As back to school is here and my son’s private school opted for Latin instead of Spanish, I started looking for alternatives to keep his summer skills sharp and the Spanish fresh in his mind. I searched for ideas and created some new ways to bring a second language to my child who will be basically exposed to just one language in school.

I hope you enjoy!

1) Game Night – Juegos

Choose your favorite game like scrabble, bingo, any game and create a Spanish version. I have a professional bingo wooden set, we get the popcorn out, my son loves it! Once a month is game night in Spanish!

2) Libros –My son loves buying books, I take him to Barnes and Noble or shop online, for each English book, he needs to chose one in Spanish!

3) Cantar – We download karaoke versions of songs in Spanish and he and I try to sing and do a contest! I connect my laptop to the tv and the songs are on youtube.

4) Comida – Off course food is always a great way to bring Spanish to the table through the amazing dishes,if you need inspiration, visit my cooking blog: www.kcocina.com

5) Hablar – Speaking Spanish at home, on a daily basis, using short sentences if you are not fluent, is off course the most effective way to develop your child’s skills and his/her connection with the language.

If you have more ideas, please share them with us! Would love to hear you!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages

I wanted to change the way we celebrated Mother’s day this year, so my team started spinning wheels and we came up with a super fun class! Hope you can use some of these activities in your classroom or at home!

We start with matching game, cards printed with family member’s pic and name in Spanish.Then we  use similar cards to place in a family tree and each student places cards which correspond to their families. Other copies of the cards are placed on children’s back and they pass the ball, when music stops, they need to tell who the family member that student has on their back, who they are? Quien soy yo??? The others answer eres….

We colored a mother’s day page which I am placing here as a free gift to all moms and teachers who follow our blog.

We watched a great video and the older ones had to tell us what family members were missing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c89nmoBd9Qk

We also sang bingo tune for my version:

Te amo mama, mucho, mucho eres mi mama!

Amo a mi mama! Amo a mi mama, amo a mi mama, Yo amo a mi mama!

We also read this book, they love hearing about Emma’s family! There’s a version without the read along and this one has the read along!

http://astore.amazon.com/easyleacom-20/detail/1931398585

Enjoy and Feliz Dia de las madres!

EasyLearn Languages Claudia Krusch

Multilingual Mom, CEO and Language Expert

Dear Readers,

Saludos! Easter is coming up and I wanted to share suggestions on activities we are using in the classrooms in the upcoming weeks!

Numbers – Bingo and Domino using Easter pics and dots on the other side for dominoes! We made our own dominoes on card stock paper, very easy!

Colors – Color Easter Eggs and have the child tell the colors or coloring page with them and have them name the color and learn Huevos (Eggs), other useful words are Conejo (bunny), Candy (Dulce), Canasta (basket), Easter Pascua, Feliz Pascua ( Happy Easter), Zanahoria (carrot).

I also purchased an over sized blow up carrot and the children will throw circles to fit them on the carrot! Also used for colors.

I also use some songs  like los pollitos dicen and conejito an original song I created. You can find los pollitos on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTF9bw-Cu28

I also use the book with the same name and Pedro conejito ( translation of Peter rabbit)

We are offering a free sample of one of Easter worksheets, flashcards, bingo sheets and so much more which are available for purchase at our new E-Store! Check them out at : www.easylearnlanguages.com/estore

Claudia Krusch

Easylearn Languages

Dear Readers,

This week was my birthday! I share this joyful time with some of my students who had the class on Friday. I promised I would share the vocabulary here! If your child had another class, please look on archive for other topics.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

We looked at birthday vocabulary using a bingo sheet:

Los globos – balloons

Las velas – candles

El regalo – gift

El juguete – the toy/game

We did Ispy looking for those objects in the room. We also colored a cake ( Torta) and placed candles for each child’s next birthday. Older children received some candles and had to add the amount to make the total for the amount of candles on his next birthday. We broke a piñata, ate cupcakes ( pastelitos) and reviewed tableware.

We also sang Happy Birthday in Spanish:

Feliz Cumpleaños a ti, Feliz Cumpleaños a ti,Feliz Cumpleaños a ti,Feliz Cumpleaños a ti!

We showed a Sesame Place video  about Fiesta in Spanish and read a book on the same topic which taught children how they celebrate birthdays in Mexico.

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch CEO