My Dear Friends, Fellow Linguists, and Citizens of the World:

This year’s summer packet for Spanish is a list of 50 ideas—both online and offline–that you are welcome to reference when your child invariably complains, “I’m bored!” during the summer months. Have them choose their favorite number (or use the Random Number Generator LINK –> input a range of 1-50), and then do the corresponding activity on the list.

If you are strongly committed to incorporating Spanish throughout the summer, you can also print out the calendars below and mark an “X” whenever you do something related to Spanish language or culture.

• JUNE PRINTABLE CALENDAR
• JULY PRINTABLE CALENDAR
• AUGUST PRINTABLE CALENDAR

A few activities on the list require that you leave your house. At the time of this writing, it is unclear when all businesses will reopen; obviously, do what is best and safe for your family. There are plenty of activities you can do at home. So let’s get started! And if I don’t see you sometime this week, have a wonderful summer!

Gracias,

-Your Resident Linguist

50 IDEAS

**For those of you interested in a Digital Detox, I have divided up the ideas into ONLINE (#’s 1-22) and OFFLINE (#’s 23-50). Just print out this page and power down your devices!

1. Check out Universal Yums!, where you order and receive snacks from a different country every month.
2. If you have any change in your piggybank, count all of it, and then type that number into an online currency converter to see how much it would be in a Spanish-speaking country. For example, $100 US dollars today is about 92€ euros in Spain, but 392,111 pesos in Colombia. WOW!
3. Listen to the Cuban folktale The Barking Mouse (ends at 4:21). It is in English and Spanish, and a great story!
4. Check the weather every day for a week in your favorite Spanish-speaking city and country using this site: Accuweather. Draw signs comparing the climates if you want!
5. Change the clocks on all of your devices to the “24-hour clock”. Many Spanish-speaking countries use this, and it is useful to know that 15:30 is the same as 3:30pm!
6. Work on Duolingo (or Memrise) for 15 minutes a day.
7. Joan Miró was a famous artist from Spain. Look at THIS VIDEO PAINTING and THIS VIDEO PAINTING to understand what he sees, and then try to recreate one of his paintings with paints.
   • THE GARDEN coloring page.
   • “For me an object is something living. This cigarette or this box of matches contains a secret life much more intense than that of certain human beings./Para mí, un objeto es algo vivo. Este cigarrilo o esta caja de cerillos contiene una vida secreta mucho más intensa y apasionada que la de muchos seres humanos.“ -Miró
8. Listen to The Legend of the Cactus, folklore from Argentina.
9. Watch a movie–like Coco or Ferdinand–that explores culture in a kid-friendly way. THIS LINK has a list of Spanish Movies for Kids, ratings included.
10. Change the language of your iPad, phone, computer, and all of your devices to Spanish for 24 hours. Can you survive??!
11. Play the Language Game, and try to get a score higher than 50.
12. Learn to count to 100 in Spanish. Watch this video for SEVEN days in a row, and copy the exercises the woman does. You will learn in no time!
13. Listen to the entire Spanish Summit playlist of songs HERE.
14. Use a decorative box as a “Vision Board”, where you put names and photos of all the places in the 21 Spanish-speaking countries that you would like to visit to one day. Note that these cannot simply be country names—they need to be names of specific places in those countries! This is listed as an online activity because you might need to do a little research.
15. Explore these other language-learning apps. There are sections for toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary students, but you do have to scroll. HERE is another list of apps.
16. Learn about Worry Dolls from Guatemala from THIS PAGE, and then try to make your own.
17. Label ten things in your house in Spanish. Use WordReference or Google Translate to look up the correct spelling. Make sure to include the “el” or “la” word–for example, la mesa/the table.
18. Listen to at least 3 full songs from THIS PAGE, pick your favorite, and then put it on loop as you dance around or do chores around the house.
