How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth {Book Activities for Spanish Learners}

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There are just some children's books I read that are so endearing that I immediately have to share them with my students. Como Lavar a un Mamut Lanudo is one of those books, because don't we all need to know how to wash our woolly mammoths?! This precious book takes you step-by-step through the process. Fill a bathtub. Add bubbles. Add a mammoth. You get the picture. So here are a few activities you can do with your young Spanish students after reading this book...

Younger students can count the steps (There are ten of them.) mentioned in the adventure of mammoth washing. You can also have them count in Spanish the useful items (that can clean your mammoth) on the back cover. Another idea would be to count how many times the "pato" shows up in the story or count the leaves in the illustration of the messy mammoth at the beginning of the story. Here is a coloring page to go along with the book in which your students can count the bubbles.

With the story you can do a  review of body parts and the learning of a few new ones your students may not know like tusks, hooves, and wool. Teach and review the words and then call them out to see if they can find the parts one one of the pictures of the mammoth.

There are a ton of actions words in the story...have your students get out a piece of paper (after you have read the book to them) and call out one of the steps in cleaning a mammoth. Can they draw the steps that you call out? Along the same lines, can you call out two or three of the steps in Spanish and have your students tell you if they are in the correct order or not. The steps could also be written out on cards to see if your students who are reading Spanish can put them in order.

This book lends itself well to doing some bubble painting! Here are some simple instructions for this cool art activity. After the painting are done and dried, you can talk in Spanish about the bubbles represented in the art and work on noun/adjective agreement...

Burbujas moradas, burbuja grande, burbuja chiquita, burbujas verdes, etc.

Have fun learning all about giving woolly mammoths baths!

Teaching Homophones in Spanish

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A few weeks ago I did a post on homographs (Words that have double meanings.) and provided you with several free printables you could use to teach them. Today let's take a look at homophones, words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings. These can be particularly tricky for students especially the words that only differ by an accent mark.

First of all, I created flashcards for the homophones we are going to work on. Here are all the files. These cards will be used to play games like Memory. I will also use them to play the slapping game with the definitions given in worksheets #2 and #3 (see below). Basically, I will lay out the cards and call out a definition in Spanish. The first student who puts his/her hand on the correct card wins it. The object is to get the most cards in the group. If you are doing this with a classroom full of kids you will need enough sets of cards for each group. Groups of five or so tend to work well. These cards can also be used for a guessing game: I choose a card and the students call out definitions (see the worksheets below) in Spanish to guess what I am holding.

Set 1

Set 2

Set 3

Set 4

Set 5

Set 6

Set 7

Set 8

Set 9

Here are the worksheets...

Worksheet 1

Worksheet 2

Worksheet 3

Fall Activities for Spanish Learning

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With autumn approaching soon I thought I would consolidate all my posts of learning activities in Spanish related to the fall. The books, activities, and resources are perfect for the colorful months of September, October, and November.

Here is a list of children's books for the fall months.

Chumba La Cachumba is a traditional song that introduces telling time with skeletons.

One of my favorite books for teaching emotions along with a printable activity for the fall.

A pumpkin unit in Spanish!

How about some shape monsters to review colors, body parts, and shapes?

Bats at the library? A delightful book about the joys of reading.

Enjoy learning through the fall!