your own so you can be a presumida as well.

The Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to our winner:  Cita Online.

Viva Greetings wants one of you to win an assortment pack with 12 different cards, plus a handmade letterpress type wrapping paper of your choice. All you have to do is visit the Viva Greetings online store and tell us which product you liked the most.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway. If you want to up your chances at winning, then this is how you can get additional entries (only after you´ve completed the step above):

**Please leave a separate comment for each so we can count them and avoid mistakes.

1. Subscribe to our feed via email or RSS and leave us an extra comment letting us know you did so or that you’re already a subscriber.

2. Follow us on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway including a link to the post.

3. Blog about this giveaway making sure to include our link, and you’ll get TWO additional entries.

This giveaway ends Friday, July 30 at midnight EST and you must have a valid U.S. address to enter.

Disclosure: A sample product was provided for review purposes; all opinions are 100% ours. Check out our full Disclosure + Privacy Policy.

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

These cards are similar to the ones Ana Lilian reviewed here, except that instead of opposites, they illustrate the English alphabet on one side and the Spanish one on the other.

The Alphabet Learning Cards was the first toy we opened when we got the box from Ingenio and my daughter, Vanessa, had no problem calling out the name of whatever picture she saw on them. She did it all in Spanish and I’m happy to share she recognized most of the images except for “I for iglesia,” “M for manta” (we call it frazada), “Ñ for ñu,” (my bad, I had no idea it´s an animal, we´ve all learned!), “O for ovillo,” (she just called it bola), “W for walkie-talkie,” (I guess there are not too many words that start with W in Spanish) and “Y for yate” (she just called it bote).

She did have a little bit of a problem flipping back and forth through the cards and I’m not sure if that’s just because it’s a brand new toy. Again, it’s pretty sturdy, and maybe with time and usage, it’ll become easier to flip the cards over.

On a funny note, all of the images were colorful and easy to identify except for the one used for “nariz” which was kind of strange-looking. “¿Es un hueso? ¿Una cuchara?” Vanessa wanted to know. Also, it would be nice if the font used for the letters on the cards was a little bit bigger and if the Spanish alphabet included the “Ch” and the “Ll”–especially since Vanessa has such a hard time pronouncing the former!

I’ve been thinking a lot about starting to be more consistent about teaching Vanessa the alphabet and the numbers in Spanish. After reviewing all these bilingual educational toys, I believe I’m completely equipped to do so and that makes me happy! Thanks, Ingenio!

All of Ingenio´s bilingual toys are available via Amazon.  Of course, the best way to get them is via La Tiendita.

The Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to the winner-Valerie R.!

Ingenio, the first educational bilingual toys and games brand in the U.S., has chosen you to be the first to get a chance to win every single one of their ten toys.  Today you can enter to win Alphabet Learning Cards, which received Creative Child Magazine´s Seal of Excellence 2009, simply by leaving a comment telling us why you would like to win this.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway.  If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends tonight, Tuesday, September 1st, at midnight EST.

{Make sure you’re subscribed to the SBFinds feed via email or RSS so that you can be notified of the giveaway of one Ingenio bilingual toy every day this week and of the many, many more finds to come.}

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.

I‘ve gotta say it:  Qué ingeniosos los de Ingenio! There.  By now you’ve learned about several of their products and you probably already agree with me.  I had a hard time choosing which products I would receive to review because my daughter is only two years old and most of their toys and games are for the 3+ gang.  Roxana figured Camila was ready to learn her opposites and that these bilingual learning cards could be a fun way to do it, with the added benefit that she could grow into it.  She was right (she tends to do that!)

This portable game has 20 Magic Motion cards that flip between the two opposite images when you tilt it a bit.  So, let’s say you’re looking at the above picture of the day/night opposites, when the card is standing normal it’s Day/Día and when you tilt it up a bit the picture turns into Night/Noche.  Yeah, you get it.  These are no ordinary flash cards.  Ingenio has ingeniously managed to make the learning of opposites and their names in two languages creatively fun!

I have to admit, though, that my girl is still at the stage of being in awe by the pictures changing and carrying around the cards by its handle on her arm while waving “¡Adios!”  We’ll get to the learning part soon enough…

All of Ingenio´s bilingual toys are available via Amazon.  Of course, the best way to get them is via La Tiendita.

The Giveaway!

This giveaway is now closed.  Congratulations to our winner:  Tina R!

Ingenio, the first educational bilingual toys and games brand in the U.S., has chosen you to be the first to get a chance to win every single one of their ten toys.  Today you can enter to win Opposites Learning Cards simply by leaving a comment telling us why you would like to win this.

That’s all you have to do to enter this giveaway.  If you want to up your chances at winning, then click here to learn how to get additional entries.

This giveaway ends tonight, Thursday, August 27, at midnight EST.

{Make sure you’re subscribed to the SBFinds feed via email or RSS so that you can be notified of the giveaway of one Ingenio bilingual toy every day this week and of the many, many more finds to come.}

For the part that nobody likes, but we’ve gotta have, check out the Giveaway Rules.