FREE Bilingual Number Songs
Can I tell you a secret?  For the past seven years, I have not “taught” my students how to identify numbers 0-9.  (I even pulled out my assessments to make sure I was making a true statement. hehe)  They have literally learned them on their own by singing and dancing!  The best part is that this awesome resource is available in both English and Spanish.

 

FREE Printable Spanish Number Songs 0-10 
 
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First, let me introduce you to one of my all-time favorite resources when it comes to teaching young children (academic concepts) through music…HeidiSongs!  I first discovered HeidiSongs when my oldest son was starting Preschool in fall 2010.  My budget was small and I wavered all summer over whether to invest in the DVDs, and if so, which one to choose.  I finally decided to go for the Jumpin’ Numbers and Shakin’ Shapes, and I can confidently say it was a great investment.  These songs have taught my five children, and countless others in our preschool co-op, their numbers and shapes.  I can honestly say I didn’t have much to do with it.
 

What’s special about these number songs?

  • They promote “simultaneous multi-sensory learning,” meaning children see, hear, sing, and act out the number all at once.  For any of you exercise buffs, this is like HIITs, or interval training for the brain.  hehe  Activating these various pathways to the brain is what makes these number songs so successful at making the material stick.
  • Children LOVE them.  As in, my three-year-olds beg to watch them even when our “school” time is over.
  • There are many listening options (CDs, mP3s, DVDS) to suite your teaching situation.
 When I first introduced the songs years ago, we did not have all the technological options that are available now.  So I bought the flashcard download from the HeidiSongs, and used them during our morning calendar time.  I would show the children the flashcard and sing the song (since most of the tunes are set to familiar English songs) while the children did the motions.  As soon as we got the DVD version, my children were hooked and watched it so many times we really didn’t need to use the flashcards after that.
 

Note:  I used commercial clip art to create our Number Song pages.  The illustrations used in the HeidiSongs number DVDs and flashcards have the characters forming the actual numbers as seen in the video above, taking it even one step further.  

How We Have Used the Number Songs in a Bilingual Environment

The videos are only in English, and the CDs/Mp3s come in either English or Spanish.  Since our target language with my Preschool and Kinders is Spanish, I would put the Spanish Number Songs on an iPod connected to our favorite portable speaker) as background music to their math arrival activities.  The songs are only about 30 seconds each, so they would easily listen to all the songs daily.

As part of our preschool curriculum, we would focus on a number every week.  On the day they did their number song page, I would put that song on repeat while they colored the illustration and dot painted the number.  Then we would add it to our Math Song Book.  (This is our absolute favorite binding machine for creating books like this.)

Numbers Song Book Cover

After we finished our Math Song Books, (and they could sing the Spanish version in their sleep, hehe) I began to play the DVD for them in English every Friday.  They thought dancing along to HeidiSongs for “Fun Friday” was great fun.  They also learned the English version in just a couple viewings.  Now, even months after we finished their books, if I turn on the music they immediately grab their book, sit down and sing along.  hehe

Do I really need to buy the music?

If you are familiar with the tunes and love to sing every song at least 127 times until you lose you voice…no.  hehe  Sarcasm aside, I would definitely recommend buying the music.  The level of enthusiasm my children have when listening to a song with background music vs. me singing a cappella (as animated as I try to be), is significantly higher with a recording.

I know HeidiSongs have many different versions available, and new products have come out since we originally purchased our number songs.  If I were starting all over in a bilingual environment, here is what I would personally recommend.

These Spanish number songs are an integral part of our bilingual preschool curriculum.  I contacted Heidi, and she graciously gave us permission to share them with you!  

Note: In the download, we have included two different versions of the number eight and number ten in Spanish.  Here in Colombia, the preferred word is “mono” rather than “chango” for the number eight song.  For the number ten song, we changed “granitos” to “deditos” to match the context of the picture.  Even though the printables have different words than the music, I sang louder when teaching them the songs…and they have never noticed the difference.  HA! 

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