Update: Salsa – Spanish Language Program for Children

Back in June 2008 I wrote a post about Salsa, an elementary Spanish language and cultural series from Georgia Public Broadcasting. During the last few years I remember checking the link at various times and noticed that either the videos weren’t available or they were only viewable on a small screen.

Just today I saw on the Freely Educate blog that there was a post about the program, so I had to take another look. I’m happy to report that the videos (42 episodes) are of a much better quality with transcripts (English & Spanish) and activity ideas (on each episode page). Also, there are now games for your children/students to play to reinforce what they have learned.

Additional support materials can be found on the Wyoming Department of Education website.  As mentioned in the blog, the videos are geared towards kindergarten through 2nd grade.

Read, Listen & Learn On a Nook Color

For Christmas I received a Nook Color – my very first ebook reader. To say I was excited when I saw it would be an understatement. I’ve already downloaded a couple of books in English and Spanish, the newest update (includes Netflix app), and checked out some books from the library.

Then I started to think about about how I could use the Nook for my Spanish language learning. For some time I’ve wanted to use the resources provided by VeinteMundos, but just couldn’t find the time to read the articles or listen to the mp3s on my laptop. (Granted I could’ve downloaded the MP3s on my iPod Touch, but just never got around to it.)

So this morning, I downloaded several PDFs of the articles along with the corresponding audio files onto my Nook. So now I can read and listen to the articles wherever I want, whenever I want.

How do you use your ebook reader to help you with your language learning?

Students use Spanish language skills to help needy

I love this! Two groups of high school Spanish language students in northern Kentucky are using their growing language skills to help the needy in their community. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Aside from helping local families, the students are also improving their Spanish, according to Cobb.

"They're learning so much, not just about the language but also about the culture," said Cobb. "It's a huge benefit for them to be able to speak Spanish with native speakers.

"They're excited to help and the group is really getting into the project."

This is how to learn a language! I wish I had had a similar opportunity when I was in high school or college.

By the way, I ran across this article via the CASLS newsletter which I would highly recommend. I look forward to it every Monday morning.

Caramba Kids by José-Luis Orozco

Just saw on Spanglish Baby’s Facebook page that José-Luis Orozco has a new site:

Caramba Kids is developing a new and innovative education program based on the music of renowned bilingual educator Jose-Luis Orozco. Our team consists of award-winning experts in animation, music, technology and early childhood development who are committed to the development of exciting educational content for children 8 and under.

You’ll find printable activities in both English and Spanish. They already have a YouTube channel as well as a presence on Facebook and Twitter.

This is great! I remember using his songs all the time when I taught preschool Spanish.

Khan Academy… en español

Quick post to let you know that so far, close to 900 Khan Academy videos translated into Spanish have been uploaded on YouTube:

I ran across this piece of news on Facebook.

El día de los muertos

I subscribe to the Annenberg Learner newsletter which is always full of information for teaching a wide variety of subjects. In this particular issue, there is a section about El día de los muertos (Day of the Dead). Here is the link to the activities including slideshows in English and Spanish, a teacher guide and more: http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/DiaMuertosTG.html 

If you don’t have time to use this lesson this year, then perhaps you can bookmark it for next year.

JP Is Back!

And it’s about time! Just kidding, JP. Seriously though, I was a big fan of his when he was on SpanishPod. He had such a great way of explaining Spanish grammar, vocabulary, etc. So when I saw a post on my Facebook page (via Medical Spanish Podcast) that he was on a new podcast, I immediately came here to write a quick post about it.

The podcast is called Q&A Spanish and is part of the Radio Lingua Network… you know, the wonderful folks who produce Coffee Break Spanish, ShowTime Spanish and many more high-quality language podcasts.

From the Q&A Spanish web page:

When you’re learning a language on your own and you don’t have access to a teacher or a native speaker it can sometimes be difficult to get the help you need in order to build confidence in the language and make progress. Here at Radio Lingua we receive requests for help all the time through our website, email, our help desk, Twitter and Facebook. We’ve decided that the best way to answer these questions is by launching our new weekly show Q&A Spanish. Q&A Spanish is hosted by Spanish teacher and language expert JP Villanueva. JP is joined by Nahyeli Mendivil who will be sharing her native speaker knowledge with learners in each show.

You can also download the podcast via iTunes. And here’s the link to the Q&A Spanish Facebook page.

Pocoyó YouTube Channel

After our Spanish lesson, my younger son and I watched a few episodes of Pocoyó on YouTube. It was nice to see that they have their own channel now. What’s really funny is that he wanted to watch an English version “just to see what it was like.” After less than a minute, he said he didn’t like it nearly as much.

Destino: España

I’m totally addicted to the show, Destino: España, on RTVE. I ran across the program via the RTVE app on iTunes.

During each episode you meet several people from various parts of the world (from Togo to Mongolia and everywhere in between) who have chosen to set up residence in Spain. They talk about how long they’ve been there, introduce their family and friends, visit various parts of their town including where they work when applicable.

The program is organized by regions. I started with Aragón since that is where I spent most of my time when I studied abroad in Spain umpteen years ago. For instance, in the Aragón II episode, they talk to a gentleman from Romania who is a gardener at the Monasterio de Piedra. It was lovely to “re-visit” this beautiful location even for just a little bit.

I could see this being used in the classroom (upper-intermediate, advanced) for listening comprehension, Spanish language (of course), geography and culture.

Tocar y Luchar

Watch more free documentaries A film I wanted to share with you. Enjoy!