This is one of my favorite stories, not because I wrote it, but because it brings back so many fond memories of growing up in a neighborhood in the south of Cali, Colombia. As I wrote Corre, Año Viejo, Corre, I could clearly picture all the children in my neighborhood gathering around the Año Viejo. I wanted to capture that rich cultural tradition in a short story, but with a touch of humor to make it fun for elementary students and something teachers can easily share in their world language classrooms.
The Año Viejo is a New Year’s Eve tradition celebrated in Colombia and other Latin American countries. This custom involves burning a life-sized doll, traditionally filled with fireworks, gunpowder, or straw. The Año Viejo symbolizes the end of a cycle, leaving behind the negative and setting new goals, almost like pressing a reset button. It can also be a way to express political opinions, depending on who the doll represents. There are also smaller versions of the “Año Viejo.” Burning the doll is a family tradition and a community event shared among neighbors, streets, or neighborhoods. Regardless of the doll’s size, this celebration is always accompanied by the song ¡El Año Nuevo!, blending joy with nostalgia. But most importantly, it symbolizes a new beginning.
The Story in the Book
As the year comes to a close, a grandmother decides to make an Año Viejo doll to say goodbye to the old year. She carefully crafts each detail, but suddenly, the doll comes to life and starts running! What will happen to Año Viejo? Can he escape?
Corre, Año Viejo, Corre isn’t just a playful story—it’s also a great way to teach kids about New Year’s celebrations in Latin America. Students will learn about the tradition of creating an Año Viejo figure, which symbolizes letting go of the past year. It’s a fun way to teach cultural traditions in Spanish class!
Where to Find Corre, Año Viejo, Corre
You can find Corre, Año Viejo, Corre on Amazon, CPLI Books, or in my online store as part of a special bundle. This bundle includes the story and an Año Viejo character, giving you everything you need to bring this engaging cultural tradition into your world language classroom. It combines a captivating story with hands-on activities and language practice, making it the perfect addition to your teaching resources.
What’s Included in the Corre, Año Viejo, Corre Bundle:
Reading Comprehension Activities: Check for understanding with fun questions and activities that help build reading skills.
Crafts and Extension Activities: Students can create their own Año Viejo puppets, write goodbye notes to the past year, and even design their own versions of the character.
Language Learning: Reinforce vocabulary with simple Spanish phrases related to New Year’s celebrations and cultural traditions.
This bundle is an excellent tool for teachers who want to make learning Spanish fun and meaningful, while also introducing important cultural lessons. Perfect for elementary school world language teachers looking for engaging, culturally rich content!
This is a fun game that is played in many Latin American countries. It’s simple, fun, and doesn’t require much preparation. There are different versions of this game. I am sharing with you the one I remember playing with my friends in a (then) small neighborhood outside of Cali, Colombia. You will need a minimum of six participants to play the game. Each team will have three participants. One person is placed in the middle in a squatting position, grasping their hands between their legs. The two other members of the team have to pretend to prepare el “sancocho,” which is a traditional soup in Latin America. They have to pretend they are adding the ingredients to the bowl while saying the lines below:
Para preparar el sancocho, pongo el pollo, pongo la yuca, pongo la papa, pongo la mazorca, lo pongo al fuego.
¡El sancocho ya está listo!
When everyone is done making the sancocho together, the game turns into a competition. You will need to set a finish line for everyone to get to. The team who makes it to the finish line first wins the game. You can continue playing until everyone gets tired of it. I recommend playing the game on a field with grass so nobody gets hurt.
This is a video of a Scout Troop playing a version of “las ollitas” game.
Variation: You can use visuals for the students to use while playing the game.
Over several years of teaching Spanish I have collected coins and bills from different Spanish speaking countries. Either someone brings them to me or I collect them during my own travel. I got to a point where I didn’t know what to do with them. It occurred to me that I could use them for a center in my class. I laminated all the bills for students to manipulate easily and placed them with the coins in a basket. I printed and laminated maps where all the Spanish speaking countries are listed.
This is now a center for early finishers or when I do a center-based class. My students really enjoy looking at the different bills and coins, comparing them to the United States bills, and locating the countries on the map. If you don’t have real bills, you can print a few from the internet and it will serve the same purpose.
This game has been motivating my second graders a lot lately. We did a unit on family members, we talked about the diversity in families, and they then described their own immediate families orally and in a small written project. I modified the well known game called “Who Stole the Cookie for the Cookie Jar?” to support this unit. Instead of a cookie, I printed a picture of an empanada. This added a small cultural twist to the game (and made me hungry for Colombian comfort food…).
I told my students the story of abuelita, whomade just one empanada and that someone in the family had eaten it without her permission. I added a detective to this version. I printed a picture of a detective and gave it to one student. I also gave printed pictures of different family members to the rest of my students. I got them from my “La Familia” set that I have in my TpT store. When you play it, you can also print pictures of family members from other sources.
I gave each student in the room one picture to represent a family member, and I made sure to include pets such as a cat and dog. Before playing the game, I made sure to go over the lines of the chant. We chanted every line and also helped the detective say his/her line.
How to play the game?
Once you have assigned the different pictures of family members to the students, choose one student to be the detective. The detective will have to leave the classroom. While the detective is outside the room, give a student with the picture of a family member the picture of the empanada. Everyone in the room has to pretend to have the empanada in their hands. The detective comes back to the classroom and will have three opportunities to guess who has the empanada. The class chants: ¿Quién se comió la empanada de mi abuela? (two times) The detective answers: ¿El papá se comió la empanada de la abuela? (two times) Usually the class helps the detective chant. Depending on who has the empanada the class will answer: “El papá no se comió la empanada de la abuela.” or “El papá sí se comió la empanada de la abuela.” Remember that the detective has three turns to guess. You can play this game for a long time in class and get everyone using some language skills that they’ve learned in your class.
Have fun playing the game!
WELCOME
¡Hola! I'm Carolina, a Colombian Spanish teacher with over 20 years of experience. I'm here to support you on your journey as a language educator!
