El Monstruo / The Monster (A Bilingual Short Story in Spanish & English)
- Grades
- Preschool–Pre-K, Grades 1–4, Elementary
- File type
- Preparation
- Print ready
- Subject
- Foreign Languages, Spanish
- Topic
- Mi Camino Spanish, Spanish
- Preparation
- Print ready
About this resource
What's inside this resource
Enjoy this short story with your students about a little monster who only wanted a friend. This story is written in both Spanish and English and tells the story of a little monster who didn't quite fit in until one day, he finds a friend.
El Monstruo
Había un vez un monstruo que no era como los demás.
Tenía una cara redonda y una sonrisa un poco graciosa.
Tenía brazos cortos y piernas largas, ojos pequeños y una nariz grandota.
A veces se sentía tímido, a veces se sentía cómico.
A veces decía tonterías, a veces era muy lógico.
No tenía amigos y no sabía por qué.
Siempre era muy simpático. No era muy dramático.
Cuando hablaba con los otros monstruos, se reían mucho de él.
Se sentía como si fuera de otro planeta, y se sentía muy solo y triste.
Un día le acercó otro monstruo.
Era muy bonita con ojos grandotes y una nariz pequeña y perfecta.
Ella le dijo, “Hola, ¿puedo sentarme contigo?”
El monstruo exclamó, “¡Claro que sí!” y empezaron a hablar.
Tenían mucho en común. A los dos les gustaba dibujar, leer, y patinar.
Les gustaba la misma música y empezaron a hablar, y hablar, y hablar.
Ya no se sentía solo, ya no se sentía triste.
Tenía una amiga, y una amiga es solo lo que quería.
The Monster
Once upon a time there was a monster who wasn’t like the rest.
He had a round face and a silly little smile.
He had short arms and long legs, small eyes and a huge nose.
Sometimes he felt shy, sometimes he felt funny.
Sometimes he said silly things, sometimes he was very logical.
He didn’t have any friends and he didn’t know why.
He was always very nice. He wasn’t very dramatic.
When he talked with the other monsters, they laughed at him.
He felt like he was from another planet and felt very lonely and sad.
One day another monster approached him.
She was very pretty with huge eyes and a small and perfect nose.
She said to him, “Hi, can I sit with you?”
The monster exclaimed, “Of course!” And they began to talk.
They had a lot in common. They both liked to draw, to read, and to skate.
They liked the same music and began to talk, and talk, and talk.
He no longer felt alone, he no longer felt sad.
He had a friend, and a friend was all he ever wanted.
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In the classroom
Teaching tips & learning objectives
Learning objectives
Read and understand a short narrative in beginner-level Spanish.
Use the matching English retelling to confirm the meaning of the Spanish text scene by scene.
Identify Spanish emotion and description words such as timido, comico, solo, and triste.
Recognise Spanish-English cognates like logico, dramatico, perfecta, and musica.
Teaching tips
Read the Spanish half first and let students predict meaning before checking themselves against the English retelling in the second half.
Build a two-column cognate chart from the story (logico/logical, dramatico/dramatic, musica/music) as students spot the pairs.
Use the friendship storyline - a monster who is laughed at and then finds a friend who shares his interests - as a discussion starter about belonging and kindness.
Have students act out the meeting scene's dialogue ('Hola, puedo sentarme contigo?') in pairs to practise spoken Spanish.
Skills covered
Spanish reading comprehension - students follow a six-page narrative about a monster who feels different and finds a friend.
Cross-language transfer - students compare the Spanish text with its line-by-line English retelling to confirm meaning.
Emotion and description vocabulary - the story repeatedly names how the monster looks and feels (timido, comico, solo, triste, simpatico).
Reading dialogue - the meeting scene carries spoken exchanges in quotation marks in both languages.
Good to know
Questions teachers ask about this resource
Do the Spanish and English halves tell the same story?
Yes - the English section, The Monster, retells the Spanish El Monstruo scene by scene, with each page matching its Spanish counterpart, so learners can check their understanding against the retelling.
Which Spanish words will English readers recognise on sight?
The story leans on friendly cognates - logico, dramatico, perfecta, musica, planeta - alongside high-frequency description words, which gives beginners footholds in the Spanish text.
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Resource details
Concepts & topics
Core concepts
Core concepts
Bilingual storytelling
Spanish vocabulary
Cognates
Friendship and belonging
Topics
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