Spanish in December Newsletter
Dear Parents,
We are so grateful to have the opportunity to teach your child Spanish! We want to give make it easy and fun for you to practice speaking and singing in Spanish at home with your child! After all, language is meant to be spoken, and the more your child(and you) speak Spanish together, the better you will get! This newsletter will give you the tools you need.
Some of the themes that your child will be learning in Spanish class this month are:
We are so grateful to have the opportunity to teach your child Spanish! We want to give make it easy and fun for you to practice speaking and singing in Spanish at home with your child! After all, language is meant to be spoken, and the more your child(and you) speak Spanish together, the better you will get! This newsletter will give you the tools you need.
Some of the themes that your child will be learning in Spanish class this month are:
- Winter outdoor clothes
- Washing your hands
- Colors
- Toys
- The Calendar
- How many days until....?
Try out some of the following suggestions. You will be amazed at how easy it is to weave Spanish into your everyday routines and activities as a family!
Below is a slideshow of winter clothing. You can pause the slideshow at anytime by pressing the pause button in the upper left hand corner. You'll see how each word is written in Spanish plus there's a pronunciation key to the right of each word. The neat thing is you just have to read the pronunciation key as though you're reading English! We try to make everything as simple as possible when it comes to learning Spanish!
Let's make sure you and your children are pronouncing the clothing words correctly. The news crew in this audio file suggests the clothing to wear on cold, cold days in English and in Spanish. Get ready to sing and be silly. (You'll even hear a chimpanzee chime in!) Children instantly become excited to learn when the learning is playful and fun! Let yourself become a bit of child again too!
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Please don't let all of the words to the right overwhelm you, instead let it be your guide, your "cheat sheet" for gaining confidence in everyday Spanish you can use with your child.
Focus on learning and practicing only one phrase at a time with your child. For example, learn how to say, "put on." Then, every time your child is getting dressed to go outside, tell them to put on their jacket, put on their hat, put on their mittens...in Spanish. Do this for one week. (Hint: for a bit of help with pronunciation, see the pronunciation column to the right and listen to audio tracks 11 and 12 below.) You only have to learn one word to ask your child to put on winter gear: "Pónte"! After you say, "Pónte" follow it with whatever you want them to put on.
Now imagine doing this when at a friend's house or grandma and grandpa's home and you're getting ready to go. All of a sudden you switch to Spanish and your child understands you! At that moment, there will be no turning back! You will be so proud, so excited, so overjoyed that you will want to keep adding more and more Spanish to your vocabulary with your child.You can do this! In fact, repeat this one activity for a week and you will begin to think and say these phrases in Spanish! before English! |
Play audio track 11 to learn how to tell your child to put on winter clothing.
Play audio track 12 to learn how to tell you child to take off and put away winter clothing.
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We all love to be complimented, children and adults alike! It's soooo easy to start complimenting in Spanish. Just look at the small poster below and play audio track 1.
You can play an easy game to practice the compliments until you get really good at saying them in Spanish. All that you need is a ball. Sit on the floor with your children. Toss the ball to each child and say one of the compliment words. They must toss the ball back to you and repeat the same compliment. See how many times you can do this without letting the ball drop to the floor! Then start complimenting each other at home whenever the opportunity arises. Next, compliment each other in Spanish everywhere you go, at the grocery store, at the park, when you're picking them up from school, etc. Okay, let's get started, play the audio track below and learn how to say, "fabulous," "that's great" and "awesome!" |