Teaching Your Toddler Spanish Animal Names: Activities and Games
By Palabra Garden
If there’s one category of vocabulary that toddlers learn faster than anything else, it’s animals. Put a picture of a dog in front of a toddler and they’re fascinated. Say “perro” while they’re fascinated and they’re learning. Animals are the fast lane of vocabulary building for young learners. This is especially true in bilingual homes. Animal vocabulary is concrete (it’s not abstract), it’s highly visual (you can point to it), and it’s naturally fun (animals make sounds, they move, they’re interesting). If you want your child’s Spanish vocabulary to explode, animals are where you start.
I’m going to walk you through 20 essential animal names in Spanish, organized by category, plus five activities that turn animal vocabulary into games your toddler actually wants to play.Farm Animals (6 Animals)
What this post covers
- Zoo and Wild Animals (6 Animals)
- Pets and Household Animals (5 Animals)
- Bugs and Small Creatures (3 Animals)
- Five Activities That Turn Animals Into Language Learning
- Activity 1: Sound Guessing Game
- Activity 2: Picture Matching and Sorting
- Activity 3: Animal Movement Game
- Activity 4: Animal Story Building
- Activity 5: Memory Game With Animal Pictures
- Why Animals Are the Fastest Vocabulary Category
- Layering Animals Into Your Larger Bilingual Plan
- Start With What Your Child Loves
This post is being migrated from the previous site. The full version originally appeared on palabragarden.com.