Spanish Lesson Plans for Kids (English and Spanish Edition)
I am so pleased that Whistlefritz has created lesson plans to use with their wonderful videos and songs. This award-winning company is known for engaging, effective materials to teach children Spanish. Now, in the new bookSpanish Lesson Plans for Kids,they offer a pre-K and early elementary curriculum. With an emphasis on speaking and listening, these 40 lessons create a rich language-learning experience as children use Spanish in carefully designed hands-on activities and games.These are a few of the features I like best about Spanish Lesson Plans for Kids.Emphasis on hands-on learningThese lessons are designed so that children spend a significant amount of class time hearing and using the language as they do hands-on activities like crafts, sorting, coloring, and playing games. Each class begins with a short review and the introduction of new vocabulary. Next, the teacher models the activity, which provides exposure to the new words in context. Then, as children do the activity themselves, the teacher continues to provide comprehensible input.I like the percentage of class time that the Whistlefritz curriculum dedicates to hands-on learning; it is the most effective way for children to engage with Spanish. By keeping the review and initial input short and focused, and devoting more time to carefully designed activities, the Whistlefritz lessons make the most of a child's energy and attention span. Through spiraling lessons, the Whistlefritz curriculum also incorporates review into the hands-on learning. This maximizes the effectiveness of class time without sacrificing necessary repetition.The materials for the activities support all the key vocabulary with pictures, so a few of the lessons require quite a bit of cutting. Everything you need to cut out is provided (except for some magazine pictures), but if you have a big class, you will want to be sure to leave preparation time.The DVDsIf you have seen the Whistlefritz DVDs, you know that they are fabulous language learning products. Some of these lessons include a video clip to show at the end of class. I have to say, this almost feels like cheating! Having the DVD is like having a magic second act - a team teacher who comes in and reinforces exactly the right material, is wonderfully entertaining and never uses more than her share of class time. --Spanish Playground