Spanish Phonics Resources for Bilingual Kids
When the time came to begin teaching my bilingual children to read in Spanish, I was at first daunted by the task. I learned Spanish as an adult, so I didn’t learn the phonetic system of Spanish the way it is taught to children. Over the years, I’ve experimented, tried a number of resources, and grown in my confidence in teaching my English-dominant bilingual children to read in their minority language.
In this blog post, I want to share resources that might be helpful all along the learning-to-read journey. First of all, the child needs to learn the Spanish alphabet. The good news is that most of the Spanish letters make just about the same sound in Spanish as they do in English. With a bilingual child, you can simply explain or point out those letters that make different sounds in each language (h and j, for example).
123 Andres on Youtube has a fun music video for each letter of the alphabet! These videos are fantastic for exposure and practice.
We have also created Aventuras del Abecedario, a “letter of the week” style Pre-K curriculum for mastering the Spanish alphabet. This curriculum includes simple printable activity pages as well as book and activity suggestions. Find a free sample of this curriculum here. Throughout this curriculum, we recommend playing flashcard games every week to help with alphabet mastery. We offer free Spanish Alphabet flashcards here as a PDF that you can print and use for a variety of games.
Aventuras del Abecedario is a literature-based Pre-K phonics program for learning the alphabet in SPANISH. This is Part 1 of the program, covering the first half of the alphabet, A-M. Part 2 of this program is available here.
WHO IS IT FOR?
This program is designed for your child who is ready to move beyond playing with letters and simple exposure to the alphabet, and onto systematic mastery of the letters as representations of sounds. If you have used Puramente Preescolar with your child, this is designed as the "next step." It's perfect for the child who has begun to crave something more than what Puramente Preescolar offers, but isn't yet ready for the rigor of kindergarten reading curriculum. This pre-reading curriculum incorporates life skills, music, and interactive activity pages, as well as picture books. Over the course of the 27 weeks of this program, you and your child will enjoy 50-75+ picture books together. What a wealth of literature for your Pre-K student to enjoy and learn from!
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
Parent Guide:
-Notes on How to Use the Curriculum
-No-Prep Extension Activities for any Book
-Book Lists
-Flashcard Games
-Weekly Schedules detailing the 4 steps of this program: Read, Sing, Work, and Play
Student Book:
- 8-10 interactive activity pages for each of the 14 units. These activity pages will have your children tracing letters, sorting, cutting, and building their letter and sound awareness, while also inviting you and your child to get up and leave the table to have adventures together!
Page Count:
Parent Guide: 27 pages
Student Book: 128 pages
For best results, open with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and print from that program. The Student Book is designed for SINGLE-SIDED printing only, due to the interactive nature of many of the worksheets.
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Please Note: This product is for your personal use only, not for resale or redistribution in any way. You will receive a digital product only. Any books or other items in the photos are included for staging purposes only.
Once your child has mastered the sounds of each letter, it’s time to begin mastering the sílabas. Don’t rush past this step! Take your time, allowing your child plenty of practice to master identifying the sílabas and pronouncing them correctly. We’ve used several different resources at this stage. Nacho is a well-known and much-loved reading Primer.
I found that my children needed more interactive work with sílabas than was offered in the Nacho reading primer, so I created Trabajando con Palabras, Volumes 1 and 2, to offer a systematic way to progress through mastering the sílabas necessary for reading in Spanish. These simple workbooks offer many opportunities to practice identifying syllables, building words, identifying meaning, reading in context, tracing, and spelling words in order to build confident reading skills.
Trabajando con palabras offers activity pages that allow the student to work repeatedly with the same set of words, gaining mastery through repetition. This volume contains 10 lessons, focusing on open syllables featuring one consonant and one vowel, as well as rr syllables, syllables ending in s (as in words such as busca), and a small selection of high-frequency words that do not follow these syllable patterns (i.e. words including tiene, hay, estoy). The focus is on two-syllable words, with three-syllable words slowly introduced toward the end of this volume. This is intended to be Volume 1 in a series that will cover gradually more challenging concepts for the child who is learning to read.
Each lesson offers approximately 14 worksheets focusing on a particular set of words. This means that you might opt to spend 2 or 3 weeks on 1 lesson in the beginning. For some students, this book might take 1 school year to complete, while others may finish in 1 semester. The amount of time needed will depend on the individual student's readiness and natural pace of mastery. Multiple worksheets that practice different skills (identifying syllables, building words, identifying meaning, reading in context, tracing, spelling) allow a child who needs repetition to build confidence. Each lesson culminates in an oral reading assessment as well as a written assessment that will allow both teacher and student to gain awareness of how thoroughly they have mastered the set of words and whether more practice is needed.
