The La Señorita Amarilla series is a hit!  This series is a unique story in Spanish that follows along with the adventures of La Señorita Amarilla and El Señor Azul.  Each unit adds a part to the story and helps students learn high frequency structures in Spanish and important vocabulary in an interesting and natural way!  Each unit is designed with tons of resources that will help save you planning time and allow you to teach with comprehensible input students will love and remember. 

Looking for Spanish videos and songs for kids to celebrate Valentine’s Day?  Here are some of our favorites to explore love and friendship in our classes.

One of our main goals is to make teaching easier for you.  With that in mind, here are 4 no-prep/low-prep activities that you can do with Rockalingua resources in your kids' Spanish classes this winter ;)  

We hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday season and enjoyed the well deserved break :)  We know that going back after time off can be stressful and we want to help you save time and have more engaged students with our Winter unit!  This unit has a Spanish song and video created specifically for kids, worksheets in Spanish that are visual and easy to understand, interactive Spanish games and more and we hope that it will help you get back to work with less stress and time dedicated to planning.  

The Chispa series is a great way to expose students to language packed with high frequency structures! In these videos we mostly use simple language, but sometimes storylines require a few more complicated sentences. The good news is that it’s OK if students don’t understand some parts of the dialogues because the images in the video and supporting illustrations we’ve added to it will help students understand more than we think they will.

We love that Valentine’s Day has become a day to celebrate all types of love, in all colors, shapes and sizes!  This year we’re celebrating the love we have for our friends, our family, our pets, and ourselves with these Valentine's Day resources for kids in Spanish.  We hope that you like them and that you'll share the ways you celebrate with us on our Facebook page or in our Rockalingua Teacher Collaboration Group!

One of the greatest difficulties in the transition from physical to online teaching has been the fact that we can’t touch things.  We can’t call volunteers to the front of the classroom and have them demonstrate, we can’t pass out flashcards and do an ask and answer activity, and we can’t high five our students when they’ve done a fantastic job in class…although we'd love to see some of the new variations of online or distance high-fiving ;)   With all of those typical interactions absent from learning, it’s been incredible to see how teachers have filled the gaps between face to face learning and the new online system.  We’ve adapted activities to help students continue to feel connected, we’ve made things more visual, we're giving out virtual stickers, and we’ve really focused on exploring emotions and confronting them to try to make this whole experience easier on our students.  Today, we’re going to explore ways that we can use images to practice high frequency structures in Spanish and prepositions of place in online Spanish classes for kids (or in person!).  These activities are designed to use online, but can easily be adapted for in person classes.

 It’s almost holiday break and even though it’ll be a little different this year, we can still feel the excitement in the air.  The lights are up, trees are decorated and people are finding new ways to celebrate.  We’re excited to announce that we finally have our very own Christmas and New Year's song for kids in Spanish!    It’s something we’ve been working hard on and we’re happy to have it out just in time for the holiday season.  We wanted to make a song and video that you can use in your Spanish classes to introduce cultural customs of Spanish speaking countries while practicing natural language and pronunciation by singing along to a catchy tune.  While the Christmas celebration is very similar to ways students will celebrate, the New Year’s Eve custom of eating 12 grapes to have good luck in the new year is something new for many Spanish learners and exciting to learn about!  We wanted to create teaching resources that we hope will provide you with an easy and very visual way to teach culture in Spanish classes for kids.  If your class is interested in the custom of eating 12 grapes at midnight, you can find more teaching ideas here. 

Hola amig@s!  We know for many (us included) it’s been a crazy start to a new school year and we hope that even with all of the changes you’ve found ways to adapt and get your kids excited about learning Spanish.  Today’s blog post is written specifically with families in mind, but can be used by anyone who is teaching Spanish to kids ;)

Hola amig@s!  Spring is in full force and while a lot of parts of our normal life are canceled, we’re happy to see that so many people are spending time outside, especially on sunny days!  We’re well aware that this period is not the same for everyone and our only hope is that as a whole we’re able to find some space for positivity and growth throughout this new situation.  Here at Rock A Lingua our current focus is on how we can help make this time easier for teachers, kids and parents, and to ensure that everyone who wants to can keep on learning Spanish throughout this time.  Our recorded classes are filmed each week and our goal is to keep them interactive and build on themes throughout the week making the language learning process entertaining and meaningful to the students.  We’ve been thrilled to see how many of you are tuning in and practicing Spanish with us each week :)!

