Los Animales Del Bosque (Forest Animals)
The teacher will only speak in Spanish for the duration of this class for a more immersive language learning experience.
Materials needed: Clothespins, clothesline, music, pictures of vocabulary, storybook, craft materials (Crayons), bookmark printout
This workshop is intended to take place as a part of an outdoor educational experience. The activities in this workshop can be adapted to take place inside if desired.
Workshop Activities:
Vocabulary and Reading
1) The teacher will introduce the vocabulary using choral repetition and showing students the pictures of the forest animals.
Tip: Students will often mimic the manner in which a word is being presented to them so try whispering, yelling, cheering, etc the vocabulary to get learners more engaged!
Vocabulario: El Bosque (The forest), Oso (Bear), Lobo (Wolf), Ciervo (Deer), Ardilla (Squirrel), Raton (Mouse), Buho (Owl), Serpiente (Snake), Zorro (Fox)
2) The students and teacher will work together using clothespins to hang the images around the area on clothesline.
If adapting this lesson to take place inside the pictures of the animals can be taped on the walls.
3) The teacher will play music and dance, skip, etc. around encouraging students to join in through gestures. The teacher will occasionally pause the music and call out the name of an animal encouraging the students to run to the correct animal. This will repeat until all of the animals are called.
Acting Out
1) Teacher will act out or make the noises of the various animals and encourage the students to guess the name of the animal. Similar to charades.
2) Students will be encouraged to look at a picture of the animal and act it out for their peers to guess what the vocabulary word is.
Storytime
1) The teacher will read a story, in Spanish, to the students surrounding the theme of the forest and storytelling. El Oso y Su Enorme Trasero by Steve Smallmenn is a good option or choose from other books in the Libro section of this page.
Craft
1) Students will have the opportunity to complete a craft that relates to the theme of the lesson. Using crayons provided students can color a bookmark that they can then take home.
Ideally the bookmark will have forest animals on them and be printed on cardstock to be more durable. This is an example of a free downloadable bookmark with a forest theme.
Libros:
For more language practice at home check out the following books from your library’s Spanish collection.
El Ratoncito, La Fresa Roja y Madura, y el Gran Oso Hambriento by Don and Audrey Wood, Mis Animales by Rebecca Emberley, Oso Pardo by Eric Carle, Tren de Invierno by Susanna Isern, Zorro dice Mentiras by Susanna Isern.
Citation:
Girolamo, Isabelle, “Los Animales del Bosque (Forest Animals),” Spanish and Hispanic Studies Digital Gallery at HWS, July 2024, https://galeriahispana.omeka.net/exhibits/show/spanish-for-children/los-animales-del-bosque--fores.