Who is This For?
This is targeted toward the beginning reader who already understands Spanish and is working on learning to decode words. Some phonics resources completely avoid any handwriting—this resource intentionally does include some work with handwriting and spelling words in order to meet the needs of those students who master words more effectively when writing and spelling practice are integrated with reading practice. This resource is completely in Spanish, no English.
Page Count: 150 pg.
Printing Instructions: For best results, open with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and print from that program. This document is designed for double-sided printing, and includes blank pages to account for pages that have cut-outs.
Volume 1 is for the brand-new beginner reader. Some students will progress faster or slower than others. Review and repeat as much as necessary as your child gains mastery. Volume 2 introduces more challenging sílabas and longer words that are more difficult to decode, and includes a reading passage with comprehension questions in every unit.
Trabajando con palabras 2 offers activity pages that allow the student to work repeatedly with the same set of words, gaining mastery through repetition. This volume contains 10 lessons, focusing on syllables that begin with ch- and ll-, syllabled that begin with consonant + r and consonant + l, as well as closed syllables and a variety of dipthongs (ia, ie, io, iu, ue, ua, au) as well as vowel + y. The focus is on two- and three-syllable words, with four- and five-syllable words slowly introduced toward the end of this volume. If you are looking for the first volume in this series, you can find Volume 1 here.
Each lesson offers approximately 14 worksheets focusing on a particular set of words. This means that you might opt to spend 2 or 3 weeks on 1 lesson in the beginning. For some students, this book might take 1 school year to complete, while others may finish in 1 semester. The amount of time needed will depend on the individual student's readiness and natural pace of mastery. Multiple worksheets that practice different skills (identifying syllables, building words, identifying meaning, reading in context, tracing, spelling) allow a child who needs repetition to build confidence. Each lesson culminates in an oral reading assessment as well as a written assessment that will allow both teacher and student to gain awareness of how thoroughly they have mastered the set of words and whether more practice is needed.
Who is This For?
This is targeted toward a beginner reader who already understands Spanish can benefit from working with words in order to achieve mastery and who is able to write letters. This beginner reader should have already mastered the basic open syllables used in Spanish and should be fairly comfortable with decoding two-syllable words and ready for more of a challenge. Some phonics resources completely avoid any handwriting—this resource intentionally does include some work with handwriting and spelling words in order to meet the needs of those students who master words more effectively when writing and spelling practice are integrated with reading practice. This resource is entirely in Spanish, no English instructions.
Page Count: 151 pg.
Printing Instructions: For best results, open with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC and print from that program. This document is designed for double-sided printing, and includes blank pages to account for pages that have cut-outs.
A free, online resource for systematically practicing syllables can be found in a playlist of videos on the Youtube channel Aprende a Leer. A child who has made good progress with Nacho and/or with Trabajando con palabras will be able to begin decoding beginner readers. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much luck with finding affordable, easy-to access Spanish readers that have a systematic phonics progression. The “Leyendo a Pasos” series has a number of Step 1 and Step 2 readers that are engaging and have a small amount of words per page, but do be aware that some of the words will still be quite challenging for beginner readers. When we bump into one of these longer words, we pause, write out the word and break it up into syllables to decode it.
We also very much enjoy the Elefante y Cerdita series (25 books), they make excellent beginner readers especially because they use so many common, familiar words.
As your children grow in their decoding ability, you can begin challenging them with books that have more words on the page. There are several books in the Rafi y Rosi series that are more challenging than the Leyendo a Pasos books listed above.
There are also translations of classic early readers in English, such as Sapo y Sepo or Osito (Little Bear) that make good Spanish readers (although be aware that the translation sometimes means that these books include some longer words that are challenging to decode for a beginner reader).
Many children also enjoy the graphic novel style, so as fluency grows, you can look for some beginner graphic novels that are fun and motivating for practicing reading. My son has really been enjoying the Narval y Medu series.
The thought of teaching a child to read in two languages need not be overwhelming. Lessons should be consistent, but they can be short and fun. Focus on building the skills of accurate, fluent reading with comprehension, and enjoy your time learning together. You are giving your child a gift that will benefit them for a lifetime.