Quiero Fruta

Lesson 26 of Sonrisas Spanish Elementary Curriculum is titled "Yo Puedo"
The suggested book to go along with it is ¡Yo puedo! by Gladys Rosa-Mendoza




I did not have this book so I decided to use a video from Salsa Spanish, The Fruit Fiasco

This is a great little video about a mama bear that needs some apples to make an apple empanada.  Perfect for teaching the fruits in Spanish.

First I reviewed the vocabulary below:
Necesito, quiero, azucar, huevos, uvas, manzanas, bananas, naranjas, limones.

I used a puppet and picture cards of the vocabulary.  I passed out cards to each
child and then used the puppet to say necesito...3 manzanas...

Students then got a chance to "feed" the puppet. They loved this!

Next we watched the The Fruit Fiasco
As we watched I paused the video here and there to check for understanding.

After the video students completed the sheet below.  This was advanced for my 3.5 year old student but I just guided her through it.  I gave her extra help and had her count and name the fruits and name the colors with me.

Print out p. 24 for the sheet above located here.

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My little guy

In case you don't know, Spanish is my second language.  I began learning Spanish in kindergarten and decided to pursue it in college. I put my Spanish to the test in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Spain. I fell in love with the language and the varying cultures.  After getting my masters degree in education I taught 8 years of high school Spanish.  I now teach a small homeschool Spanish class.  If I have to speculate, in five years (or sooner) I will either be back teaching high school Spanish or still homeschooling.  Time will tell.

What does all this have to do with my little guy?
Well I just wanted to give a small amount of inspiration to teachers of Spanish.  I am proud every day of my youngest Spanish student (also my youngest child) but Saturday it was just one of those wow moments.  Wow!  It's working!  You see my little guy turned two on Saturday and he was opening one of his birthday presents (a shirt).  He got the wrapping off and he said " ¡camisa!"  I was so proud.  I must be doing something right!  My husband is sometimes afraid that he knows more Spanish than English or that he isn't learning English but I know he knows English too.  He has a lot of English words in his two year old vocabulary.  His older brother and sister speak English to him all the time.  His Dad, grandma, grandpa, and all his friends speak English to him.  I am the only one who speaks in Spanish consistently to him, well me and Dora (Spanish version of course).

Salsa Spanish Language Video Series

Maybe I'm way behind the times but have you heard of this Spanish video series before?  It is a series of 42 episodes of puppets and animation that focus on teaching Spanish in a fun way.  It is geared toward Kindergarten through third grade although I think it works great with pre-k too!

You can buy the videos or you can watch them online for free here.  The first episode starts at number 101 and is based on the familiar story of Goldilocks and the three bears.  Each video has a link to an extension activity as well as the transcripts for the entire dialogue.  The transcripts have the English translation next to the Spanish.  These would be great for middle school or high school Spanish classes for a skit project.  There are also online Spanish games to go along with the series.

I showed episode 121 "the fruit fiasco" to my class this week and they loved it.  There is a great extension activity to print out.  Students count the fruit and write the Spanish number in the blank.  They read the sentence and then color the fruit the correct color as stated in the sentence. 

You can find teacher supported materials from the Wyoming Department of Education website for the Salsa Spanish series here. It includes a scope and sequence, learning objectives, and a synopsis for each episode.  The Wyoming Department of Education also has learning materials to go along with each episode (more than 20 pages of information per episode).  These are all free to print pdfs.  Just go here and click on the episode you need.

You can also play some online Spanish games that go along with the Salsa series. 

Have you used Salsa Spanish in your class?  What are your thoughts?