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!
Have you always wanted to have a website for your class? Here is a quick and beautiful way to have one! First, make sure you have a Canva account which is free for educators! You just need to use your school email to open the account.
Follow these steps :
Open Canva.
Click on “Create a design” and search for “website”.
Title your website.
Choose a template or customize your own by searching on images in the “elements” section.
Add the titles you want. Choose your colors, fonts, and images.
Always click on the plus symbol to add more pages or the three dots to duplicate a page.
Once you have all your pages, have fun adding content to them! Add pictures and link them to videos on YouTube, websites or other platforms.
Get ready to publish your website. Choose “Classic Navigation” for a better look. Click on “Open Website”.
Share the link with your students’ families!
You can also resize your website to use on different devices. Let me know when you create your own website!
Knowing how to pronounce your students’ names correctly is one of the most valuable things to start connecting with your students from day 1. Below you will find some tips that might help:
Get Ready in Advance
Take a look at your class lists. Don’t assume that you already know how to pronounce your students’ names.
Investigate prior to your class the name each student goes by or their preferred name.
On The First Day in Class
Ask each student to say their name. Repeat their name back by saying “Hola, (insert student’s name). ¡Mucho gusto!”
Let your students know that is ok for them to correct you if you mispronounce their names.
You might want to make a video of your students saying their names, recording their voice on a device, or ask them to use platforms such as Seesaw for them to record themselves saying their names. Use the recordings or videos to practice your students’ names.
Decorating Nameplates
This will require a little preparation on your part.
Look for bubble fonts in places such as Teachers Pay Teachers. You can find free and paid fonts there. Just make sure to read the clipart artists’ terms of use to know if they can be used in your classroom. Many of them allow them for free when using personal resources.
Once you know your student’s preferred name, create a document where you type your student’s name in a rectangle not bigger than 2 inches wide.
Cut each nameplate out.
Give your students time in class to decorate their nameplates.
Keep the nameplates in your classroom. You can use them for grouping activities, keeping track of turns, for other name activities, and so on!
This actually works better than the numbered sticks and students love seeing you use something that they worked on!
We will always remember this past school year for all the difficulty it was! One of the things that I really learned was to be flexible and to let go. It was a tiring school year and I really needed to take a break from many things. As a result I actually haven’t added any new posts to this blog since April. But I love to blog as a way of publicly reflecting on my teaching, and I really enjoy sharing about what happens in my classroom. However, like many of you, I was too exhausted to even open my blog to add one more post.
I’m writing this post close to the new school year, and somehow I feel a lot of excitement to go back to school because I’m going back to a school I have in my heart and really love. But I also have mixed feelings because we don’t really know how everything will run until we are all together in school.
One thing that I learned through this pandemic, and I can’t believe it took experiencing something like this to learn (!), is to take “un día a la vez.” I decided to make it my motto because taking one day at a time for me means being flexible, having the ability to let go, and being reflective! Say no more, I will start the school year with this mindset!
Tingo Tango is one of those games that brings back memories of growing up in Colombia. This game is traditionally played in a circle passing a small object. I have played this game before, and my students were really asking to play – and I finally figured out how to adapt it to our current situation. Read my previous post here.
This version works well for both in-person and virtual classes.
How to play:
1️⃣ Use the website Wheel of Names, and add the names of the students participating. This will generate a wheel spinner to pick a random person.
2️⃣ Create a list of “penitencias” (translated for this game as tasks) for your students to act out if they get chosen. Swipe to see a sample.
3️⃣ Chant together “Tingo, Tingo, Tingo …” and “Tango” when the wheel is about to stop. The person who gets chosen by the wheel will have to complete a penitencia from the list.
4️⃣ Continue playing the game and having fun! Visit my Instagram post to see the game in action!
