March 26, 2022

A Spanish Nature Guide

Learning Spanish through themes is one of the best ways to make language learning concrete. One of the first ways that I started to practice my Spanish in public, was to talk to my daughter in Spanish when we went for our nature walks.

Going outside is something that everyone does and usually multiple times a day. There are obvious things to see, hear and talk about and all of that vocabulary is relevant to everyday life.

Even if you don’t think about your time outside as being in “nature”, there’s always a lot of nature vocabulary that you can use to talk about your time outside.

In this article we’ll go through the basic Spanish words and phrases used to talk about nature/being outside and then I’ll share several Spanish resources that can support further work with nature vocabulary in Spanish.

One way that you can start talking in Spanish right away is to set aside time every day to talk about what you see outside everyday on the walk to your car, the store to the mailbox.

Each day you might see or hear something different and it’s all relevant to your daily life!

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Table of Contents

Spanish Nature Quick Start Guide

There’s a lot of vocabulary when it comes to talking about the outdoors and it can be overwhelming at first. I created a “Quick Start Guide” with some phrases, questions and answers that are already conjugated to help you start talking in Spanish right away.

You can refer to this guide for yourself if you’re learning Spanish as well. It can also be used as reference for your child. Your child can point to the words that they want to use or you can use it like a scavenger hunt to bring with you on your nature walk!

Recommended For You: Spanish Weather Words And Activities

Nature Words and Phrases in Spanish

Here are some common Spanish nature words that you can start to practice with your child. Eventually you’ll want to add more targeted words depending on what you want to describe, what climate you are in and what the season is. This list can get you started with describing basic things.

La naturaleza (nature)

Vamos a dar un paseo afuera (We are going for a walk outside)

¿Que ves? (What do you see?)

Veo (I see)

una flor (a flower)

un árbol (a tree)

una ardilla (a squirrel)

una hormiga (an ant)

un gusano (a worm)

¿Qué oyes? (What do you hear?)

Oigo (I hear)

el viento (the wind)

un pájaro (a bird)

un carro (a car)

un camión (a truck)

un avión (a plane)

¿Qué encontraste? (What did you find?)

Encontré (I found)

una roca (a rock)

una rama (a branch)

una hoja (a hole)

lodo (mud)

Talking About Nature In Spanish

Talking about the outdoor with children is important and also relevant since most people go outside everyday! Making time to stop and talk about everyday sightings and to label them in Spanish is a great way to boost their basic Spanish vocabulary and also make sure that Spanish is a part of their daily routine.

Almost everyday my daughter and I go for a walk and we call it our, ‘after dinner walk’. Here are some ways that we talk about the outdoors and the structure of our beginning conversations.

“Vamos a dar un paseo afuera! ¿Qué ves?” or “We’re going for a walk outside? What do you see?”

Tell your child that they can respond with “veo” or “I see”.

Even if they don’t know the name of the object they see, they can practice using the phrasing, “Veo a tree!” If the word that they want to use is on the quick start guide, help them to find it, “veo un árbol!”

You can continue the conversation by asking about what they hear “¿Qué oyes?”

And prompt them again with a response: “Oigo…” ( I hear).

If they word that they want to use is on the Quick Start Guide, encourage them to use it to make a sentence, “Oigo un pajaro.” If the word isn’t on the guide, they can say the word in English, “Oigo music“.

My daughter also likes going for scavenger hunts outside, or walks to collect things. In that case you could say, “¿Qué encontraste?”

And prompt them to respond with “Encontré…” (I found).

Once you get home, look up the words that you used in English and see how to say them in Spanish. Can you practice using those phrases again with the new vocabulary that you learned?

Once you start using these phrases daily, they’ll come more naturally and you and your child will start to memorize them. As you become more proficient you can research more Spanish vocabulary to support your talk about wildlife.

In order to boost your Spanish language time, it’s important to hear and engage with as much Spanish language as possible. If you stick with the nature walk theme there are several songs and websites that can support your vocabulary and learning.

Spanish Nature Videos

Spanish Vocabulary About Nature– One of the reasons that we enjoy this video is that all of the content is in Spanish and is done by a native Spanish speaker. We also like that the video shows the Spanish words and also includes actual footage of outdoor scenes as opposed to being a cartoon. Definitely a good Spanish video on YouTube to check out!

BrainPop Espanol– I’ve definitely mentioned BrainPop Espanol before because of it’s great Spanish content. While you need a subscription to access all of the content on BrainPop Espanol, it’s worth checking out the free science videos that they do have or checking with your local school or library to see if they have a subscription you can use.

Learn More About BrainPop Espanol: BrainPop Espanol- The Mini Video Encyclopedia In Spanish

Websites With Spanish Nature Content

Aderalingua Learn-Spanish – This website has a great selection of nature/environment vocabulary in Spanish and each word has real life photo images to go with each vocabulary word. This site also includes links to other Spanish vocabulary pages.

Spanish Mama – This page has some great nature resources as well as some Earth Day activities and resources that you can use with kids in Spanish.

Earth Day Extensions – If you’re looking to connect your Spanish nature theme to Earth Day, you can check out this link to some great Spanish Earth Day Activities and resources.

Check out these Earth Day Activities For Kids In Spanish!

The Best Spanish Nature Books

Reading in Spanish is a great way to include Spanish comprehensible input into your day. Books are a great way to talk about nature and to gain more specific nature vocabulary in Spanish. Here are some of our family’s favorite books to use when talking about the great outdoors!

This one is definitely for the youngest audiences but it’s super cute and has engaging sound effects.

This book is also for younger kiddos. The best parts are the real photographs and English translation for Spanish learners.

Geared for older kids, this book shares about how animals and plants are connected.

This Usborne series is super sturdy and has great Spanish language and vocabulary! If you know of a specific outside location that you want to learn about you can check out this series.