¿Dónde Está la Oveja Verde?

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Today let's take a look at ¿Dónde Está la Oveja Verde?, a cute book in search of a little green sheep. This book is great for younger kids that are bilingual or learning Spanish. With it you can teach and/or review colors, prepositions, and opposites. Let's take a look...

Since several of the colors are mentioned in the book, this would be a great time to teach colors. Here is a free pattern to use to make different colored sheep. This would be great to use in conjunction with prepositions in the book (abajo, arriba, lejos, cerca).  In Spanish, you can ask your students to position the sheep according to your instructions. For example, "Pongan la oveja roja cerca de la amarilla."

Another aspect of the book is to focus on opposite words. In the book there are the following opposites: flaca, gorda, abajo, arriba, asustada, valiente, cerca, lejos. I love this traditional song that works with opposites. I have done it with my students in the past and they have loved the challenge of it! You start out easy having them say the opposite of what you say by making the list of three words the same (blanco, blanco, blanco), but then make it more difficult by mixing up the words. Here is a video by Luis Pescetti demonstrating how it is done:




Here are the words to the song:

Yo conozco un juego / I know a game
que se juega así. / that you play like this.
Cuando yo digo blanco, / When I say white,
Uds. dicen negro. /you say black.
Cuando yo digo negro, / When I say black,
Uds. dicen blanco. /you say white.
Este juego va a empezar; / This game is going to start;
no se vayan a equivocar. / don’t make a mistake.
Blanco, blanco, blanco / White, white, white (leader)
Negro, negro, negro / Black, black, black (group)
Blanco, negro, blanco / White, black, white (leader)
Negro, blanco, negro / Black, white, black (group)


Another option is to do a drawing activity with sheep by describing the sheep using the vocabulary in the book. Here are some ideas of what you can say and have your students draw...

La oveja azul se baña.

La oveja flaca va hacia arriba.

La oveja anaranjada juega en las olas.

La oveja asustada está lejos.

La oveja blanca está en la luna.

La oveja negra va en coche.

Esta oveja toma el sol.

La oveja valiente va abajo.

La oveja morada baila bajo la lluvia.

La oveja verde está dormida.

Finally, I know you have heard of counting sheep so why not get your kids counting...even skip counting! Here is a link to some low-cost printables to do just that.

If you are looking for more learning activities to go along with Spanish children's book, check out this post. 

Vocabulary Building in Spanish

Every year I do vocabulary building with my students. It is an opportunity to add to their vocabulary and increase their ability to communicate in the target language. I tend to pick a "theme" for my words like a year of rhyming words. If you teach Spanish check out the posts listed in which I share different themes for building your students vocabulary. If you teach another language these posts are still helpful in giving you ideas. These posts give ideas for activities to help your students learn. 

Rhyming Words- Rhyming words are especially good for younger kids.

Synonyms and Antonyms -Start with antonyms which tend to be easier, then move on to synonyms. 

Compound Words

Compound Words, Part II

Idioms might be another great idea for more advanced students. I found this on Teachers pay Teachers and may use it in the future. 

Here is my Pinterest board on rhyming words...

Follow Debbie in AK's board Spanish Rhyming Words on Pinterest.

If you have any ideas on vocabulary building I would love to hear them!

More teaching tips for language learning! 

Teaching Synonyms and Antonyms

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I try to create a year-long unit of vocabulary words for my Spanish students to work on. Last year we did rhyming words. This year we will be working with synonyms and antonyms. Here's a look at what we will be doing with these words and a few children's book suggestions...

I have used these three sets of cards for the unit:

Synonyms in Spanish
Antonyms, Part 1
Antonyms, Part 2

There are several things that you can do with these cards:

-Memory

-Go Fish

-Lay the cards out on the floor.  Call out a card.  A student has to find that card and its mate {either synonym or antonym}.

-The Slapping Game (No slapping of each other!!): Lay out the cards on the floor.  Call out a word.  The first student to put their hand on the correct card gets to keep the card.  The goal is to have the most cards at the end.  You can vary this by calling out a word on a card, but they must slap the synonym or antonym for it.

-Lay out the cards and spell a word in Spanish (provided your students already know the letters) and see if they can find the card.  Then can they find the synonym or antonym and spell that for you?

-Use picture dictionaries like Everyday Words in Spanish . Call out a word and see if they can find it in the dictionary.

-For the antonyms: Call out three words in succession. Have your students say the opposites for them. For example, you say, "arriba, blanco, arriba". You students say, "abajo, negro, abajo".  Or you say, "corto mucho, gordo". Your students say "largo, poco, flaco". This activity is challenging so only use it once kids have mastered the words.

Here are some books that relate to opposites:

Opuestos-A simple opposites book for little ones.
Perro grande... Perro pequeño
Arriba y Abajo-The story of a penguin that wants to fly
Donde esta la oveja verde?
Cerdota Grandota-This is one of my favorite opposite books!

Do you have more teaching or book ideas for synonyms and/or antonyms? I would love to hear them!

