February/March: ¿Quién soy yo?

For February and March we have been learning all about animals! I have been working toward introducing a song that became a family favorite as soon as I found it last summer, and when I introduced it last week, I was thrilled to see that the Mother's Day Out kids love it as well. The song is called ¿Quién soy yo? Here's a link to it in Amazon (I am working on linking songs on this blog via iTunes instead of Amazon since many of you use that to download music.)



In this song, the children hear an animal sound and have to guess what animal they hear. Then they are instructed to do an action like that animal would do (for example, they would hear the command "ruje como un león", and have to roar like a lion.) I am using some very fun puppets to help them learn about animal words, actions and sounds in Spanish. We are learning to:

canta como un gallo (sing like a rooster, who says "kikiriki" in Spanish)
haz como una gallina (moove like a chicken)
trota como un caballo (trot like a horse)
salta como una rana (jump like a frog)
camina como un elefante (walk like an elephant)
ráscate como un chango (scratch like a monkey)
ruje como un león (roar like a lion)
vuela como un pájaro (fly like a bird)

Leading up to this, we sang about Noah's ark. I used a song from an obscure CD I picked up a few years ago and I haven't been able to find a link to the song on line. However, if you ask your child to sing the song "Noé hizo el arca", I can nearly guarantee that he or she will start to pretend to use a martillo (hammer) or sierra (saw) and sing most of the song for you. It's catchy and easy to learn. One of the kids' favorites each year I have taught it!

To continue the animal theme, we are singing about a jumpy rabbit (el conejo saltarín). Here's a link to that song:



We will continue with fun barnyard animal songs, including "Vengan a ver mi granja," the traditional "De colores," and "El burro enfermo" (which is a song about donkey who has pain in all parts of his body, so we will get to learn how to say when/where something hurts!) Here are links to those songs: