14 Clean Spanish Rap Songs for School
Last week my husband came home ecstatic about clean Spanish rap songs. He had a whole class of international 10-year olds, rapping Spanish ABC in the school corridor. I don’t know who had more fun, my hubby or his students.
The fact is that school appropriate rap songs can earn you the title of the Best Spanish teacher of the Year.
In this article, I want to show you the power of rap songs for education, I’ll also share some ideas for easy and not so easy kid-friendly Spanish rap songs.
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3 Big Reasons to Use Clean Spanish Rap Songs for School
But why should you use raps for kids to teach Spanish? It’s definitely not a music genre that everybody loves.
I agre, but there are some other benefits included in this type of music that might you want to consider having a look at the 2022 Spanish rappers hits.
Let me explain why using rap helps you gain the attention of your students and how entertainment can facilitate learning.
1. They’re Easy to Memorize
First of all, Rap and Spanish hip hop songs are usually not that complicated as far as lyrics are concerned. Unless you’re a fan of Calle 13 or Residente, but their lyrics are mostly not school appropriate and require a more mature audience.
Most Spanish rap songs are simple and uncomplicated. Rhymes, steady beat, and constant repetition make them easy for kids to learn by heart and sing. Even students that are not vocally talented can enjoy singing and shadowing.
Music helps auditory learners to focus and remember but works too with other learning styles.
2. They Teach Informal Language
Uncomplicated lyrics come with simple, informal language. Spanish textbooks usually lack slang and street expressions, and Spanish rap lyrics are full of them. Rap and hip hop are the language of global youth culture and you should learn to use it in your advantage.
Your students will feel that they’re learning useful vocabulary and expressions, the ones they can hear Spanish speaking teenagers use on TikTok and live YouTube streams.
3. They’re Super Fun
My husband was telling me how his students cheered him up after he had smashed his cardboard mic at the end of his Spanish Rap song. They all had fun.
Element of fun is essential in teaching kids and not only. By creating positive associations and memories, your students’ Spanish will dramatically improve.
If you’re still not not convinced, have a look at this study on the effects of using rap music in ESL language learning classroom.
14 Clean Spanish Rap Songs For School
And here comes the list of easy raps for your students. Some of them are education-oriented, others are commercial rap songs that you can still safely play to kids.
1. Levántense (Get up), by Señor Ashby
Spanish Classroom Commands rap song has been created by Señor Ashby, a teacher that uses rap songs with frequency in his classes. On his website he has over 40 original Spanish songs that you can use with different topics.
Levántense is a great song to energize your classroom, introduce, review, and practice giving instructions. You could easily adapt the song yourself, or ask your students to practice all types of commands in Spanish in singular and plural forms.
2. ¿Dónde está?, by Sr. Soto
If you need to review giving and asking for directions, this is a good rap song to make your students excited about the topic. The video comes with Spanish and ENglish subtitles so it’s very easy to follow even for beginner students.
If you take a look at SingAndLearn-Spanish YouTube channel, you´ll find other Latin hip hop and rap songs on various topics.
3. Meses del Año, by Mr. Woodland
This is one of these easy raps for absolute beginners to practice months of the year.
The lyrics are quite simple, just the names of the months and the last line that states Estos son los doce meses del año (These are the twelve months of the year).
Mr. Woodland is also a teacher that applies rap rhythms to educate his students. If you look for some rap songs to teach Math, you can check his channel.
4. Spanish Animal Names, by Basho & Friends
I like Basho & Friends because even though their videos are education oriented and not commercial they’re on a very high level and recorded professionally. They have rap songs to teach vocabulary in different languages, and I use their Spanish rap songs quite often in my classes.
Spanish Animal Names obviously teaches animals in Spanish, but it also introduces simple verbs and basic sentences in the SImple Present tense. You’ll also get sounds animals make in Spanish.
5. Family Members, by Basho
If you need a rap song about family members, Basho & Friends will help you too.