Hola amig@s!  We know that this is a hard time for all, as schools (and society as we know it) begin to shut down in order to fight against the Coronavirus.  Here at Rock A Lingua we want to do everything possible to help you still reach your students and stay sane during this difficult time.  As you may have seen on Facebook we’re offering a FREE Teacher Pro UPGRADE to all subscribers to help teachers teach remotely during the school closures.  We’re also offering one month of FREE TEACHER PRO ACCOUNTS to any teacher that has to teach from home.  You can assign tasks to students and keep track of their work all from the same, easy to use platform!  If you're new and haven't heard about our LMS, you can check it out in this blog post.

Hola amig@s!  As many of you may already know, we’ve been working hard to create new materials: videos, crafts, worksheets, interactive games and short stories to use in your Spanish classes.  We’re really happy with the results and we’re excited for what’s still to come.  With all of the new short stories for children in Spanish we thought we’d write a blog post with ideas for using them in your kids classes.  As always, we’d love to see how you adapt our materials and hear any ideas you might have.  Feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below, on our Facebook page, or tag us on social media!

Hello friends of Rock A Lingua!  By now we hope that you’re fully back in the swing of the school year post-holiday routine and seeing lots of progress in your Spanish classes.  We also hope that our videos and teachings resources are helping to make your job easier and to keep your classes engaged and enjoying the process of learning Spanish.  When I (the blog writer) first started teaching kids classes I completely underestimated the power of a solid beginning of class routine, especially with younger learners and in lower level classes.  Over the years, I’ve found that having a repetitive start to the class gives students the opportunity to settle in and feel comfortable with the change in language, allows shy or unsure students a chance to speak, and sets the tone for the class.   As the year progresses I add new elements to the routine to keep it fresh, but keep the initial foundation or order of activities to help my learners feel in control.  In my classes we start with general information (day, date, weather, feelings) and have now added the “news” section.  We have different ways of working with the information and by adding the “news” time to the routine we make time for those who want to speak more to tell us about something that’s happening now (it could be the actual news or something about their life).  It’s important to note that I only see my classes twice per week and would do my routines differently if I saw them every day, and that the routines and times spent on them varies depending on the level and age of the class.  With that being said, today on the blog we’re sharing some of our ideas on interactive ways to start Spanish class and elements that you can add to your already established routine.  As always, we’d love to hear about how you set the tone for your classes.  You can tell us by either commenting below or on our Facebook page.

Hola amigos y amigas!  This holiday season we’ve been thinking a lot about how to incorporate arts and crafts into our kids Spanish classes in a way that promotes the use of the target language and is fun for the students AND the teacher.  From our perspective arts and crafts are the perfect way to present the Spanish languageto children in a natural and necessary way.  The focus is no longer on “learning” the language, but completing the craft which can be done by listening in Spanish, asking questions in Spanish [or Spanglish ;)] and following a sequence of instructions.

¡Hola amig@s!  It’s the end of fall and the Christmas decorations are up!  Here are some Spanish teaching resources for the final rush before Christmas and ideas you can use when you come back from Christmas break to get your students speaking Spanish, learning about traditions from around the world and practicing winter themed vocabulary.

It’s no secret that students, especially the younger ones, are easily distracted.  As teachers, many of us have seen first hand the benefits of breaking our lessons into smaller mini-lessons with shorter input sessions instead of the more traditional method of longer lessons with very little down time.  We know that attention spans are short and factoring in the fact that we’re teaching in a language that is not the mother tongue of many of our students only makes our jobs that much more challenging (and interesting!).  We want to get through to our students, but to do that we need them focused and participating, because who can learn a second language without actually using it??  Queue, brain breaks!  Brain breaks come in all shapes and sizes and can be molded to fit the needs at hand.  From recess time, where children move and socialize on the playground to a five minute dance break in class, they are one of the best ways to get your students motivated, ready to learn and to help them make sense of new input.  

As the year begins to wind down, we’ve been thinking about the latest trends in second language learning and teaching and how as teachers we can use them to help our students learn Spanish in the future.  We’ve found that one of the most successful ways to teach Spanish to kids is through technology.   The combination of Spanish videos, catchy songs with natural language, and interactive games with vibrant images and accompanying worksheets are what we believe really works and what we’ve built our Spanish teaching resources around.  Today we’re taking a look at how technology can help Spanish teachers get their students learning the language in a way that takes the process out of the classroom and promotes a passion for lifelong learning and interaction with the Spanish language.  

