Community reviews for Oh Noah!

I have found Oh Noah to be a fun and enjoyable way for my students to practice the words they are learning in Spanish and build upon that knowledge. There are many different activities and games that address various learning styles and resources that I can use in the classroom. I have experienced some glitches occasionally, but overall I have been very pleased with Oh Noah. My students really enjoy the videos and look forward to the games and activities that follow.

Oh Noah is an entertaining way for kids to learn basic Spanish words. The videos keep the kids attention, and the games include fun things like racing for word retention. Certain things may take awhile to load, but one students are playing they don’t want to stop. Second graders enjoyed it thoroughly and It would be great for even younger. My 4th graders who have had Spanish classes before didn't enjoy it as much because it was too easy. Some of the games do let you choose a level of easy, hard or pro. The younger kids especially found it funny and were often laughing loudly with their headphones on. You can choose games, videos or games in videos. I like that the website shows “Noah” interacting with different things and in different situations and the way kids are learning Spanish is more lifelike than just memorizing terms. There are also a variety of teacher resources available.

Oh Noah! Is a web-based set of activities based on short webisodes, all designed to introduce children to Spanish words and some simple Spanish phrases. Noah is an English-speaking boy who visits his grandmother (abuela) in a town where everyone speaks Spanish. As Noah attempts to communicate, he finds himself in some silly situations, and in the process of straightening things out, learns new Spanish words. The words are introduced in categories relevant to Noah’s adventures (e.g., he learns the names of farm animals when he visits a farm and has an encounter with a bull). Interspersed throughout the webisodes are interactive games designed to reinforce the new vocabulary words. Users can also play additional games without watching the webisodes, watch the webisodes without it pausing for game play (if, for example, a teacher wanted to show the webisode to the whole class, this would be a good option), and print work sheets. The website is further supported by ready-made lesson plans for each webisode that include suggestions for hands-on classroom activities in addition to the web games. As usual, PBS Kids offers a well-thought out package of learning materials. The short webisodes are cute and will certainly capture children’s attention. The related games and activities are varied enough to keep children interested and they may even pick up some Spanish vocabulary in the process! Many, though not all, links on the site have a voiceover when the user rolls over them so early and pre-readers should be able to navigate relatively easily. This is not in any way a comprehensive language instruction program, but it is a cute and fun way to introduce children to new vocabulary. The words introduced span a wide range of important beginner categories (e.g., animals, colors, numbers, food, etc.) In particular, Oh Noah! can be an important and unique way to infuse larger reading, science, art and culture, math, or social skills lessons with a little something extra.

When PBS is involved, your have a quality product. Oh Noah is documented to be for students 6-8 years of age and makes plain the importance of teaching Spanish due to the changing demographics in our world. Many teachers would, in all probability, agree with this. Teacher cutbacks, especially in the Arts and the World Languages, make this website a strong contender for inclusion in classrooms with non-Spanish speaking teachers seeking to teach their students Spanish basics and also pick up some of the language themselves. The website includes highly animated and interactive videos that show the language in operation and invites children to join in the discovery. The games (primarily flash card matching) are perfect for young children - keeps them engaged in speaking Spanish along with their favorite characters. Activities include printouts that encourage students to color pictures of all the words they have learned. Overall, this website is a good teaching tool for the non-Spanish speaking teacher who will be teaching Spanish.

Oh Noah is a wonderful tool for any beginning language learner who is interested in learning Spanish. There are four tabs that a student / parent / teacher can click on: games, activities, videos, characters. Once I clicked on the games tab, there are six games to choose from. Each one has expertise levels within them. A couple of them took a little long to load but overall, each game was enjoyable, creative, and educational. The matching game and curtain call were particularly good games for any child. They were engaging, funny, and motivational. For the activities tab, you will need a printer attached to your computer. Print the activity sheet and have your child / student complete it. For the videos tab, each video is easy to load and has controls at the bottom for closed captioning or full screen. You can even e-mail the video to yourself or someone else to capture the essence of your lesson. For the characters tab, children can click on each character to find out more about them. This is effective because it entices children to learn more about each character and get involved in the story. There is also a parents / teachers tab which provides background for the specific adult.