Sentimientos en Primera Infancia – Feelings in Early Childhood

An area of interest that our youngest learners have been expressing is the concept of identifying their feelings....en español! “I’m tired today! Hey Alicia, how do you say tired in Spanish... How do you say happy... excited?” were a few of the comments and questions the children have been asking during Spanish class. So, to start we read Janan Cain’s, “The Way I Feel / Así me siento yo”. This book uses words and situations familiar to children to describe a wide variety of emotions. The illustrations are fantastic as the color and scenes really portray the emotions that are being introduced. 

 

After an introduction to the vocabulary, the students were invited to pick an emotion to demonstrate. A photograph was taken of each student expressing a feeling and flashcards were created. 

triste / sad                      enojado(a) / angry

decepcionada(o) / disappointed

chistoso(a) / silly

aburrida(o) / bored

These flashcards were then used to play many games of los matamoscas (the fly swatters) using the small and big swatters.

We also played with  el dado (the die). Each child was asked to toss the cube with clear pockets holding the flashcards, and when it settled, they identified the feeling and asked everyone else to join in expressing it. ¡Qué divertido!

Another fun game that was crafted using the students’ photographs was Bingo. The flashcards were placed in a bag and each child took a turn at pulling out a card with a feeling picture, identifying the feeling en español, making the expression on their face, and then placing a marker on the appropriate face on their Bingo card. This one was a big hit! We wonder in what direction this study will lead us...