19. Watch a movie (that you have already seen) with Spanish voiceover and English subtitles.
20. Get a head-start on the holiday season, and make Picasso-inspired tree ornaments. Activity HERE.
21. Play the card game Mano Nerviosa to practice counting/numbers in Spanish. This super short video explains how to play, but if you would rather read the instructions, this is the LINK.
22. Look at your stuffed animals, and make a list of what types of animals they are. If you don’t have any, just pick your favorite animals.
    • Next, look up the names of 5-7 of these animals in Spanish, and write the words of each one on little slips of paper and tape them to your stuffed animals/peluches.
    • Hide them around the house (or outside), and create a treasure map with clues for your family to find them.
23. When you go to the beach, build a model of this famous REAL SCULPTURE in Uruguay called, “La mano” (the hand). It is huge in real life! Take a time-lapse video of you building it, to save the memory!
24. Paint a white t-shirt the colors of your favorite Spanish-speaking country’s flag, and be sure to print the name of the country on the shirt. Ask your parents what kind of paint is best to use.
    • For example, Spain would be red and yellow stripes and say “SPAIN” or “ESPAÑA“. HERE are the flag colors for other countries.
25. Play “Red Light, Green Light” outside with your family, but say the Spanish words instead: “Luz roja, luz verde“. “Luz” is pronounced like the English word, “loose”, as in baggy or loose pants.
26. Cook/bake/make/eat a different traditional recipe from a Spanish-speaking country with your family each week. Here are a few ideas:
    • SNACKS: Morir soñando (drink from the Dominican Republic), Horchata (drink from Mexico), Tapas, Fried plantains, Guacamole
    • MEALS: Gazpacho–use watermelon as base instead of water!, Homemade Spicy Fries (Andean Mtns.), Bocadillo, Tortilla Española (Spain), Gallo Pinto (Costa Rica), Seco de Carne (Peru)
    • DESSERTS/postres: Churros, Flan, Dulce de leche, Tres leches cake
27. Taste-test a bunch of new foods from Spanish-speaking countries that you’ve never tried before. Make it a big deal: dress up in a fancy outfit, display the food platters on a big long counter or table, take photos, critique the food… have fun!
    • You could also prepare THREE RECIPES (see #26), and have your own “Cooking Show”, where you get to critique the food and decide which is the best one!
28. Pretend you are in Spain, and change all of the clocks and watches in your house six hours ahead for a day. For example, if it is 9am here, it would be 3pm in Spain. Make sure to ask your parents before you do this one!
29. Spell out a word in Spanish with an unusual material, like uncooked spaghetti on the sidewalk, or a gigantic “JUGAR” (‘who-gar’/play) sign out of leaves and sticks in your yard. Make it so big that airplanes could read it! Or not… 🙂
30. Look at your clothing tags, the sticker labels on your fruits and vegetables, and the labels on cans and other food products, and notice where these things were made and where they came from.
    • For example: clothing “Made in Guatemala”, bananas from Costa Rica, avocados from Mexico, etc.
    • Then, see if you can find 3-5 products from Spanish-speaking countries; or fill in my chart HERE.
31. Ask your parents or relatives if they have ever traveled to another country. If they have, see if you can find tickets, receipts, foreign currency, brochures, postcards, magnets, or anything else from their trip. Make a decorative box to store all the treasures in. Be sure to interview/ask them all about their trip!
32. Take a field trip with your family and explore the Salvador Dalí Museum, and/or just try to recreate some of his works yourself at home.
33. Take a Bioluminescent Kayaking Tour. If you don’t know what bioluminescence is, check out this beautiful VIDEO. The video showcases Australia, but bioluminescence occurs in Puerto Rico, too!
34. Think about language in general: do you have a favorite word? What is it? Why? Do you have a favorite Spanish word?
    • I used to like the word chic because it sounded smooth and fancy and grown-up. I also used to like the word raw, because it was fun to pronounce; but then I realized it spelled “war” backwards, and decided that I didn’t like it as much.
