PLAYConmigo Cumpleaños - Bilingual Birthday Activity Guide

We're back with a new edition of our PLAYConmigo Spanish play guides: CUMPLEAÑOS EDITION! This 35+ page bilingual* birthday activity guide is a surefire way to make sure you can include as much as Spanish as possible into your little one's birthday celebrations. Magazine-like presentation of the activities and recipe, along with tons of vocabulary and guided phrases written in child-directed Spanish, visual vocabulary lists, music playlists, and more. Ready to purchase? It's ready for YOU with instant download sent to your email upon purchase. Want to read more? See more info below!

*Bilingual = written first and foremost in Spanish, with English translations included if needed.

What are the PLAYConmigo guides?

We created these PLAYConmigo guides to help make playing and exploring in Spanish with your child an easy YES. We thought about how kids like to play/learn, how parents like to facilitate playing/learning, and the kinds of resources bilingual families need in order to make this type of play happen in Spanish (hint: YOU are the key, we're just here to help guide you). All of the activities included in the guide present an opportunity for language input and child-caregiver bonding/interaction. That's why it's called PLAYConmigo (play with me). However, at the same time, many of the activities are set up in a way that the child may continue to play on their own while the caregiver moves on to another task (after providing the initial setup and language input). This is of course a win-win; we know you guys are busy grown-ups that need to do other things beyond providing language input 24/7! Some of these activities in this birthday-specific guide are meant to be done together the entire time, but a couple of them are great for self-directed play too.

What kinds of activities are included in this one?

This Cumpleaños guide has lots of different activities and invitations to play.

• First, we have a section with different birthday songs and a party playlist
• Then, as the "MAIN COURSE" we have lots of activities and invitations to play. These are, for the most part, simple activities that use basic materials that you already have at home (or will have after your child's birthday party) The guide includes:
  • Two fun bathtime ideas for your child's birthday week
  • Five birthday themed hands-on activities and play ideas. These more detailed activity pages contain:
    • Beautiful inspiration photos (showing the activity in action)
    • Materials list and set-up instructions
    • Keywords for the activity in English/Spanish and a list of child-directed phrases so that it'll be SO EASY to do the activities completely in Spanish
• And then in the last section is additional vocabulary, including:
  • Two visual vocabulary lists (birthday party vocabulary, "anatomy of a cake" vocabulary lol)
  • Five different conversation guides related to your child's birthday week (or month)

Who wrote this guide?

Sociolinguist and early childhood language educator Kaila Diaz created this guide as an extension of what she does at home with her own 3 year old and what she does in the virtual Spanish classes that she leads for students ages 0-5. Kaila founded and directed a Spanish immersion preschool for four years before the pandemic led her to start Bilingüitos online programs. She has more than a decade of experience in early childhood language classrooms, both in the U.S. and abroad, but since having her own daughter she has become increasingly passionate about the learning that goes within one’s own home. So with this Spanish play activity guide (and more volumes to come), Kaila is excited to encourage and equip parents to facilitate hands-on language learning at home with their children. She believes that passing down a language happens first and foremost at home, and is most successfully done when the language is linked to play, meaningful experiences, and family bonding.

Who is this guide for?

This guide is for bilingual families (with kids roughly between ages 2.5 and 6) that are looking for extra ways to bring Spanish into the child's birthday celebrations. It’s for families who want to make playing in Spanish an easy YES, and this guide takes the guesswork out of it. Play ideas AND child-directed Spanish vocabulary/phrase lists to go with each activity? Count me in!

• Native Spanish speakers will benefit from this guide because it will provide all sorts of Spanish language play activities and extra resources, ultimately serving as a way to connect with your child in Spanish and link the language to fun. Plus it will include specialized vocabulary and some academic language that may not be top-of-mind even for native speakers!
• Fluent (but non-native) speakers will benefit for the reasons mentioned above AND also from the guided phrase list written in a natural, child-directed Spanish (often different from what a non-native speaker will have learned in an academic setting).
• Finally, parents who are not fluent but actively learning Spanish will benefit from the reasons above AND from the quick-reference visual vocabulary guides sprinkled throughout. Plus, it’s a perfect way for not only your child to learn through hands-on play activities, but you too!

