FAQs

“Immersion is arguably one of the most effective ways to teach little ones another language, and Whistlefritz does this spectacularly well.”

– Muse Reviews

WHAT IS “IMMERSION?”

“Language immersion” means children learn a second language by hearing and speaking only that language without translation. No English is spoken. Immersion is how we all learned our native language and it’s the most effective method for teaching children a second language. Whistlefritz’s award-winning French and Spanish videos and music teach children languages using this immersion method.

Watch the video “What’s Immersion?” to learn more.

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CAN I USE THE LESSON PLANS IF I DO NOT SPEAK SPANISH?

Yes! We designed the Lesson Plans to support English as well as Spanish speakers. The Lesson Plans tell you exactly what to say to children in both English and Spanish. This approach supports adults who might be unsure of a natural way to phrase sentences in Spanish.

DO I NEED THE VIDEOS AND MUSIC TO DO THE LESSON PLANS IN THE BOOK?

The stand-alone Lesson Plans can be used without having the videos and music.* That said, combining the videos and music with the Lesson Plans creates a richer language experience. See how below.

*Note: There is one lesson that involves a scene from Las Estaciones. If you don’t own the video, you can check it out from most libraries.

HOW DO THE VIDEOS, MUSIC, AND LESSON PLANS WORK TOGETHER?

Whistlefritz has created language-learning programs that appeal to all types of learners by combining visual, audio, gross motor, and fine motor activities. The programs in our Spanish and French collections complement and reinforce each other by using various forms of media to their best advantage. Here’s how:

The Videos and Music

The videos and music inspire children to learn a new language by providing a lively and appealing introduction to Spanish and French. As children watch their onscreen peers dancing, playing, and learning, they want to learn Spanish and French, too!

The Videos and Music:

  • Introduce new vocabulary. Children learn new vocabulary spoken by adults and peers through skits, song, and play.
  • Review vocabulary. The videos and music provide a fun review of vocabulary taught in the Lesson Plans and Memory Matching Cards. The Lesson Plans explicitly reference Extension Activities involving the videos and music.
  • Model Pronunciation: The videos and music immerse children in a native-speaking environment, in which children can see and hear how native speakers speak in a way that animated programs cannot.

Lesson Plans for Kids

The Lesson Plans:

  • Provide clear structure for Spanish and French instruction. The Lesson Plans are a coherent, “scaffolded” curriculum in which later lessons build upon prior lessons. They articulate goals and objectives and include assessments to allow you to evaluate children’s progress.
  • Provide more in-depth instruction: The Lesson Plans allow educators to explore in greater depth the themes and vocabulary introduced in the videos and music. For example, the vocabulary for various foods is introduced in the 30-minute video ADENTRO Y AFUERA and DEDANS ET DEHORS. In Lesson Plans 26-31, up to four hours of instructional time is dedicated to food-related vocabulary.
  • Review vocabulary. The Lesson Plans review and expand upon vocabulary introduced in the videos, music, and Memory Matching Cards.

The Memory Matching Cards

  • Introduce new vocabulary. Children are introduced to 25 commonly-used action words in the familiar and popular format of this classic educational card game.
  • Review vocabulary. The Memory Matching Cards reinforce words introduced in the videos, music, and Lesson Plans.

Lesson 2 (click on image to enlarge):

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Lesson 8 (click on image to enlarge):

Microsoft Word - Lessons.final.docx

I HAVE ALL THE MATERIALS, BUT AM NOT SURE WHERE TO START. CAN YOU GIVE ME SOME IDEAS?

The ways that families and educators use our programs are as different as individuals themselves. In fact, we’d love to hear how you use our programs to teach your children Spanish and French! Please send us an email or post on our Facebook page.

Here are a few suggested ways to use the materials that you can adapt to the needs of your children and classroom.

  • Watch each video to familiarize yourself with the content and vocabulary.
  • Begin by playing one of the videos for your children as a general introduction to get them excited about Spanish or French. (If your children are 3 or under, we’d recommend starting with LOS ANIMALES or VAMOS A JUGAR, in Spanish, or ON VA JOUER, in French. If your children are older than 3, we’d recommend starting with ADENTRO Y AFUERA, in Spanish, or DEDANS ET DEHORS, in French.)
  • Start from the beginning of the Spanish or French Lesson Plans for Kids curriculum and work your way through the book. The Lesson Plans have a clearly defined structure and order. The structure of the curriculum will lend structure to your overall Spanish or French instruction.
  • The Lesson Plans reference specific audio-visual Extension Activities that show you when to incorporate sections of the videos and music into your lessons. Since repetition is the key to language learning, watch entire videos with your children as a review of vocabulary. Children will be thrilled by how much they now understand.
  • There are over 50 flashcards throughout the Lesson Plans, as well as additional flashcards in the free lesson plans. Copy or cut out the flashcards and place them around your house or classroom to incorporate Spanish or French into your everyday routine.
  • Play the Memory Matching Cards game with children as a fun and educational activity. They’ll be too busy having fun to notice they are learning 25 verbs in the process.
  • Play the music in the house or on car trips. They are a fun introduction and review of vocabulary and a chance to listen to a native speaker singing clearly.
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HOW ARE THE LESSONS STRUCTURED?

The families and teachers who have used our programs do the best job describing them:

“These lessons are designed so that children spend a significant amount of class time hearing and using the language as they do hands-on activities like crafts, sorting, coloring, and playing games. Each class begins with a short review and the introduction of new vocabulary. Next, the teacher models the activity, which provides exposure to the new words in context. Then, as children do the activity themselves, the teacher continues to provide comprehensible input.”
— Jennifer Brunk, Spanish Playground (Read full review here)

Click here to see Sample Lessons

Click here to see Table of Contents

SHOULD I WATCH THE VIDEOS IN A PARTICULAR ORDER?

The videos can be watched in any order you’d like. All of the videos teach greetings, introductions, and numbers. Each video focuses in depth on specific themes and vocabulary. For example, VAMOS A JUGAR (Let’s Play) teaches the parts of the body and action words. ADENTRO Y AFUERA and DEDANS ET DEHORS teach positional words (e.g. up, down, behind, in front of), rooms of the house, household objects, and foods.

While each video focuses in-depth on a particular theme and vocabulary, the videos that we created later in time review key vocabulary from earlier videos. For example, animals that appear in LOS ANIMALES make cameo appearances in skits in VAMOS A JUGAR. Similarly, body parts and action words that children learn in VAMOS A JUGAR appear in songs in ADENTRO Y AFUERA. These vocabulary “reviews” are so subtle, you probably won’t notice them. Instead of formally “reviewing” vocabulary, we reinforce words children already know by including them in new skits and songs and contexts.

As we were creating additional videos, our earliest fans were growing. So, we slightly increased the pace of action and the complexity of vocabulary in later videos to keep up with our growing fans. For example, while the earlier videos use the verb “is” primarily in the present or past tenses, we introduced the conditional tense “would be” in LA FIESTA DE FRITZI. This tense will be reinforced in future videos.

The videos were created in the following order from first to last: LOS ANIMALES, VAMOS A JUGAR, ADENTRO Y AFUERA, LAS ESTACIONES, and LA FIESTA DE FRITZI. If you have a child of 3 or under, we would recommend starting with LOS ANIMALES and watching the videos in order. If you have a child older than 3, we would recommend starting with ADENTRO Y AFUERA, then circling back to the earlier videos.