It’s officially spring and we’re loving it.  This year has been a crazy one weather-wise here in Bilbao, Spain (where this post is being written from), but we’re glad to officially enjoy springtime and the perfect weather we’re not used to having at this time of year!  Although, we have to admit that the nearly rainless and snowless winter has only reminded us of how important caring for the planet is and we’ve made it a priority to talk about the topic with our kids in our Spanish classes.   We love spring because it’s colorful, full of light and change, and it provides us with lots of great topics to talk about class.  

The end of fall and the beginning of winter is an exciting time in our Spanish classes, especially for the kids.  And, for teachers it’s the perfect moment to combine our Spanish programs with cultural comparisons and to use the language to learn about holidays and cultural practices in the rest of the world.  That’s one of the reasons that we love being language teachers, we have the chance to cultivate curiosity and expand global knowledge through teaching Spanish.  One of the most important aspects to teach, especially when the language is not spoken at home or outside of the classroom, is pronunciation.  While for some it's not necessarily a difficult topic to tackle, we find that with our goal of getting kids speaking and not wanting to discourage them, we sometimes overlook pronunciation errors for the greater good of creating a positive learning environment.  Is anyone else guilty of that?  With improving pronunciation as one of our main goals and focuses we've put together a list of different ways that you can incorporate natural pronunciation practice into your Spanish classes for kids even if you're not a native or bilingual speaker. 

We’re officially fully into fall and looking forward to all of the fun fall and winter activities we have coming up in Spanish class.  Last spring we posted about different ways to use art in the Spanish classroom with younger learners.  We love art because it’s a subject that’s able to bend and mold to the needs of our learners, while expanding knowledge not only of Spanish language, but in life.  And, we find that it’s a topic that’s super appealing to our students. This year we’re following that post up with these resources and ideas for how to use art in Spanish class with older students or more advanced classes.

This year we've focused on creating resources to help teachers teach routines in Spanish class because we believe that routines are one of those magical resources that help keep our classrooms ticking smoothly along.  It can be tricky to find routines that our Spanish students are interested in and also accomplish everything we want and need them to.  They have to be simple, effective, and serve a purpose all without being boring.   They create order, help establish classroom management, create a sense of community, and are the perfect opportunity to practice natural and simple Spanish every day in a way that all of our students can participate at some point or another during the year.  It takes time to establish a routine and at the beginning of the year half of your class may look at you like you’ve just landed from Mars, but once they get the hang of them the students can know what to expect and are able to complete the tasks you’ve asked them to.   Plus, they are a great way to give our students the reins, but still feel a sense of control because we’ve chosen the routine and know that they are getting something out of it.  Here are some of the routine focused resources we've been working on and some other ideas for ways that you can get your classroom up and running with a spotlight on the role of the students. 

For many the school year is coming to a close and in a matter of days the students will be free, and as teachers you’ll start to pack up the classroom and think: What should I do in my Spanish class next year?  Before we dive into ideas and inspiration for lesson planning and future curriculum planning, we’d like to take a moment to think about how we can make Spanish a fun part of summer holidays, especially for the little learners in your life.

As adults we come to identify the different modes of transportation with convenience, inconvenience, time spent commuting and the need to get from one physical location to another.  But, remember back to a simpler time before we HAD to get somewhere in a hurry, when the different types of transportation were something magical, new, and captivating.  When we’re planning our Spanish classes for kids on modes of transportation we try to travel back in time, capture the excitement we felt learning about trains, planes and automobiles, and bottle it up to bring to class with us.  We like teaching the transportation unit because it’s fast, exciting for kids, and it’s a fun way to teach Spanish vocabulary and simple sentence structure through a theme that they are familiar with.  So, here we go! 

The days of the week are a necessary topic to teach to kids, but let’s face it, not the most flashy.  We get excited about animals, about modes of transportation, and about action verbs, but what is there to be excited about something so mundane as los días de la semana?  Well, actually quite a lot.  The topic is straightforward and easily personalized to fit each class.  It’s something the students can talk about that is directly related to their lives, and it can be combined with other vocabulary and topics to create a more holistic approach.  From TPR activities, to competitions and classroom conversations we’re going to talk you through some of our favorite ways to teach the days of the week in Spanish class and how we put a spin on a less sparkly topic. 

