Blog

At Calico Spanish, we started with dreaming of creating the best Spanish songs for kids. In 2009, our YouTube channel was born in 2009. Our original videos capped at a measly 7,000 views- compare that to the 120+ million views that Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent audition received! Everyone has to start somewhere, right? Fast […]

Elementary Spanish teachers, how is your school year going?  You’re a quarter of the way through! As you move through this semester with your early Spanish learners, we wanted to help you help them with our YouTube Basics Playlist.  This is something we’ve put together to help you organize your class around target-language music.  This […]

How do you teach children clothing words in Spanish? Well, you approach it like any other set of vocabulary – in context. – Follow us on Twitter – There’s some spirited questioning in the early language (and secondary!) field about how best to present some concepts.  Daily activities, particularly reflexive verbs, is one.  You’ll hear […]

We recently told you about Pañuelito, a culturally authentic game for reviewing vocabulary in Spanish class.  Here we share Doña Ana. We incorporated this game into Calico Spanish Stories Level C (“I Live Here”), together with the song that inspired it. – Follow us on Twitter – – Like Calico Spanish on Facebook – The […]

They changed the Spanish alphabet… As we recently blogged, in 2010 the Real Academia Española made some rather significant changes to the official Spanish alphabet.  Let’s review what those were: The letters ch and ll were removed; they are now considered “digraphs.” The new name of “y” is ye. The only name for “B” is be. The only name for “V” […]

Committed to responsive quality If you could see us work behind the scenes here at Calico Spanish, you’d go away knowing two things for sure.  First, we are truly interested in your feedback.  Second, we are always working to make higher quality products that truly help children speak real Spanish to real people. – Follow us […]

TEN MILLION VIEWS. In elementary schools, kindergartens, preschools, and homes around the world, children have joined us in singing in Spanish about everything from colors to animals on the farm.  Kids are singing about how to answer “What’s your name?” and introduce someone to a friend.  They’re showing someone around the house and commenting on the […]

Accessing the routines they thrive on Is your Spanish learning time incorporating the target language from greetings to farewells? I frequently tell teachers that my favorite aspect of our now-retired classroom curriculum, Calico Spanish Classic (still available as a digital download on TPT here), is the way the songs help teachers take advantage of routine […]

Has it seemed to you that the topic of weather and seasons has been the hardest to pin down in a catchy, effective song for early Spanish learners?  It has for us.  So, we made our own. “Las estaciones” weather/seasons Spanish song The weather and seasons are so interconnected that it was natural to put […]

What do you get when you update a 100-year-old Spanish children’s ronda with a peppy country beat and lyrics related to time, the house, feelings, and activities?  We can’t wait to show you. I know we’ve been releasing a lot of new music lately (see Pañuelito, and Amiguito, and Así me gusta a mí, and Todo mi […]