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Yes! The title sounds a little bit redundant, but we all have our own “ritualitos” (little rituals) that we do in every class.
I have been teaching for over 17 years now, and my experience is mostly in the United States as a Spanish teacher in a FLES (Foreign Language in Elementary School) program. Back when I was a PreK/First grade teacher in Colombia, I rarely felt that I was getting into a routine, which I equated with a rut or “getting bored” of doing the same things in class over and over. And while teaching in a world language program means you need to have a lot of repetition to help your students retain the language, this doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing every class!
When teaching in a world language program at the elementary level, we have to make sure we provide a sense of routine in the class to create a safe space for the children. I strongly believe in teaching in the target language as much as you can, which means having to use the language a lot and at the proficiency level of your students. This can sometimes limit the amount of activities you can do to vary your routine.
Here is a list of routines I do in my class. Please feel free to add more in the comments below! I would love to hear yours!
I always start my class with the “Plan de la clase” which tells my students what will be happening in class. I go over it with them and keep it very simple. This also can eliminate the stress in some of the anxious students who need to know what will be happening in class.
This is an example of how it might look depending on the grade level. The message below is for a second grade class, and I see them only twice a week for a 40-minute period each time. You can decide how to have the class read it. You can have one volunteer read the message or the whole class may read it together.
Plan de la clase
1. Saludos: ¡Hola! ¿Qué tal?
2. El calendario
3. Canción: La familia sapo
4. ¡Vamos a jugar!: Pasa la bola
5. Describe a tu familia: ¿Cómo es tu familia?
6. Tiquete de salida
Since greetings are a key aspect of world language classes, here are some ideas to greet your students:
1. Try to change the greetings. One day you can use ¿Como estás? and then the other day “¿Qué tal?”.
2. You can pass a ball to students in class and ask the question yourself.
You can give turns to the children to respond and then pass the ball to the next person, and the child who responded will take a turn asking.
3. You can divide the class in pairs where one student asks then the other responds and vice versa.
4. You can divide the class into teams, one side answers and the other responds.
5. You can use puppets and let your students improvise their greetings for the class.
6. Play music in the classroom, have your students dance to the music, stop the music and choose a volunteer to greet the class. For example, “clase, ¿cómo estás?”
7. Place a picture of a famous person or movie character with information about themselves (see picture below). You can read this information to your students, then give turns for them to introduce themselves to the character or famous person by sharing the same information. See more here!
8. Place a simple picture that your students will have to use to complete their face. They can take turns doing this. Download the picture here!
9. Start with a Zumba or dancing routine to get everyone into the Spanish mood.
10. Use “brain breaks” during the routine or any time you see your students need help focusing and tuning again into class.
11. Read the days of the week with a feeling for each day. Find the picture here!
12. Make your calendar interactive. If you have an interactive board or a projector, a computer connected to the internet, take advantage of it and add a cultural/geographic aspect comparing seasons, temperatures and weather to your calendar. My students always love guessing what the temperature could be like in Colombia or any other Spanish-speaking country.
To add a more adventurous part, take a trip to any of the Spanish-speaking countries using Google Earth! Also check out my “Facebook Corner” for more ideas on routines for Spanish class!
“Froggy se viste ” – written by Jonathan London – is one of my favorite books to use during the clothing unit. I mostly use it with first and second graders, but third graders enjoy it, too. The story is engaging to young learners and the pictures are vivid. The amount of repetition is key, and the vocabulary is presented in context, making it easier for children to decode the meaning of the sentences. I always use the cover of the book as a conversation starter in class. Here are some useful questions you could use to introduce the book.
¿Qué animal es Froggy? ¿Es un perro o un gato? ¿Es una vaca o una rana?
¿De qué color es Froggy? ¿Es de color negro? ¿Es de color morado? ¿Es de color verde?
Froggy es una rana. ¿Las ranas vuelan? ¿Las ranas saltan? ¿Las ranas vuelan o saltan?
¿Las ranas se visten? ¿Las ranas se visten con pantalones y chaquetas?
¿Cuál es la estación? ¿Es el invierno? ¿Es el verano?
I also ask questions while reading the story.
¿Qué canto Froggy? ¿¡Sol, sol!? ¿¡Nieve! ¡Nieve!?
¿Quién dijo “vuélvete a dormir, Froggy”? ¿La mamá de Froggy o el papá de Froggy?
¿Qué se puso Froggy? ( You can go over the vocabulary pointing at the pictures)
¿Quién llamó a Froggy?
¿Qué olvida ponerse Froggy esta vez?
¿Cómo se siente Froggy? ¿Triste? ¿Emocionado? ¿Cansado?
Froggy se regresó a su cama para terminar de dormir durante el invierno. ¿Cuál es la siguiente estación?
I found some cute props by Kiz Club, which are perfect to retell the story!
We also stretched the story a little further and a talked about the different seasons and clothes for different kinds of weather. To make it a little silly, I show pictures of different seasons and types of weather, and we pretend to be the mom calling him to dress according to the season. For example,
¡Frooooogy, hace calor, no necesitas tu chaqueta!
¡Frooooogy, está lloviendo, necesitas tu paraguas y tus botas para la lluvia!
¡Frooooogy, hace sol, necesitas tus lentes!
¡Frooooogy, es la primavera! ¿Qué te vas a poner?
And so on! I put together a set of props that are available in my TpT shop. The children really enjoy dressing Froggy, and I also incorporated this in our calendar routine in which we dress Froggy according to the weather for the day.
I already made it clear in my last post that you don’t have to wait until Friday to dance in class. It’s important to get your students moving to help them stay in tuned with you. The Zumba routines below are easy to follow and the songs are very catchy.
You no longer need to wait until Friday to dance in Spanish class! Get your students moving any day and at any time. Dancing in class is an awesome brain break and also an opportunity to share some culture through music. Download the PowerPoint below to choose what rhythm to dance to in class. Make sure to use the PowerPoint in presentation mode. Click on the word “girar” to let the drums roll!
I also added some of my favorite songs so you don’t have to go all the way to YouTube to play them in class. Freestyle dancing works great during this activity!
¡Hola! I am Carolina, a Colombian elementary Spanish teacher based in Boston, MA. Fun for Spanish Teachers is the result of my passion for teaching Spanish to children and my desire to inspire collaboration and creativity in a vibrant teaching and learning community. It’s the perfect stop if you are looking for songs, games, teaching tips, stories, and fun for your classes.
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