Whenever fall rolls around, I always get in the mood to plan alphabet learning activities for my kiddos. One year Cheerios (or maybe General Mills?) did this thing where the surprise toy in their boxes of cereal where actually books. And better yet, they were bilingual books! We love books around here, and I especially love any Spanish books I can get my hands on.
During the fall time that year the lovely book “Bear Says Thanks,” by Karma Wilson, happened to be the book we found in our Cheerios box. If you haven’t read the book, be sure to borrow it from your library this fall. It’s a great one! You can use it to learn about animals, what animals eat, friendship, hibernation, thankfulness, and the list goes on! The book lends itself so well to learning activities I couldn’t help but make some Spanish ones to do with my kids.
I printed off real-life pictures of all the animals mentioned in the story and wrote each of their names on an index card. We used these as we retold the story. We matched each animal with the food they brought to bear’s feast.
Then we zeroed in on learning the word for bear in Spanish: oso (OH-soh).
I dug out an old bear stamp from the rubber stamp collection I had from my high school days. I drew an “O” on a paper and had my oldest stamp bears around it. He was working on learning how to form his letters at that time.
Next, I also drew a block letter “O” because I thought that might be prettier to see the bears without a line through them.
We hung the “O” on our fridge and practiced spelling the word “oso” with our magnetic letters.
Finally we did what I call a “chalk talk” activity where I draw a picture piece by piece and the kids follow my instructions without knowing what we are drawing. This is a great way to incorporate practicing Spanish shapes as well.
When we finished drawing our bears we wrote the word bear underneath. Easy peasy learning fun, and all thanks to Cheerios!!
We still get this book and the pictures out each year and read the story together. What other things can you think of that would be fun to learn about the letter “O” in Spanish? I’d love to hear your ideas! Be sure to check out all the alphabet fun going on this month over at All Done Monkey.
After taking a break last year due to the arrival of Baby #3, we are back with one of my favorite series, the 31 Days of ABC! You can look forward to 31 more days of activities, crafts, books, apps, and more, all dedicated to teaching young children the alphabet. I am so happy to be working with an amazing group of kid bloggers, who will be sharing their amazing ideas with us in the coming days. And this year for the first year we are also adding a giveaway, so be sure to scroll to the end and enter for a chance to win! So join us as we jump, skip, hop, and read our way through the alphabet this October! Don’t forget to follow our 31 Days of ABCs Pinterest board for even more great ABC ideas!
31 Days of ABC
Teaching the ABCs – October 1
A – October 2
B – October 3
C – October 4
D – October 5
E – October 6
F – October 7
G – October 8
H – October 9
I – October 10
J – October 11
K – October 12
L – October 13
M – October 14
N – October 15
O – October 16
P – October 17
Q – October 18
R – October 19
S – October 20
T – October 21
U – October 22
V – October 23
W – October 24
X – October 25
Y – October 26
Z – October 27
123’s – October 28
Prewriting – October 29
Books, Songs, & Apps – October 30
Alphabet Clip Cards – October 31
Giveaway
Don’t forget to enter for a chance to win this great prize package, open internationally! 
3 month subscription to the Kidloland app, which includes 575+ interactive nursery rhymes, songs, stories, and educational activities to help children learn ABCs, animals, fruits, vegetables, shapes and more!
The Alphabet Experts Mega Bundle from Kindergarten Connections contains 500+ of alphabet printables, including tons of activities for each letter of the alphabet! ($58.50 value) a Rafflecopter giveaway