Who is this guide NOT for?

• It's NOT designed for families with zero base in Spanish. This guide doesn’t teach Spanish for beginners. It doesn't come with video lessons or QR codes for pronunciation. The guide is written for families with an established base in Spanish who will be comfortable without the video/audio component. Also because of this, our vocabulary lists focus on less-obvious words. Like for example, a kitchen theme section would have words like ladle, spatula, pour, scoop, etc. instead of more common words like plate, fork, and knife.
• It's NOT designed for families that don’t want to set up play activities. There is parent set-up needed for each activity, and though it is minimal, the idea is that you’ll lead your child for the first several minutes and use it as an opportunity for language input and bonding in Spanish.
• It's NOT designed for families looking for a Spanish workbook for their child to do on their own. This is NOT a workbook. There are no worksheets. There are no printables. All of the activities are hands-on, open-ended, and use materials that families will have at home.

Should I print it out?

That’s up to you -- it depends on how you (the parent) learn best. If you think it would be helpful for you to have the materials list / set up guide and vocabulary phrases printed out while doing the activities, then you can print it out (we recommend using https://thehomeschoolprintingcompany.com/ for an inexpensive option).

But you could also just read through everything on your phone / tablet / computer. Also, nothing in this guide needs to be printed out for your child. There are no worksheets; all of the activities are done with hands-on materials that you have around the house.

Can I see a list of materials needed ahead of time?

Sure thing! Most of the materials needed are things you will already have at home, or can be picked up on your next grocery store run, or easily on Amazon (the less common items are linked in case you don't have them). Or also, for the most part you can skip the items you don't have. Here's a list of what you'll need throughout this play guide:

• Play-doh
• Paper and marker
• Glue
• Kitchen items like large plate, bowls, cupcake tray, rolling pin, strainer
• Birthday candles
• Fruit (optional: cookies, marshmallows)
• Greek yogurt or cream cheese
• Sprinkles or chocolate chips
• Pom poms
• Tissue paper and wrapping paper (leftover from presents is fine)
• Painter's tape
• Contact paper
• Bath bomb (if desired)
• Piñata (if desired :P)

What kind of Spanish is in this guide? Some of the words are different than the ones I am used to.

The words and phrases here are written to be as widely-understood by the Spanish speaking world as possible. (“Neutral” Spanish, as much as possible, though nothing is ever fully neutral.) The vocabulary lists & guided phrases was compiled and checked over teamwork style, between a Spanish-speaking sociolinguist (yours truly), a native Mexican Spanish speaker (my husband), and a native Dominican Spanish speaker (our administrator). Of course, if your family speaks a specific variety of Spanish, please feel free to adapt them to your preference! We always recommend that families run through words/phrases they aren’t sure about with a native Spanish speaker who is close to them! ☺️

What if I'm still learning Spanish? The guided phrases are long and I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing them right.

The vocabulary guides are written with the assumption that the caregiver using them already has some kind of base in Spanish. That's why there are no QR codes or guides for pronunciation and the phrases are longer than phrases for beginners. On each vocabulary page, there's a "key words" section with words you can practice incorporating into the activity even if you're not ready to use the full phrases.

We loved this guide and want more! Will you be making more?

Let’s say you complete this guide and want to keep up the momentum because these activities were just so fun and you want MORE! We hear you and we’re here for you! We will be releasing a new PLAY curriculum for each season (totschool/preschool unit studies, play activities, and seasonal rhythms for your family to create together). We’ll also be releasing a guide for practical life / daily routines in Spanish which will be babies through preschoolers. So stay tuned for...

• PLAYConmigo - Play activity guides for at-home totschool and preschool
• LIVEConmigo
  • Daily Rhythms (practical life and daily routines with guided vocabulary)
  • Special Outings (child-directed vocabulary for certain outings like trip to the zoo, aquarium, airport travel, etc.)