35. Try to speak in a different accent for a WHOLE DAY!
36. Create a Costa Rican rainforest in part of your house, like the one we made in our classroom. Do you have stuffed animals that might live there, like monkeys or frogs, or green birthday streamers for vines? Be creative!
37. Play hopscotch outside, but say the numbers aloud in Spanish as you jump on each one. Hopscotch, or Rayuela (‘rye-you-A-lah‘) in Spanish, is also the name of a very famous book from Argentina.
38. Look for signs in English and Spanish when you are out shopping with your family (Lowe’s always seems to have a lot!).
39. If you are staying home, look for warranties, manuals, and/or instructional booklets that have Spanish translations. When you pay attention, you will start seeing translations everywhere!
40. Color in every square inch of a sheet of paper with bright colored markers.
    • Next, put the paper in a tray and squirt water all over it (squirt, not pour), so that the colors blend together. Let the water evaporate overnight.
    • Then, fold the paper in half a bunch of times and cut out snowflakes to hang up. You can pretend that that area of your house is the southernmost tip of Argentina, since it is really cold there for most of the year!
41. Build a huge fort (like La Alhambra in Spain) in your house again, with chairs and blankets.
    • Make a big sign in Spanish that says, “NO ENTRAR” (don’t come in!) or “¡PELIGRO!” (‘pay-LEE-grow’/danger!).
    • Variation: Build a fort outside in your backyard with branches and other natural materials!
42. Count how many days in a row you can do something Spanish-related. Be sure to mark it off on your calendar so that you don’t forget!
43. Visit your local library and/or bookstore, and ask where the children’s foreign language section is. Browse through the books for ten minutes and see if you can find any words in Spanish you recognize!
44. Listen to a Spanish radio station or podcast for 20 minutes and try to pick out five words you understand. This could be five minutes a day for four days; it does not have to be all at once. What does Spanish sound like to you? Rap music? Raindrops?
45. Ask to schedule a family night out at a local Mexican/Cuban/Spanish-speaking restaurant. Then, either order in Spanish (if you already know how), or ask the waiter a few questions and learn how!
46. Draw out a maze on a sheet of paper (maze idea #1; maze idea #2 is harder!). Then, go outside and transfer this maze to the sidewalk with colored chalk. Now walk through the maze. Every time you get to a dead end, you have to name a different Spanish-speaking country in under five seconds!
47. Use Spanish as much as possible, wherever you go. Make it a game. Are you waiting in line? At the mall? At the grocery store? Online waiting for a website to load? At a stoplight? Train your brain to use those ten second blips of nothingness to remember anything Spanish. This could be:
    • the last thing you studied on Duolingo, OR
    • counting as high as you can, OR
    • closing your eyes and remembering any of my wall word signs in the Spanish classroom, OR
    • you could ask your parents what words they know in Spanish.
      • First, they say a word, then you say a word, then they say a word, etc. The person who can’t think of anything else when it’s their turn, loses!
48. Play “Spanish soccer” (fútbol) outside. Decide which Spanish-speaking country you represent, and then keep score with Spanish numbers. Incorporate any vocabulary words you remember, like “Pásala” (pass it!) or “¡Por acá!” (over here!).
49. It is very common in many parts of Mexico to eat, well, bugs. Really! Supposedly, Mexico is the country with the greatest variety of edible insects: 549 species.
    • To test your courage, visit the local Candy Store and buy a few fried crickets there or on Amazon. There are even fun flavors to whet your appetite, such as: Bacon & Cheese, Salt & Vinegar, and Sour Cream & Onion.
50. When you go to the beach, build a sandcastle and trace out the word, “Castillo” (castle) in the sand with your feet. Every time a wave washes part of it away, whisper “¡Adiós, castillo!” (‘kahs-TEE-yo’/Goodbye, castle!).