The video they made here with a carousel of photos of family members is a great idea for the class project. Your students can see that it’s enough to know some words to create a rap song in Spanish!
6. Mi gente, by J. Balvin and WIlly WIlliams
Mi gente (My People) is a Spanish rap song for advanced beginners or intermediate learners.
It’s not difficult to understand and the grammar constructions are not complicated but it requires a wider range of vocabulary. It’s mainly in present simple tense, with some gerunds and a very few past simple verbs.
It’s catchy, and will make your students move.
7. Mi Nuevo Yo, by Natanael Cano
MI nuevo yo (My new me), by Natanael Cano is another rap song for intermediate, and older learners with easy vocabulary but deeper message, quite unexpected for this music genre.
It’s a good song to check if your students can use the subjunctive mood, as it’s smoothly used in some verses.
8. Gracias por No Ser Como el Resto, by Locus
Gracias por no ser como el resto (Thank you for not being like the others) is a rap song that can make your upper beginners or early intermediate students feel great about their spanish. It’s quite long and not so repetitive but with simple vocabulary and grammar structure.
If you use comprehensible input in your classes, you could easily introduce it to the A2 level.
9. ¿Cómo eres tú?, by Donaldson Nformi
Coming back to younger learners, and educational Spanish rap songs ¿Cómo eres tú? is a great song to practice descriptive adjectives to talk abt physical characteristics and personality traits.
I couldn’t find the original author but it appears on many YouTube channels
10. El Rap del ABC
This is the song that made my husband’s students rap in the school hall. It was their second SPanish lesson in total and they were over the moon to be able to sing in SPanish!
It just practices the Spanish letters but it will save you lots of time, you’d normally spend teaching this to young learners.
11. Teach me Spanish Rap, by PJ Panda
Teach me Spanish Rap by PJ Panda is a great rap song to play on your first lesson with English-speaking young students. They will be able to learn a few phrases in SPanish just through listening to this 3-minute long Rap song. AMazing, isn’t it?
And what’s more important, they will fall in love with Spanish from day 1!
12. Lo que Debo hacer, by Elena de Avalor
This song caught my attention while listening to my daughters watch cartoons.
My girls love Elena de Avalor available on DIsney+ and watch it in all the languages they know. This is an amazing cartoon to show to your students to teach them not only Spanish language but also Latin American culture and traditions.
This song is a rap battle between Elena and her cousin Esteban. It’s good to practice future tenses and the deber hacer expression. And it’s lots of fun, too! You could also look for an English version (The Right Thing to Do) and compare it with the Spanish one.
13. El Rap que TODO NIÑO debe Escuchar, Incluído Tú, by Emprende Rapeando
I left at the end two Spanish rap songs that apart from teaching Spanish teach some other important lessons.
You can use El Rap que TODO NIÑO debe Escuchar, Incluído Tú (The Rap that EVERY CHILD should listen to, including you) to practice the use of the modal verb poder (can, to be able to) but the video has a greater message. The objective is to make kids realize that they have power to reach their dreams and achieve their goals no matter the obstacles.
14. Las Lecciones de las Películas de Disney en un RAP, by Emprende Rapeando
This is another video by Emprende Rapeando with beautiful messages.
This time it focuses on all the important messages Disney characters try to transmit. So if you want to see the Lion King, Pinocchio and others to sing rap songs in Spanish, check it out.
It’s not easy, so I would rather use it with intermediate students.
Create Your Own Rap Song in Spanish
If you haven’t found your favorite Spanish rap song, you can try to create your own one together with your students. You might be surprised by their creativity!
You can also try to surprise your students and write your own song to practice vocabulary or grammar structures you’re currently working on. Maybe you will be surprised by your new talent!
Your Own Spanish Rap Song
I included a wide variety of songs to convey how Spanish rap works. To test your skills, try to write a rap song with your kids. (Check out these beats on YouTube.) And don’t forget to add any new words to your Spanish vocabulary list. This way you can use these words for many different activities.
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