Blog

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. 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 teachers be quick to question how […]

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 Online Level C (“I Live Here”), together with the song that inspired it. The many names of “Doña Ana” The children’s song “Doña Ana no está aquí” […]

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. So: ¿De qué […]

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 print classroom curriculum, Calico Spanish Classic (beginner level) and Accelerate (developing level), is the way the songs help teachers take advantage of routine to stay in […]

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 […]

We’re at it again!  We’re releasing another all-new music video for young Spanish learners, and this one has baila written all over it.  So, let’s dance! (Side note: If you missed our other recent song releases, you’ll want to check them out: Move your body, find the pañuelito, and tell us what you like.) – We’ve been releasing new […]