You read all the way to the bottom?! Thank you so much for reading! Feel free to check out THE BLOG for more posts. Have a great day!

My Dear Friends, Fellow Linguists, and Citizens of the World:

WE LIVE in a World of Words, where every conversation, every interaction, everything we read and hear is, ultimately, a story of our lives.

Some are stories of heartbreak, others of adventure, wonder, or joy; some are apathetic, others filled with purpose and intention. Our stories change course frequently, and expand from the microcosm of our personal selves and family histories, to the stories of our world. Our identities emerge from the stories we tell ourselves and hear, and the words we use frame these stories, to create the essence of who we are, as individuals and as a human race. Our stories have a past, present, and future. Whether or not we realize it, we are all storytellers—because in the end, our lives come alive in and through language.

With all of this in mind, and instead of sending home worksheets or grammar packets this summer, I have compiled a list of ideas to weave the Spanish language and culture into your own personal story. I want you to make your story powerful, adventurous, and loving, but most of all, to make it yours, and remember who is telling it. If you are bored with your day, your story, then change it. The world is your oyster! We must remember that we are the superheroes of our own narratives. As the saying goes, “When something goes wrong in your life, just yell, ‘Plot twist!’ and move on”. Move on to a new chapter, a better story…

Below, please pick and choose what fits in your story. Some ideas might resonate, and others might not. As always, though, know that every activity outlined below is 100% optional. Each one is meant to enhance your own story.

1) For a GLOWING story: Try a Bioluminescent Kayaking Tour. Bioluminescence is a natural phenomenon caused by algae that makes the water light up when touched (or “disturbed”). A land example of this would be the light emitted by fireflies. While lightning bugs are found around the world, “water” bioluminescence is much more scarce. It is famously found in Puerto Rico (Mosquito Bioluminescent Bay, on the Island of Vieques), but can be seen in other places as well, especially when there is little to no moonlight. Check out this video HERE if you have never seen it before–and let me know if you take the tour!

2) For a MUSICAL story: Let’s continue jazzing up your summer story by adding some new music. For starters, visit the link below* for pop songs translated/ adapted from English to Spanish. Visit this page for more songs in Spanish, and here for songs in languages that are not English. Also, if you have any translation requests or song suggestions (clean lyrics only), please let me know.

A few favorites:
Sounds European – pop music by country, updated daily!
Pop Songs Playlist* –  songs translated/adapted from English to Spanish
Señor Wooly – please contact me if you do not have an account

Moana, Frozen- 25 languages & Frozen- Spanish, Wreck-It Ralph, Hoy es domingo, This Is Me, High Hopes, Madre tierra, Spain’s National Anthem, La lista/Aldrey, Vivir mi vida, No tengo dinero, Call Me Maybe, Perfect/Ed Sheeran, La vida es un carnaval (Salsa), Cielito lindo/Canta, no llores

3) For a MESSY story: There is a special montaña/mountain in Peru called Vinicunca, or Rainbow Mountain, located near Machu Picchu. The mountain has a unique mineral composition that makes the range appear like the inside of a jawbreaker! For this project, the goal is to make a piece of artwork to represent Vinicunca, using THIS amazing video as a guide. If you have a lot of paint lying around in the garage, put down a big tarp on the floor and start pouring! Make sure to ask your parents before you start this very messy project. And if you end up covered in paint with a product that did not turn out exactly as you planned, do not despair: at least you got a good story out of it!

4) For a FAMILY story: Ask your parents if they have ever traveled to another country. If they have, see if you can find tickets, receipts, foreign currency*, brochures, postcards, magnets, or anything else from their trip. If it was a long time ago, this might turn into a TREASURE HUNT type of story! After you collect a few souvenirs, either decorate or buy a small decorative box to put them inside. Ask your parents to tell you stories about their adventures overseas. If your parents have NOT traveled, use the same decorative box as a “Vision Board”, where you put names and photos of places you would like to travel to inside.

