Aquí

It's all about body parts! Here's a song to teach your students a little more Spanish. With this two-part Spanish dance we learn different parts of the body through a series of questions and answers. Part 1 asks the questions and part 2 gives the answers. Though sung entirely in Spanish, it is not as difficult as you might think. Every question starts with "Dónde está su" (which translates "Where is your") and then names a body part. Cabeza... head. Nariz… nose, and so on. Every answer is "Aquí" which means "here," while simultaneously pointing to the body part just named. Everyone must point, tug, tap, or otherwise indicate the correct body part. For example:

¿Dónde está su* cabeza?... Point to or tap your head and shout "¡Aquí!"

¿Dónde está su nariz?... Point to or grab your nose and shout "¡Aquí!"

¿Dónde está su mano?... Point to or wiggle your hand and shout "¡Aquí!"

Then do all three actions in the above sequence singing "Aquí, aquí aquí."

Make sense? Same thing with the next verse with three new body parts: knee, foot, and arm. Requires a little more movement this time, eh?

Now the bridge is where it really takes off. Assign soloists to shout the Spanish body parts, and everyone responds with "¡Aquí!" while pointing to that part. Eight body parts fit rhythmically and seemed comfortable for our singers. However, you can add or change these or any of our "parts" to any that you would like to teach.

Another fun idea for the bridge would be for the teacher (or an individual student) to shout out parts at random. It will be hilarious to watch the kids pointing at, tugging, and grabbing a variety of parts as they nail down the translations. We've included the translations on the lyric sheet for this song (page 41). We've also provided a pronunciation guide on our web site (see details following). Have fun! Just be careful someone doesn't get poked in the eye… rather, el ojo!

(*In most cases the body part would be preceded by the definite article - el, la, etc. We used the respectful possessive adjective "su" to avoid any ambiguity regarding masculine or feminine, his or her.)

Online extras - The free, downloadable extras mentioned can be found under the Graphics and Extras for Volume 19, No. 5 at MusicK8.com