'Spanish Song Ideas' idea contributed by Sue Etherington

Sue writes: 'In the reception class we sing a song called ¿Qué hay en la bolsa? (¿Qué hay en la bolsa, la bolsa, la bolsa, ¿Qué hay en la bolsa, vamos a ver. What is in the bag?) I then fill the bag with items from our theme, for instance different fruit, a child comes up and puts a hand in and tries to guess what it is. Es una manzana, it is an apple. If they are correct they then swing the bag and we all sing again. This can be done with many objects including flash cards of things and the children just guess what it might be.

In my group of year 4 – 6 children we march and sing the ABC song to the tune of the American military marching song with the call and repeat. We then throw in commands like ‘gira’ turn ‘ salta’ jump. All of the children quickly learned the whole of the alphabet and with no fear of incorrect pronunciation.

These activities lend themselves to any language, with the ABC song you just need to sort out which letters go with the tune. Above is the order for Spanish.'