Numbers in Spanish can be tricky because they are something that we learn initially as a beginner topic and then if we don’t review them they become something we aren’t confident with.  Think of how often you use numbers in conversation, dates, time, age, counting, and the list goes on.  Now, imagine that you say it costs dos cientos euros instead of dos mil.  Big difference!  Today we’re taking a look at how to practice numbers in the Spanish classroom both as a lesson topic and as a quick review that can be incorporated into any lesson plan.  As always, we’d LOVE to hear from you.  If there are any activities you recommend or would do differently in your classroom, please share in the comments section below!

Felíz October!  By now we’re well into the school year and happy to be finding new ways to get our students excited about learning and using the Spanish language.  This week we’re taking a look at how our Spanish teaching resources (and others we like!) can help you to teach Spanish to children this year.  

Are you a subscriber to Rockalingua or have you seen the email about our new Spanish video comics for kids?  Well, if you haven’t let me fill you in.  Our Rockalingua designers have been working hard to create video comics and printable worksheets for each of our units because we believe that storytelling in the Spanish classroom is one of the strongest tools you have available and we want to help you take advantage of it!  Our goal is to have a video comic and printable worksheet for each unit in the next few months.  While we’re working on that let’s talk about how you can use Spanish stories for kids and specifically our video comics in your Spanish classroom this year.

¡Hola profesores!  Whether you've worked with us before or this is your first school year with Rockalingua, welcome back and we're happy to have you!  By now you’re probably getting back in the groove of being in the classroom full time and while your students are adjusting to your new routines we thought we’d do a blog post on one of our favorite resources: flashcards!  Flashcards are amazing because they are versatile and cater to many different learning styles, are colorful and eye-catching, can be used to introduce new material or work to practice the language you've already introduced, and they can be used in stages to provide the proper building blocks for learning the Spanish language without overwhelming your students. 

¡Hola amigos!

As you may  already know we've spent all last year developing a Learning Management System (LMS) for Spanish class. Back in June we tested the LMS with a group of teachers and they LOVED it!  Teachers said that students were super engaged, working on the tasks they had assigned them, and that differentiated instruction was easily implemented with our LMS since teachers can assign tasks to a whole class or to specific students that might need easier or more chanllenging assignments. Check out this minute and a half video to learn everything about it!

With school out for summer what better way to keep up with Spanish than through videos!  Videos are a natural way for learners to interact with the language and if you choose a good one, it doesn’t even feel like you’re learning.  

In language learning worksheets can both help and hinder language production.  Here are some of our recommendations for how to use them and which ones to use in your Spanish classes with kids.

Whether you’re wrapping up the school year, planning for a summer camp, or already thinking about next year’s Spanish class topics, the months of the year (los meses del año) is one must-have lesson plan for every Spanish teacher.  Learning the months of the year is a necessity for all beginning levels (kids to adults) and can be incorporated into class with some of these dynamic ideas.  

Spanish animal songs appeal to all language learners. Songs to teach vocabulary and explore our relationship to animals, grouped for different ages.

Spanish worksheets have exercises and pictures that can be used for interactive activities. Printable language practice with corresponding songs and videos. 

Farm animal activities in Spanish including songs, games, video, and printable pages. Learn about farm animals and products with interactive Spanish fun. 

Day of the Dead activities introduce the language and cultural significance of the tradition. Song, video, picture dictionary and art projects for students.

Fall activities in Spanish teach elementary students vocabulary to talk about the season. Songs, videos, printable activities and online games about autumn.

Classroom routines in Spanish are easy and fun with this song for cleaning up. Kids learn important verbs as they sing along using the free lyric sheet.

Feelings in Spanish are important vocabulary for kids learning the language. These 5 fun activities help kids learn new words and understand emotions.

Colors in Spanish help kids talk about their world. Rockalingua has songs, video, printable worksheets and games to make learning colors fun and easy,

Spanish games for kids are interactive, fun learning. This list of games to learn vocabulary includes listening and speaking games, active games and more.

¡Hola amigos!

As you know music is one of the best ways to teach and learn a foreign language. That's why we put so much effort and time trying to write fun and catchy songs to teach Spanish to kids. We have added a new feature to our site to download PDF files of our song lyrics and drawing so you can make copies for your students.

