National Poetry Month is coming up and what better way to celebrate with your bilingual Spanish-speaking kids than having them read authentic poetry in Spanish written by Latin American authors.
- Mi Isla En Poesía by Puerto Rican author Isabel Freire de Matos is a beautifully illustrated book with poems about Puerto Rico. The poems are easy to follow, and ideal for your Spanish language emergent readers. The poems are about Puerto Rico’s flora, fauna, and culture.
- Versos al nunca jamás by Cuban author Enrique Pérez Díaz provides a twist on classic literature in which he tackles subjects such as beauty, fear of loss, love, of friendship. This poetry book is ideal for older kids ages 12 to 15 years old.
- Poesía Alada: Poesía y arte para volar by Peruvian author Mariana Llanos is a compilation of 25 beautiful poems about adventure, wonder, and admiration for the simplest things in life. Read my review here.
Voces de Latinoamérica
Voices of Latin America and the Caribbean is an illustrated anthology of songs, poetry, and stories. This project was led by IBBY Costa Rica to gather and publish oral tradition anthologies. You can download it for free here.
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Also, don’t forget to check out Spanish Playground’s activities and poems to celebrate National Poetry Month.
Lastly, I offer a Spanish Poetry Creative Writing for Advanced Spanish Learners. This is a Spanish immersion class for advanced bilingual learners, heritage speakers, or dual-language learners that know how to read and write in Spanish. In this one-time class, advanced learners will create their own acrostic poem in Spanish. We will read a poem from Poesía Alada by author Mariana Llanos. A discussion of the poem will allow learners to speak in Spanish. Following the poem, learners will create their acrostic poem using simple steps. They will write their acrostic poem using their names (or with a word of their choice), and we will brainstorm words or phrases in Spanish that match the letters of their names or their word.
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