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)
This game has been such a success in my classes that I have created versions for different seasons and times of the year. Students really enjoy talking about likes and dislikes while moving in class.
I have previously shared a winter version of this game and how to play it! Click here to learn more about this game.
This is a fun game to introduce the 21 Spanish-speaking countries. I call this game “paisanos”. In preparation for this game, you will need to make a list or print flags of the 21 Spanish countries.
How to Play the Game:
Distribute the cards depending on the number of students you have. For example, if you have 20 students, you will choose 10 countries (which equals 20 cards).
Each student gets a card. Students should keep their cards secret from their classmates. Have your students spread around the room. They will have to find the person who has the same country by asking “¿Eres de ______?”, the other person should answer by saying “No, no soy de ____.” The students then should move on until they find their partner. When they find their partner, they say “paisano/a/e” (which means someone from the same country).
Students who find their partners should sit and wait for everyone else to find theirs. Once everyone is done, put up a map of the world, and locate the countries that the students had on their cards.
Ready to play the game? Click on the picture to download it!
Don’t have time to read now? Click on the pic to save for later!
¡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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