*ASIDE: I never know what to do with foreign coins–and after 13 or 14 countries, I have collected quite a few! To get cash for your change, check out THIS link.

5) For a HISTORICAL story: Visit the Henry B. Plant Museum in Tampa to explore their exhibit on the Spanish-American War and Its Tampa Connection. It will be around until February of 2027, so do not worry if you can’t get there right away!

6) For a DELICIOUS story: Try visually documenting a Food Tour of at least FIVE Spanish-speaking restaurants. In other words, visit a Cuban restaurant one day, have a meal, and take a picture of your plate. Next, visit a Venezuelan restaurant, have a meal, and take a picture of your plate. Next, visit a Mexican restaurant, have a meal, and take a picture of your plate. Do this five times. Try a food, drink, or dessert you haven’t tried before at each place, and make sure to write down what it is called (in case you really like it and want to order it again someday!). Any authentic restaurants (no Taco Bell!) from the 21 Spanish-speaking countries are game here. Have fun!

7) For a DIGITAL story: Change all of your devices to Spanish (go to Settings –> General –> Language and Region –> Spanish)… and keep it that way for as long as you can. How long can you last? An hour? A day? A week? A month? All summer? If you are feeling especially motivated, sign up for (or continue working on, if you are in Summit) Duolingo or Memrise, and see how many days in a row you can keep up with it. The first day or two is easy, but after that, you might be tempted to quit. Remember, consistency is key when learning a language; the more frequently you keep at it, the stronger and smarter your brain will get! Make it a game, choose a goal, and then reward yourself with a prize when you stick with it for five or more days in a row, or three times a week, etc.

8) For a TRAVEL story: Check out Universal Yums!, where you order snacks from a different country every month. The fun part is, you never know where they are coming from next, or what you will get in a box–every country has its own ideas about what are tasty snacks! Please note that this website includes countries from all around the world (and not only Spanish-speaking cultures).

9) For an ARTISTIC story: Take a field trip with your family and explore the Salvador Dalí Museum, and then try to recreate some of his works yourself. See how creative you can get!

10) For a DIFFERENT story: Take a break and consider someone else’s story. Choose from this list of Spanish Movies for Kids, with G and PG rated titles and a blogger’s commentary on the films.

For more linguistic-oriented activities, check out THIS LINK. And if you are interested in my story, please read THIS POST. Have fun, be safe, and see you in August! I wish you happiness wherever your story takes you.

Fondly,

-Your Resident Linguist

To My Fellow Linguists and Citizens of the World:

Learning a language is a beast of a project to undertake. In addition to reading, writing, speaking, and listening—with countless vocabularies, dialects, and accents to untangle—you also have cultural layers and sublayers to sort through. It takes time and patience, and a willingness to understand that learning a language does not happen overnight. You must surround yourself with the language and culture every day, keep your study at the forefront of your mind, and use those blips of nothingness while waiting in line to try and recall what you last studied. An impossible task? No. Challenging, yes—but impossible, never! *For inspiration, read Why I Taught Myself 20 Languages, by Timothy Doner.

In metaphorical terms, then, you must slay the dragon. This summer, Lower School students are encouraged to keep their language study alive by ‘slaying the dragon’. Below you will find a series of language-related challenges. Upon completing each challenge, students may color in a section of the dragon. The dragon is slayed when all sections are colored in. Please hang the dragon picture in a visible or high-traffic area of your household, to remind students to continue their study. The challenge commences on the first day of summer, so if students have already done something on the list, they are asked to do it again.

1) Watch a movie in the target language, with Spanish voiceover and English subtitles. Note: you are welcome to change both to Spanish, but quite often, the translations are done in different countries: what you are hearing is not what you are reading. This can be incredibly confusing and frustrating for a beginner; it is more important right now for students to listen to the language: input, input, input! If your family does not want to watch the movie in Spanish with you, ask to invite some friends over. ¡Fiesta!

