We're getting to that time of year when I start getting a lot of emails asking about bilingual or Spanish-language resources for preschoolers. I'll be talking more about this topic this week, but I want to start off by sharing with you Kandoobi Animales, a Spanish app for preschoolers & kindergartners.
The program centers around an impressive collection of over 100 domestic and wild animals. From avestruzes to calamares, perros to morsas, your child will learn the names of each animal in Spanish. Many of the animals that they include are ones that are not frequently seen in most Spanish-language children's materials available on the market today. As a former zookeeper, I can tell you this was a big hit as far as I am concerned!
This app is full-immersion Spanish - no English - and therefore, best suited for Spanish-speaking children, though Spanish-learners (like mine) will certainly enjoy and learn from it, as well.
There are four components to this app: Letras, A colorear, Raya y rellena, and Igual a la silueta.
I think perhaps my favorite is Letras, which teaches not only the name of the animal, but supports spelling skills. My daughter learns best with hands-on activities and letter tiles are one of the manipulatives we use in our language arts lessons. As you can see from the picture above, Letras uses moveable letter squares to help the child "build" animal names. The tiles are randomly arranged along the side of the page and the student has to drag them into position to correctly spell the name of the animal. Parents with beginning readers can also turn off the sound and have their children read the words out loud.
A colorear allows the child to either draw their own animal (freestyle), or choose an animal and color it in. Kids can then add details such as the background.
Raya y rellena is a simple game best suited for little fingers. Children just add color to their animal by rubbing their hand over the image. Upon completion, the name is pronounced.
And in Igual a la silueta, the kids simply have to match the animal with its shadow, or silhouette.
I especially loved the Spanish pronunciation (obviously by a native speaker!) and the words they chose for each animal were the same as the ones I use. (You know how it is in Spanish - different countries frequently use different words for the same subject!)
Overall, we loved this app. Though there was one tiny mistake we discovered: In the Letras game, the spelling letters for the crane were in English. (The voiceover was correctly done in Spanish.)
Kandoobi Animales is available for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It is the Spanish edition of their popular Kandoobi Animals app in English. So if you'd like to download the English version, that's certainly available, too!
Visit the bilingual Kandoobi website for more information. And tell them you read about them on MommyMaestra!
Con mucho cariño...