Olas y holas

At the beginning of each class, we do a greeting activity- this not only establishes a routine the kids can expect, but provides an opportunity for them to practice simple interpersonal vocabulary and skills. Here is a simple one which plays on the homonyms, ola and hola.

The entire group recites the following:
Olas que vienen,
Olas que van,
Hola __________,
¿cómo te va?

The name of a student is put in the blank- you can choose which child will be next in a wide variety of ways:
-the child currently being greeted rolls a ball to another child, who will get the next turn
-using popsicle sticks with all of the students' names on them, the teacher randomly chooses a popsicle stick and calls out the name
-children are greeted in the order in which they are sitting- this works best when they are sitting in a circle

The child who is being greeted then answers the question- ¡Bien! works perfectly even for the littlest of students.

Next student is selected and the greeting is repeated and so on until all students have been greeted.

*It is really cute to have the students make wave motions as the poem is recited.

Un momento chistoso

One of my second graders said today, "I don't get how we understand you, but we do!"
Too cute!

Memorama

I just loved playing memory when I was a kid. Playing it in the foreign language class has loads of possibilities- from the simple -matching two of the same pictures- to the more challenging- matching a picture with a word, or matching two parts of a sentence. As children have more experience with the language, you could have them match pronouns with appropriate verb conjugations (yo + hablo) or matching gender (la + flor).

When I play with my kiddos, I give it a twist. Using a pocket chart, I have taped the numbers 1-20 on the chart, spacing them so the cards can go between the numbers. The playing cards (I make them using clip art from google image search or flashcards) go into the strips of the pocket chart. To play, one kid has to say a number out loud (in Spanish, of course) in order to have me turn the card over. A second kiddo says a second number, upon which I turn that card over. If they are a match, yippee! (or yupiiiii, as the case may be) If not, I flip them over and two new kids get a turn and so on. At the end of the game (usually I allot a specific amount of time to play), we count the number of pairs and say each pair outloud. This way of playing is a great way to get two for the price of one- practicing numbers while at the same time practicing target vocabulary on the memory cards themselves. ¡Disfrutelo!

¡Bienvenidos a todos!

This is Pepita. She is beloved by my students- she is part of our class each and every day.

As a Spanish teacher, I am constantly looking for new ideas to use in my classroom. I have been teaching Spanish for 10 years to K-2 (14 years in total, but I started in ESL), and though one would think I have discovered all there was to do in class, new ideas keep coming. Sharing ideas with others is, in my opinion, part of being a professional. For the last several years I have been presenting workshops on teaching Spanish at the elementary level. This blog will attempt to continue that work-to share ideas, games, activities, pedogogical information, etc that are successful and allow our students to grow in their ability to learn and use Spanish.