Are you ready for the summer version of the “A mí también” game? I have played this game with different age groups, and it’s always a success!
You will need to print the cards or project the slide on the board. I have blogged about this game before, but I can tell you quickly that anytime you show a card, read it aloud to your students or ask a volunteer to read it for you. Students who identify with that card can raise their hands or jump saying “A mí también”, then you stop and ask a few students questions about the card.
This game is quick but engaging! I have versions for different seasons and themes, but was missing the one for la primavera. The Spring here in Boston is at its fullest, so this a great time to make connections to bring to the classroom and why not take advantage of the better weather to take your students outside. Just print the pages or bring your computer outside to play the game. This game is played just like any “Would You Rather?” type of game, where you have a set of questions and students respond to choose what they prefer.
Click HERE to download the game and get ready to have fun!
Do you do any activities in your Elementary Spanish classes that incorporate phonological awareness? It’s definitely not a requirement to teach phonological awareness in an early language class but this one is hidden in a movement activity, so why not?!
El chicle mágico
I learned this magic gum game when I was a kindergarten teacher in Colombia and we could spend a lot of time playing it! I have been using it with my Spanish learners here and they seem to enjoy it.
To get ready for it, just print the template and put it together. Pretend to give your students the magic gum, tell them that it’s invisible. Pretend to eat it and then take it out and make a little ball. Choose a word. I like using my magic bag for this. I just put a few flashcards in it.
Once you have one word to play with, ask your students to use the gum and stretch it by syllables. For example, if the word has three syllables, they will stretch the gum three times. You can do it fast, slow, big and small!
This game is another fave in my classes. Quick to put together and great to review vocabulary while adding some movement. This game is known by different names, but I call it “Aguacate” in my classes.Use flashcards with different vocabulary you have explored with your students. For example, colors, numbers, seasons, animals, and so on!
Look for clipart of something that’s making movement. In this case, I chose a jumping avocado, and called the game “aguacate.”You can choose another clipart that works well for your classes and name it differently.I call this card the movement card. Print about 10 of them.
Mix all the vocabulary flashcards, and place the movement cards in the group of cards. They should be in different places in your group of cards.
Have your students say the name of every vocabulary card, and do the movement every time they see the movement card.
For example, if you follow this video it would be:Amarillo, azul, aguacate (jump), anaranjado, rojo, aguacate (jump) and so on!You can decide as a group how to end the game. Need the cards to download the game? Click HERE!!
This is a fun way to get students to retell stories. I learned this from some NNELL friends at a conference a few moons ago. They were using it to review vocabulary. This works great after telling stories. I have used it with my students and they love it!
You will need:
Masking tape or a marker to create your tic-tac-toe board.
Place pictures from your stories on the board.
Playing the game:
Divide the class into two teams
Take turns to retell the story using sentences or simple words.
Each team places a card on the board after saying a word or a sentence related to the story. Students can help each other!
The team to get three cards in a row wins the game.
If you are like me, and you enjoy incorporating the monarch butterfly in your classes, you will love this adaptation of the evolution game. I call it “El ciclo de la mariposa.”
Before playing this game, students need to understand how to play the rock, paper, scissors game in Spanish. I use a visual like the one below and play the game to make sure that students understand it and also to give them vocabulary in Spanish.
Once students know how to play the piedra, papel, tijeras game, I proceed to show the instructions to add the El ciclo de la mariposa game. I only use three stages of the life cycle, which are oruga, crisálida, and mariposa.
Playing the game:
1. Each student will find a classmate to play piedra, papel and tijeras.
2. Everyone starts out as an oruga, which is a kind of seated snuggle up.
3. After playing piedra, papel, tijeras, whoever wins will move to the next stage or one stage up, which in this case is crisálida. For this position, students put their arms up like making a house.
4. At this point, orugas can only play with orugas, and crisálidas can only play with crisálidas. Play piedra, papel, tijeras, and, once again, whoever wins will move one level up. If a crisálida loses, that student will go back to being an oruga. For the butterfly stage, students move around the room flapping their arms and pretending to be butterflies. Now, orugas play with orugas, crisálidas with crisálidas, and mariposas with mariposas. Whoever loses will always go back to being an oruga.
You can decide how long to play the game. Whoever gets to be a mariposa wins the game. (There can be multiple winners)
