This month, I have been blogging all about Spanish! I’ve written about:

• My first experience learning Spanish (remember those awkward oral presentations we had to do?!), my experience studying abroad in Spain, and trial-by-fire once I lived in Guatemala and had to put my skills to use.
• My successful (and not so successful) experiences teaching Spanish to my own kids, once I started homeschooling: what worked, and what didn’t!
• Third: my new plan for the upcoming school year: back to traditional! And, the sneaky ways I’ve taught Spanish to my older three, under the guise of our toddler!

Today I would love to talk about my favorite playlist + YouTube channels for teaching Spanish, called Basho & Friends!

Using Songs in Spanish Immersion

I first learned about Basho & Friends from my time working as a Spanish Immersion teacher, so I have my former colleagues to thank for this!

When I taught in the Spanish Immersion setting, I knew I wanted to utilize as many songs and games as possible. I taught Spanish Immersion Kindergarten, meaning that the kids in my class were coming in with no prior Spanish. At the school where I worked, we followed a 90-10 model, meaning that I was expected to speak only in the target language. The kids spoke to each other in English, as well as their specials teachers (music, P.E., art, etc) but the goal was for me to stay in Spanish all day.

That said, the first few weeks or so were hard! The students had a lot of adjusting to do. It was important that I stay as warm and patient as possible, because they were working very hard to learn at a rapid pace. I used a lot of visuals, acting out, songs, games, and other methods to try and help them learn the basic routines of our day. I was truly astonished at how fast they picked up the language.

If you want to read more about the magic of Spanish immersion, you can read more here, but for today, I would love to talk about some of my favorite resources from Basho & Friends. I used these with my class, and I use them today, in my homeschool!

Spanish Alphabet Song: this song has 14 million views on YouTube, and for good reason! It is incredibly catchy and memorable. There’s a cute little dog, Cosmo, that hops along as you rap the Spanish alphabet. The second half of the song focuses on vowels, and vowel pairings like ma-me-mi-mo-mu, etc. We sang this daily in our Immersion class! My own kids also love this song. It definitely stays in your head!

Spanish Numbers Song: keeping it simple, this song does the numbers in Spanish to 20. Again, very catchy and helpful for students! They’ll be humming it all day!

Spanish Seasons + Weather Song: this one is a bit more complex, but honestly–music is so powerful. We all know how we’ve retained incredible information (aka song lyrics) over decades of time, so I try not to underestimate students in learning songs, even if they’re more wordy like this one!

Spanish “What’s Your Name” Song: repetitive and helpful!

Spanish Animal Song: a favorite in my household! We act out the lyrics to help my toddler and preschooler make sense of the words. It’s incredible!

Spanish Goodbye Song: this is perfect for a Spanish Co-op class, as you close up for the day! You could also sing it to your kiddos as a bedtime song. Very sweet and simple.

Music is An Incredible Learning Tool

As you know, music is an incredible learning tool, partially because it activates both hemispheres of your brain simultaneously. Learning concepts or vocabulary to music helps retention, understanding, pronunciation (in the case of language) and general enjoyment!

I love using music any way I can, in my homeschool. Basho & Friends is on YouTube here, and if there is a fun music video, I will show my kids occasionally! I am pretty picky with YouTube, and always plug the videos into a free SafeShare account, which I discuss more in this post. This way, I don’t have to worry about advertisements interrupting the song or showing inappropriate things to my kids.

If you would rather skip YouTube altogether, that is totally fine–many of the Basho & Friends songs are also available on Spotify! I have several playlists saved, and play them in the car all the time. They are so helpful!

What are your favorite Spanish YouTube channels or Spotify playlists? I have a few favorites, but am always looking for more. I love supplementing my kids’ Spanish curriculum with music.

With love,

Cait