Quick & Easy Spanish (Pre-K) // Learn Spanish through Play: Cars

by | Feb 26, 2013 | Learn Spanish with Play

The benefits of learning a foreign language are endless!  From social skills, to fighting dementia, to increasing brain activity and scoring higher on ACTs–bilingual is best.

You may have taken Spanish in high school and forgotten it all; you may know a little Spanish from Dora or Sesame street; you may speak a little Spanish from your restaurant days.  That is awesome!  Keep going!  Below is a quick and easy Spanish lesson that you can slip right into your playtime at home with your kidlets, with your students in your preschool class, or even to teach yourself.  Thinking like a kid is the best way to learn Spanish and it is spelled F-U-N.

This is the first post in the series Learn Spanish through Play: Cars

Get out your favorite bucket’o cars and dump them out in a wide open space for sorting.  They are already on the floor (always the case at my house)?  Even better.  First off, as the parent or educator, acquaint yourself with these Spanish color words and their pronunciations.  Note the emphasis goes on the syllable in italics.

negro (nay-grow): black
blanco (blahn-koh): white
gris (grees): gray
plateado (plah-tah): silver (color)
dorado (dor-ah-doh): gold (color)
café (cah-fay): brown
rosado (roh-sah-doh): pink
morado (more-ah-doh): purple
rojo (roh-hoh): red
anaranjado (ah-nah-rahn-hah-doh): orange
amarillo (ah-mah-ree-yo): yellow
verde (bare-day): green
azul (ah-sool): blue

Many ways exist to sort cars.  If you have kidlets, I am sure you have sorted your toy cars thousands of times–and it is still fun!  You may want to grab some index cards and have your children write out the name of the Spanish color with a crayon of that color.  If they have not mastered writing yet, write it out for them in marker, and they can color a swatch on top with a crayon of the corresponding color.  As you are coloring or writing, practice saying the color words together.  Never be afraid of making mistakes.  Think about babies.  If they never tried something new for fear of messing up or looking silly–well, you get the idea.

If you do not have index cards, just set a car of each color in a designated area and talk about the word for that color in Spanish as you set it down.  You can even try these phrases:

¿De qué color es? (day kay koh-lore ehs) when asking about one, and
¿De qué colores son? (day kay koh-lore-ehs sewn) when asking about more than one (if they are all the same color).

Once you all feel comfortable with the words and have designated an area for sorting, get to it!  Lead the activity with lots of animation and excitement–that way the kidlets will really catch on and pay attention.  When you grab a car say, “Hmmm, what color is this one? Oh! Verde!”  Or, “Now how do you say this color again in Spanish?”  Act like you are stumped and see if your kidlets can think of it: “Do you remember?”  When they think of it be sure to show how impressed you are.  Fun and affirmation will go a long way with learning a new language–or anything new!  Create an atmosphere where kids feel safe to try at something new without worrying about mistakes.  
Looking for some videos to help you practice colors in Spanish and pronunciation?  Go here to a playlist I have created on my YouTube channel.
Feliz colorizing!




Kali Carollo

LATEST POSTS

Books About Butterflies in Spanish

Books About Butterflies in Spanish

The yearly Monarch migration to México is just around the corner. Knowing this, when I spied a picture-book bundle at our library the other day with the theme of Butterflies, I snatched it up faster than you can say ¡Hola, hola, Mariposa! I could also see that the...

Usborne Books in Spanish About the Beach & Ocean

Usborne Books in Spanish About the Beach & Ocean

At the beginning of this summer, I set out to see how many Spanish picture books about the ocean I could find. I already had in mind a few from my post a couple years back (30+ Kids Books in Spanish for July), but I wanted to see what else was out there, and what else...

Books for St. Patrick’s Day in Spanish

Books for St. Patrick’s Day in Spanish

I can't believe I'm saying this, but St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner! If you're like us—a family learning Spanish—you're looking for St. Patrick's Day books in Spanish. I did my best to find you some, but let me tell you it was hard! Which makes sense...