Chumba La Cachumba

This post is part of a series, 31 Days of Spanish Books for Kids. Please click HERE for the complete list of posts. {Each of these posts contain affiliate links. Thanks for supporting this blog!}

Chumba la Cachumba is a cute book that uses a traditional Hispanic song about a group of skeletons and their activities each hour of the day. It is a great book to use with elementary kids that are learning to tell time because the humorous illustrations, rhymes, and rhythm make the book one that students want read to them again and again. This is also a book that students can participate in as you read to them. The "Chumba La Cachumba La Cachumbamba" is repeated at the end of each page and is easy for students to recite.

Many times I use Chumba to introduce the concept of time and teach the top of the hour. As I read I will sometimes let a student be in charge of a teaching clock and they have to create the time that is displayed on the page with the clock. The book can also be used to exploring rhyming in Spanish as each number on the clock has a rhyming word to go with it. {See my post on teaching rhyming words.} 

The other marvelous aspect of this book is the illustrations. While the subject matter could be considered macabre, the pictures are so funny that students seem to overlook the graveyard and skeletons.  There are a plethora of culture references (Hispanic and non-Hispanic) throughout.  Here are some examples of cultural items that show up...

Hamlet

Las Meninas

George Washington crossing the Delaware

Running of the bulls

Bullfighting

Mona Lisa

The Pied Piper

La Chumba is a book not to be missed!