“Hang on, girls!” said my mom as we zipped past the turn for our field trip (the best way to learn). So to practice forest animals in Spanish, I created a virtual field trip that will help your kids start speaking Spanish.
I have fond memories of that 6th grade field trip to the Seattle Pacific Science Center. In particular, the drive there. My mom volunteered to drive, so 3 of my friends and I smushed together in the orange, convertible Volkswagen that my mom drove.
A few blocks from the science center, my mom missed the turn. We hung on for dear life as we careened around the next corner to make a U-turn. Through the McDonald’s drive-thru. Backwards.
My friends and I waved at the confused McDonald’s worker in the window. Good thing no one was ordering. 😂
To be fair to my mom, driving in Seattle can be a pain.
Eventually, we got to the science center and had a fantastic time because field trips are the best: kids learn and have fun (without even knowing it).
So what better way to help kids learn forest vocabulary including forest animals in Spanish than to take a field trip to a forest?
How Kids Can Learn Forest Animals in Spanish + Other Forest Vocabulary
Virtual Field Trip in Spanish
Since I can’t take your kids with me, I made a video for a virtual field trip.
Click the video because then you’ll hear your kids saying this vocabulary in Spanish:
🐇 Animals
🌲 Plants
💦 Landforms
A Top 10 Verb to Help Your Kids Speak Spanish with Complete Sentences
But like hiding cauliflower in brownies to trick our kids into eating more veggies, the real focus of the video is the verb hay. No kid cares about learning this, but verbs are important to be able to communicate.
You don’t want your kids sounding like a caveman: fish river.
I know hay looks like what horses eat, but it’s pronounced like the letter “i.” And my Spanish 1 students struggle with it. Every day I hear hay (like what horses eat) at the beginning of the school year.
Hay is an important verb to know (a top 10 verb), so I want to make sure your kids say it correctly. Otherwise, the Spanish-speaking neighbor kids won’t know what your kids are saying. 🤔😆
So what does hay mean? Hay = there is/there are
How to Practice After Watching the Video
Click the image of the mini-poster with the vocabulary from the video (including the forest animals in Spanish) so you and your kids can practice after watching the video.
You don’t need to know any Spanish to use this.
Here’s how to use the video and the mini-poster:
- Have your kids watch the video and repeat after me.
- Print the mini-poster and put it in a high traffic area of your house (like the fridge).
- Say hay whenever you can and encourage – don’t force – your kids to also.
If you were at my house, I’d say “Hay venados” 🦌 every day, all day. Because they practically live in our yard. And eat all our plants. And poop everywhere. 🙄
Do you have some of the animals from this video in your yard – maybe una rana 🐸 o una ardilla 🐿️? If so, you can practice too.
What if you don’t know the word for what you want to say after hay? No problem, just say the English word(s).
This is called code-switching, and studies have shown kids who do this speak another language better and faster.
So if you don’t know what milk is in Spanish, then just say “Hay milk.”
If you know anyone else who wants to hear their kids speaking Spanish, make sure to share this post.
Do you want to hear your kids speaking Spanish with a top 10 Spanish verb and see them have fun? Then click this link for the video and download this mini-poster because your kids can go on a virtual field trip with me in the forest to learn the Spanish verb hay + forest animals in Spanish.
P.S. Are you going to take a road trip soon? Click this link for 3 free Spanish travel games because then you’ll hear your kids speaking Spanish + see them having fun without having to listen to the My Little Pony movie one more time.
