Have your kids ever “obliterated” you when playing games? 🤣 Mine did! We played Memoria (Memory/Concentration) to practice the colors in Spanish, and I lost every.single.game. After my losing streak, my youngest told me, “I obliterated you!” 😠At least we had fun playing the game together, and the kids were able to practice Spanish colors.
Besides Memoria, I have several other fun and easy activities to teach your kids the basic colors in Spanish.
Download the FREE instructions and activities for the colors in Spanish:
How I Taught My Kids the Colors in Spanish
I ended up waiting too many days after the first lesson with the alphabet and greetings to do the next lesson, so I basically had to start over. <sigh> I did a quick review day with both of them and decided to make them watch the alphabet song video from Basha and friends. It was one they had heard as little kids, and I was hoping it would bring back good memories.
They did not want to watch it at first, but about halfway through the video I heard them softly singing along. It was so hard to keep a straight face! 🤣
I had planned to teach them the colors together, but my oldest Alex has been sick so I ended up giving the lesson to Aidan first and then teaching Alex. I didn’t think I’d be able to do the activities very well with just one kid at a time, but it was actually pretty fun. They seemed to really like the one-on-one time we had together.
I started with the TPR activity and Aidan definitely got more out of it than Alex. I ended up putting the construction paper on the table instead of having them hold the paper up. When I said the color in Spanish, Aidan smacked his hand on the matching piece of colored paper. He liked that more than just holding up the paper. We did several minutes of TPR, and he had the colors down by the time we were done.
TPR with Alex took f-o-r-e-v-e-r because he didn’t know what the words were. He wouldn’t let me do the first step saying the colors in Spanish a couple of times while pointing at them. The learning took a lot longer because he had to keep guessing which piece of colored paper matched what I was saying. Then when he kept getting the colors wrong, he started making jokes and messing around. We ended up spending almost ten minutes on this step compared to a couple of minutes with Aidan.
After TPR, I had them read the balloon phrases and then color the balloons. I also said the phrases out loud while they were coloring to reinforce the colors. I just used regular paper instead of cardstock; we mostly couldn’t see through it when we played memory.
However, Aidan quickly figured out that if he put his face right next to the paper he could see what was on it. Thankfully, he stopped doing that when I told him to knock it off. The second game we played was fast because he kept matching all the cards. I had nothing.
Aidan: I obliterated you!
Me: 😑
Alex and I played one game of memory, and he beat me too: 7 to 4. When Alex and I played he was still struggling a little with the colors, so I made sure to say the color of each balloon that was turned over.
Only Aidan played quizlet. He played the matching game and got his time down to 6 seconds. I had him take the quiz to see what it was like. The first few questions were multiple choice and then there were a couple of true/false questions. The last few questions were short answer. I didn’t like those as much as the multiple choice and true/false because my goal was just for them to understand the colors, not say or write them yet.
What I learned
Don’t wait too long in between lessons or you’ll have to backtrack.
Aidan is super competitive. I’m not sure why this surprised me, but it’s great! He ended up spending a lot more time practicing the vocabulary with quizlet because he was trying to beat other people’s times with the matching game.
Teaching one kid worked – I wasn’t sure if I would be able to keep their interest individually, but it actually went well.
Do you know anyone who wants to teach or review the colors in Spanish with their kids? Feel free to share with the buttons on the left!
Did you use this lesson? Did your kids “obliterate” you in memory? 😂 If so, 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!