¡Hola amigos y amigas!

In addition to teaching Spanish to our students, it is also important to teach them the cultural aspects of Spanish speaking countries. Día de los Muertos is an important holiday for Latin American cultures, especially in Mexico. We want to share some links with useful information about Día de los Muertos.

¡Hola amigos y amigas!

Today I am going to write about teaching routines. I like to start my Spanish lessons with the same routine because it helps students focus and  start thinking and interacting in Spanish.

It looks like most teachers are already back in the classerooms so I wanted to keep sharing some useful teaching ideas with all of you. Last week I wrote a post about introductions in Spanish based on the ¿Cómo te llamas? (what's your name? in Spanish) song and video. 

Summer vacation is coming to an end and that means we teachers have to go back to work. I want to share with you some teaching ideas that will work great during the first days of school... 

¡Hola amigos!

We have uploaded the interactive Spanish games that complete the unit about "Mi casa" 

¡Hola amigos!

Are you teaching fruits in Spanish to your students? well, we have everything you need right here.

¡Hola amigos!

We have a new video, worksheet and picture dictionary ready to Rock this Fall...

Weather is an important topic that I include on my  "classroom routines" at the beginning of every class. My students are always excited about comenting about weather and they now a lot of vocabulary related to it thanks to the

¿Qué tiempo hace hoy? song and video to learn weather in Spanish for kids

¡Hola amigos!

We have added new Spanish games for kids to our Spanish educational website.

A new set of games to teach and learn clothes  , Wh- questions, and professions in Spanish are ready!  As always our games have different levels of difficulty so all students can enjoy them. Take a look at  the screenshots bellow 

¡Hola amigos!

We have a new video, perfect to practice introductions these first school days. The video is called ¿Cómo te llamas? and  teaches ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Cuántos años tienes? ¿De dónde eres? and ¿Dónde vives?

Your students are gonna love it!

¡Hola amigos y amigas!

I can't believe Summer is almost over! I hope you all had  a great break and that you were able to recharge your batteries because believe it or not a new school year is here!

But do not panic, here at Rockalingua we have been working on new Spanish teaching materials for kids that are perfect for the first weeks of school, so stay calm, we have you covered ;)

We have been working on new topics like school objects and subjects (watch video here and listen to the song here) and Spanish greetings and daily routines (video, song, worksheet, picture dictionary)

!Hola amigos y amigas!

We are so happy to announce that our interactive games are already working on IPADS!

What a great way to start the year! Our games about colors, numbers, parts of the body and feelings are already working on IPADS and of course computers. Now your students can learn and review Spanish through play! They are gonna love it!
All the other games (daily routines, days of the week, means of transportation, etc...) will be available next week!

¡Hola amigos y amigas!

It'ts been a while since my last post but I have great news! I have been recording 11 new original songs that will be redy to hear on our website very soon!

Some of the topics that the new Rockalingua's http://rockalingua.com/songs Spanish songs for kids  cover are: the fall (already on the web) weather, the house, prepositions, personal pronoums, fruits, schools objects and subjects and much more!

I want to share with you a couple of activities  to review colors that my students really like.

This are basic activities for beginners but I have seen students in middle school and high school having problems recognizing colors so you can do these activities even if you are teaching upper grades. IT IS NEVER A WASTE OF TIME TO REVIEW BASIC BUT IMPORTANT VOCABULARY!

Ever since I started teaching Spanish a few years ago I always had a difficult time finding good materials to use with my students. The text books I found did not follow a coherent teaching sequence and they did not meet my students needs at all. Most materials were boring and they lacked good ideas or fun illustrations to engage my students. Spanish was not a mandatory subject at public schools so there was not a huge market for publishing companies to invest in Spanish teaching materials. So there we were, us Spanish teachers left alone....

¡Hola amigos!

My name is César, I am a Spanish teacher and musician from Spain currently working in San Francisco. I am very excited to welcome all of you to the musical world of Rockalingua. At Rockalingua we have been working non stop, Monday through Sunday, to have our Spanish educational website ready to ROCK this school year!

The Rockalingua Story:

Since I started teaching foreign languages 11 years ago, I have found music to be the best teaching resource no matter what grade I taught. I used to teach English as a foreign language in Madrid and I used a lot of educational English songs that covered all sorts of topics.