Did you know you can buy a ticket to go to space in a rocket? 🚀The rocket is my students’ favorite form of transportation in Spanish. So many characters in our stories travel in a rocket even if it’s just to school, so I was curious about space tourism. If you have 250,000 dollars, you can reserve a ticket with Virgin Galactic along with Brad Pitt and Justin Bieber. I don’t know about you, but I can think of so many better things to do with 250,000 dollars. 😂
Rockets aren’t the only type of transportation my students like to use in our conversation and stories. Our characters also like to travel by plane, helicopter, and boat. Even if it’s just from their house to the supermarket! My students are way more interested in listening to Spanish and creating stories when we get to add crazy elements like unusual transportation.
And in this lesson, I continued to create materials with verbs that are commonly used when speaking Spanish. Engaging activities combined with high-frequency verbs are a proven way to improve your kids’ ability to speak Spanish!
This is the fifth chapter of my second workbook. These lessons build on previous lessons, so I highly suggest starting here if you haven’t completed the previous lessons yet.
I’ve also included links to videos as a parent resource that can be used for listening practice for kids too: pictures described in Spanish, conversation in Spanish, and a story in Spanish.
Download the FREE printables and instructions here:
How I Taught My Kids Transportation in Spanish
Total Physical Response (TPR)
Aidan’s not a fan of doing TPR because he has to move. But actions work, so I’m going to keep making him do this especially because I think it’s entertaining. 🤭
For me encanta, I point to myself and then cross my arms over my heart similar to the ASL sign. For te encanta, I point to the person I’m talking to and then cross my arms over my heart to show the difference in subject.
Toma is a challenge because it has multiple meanings, so actions change depending on what I’m saying. For instance, I mime the type of transportation we are talking about when talking about taking transportation. For example, I act like an airplane if I’m talking about taking an airplane. If I’m using toma to talk about someone taking something from someone else, then I use a gentle grabbing movement like the ASL sign.
Personalized Questions and Answers (PQA) aka Conversation
My kids are so lazy! I asked Aidan one of the questions from the script (Do you drink hot chocolate when it’s cold?), and he told me, “No, I don’t drink it because you don’t make it for me.” Seriously?! I buy them Swiss Miss or Nestlé so all they have to do is add hot water.
When we were talking about transportation to get around where we live, we talked about taking ferries, of course. Aidan and I love to take the ferry. My husband is not a fan after commuting on them. He calls them floating buses.🌊🚌🌊
And here’s a tip if you ever visit Seattle and plan to take a ferry: They will NOT wait for you, so be on time! The ferry workers may see you running on the dock yelling, “Wait!” They won’t. They will untie the boat and leave the dock. I’ve watched this happen.
Reading
Aidan and I made another story using the mini-story outline. I learned *a lot* about a game called Animal Crossing. He loves it! 💗 I should say heard (not learned) a lot about it because I don’t remember anything that Aidan said. It was almost impossible to keep him on track with the activities because every couple of minutes he was telling me more about the game. Like in-depth explanations of every detail of the game. Our story this time was based on the game, of course.
I also heard a lot of “fun facts” about the game. Facts, yes. Fun, mmm. Not so much. Our characters were animals from the game. I’ve noticed when creating stories with Aidan that I usually need to prompt him with the question ¿Cómo es? He usually only gives one adjective to describe the character, and it’s usually simpático. I started asking, “¿Es alto o bajo? ¿Es gordo o delgado? ¿Es inteligente o tonto?”
And I ended up adjusting things a little on the outline like last time since Aidan insisted that the animals walk everywhere. That’s all they do in the game, and he wasn’t budging on this part of the story. So feel free to adjust the order of things in the story outline or leave out parts of the outline altogether.
And, if you read the story we created, it looks like we’re obsessed with money because the story revolves around money and a money tree. Apparently, this is an important part of Animal Crossing. I work hard to teach my kids to be frugal and not be obsessed with money, but this story does not reflect that. 😬
I have included the story we created as an example and/or another reading activity for you and your kids. The printable is called Mini Story Example. If you use the mini-story outline that I provided in the lesson to create your own stories with your kids, you can add it to your own Spanish library.
We then read the story El ancla.⚓ It’s about a little boating trip my grandpa, dad, brother, and I took when my brother and I were kids. Aidan was a bit incredulous a couple of times when reading it and asked, “How did that happen?” He chuckled at the end which made me happy because he can be a tough critic!
This story is broken up into four parts with a short activity after each part. There is a super short version for listening first. So you can either read the super short version to your kids before reading the four parts or have them listen to it on the video I made. Kids can draw the story as they listen to it and then answer the questions on the video about the story.
Game
The game this time is more of a brain game: Odd One Out. I used both transportation and nature vocabulary (from two lessons ago). After making it, I realized that there could be a couple of right answers for some of the groups of words. And then Aidan chose some that I hadn’t picked as the “right” ones. But when he explained to me why he chose those words, it made total sense. I love this activity because kids have to think about and explain their choices.
Workbook
The workbook includes the next chapter of the story and 2 activities for the chapter. The workbook will be available as soon as I create a store. Coming soon!
Including crazy elements in stories like unique types of transportation to keep your kids interested in Spanish and learning high-frequency verbs will help your kids learn Spanish faster!
Did you do these activities? Or know anyone who wants to teach high-frequency verbs or types of transportation in Spanish? Please share with the buttons on the left!
What do your kids love 💗 right now? Tell me about it in the comments below!
P.S. Are you looking for a quick and fun way to help your kids start learning Spanish? If so, check out my free Spanish for Kids Starter Guide! You can immediately use any of the 9 simple tips to introduce your kids to Spanish. Know what the best part is? You don’t have to know Spanish to use it!
