Parts of a Tree in Spanish

I always feel great when the general educators in my school ask to collaborate. The connections are always stronger the more kids experience different lessons in a different context. This quarter the Kindergarten students at my school learned about trees. Their teachers asked me to teach my students words related to trees in Spanish. At the end of the unit, the teachers are going to set up stations for parents to visit, one of which will be the language station.

Though these lessons focus mainly on vocabulary, I always try to teach students a phrase to accompany the words. Here is the vocabulary they learned:

Parts of the Tree

Tree- árbol

Leaf- hoja

Roots- raíces

What Trees Need to Grow

Water- agua

Sun- sol

Soil- tierra

Phrases

Un arbol necesita ...

Un arbol tiene ... 

Mi arbol tiene ...

Worksheets

I staggered the teaching of the different vocabulary words over the course of a couple of worksheets. 

This worksheet was the first that students received when they learned the word 'arbol.' Students drew in leaves and wrote down how many leaves they tree had.

 

(a bit unrelated but these are the self inking stamps I use to grade their work)

It is hard to tell from the picture, but in this worksheet, students colored and cut out leaves and pasted them on a tree and wrote in how many leaves they included. When each student brought me their paper they had to tell me in Spanish the phrase "Mi arbol tiene x hojas"

 

In the next worksheet focuses on the things the trees need. Students had to write the number depicted on the plant to match them with the words below.

I also created the following sheet to have students practice the things trees need and have. I don't have a student example, but here is the blank version. Students were asked to circle three things that plants need and write the words beneath. Similarly, students have to find two things that trees had and write the word beneath. 

Game

The 'semilla' game has now become a really fun game that can be used to teach any set of vocabulary. I placed 3 different color pieces of tape on my tables as follows:

 

The length of the tape doesn't matter as much (in fact it might be better if the tape were the width of the table. 

At each end of the white tape have two students (four students total per table.) Students take turns competing against each other by blowing kernels of popcorn (semillas) using a straw to reach each line. The white lines are the stop and finishes, respectively based on which side of the table is playing. The colored lines are each associated with a set of vocabulary: purple (parts of the tree,) green (things tree need.) Students cannot keep blowing the kernel if they don't say the vocabulary set at each line. 

 

Videos:

In this video, I had students call out every time they see one of the target vocabulary. What's nice about this video is that there is no talking, so it could be universally used teaching any language. 

Books:

 

The Flying Tree - El árbol volador: Bilingual Children's Book in English and Spanish by Ingo Blum

 

Árboles (Trees) (Casas De Animales) by Julie Murray