Campamento Classics
I know an unreasonable number of children’s songs in English and before knew Peace Corps almost none in Spanish. After over a year living here, recreos divertidos, and many afternoons at my community center’s campamentos, I’ve compiled a list of favorite children’s songs in Spanish too. As many volunteers begin summer campamentos, these are good to have in your back pocket as dynamic breaks and fun games to keep students engaged.
Here are some songs, dances, and games my students love.
Songs
Chuchuwa
The classic. I believe we all learned it during training. It’s got instructions, it’s repetitive, it’s silly, and everyone knows it. 10/10.
El Baile de la Fruta
A little bit of dancing and a little bit of call and response fruit names.
El Baile del Gorila
You get to clap, pound your chest, and make deep guttural screams like a gorilla, kids go feral for it.
El Baile del Sapito
A classic during school recess; let the frogs teach you how to dance.
El Mango Relajado
Not entirely sure why it starts with the Spongebob pirate when the song is about eating mangos and relaxing, but así es.
El Mosquito
You want to kill a mosquito? Yeah me too. This one says how many mosquitoes there are and then you clap that many times. You’re set.
La Bomba Chita
This one doesn’t have a dance attached the way other songs do, but it’s my favorite fast-paced song, perfect for a game of Musical Chairs, Freeze Dance, or anything with music and high energy.
La Patita Lulú
For those of you at the Promotores de Lectura training, we did this one as a dinámica. It’s about a duck who wiggles and spins.
La Vaca Lola
You know how Part 1 in the literacy eval is about la vaca lola? Here’s the bovine, the myth, the legend herself.
Las Ruedas del Autobus
Wheels on the bus, but in Spanish. Another volunteer shared it’s a favorite at their preschool.
Mariposita
The first graders at my school sing this every morning. It’s about a butterfly making hot chocolate.
Soy una Serpiente
This is one of my favorite songs. It’s catchy, easy to sing along with, and you can make it interactive! I’ve seen teachers start congo chains with students holding onto each other’s hips while Soy una Serpiente plays to lead the way from one space to another. My personal favorite version involves the head of the serpiente tagging in students, who have to crawl through the legs of everyone making up the serpiente and then standing up at the end so the serpiente is even longer for the next student’s crawl. It’s what they do in the video and it’s a crowd pleaser.
Soy una Taza
It’s got cooking utensils, set movements to follow, and the occasional dance break. What else could you need?
Tiburón Bebé
Yes. This is just Baby Shark in Spanish.
Counting Games
“¿Coca cola country club, cuantos años tienes tú?”
Have the students stand or sit in a circle. The teacher (or another student!) walks through the center and taps a student on the head with each word as they say “¿Coca cola country club, cuantos años tienes tú?”. The student who is tapped for “tu” answers with their age. The teacher continues in the circle tapping each student as they count to that number–ie if a student is ten years old, count to ten. Whichever student is tapped at ten is out. This continues until there’s only one student left.
“Debajo de la cama hay un perro muerto, el que dice ocho se lo come muerto.”
Everyone sits in a circle and set up is the same as Down By the Banks, with hands out, over knees, palm up. The right hand is on top, left hand below. When your right hand is slapped by the person to your right you carry that over to the person on your left and it goes around in a big circle. So, you get in the circle and everyone chants “debajo de la cama hay un perro muerto, el que dice ocho se lo come muerto.” The first person begins with one, slaps the hand of the person to their left who says two, who passes it to three, and so on and so forth. The catch is you can’t say eight–no eighteen, thirty-eight, or any number in the eighties. If a student says an eight, they’re out. If they take too long to think, they’re out. Once a student is out you start the round at one again until only one student remains. Feel free to swap out eight for any other number.
Stories
El Pollito Pito
At the Promotores de Lectura training, Lucy C. read this story out loud and absolutely nailed it. Even though this video isn’t as good as Lucy’s readaloud, the third grade teacher at my school still uses it and the kids adore it. So put this on and take a breather while the kids listen.