2) Label ten things in your house in Spanish. Use WordReference or Google Translate to look up the correct spelling. Make sure to include the “el” or “la” word–for example, la mesa/the table. Listen to the pronunciation so you know how to say it!

3) Prepare a traditional recipe with your family from a Spanish-speaking country. Make it interesting and try something new that you have never had before. Guacamole? Patacones? Tres leches cake? Gallo pinto? Horchata? Churros? Enjoy the process of searching for a recipe (appetizer? drink? main course? dessert?), buying ingredients you may have never heard of before, and then preparing it as a family. There tends to be a big focus on family and community in Latin American households, so make sure that everyone helps out. The more, the merrier!

4) Find a Spanish language-learning app that you like, and then level-up three levels to complete this challenge. Here are a few suggestions for apps: Duolingo, Memrise, FluentU, and/or MindSnacks.

5) Ask to schedule a family night out at a local Mexican/Cuban/Spanish-speaking restaurant. Then, either order in Spanish (if you already know how), or ask the waiter a few questions and learn how! Most people are more than willing to share their linguistic knowledge. To complete this challenge, take a picture of the food you ordered. (Note: there is no way for me to know with 100% certainty that you actually ordered in Spanish, so I am trusting you to be honest with yourself on this one.)

6) #10daychallenge: practice counting backwards or skip counting in Spanish whenever you brush your teeth for ten days in a row. Do NOT count aloud, or else you will spit out the toothpaste foam and get in trouble for making a big mess! Instead, count in your head—cero, dos, cuatro, seis, ocho, diez, doce; uno, tres, cinco, siete, nueve, once. If you don’t know the numbers very well, ask your parents to help you look them up on the computer so you know how they are spelled and pronounced. The point is to challenge yourself, so if 0-10 is too easy, work on something a bit more difficult. (100-200-300-400-500, etc.)

7) Go with your parents when they run errands or go shopping, and look for signs in English and Spanish. When you see one, write it down or ask your parents to take a picture of the sign with their phone. Find five signs, and you get to color in another section of the dragon! If you are not sure where to start, everything from the plumbing section to the magazine rack at Lowe’s is labeled in English and Spanish. The doors to—and other directional signs throughout—J.C. Penney’s at the mall are bilingual. Caution signs for wet floors are often in multiple languages. Airports have a million signs. Keep your eyes open!!

8) Listen to a Spanish radio station (87.7 FM) or podcast for twenty minutes and write down five words you understand. Don’t stop listening when you get to five words—you have to listen for the whole twenty minutes! Keep in mind that this could be five minutes a day for four days; it does not have to be all at once. What does Spanish sound like to you? Rap music? Raindrops?

9) Visit your local library and/or bookstore, and ask where the children’s foreign language section is located. Spend at least ten minutes flipping through the books and trying to find words you know—be a word detective! The local library has a huge Spanish section. Half-Price Books also has decent collections, but they are mixed in with other languages, so you really have to pay attention to know what language you are looking at. Tip: look at the copyright page to find out where the book was published, and then ask your parents what country that city is in. If it’s a Spanish-speaking country, the book is probably written in Spanish.

10) Make miniature weather signs in Spanish (with pictures!), and be a meteorologist: post the appropriate weather sign on the window every day for a week. See AccuWeather in Spanish for vocabulary, or use the guide below:

a. Hace sol: it’s sunny (“ahh-say soul”)
b. Está despejado: it’s clear (“es-TAH dehs-pay-HAH-doe”)
c. Llueve: it’s raining (“you-A-bay”)
d. Está nublado: it’s cloudy (“es-TAH new-BLAH-doe”)

Now hang this on your refrigerator or bookmark it on your computer before it gets lost. Your support and enthusiasm for the foreign language program are greatly appreciated. Have a wonderful summer, and be happy.

Gracias,

-Your Resident Linguist ❤