Cerdota Grandota

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!}

Cerdota Grandota is a great book for younger elementary-aged kids. Set on a farm, the book visits several of the animals and describes them using opposites. The text also rhymes so you can use this book to introduce the concept of rhyming words. Also, on a few of the pages kids are encouraged to count how many animals there are.

With Cerdota Grandota as a starting off point you can do several activities to teach opposites. I make cards with pictures, and we play Memory by matching the opposites. You could also play Go Fish with the same cards after they have learned most of the words.  The goal is for them to ask for the opposite word from the card that is in their hand. Another thing I do with opposites once the words have been memorized is to call out three words. The students then say back to me (in order) the opposites for those words.  For example:

I say, "alto, fuera, flaco."

They say, "bajo, dentro, obeso."

I say, "limpio, sucio, sucio."

They say, "sucio, limpio, limpio."

This activity is a lot of fun and challenging! My goal is to go faster each time and try to trip them up. The students' goal is to be able to give me the opposite words quickly and in order.

Here's a list of the opposites that are used in the book...

flaco

obeso

rápido

lento

dentro

fuera

saltarino

quietecito

arisco

mansito

alto

bajo

sucio

limpio

joven

viejo

claro

oscuro

grande

pequeño

Have fun!

Ten Ways to Use Picture Dictionaries in a Language Classroom

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Picture dictionaries are a great jumping off point for conversations in the target language you are teaching.  I love using the types of dictionaries that have "scenes" that you can use to talk about many different topics.  The dictionaries I have listed here are {at the time of this posting} out of print {at least the Spanish versions are...other languages are available}, but they are readily available on the used market through Amazon and other sites.

Picture dictionaries with scenes can be used in a variety of ways.  Here is a list of ideas:

{NOTE: All of these activities are done in the target language...on both the teacher and student side.}

1. Ask where certain items are in the target language and the student points them out.

2. Counting items on the page.

3. Show them a scene and they have to describe it in the target language.

4.  Practice prepositions by describing where things are located.  I normally do this by giving the student(s) two items in Spanish.  They then have to tell me how the first item is positioned in regards to the second item.  For example:  El gato esta encima de la mesa.

5. Call out an item and the students give you an adjective for it.

6. Have the students describe the actions going on in the scene.

7. Discuss the emotions of the people in the scene.

8. For pages with lots of food pictures on them call out a color and the students tell you the foods that are that color.

9. Also, for food pages, call out an adjective like sweet or salty and have students list foods that fit that description.

10. Call out a letter of the alphabet and see if students can list any items on the page that start with that letter.

Let's Learn Spanish-Picture Dictionary-I love this dictionary particularly for its opposite page {see above}.  With this page I ask questions like, "Where is the fast mouse?"  "the tall mouse?", etc.

First Thousand Words in Spanish-This dictionary is the one I have used the longest in my teaching.  Scenes in the middle with vocabulary around the sides.

Everyday Words in Spanish-Most of my younger students love this book with claymation type characters. Once again there are scenes with vocabulary on the sides.

You can probably find another million ways to use these books.  I would love to hear your ideas!

Resources for Teaching Spanish

Last year I taught a class of thirteen young students beginning Spanish.  I have spent tons of hours looking for ideas, activities, songs, and the like to teach the class.  If you teach Spanish to young children  or if you homeschool and want to add some Spanish into your day here are some ideas:

Jose Luis Orozco has a song book and CD out that are wonderful for learning traditional Spanish children's songs.

Diez Deditos and Other Play Rhymes and Action Songs from Latin America (Spanish Edition) and Diez Deditos/ Ten Little Fingers are well worth checking into to expose your kids to more Spanish.  If you have limited ability in Spanish this is the way to go as the book has the Spanish and English translation and the CD has perfect pronunciation because Jose Luis is a native speaker.

Luis Pescetti (an Argentine musician) has a great website with tons of songs and games. Here is one of my favorites:

Here are some other ideas for teaching...

Body Parts

Unfortunately, Go Away, Big Green Monster! the Spanish version is out of print, but I use the English version and just translate it as I read.  So for those that do have a good command of the language this book is an excellent way to teach the parts of the face.  Here is a link to some printable cards to use with the book:
Sequence cards for Big Green Monster

How about using Mr. Potato Head for teaching body parts?

Another link with ideas for teaching body parts.

Opposites
 I love this idea for reviewing opposites!  This game can be used with a group or one on one.




Good Night and Good Morning

A game like Duck, Duck, Goose


Verbs

 Here is an idea to practice verb conjugations.  Create sentences for each person (I, you, he,etc.) and put them in their appropriate personal pronoun page.

The game Battleship is great for practicing verbs.


Various Vocabulary

There are several popular games that can be adapted for reviewing vocabulary.  Memory/Memoria (as long as you are saying the words as you pick up the cards) and Go Fish/Pesca work well.  With Go Fish I have sets of cards with a picture (four cards with the same picture are a set) on it of a vocabulary word we need to review.  Students will then ask each other, "Do you have______________?" in Spanish to collect the cards they need to create sets.