Practicando Sonidos y Números

 

As I am lying on the sofá, letting my poor foot heal, I had to “invent” things to do with Sofía to keep her entertained-and off my leg!

Really, this is easy as she loves to help out.  In addition, give her a task and she will bounce all around the house to accomplish it!
We played for just a little bit, but it was divertido and educational of course!

First, I printed out a few letters and números in a light color so that Sofía could trace them.
I let her choose a letter or número.  After she traced it, we talked about it.  The números were easy.  Sofía gathered objects to represent each número. 
When we did a letter, we discussed objects that began with each letter. She then went around the house gathering objects that began with each letter and sound in Español.  She got creative with the S.  She cut out a foto of herself to represent the S of Sofía!

Sorting Fun

Preschoolers and toddlers abound love to sort and Sofía is no exception! She is particularly fond of tiny little objects that one wouldn’t normally give a toddler! So together we made her a sorting box that she can take out whenever she wants to. Although the sorting box really need adult supervision, It does provides hours of educational entertainment and allows me a chance to make la cena too because she sits at the table or the island while I prepare.

Our sorting box has a spoon and science tongs for moving the little objects.  Then we have tiny containers filled with squinkies, floral stones, marbles, tabas (jacks), miniature erasures, pom poms,  little round magnents, and acrylic jewels.  We also have a few empty containers, including wide mouth travel bottles, for Sofía to move the objects from one to the other. 

Sofía likes to add her own containers too and to change them up.  The day we took the fotos, she used her toy cooking bowls and pots and pans!  I noticed that she becomes very creative when I give her tools to play with and no directions.  The great things about this activity is that it is not just fun, it is laden with scientific exploration and fine motor-skill development activities. Try it out with your tots and let me know how she or he plays with them!   

Sight Words en Español

If you have been following my blog or my articles on SpanglishBaby™, then you know that Sofía and I have been learning our Abecedario, our letras and their sounds.  

Reading Specialist and early elementary grade teachers everywhere recommend that children learn sight words while on their path to becoming proficient readers.  Sight words are important to learn because they are words that make up a large part (about 70%) of all reading.  Usually they are words that are difficult to sound out and grasp concept through context.  Although I don’t need to worry about sight words yet since Sofía is just learning her abecedario, I did research sight words en Español to share with readers with children who are beginning to read.

One of the best ways to learn Sight Words is the old fashioned way:  through flashcards (and plain ole reading of course!).  As an educator, I can’t stress enough the usefulness of using flashcards with your children.  When the time comes and Sofía begins to learn to read, we will be using Sight Word flash cards in both languages. 

Scholastic has great resources for Sight Words in both Inglés and Español (Downloadable versions only cost 99¢ each!) Their links to Sight Word resources in Español can be accessed through my article on SpanglishBaby™.

This post is a linked additional information section for an article called Reading and Your SpanglishBaby on SpanglishBaby™.

Resources Available in SpanglishBaby’s™ La Tiendita

La Tiendita

If you have been following my blog or my articles on SpanglishBaby™, then you know that Sofía and I have been learning our Abecedario, our letras and their sounds.  

SpanglishBaby™ has a Tiendita through Amazon where you can make purchases and part of the proceeds will benefit us in bringing you more fabulous prizes and opportunities. So, before purchasing any product for your Spanglish Baby that has to do with Español, always check first with our Tiendita.  Since Sofía has been born, I’ve done lots of searching for material (books, toys, and apparel) en Español.   I’ve noticed that if I do a search on Amazon on my own, these products (from La Tiendita) don’t necessarily show up (I think that foreign material products aren’t always tagged properly for searches) and there are some really good resources in La Tiendita!  I saw some authentic CD titles that I know I will be purchasing for Christmas!  What better way to reinforce rhyming than with classic children’s songs en Español! I also noticed that Leap Frog makes a Pesca de Letras toy.  Although it is no longer available through Amazon, I now have a “make and model” to be able to contact Leap Frog directly and ask for it!  All in all, a little parada in La Tiendita before purchasing through Amazon is a definitely worth the extra time spent! 
 

This post is a linked additional information section for an article called Reading and Your SpanglishBaby on SpanglishBaby™.

 



Español Alphabet Pocket Chart

If you have been following my blog or my articles on SpanglishBaby™, then you know that Sofía and I have been learning our Abecedario, our letras and their sounds.  

In order to help facilitate my efforts, I purchased an Español Alphabet Pocket Chart made by Learning  Resources.  We LOVE it!  It is well-made, accurate, and their customer service center is outstanding!  I will definitely purchase their products again!  

The Pocket Chart comes with various picture cards that correspond with each letter and there are many copies of each letter so as to promote spelling too. (both upper and lower case as well as vowels with accent marks!) We can match letters with letters or letters with sounds or pictures with beginning letters or pictures with sounds.  Really it is worth every centavo spent and I know we will be using it for many years! 

This post is a linked additional information section for an article called Reading and Your SpanglishBaby on SpanglishBaby™.

Interactive Abecedario Slide Show Game

If you have been following my blog or my articles on SpanglishBaby™, then you know that Sofía and I have been learning our Abecedario, our letras and their sounds.  Recently I created an Interactive Abecedario Slide Show Game in Español for Sofía and me to play— usually while we eat breakfast.  You arewelcome to download it for your personal use. Once you do, you can also add additional pictures for each letter.  For example, in the Slide Show, A is for Abeja (bee) and you could add in an avión (airplane), agua and árbol (tree) to provide more examples and variety.  Sofía recently has been telling me her ideas of additional words that begin with each letter and thus she has really been creating her own personalized game.  We have been incorporating them in slowly.  (For example, our Gato is now holding a globo!) Because the Slide Show is in Español, you could also use it as a tool for your niños to learn some new vocabulary if Español isn’t one of your languages. Remember that small niños learn through sounds and pictures, so a bilingual (Español/Inglés) Slide Show would need to represent each language with the SAME letter and object.  For example:  A is for airplane and avión.   B is for boots and botas.  C is for car and carro.  D is for dinosaur and dinosaurio. 

Sofía loves the Interactive Abecedario Slide Show Game.  Hope your niños enjoy it también!

This post is a linked additional information section for an article called Reading and Your SpanglishBaby on SpanglishBaby™.

 

Rainbow Actividades

The Rainbow torta inspired me to create some other rainbow actividades (other than eating).  Here is the first in what may be a series of Rainbow Actividades.

Copycat Arcoíris.

I gave Sofía a paper with a completed arcoíris on it and one with an outline.  She had to use her markers to color her arcoíris identical to the completed one.  It is a simple actividad, but one that helps strengthen many skills in the many areas, some of them being:  prewriting, prereading and science!