distance learning | Fun for Spanish | Resources for Preschool and Elementary

9 JAMBOARD ACTIVITIES FOR THE ELEMENTARY WORLD LANGUAGE CLASS

by Carolina | Nov 20, 2020 | DIGITAL

If you are not using Jamboard yet, you are missing an amazing tool to create interactive activities. This tool has been a lifesaver with my online students. I really like that is simple to use and that everything gets saved onto your drive and the number of activities you can create are endless. This tool is not fancy which sometimes can make it limited. You only have one font that you can use and about six different colors which actually can save you time because there are not a lot of options. If you want more complex images and fonts you can create images on PowerPoint or Canva and then upload them to Jamboard. If you want to learn more about how to create activities on Jamboard, I highly recommend you stop by Profesora Delgadillo’s blog to find some awesome tutorials and more ideas.

How Have I Used Jamboard With My Students?

I have used Jamboard with my K-5 home learning students and I teach through Zoom. With my K-2 students I have created activities where they participate by telling me which pieces to move.

For my grade 3-5 students, I have made the activities more interactive. I share the link with them in the chat on Zoom. Make sure that when you share the link you are giving them editor privileges for the Jamboard. I have small groups so I am able to duplicate the slides on Jamboard and assign slides for them to work on, but if you prepare in advance you can make the slides you need and assign a number to each of your students.

Activities That Have Worked Well in My Classes

¿Qué es?: I use this activity with my kindergarten and first-grade students. I create different slides with different pictures, and they seem to have fun knowing what’s being discovered. They tell me the numbers that I should move, and then I start taking guesses anytime I move a number.

2. Relaciona la palabra: I share the link in the Zoom chat and give different students turns to match the word with the picture.

3. Rompecabezas: I have used this with grades 2 and up! With my grade 2 students, I give them control by using the remote tool on Zoom. This gives access to the control one student at a time. Click here to watch a quick tutorial to learn how to use remote access during live classes. With older students, I share the link on the chat. You can ask them a question related to something they are learning in your class and give them turns if they answer correctly or try. You can also make multiple copies of this slide. Assign a slide to each student in your class and have them put the puzzle together as a brain break. You can find different digital puzzles on Teachers Pay Teachers. Busy Bee Studios has great ones on TpT.

4. Crea una flor: You can use this slide to ask questions, and anytime students get the correct answer you move a part of the flower to put it together.

5. ¿Dónde está el perrito?: My kindergarten students really love this activity. I make different slides and hide pictures of animals or fruit, and they need to find it. They just say the number, and I move the tile with that number.

6. Lee y relaciona: This activity works great with students in grades 3 and up! You can prepare different slides, share the link, and give turns to different students.

7. ¿Cómo estás?: This is a simple activity to check on your students and talk about emotions. Students need to use the pencil tool to complete the face. They can also use the typing tool to write the word next to it.

8. ¿Qué hiciste durante las vacaciones?: This is by far one of the activities my 4th and 5th graders enjoy. We use the laser tool to circle and talk about what we did during the break and sometimes over the weekend.

9. Tic-Tac-Toe known as triqui in some parts of Colombia, it’s always fun to play it in class!

Overall I love using Jamboard. I wish they had more choices of fonts, colors for the pencil, and the ability to lock the images so students can’t move them around. Sometimes the images get moved by accident.

Are you ready to explore Jamboard with your classes? Click here to grab all the activities above!

Enjoy!

You might like these resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers:

TEMPLATES TO PLAY TIC-TAC-TOE

by Carolina | Sep 26, 2020 | DIGITAL

I recently shared on Instagram a template of a tic-tac-toe game I created to play during my virtual classes. I have gotten requests from different teachers who want this template and since I am all about saving teacher friends’ time, I decided to create more templates and share them here on my blog.

I have been seeing my students in small groups. In order to play the game virtually, I clicked on the “rename” part of Zoom and added either the letter “O” or “X” to divide them into teams. My students don’t have access to changing their names on Zoom because that’s how it was set up at the school where I teach, but if your students can do it themselves, that will save you some time. Since playing this game will require you to move the pieces, it can’t be played in presentation mode.

I used this game to ask questions about stories we have been reading in class. Once the students responded to the question, they could tell me a number for me to move the piece for them. It was simple, and the students seemed to have fun. I played this game remotely, but it can still be used in the classroom. Click HERE to download the slides to have fun in your classes! Once you click on the link, it will prompt you to make a copy of the document.

I also had fun learning the various names for this game in different Spanish speaking countries:

Triqui (Colombia)

Gato (México)

Vieja (Venezuela)

Tres en raya (España)

View this post on Instagram

What do you call this game? I know it as “triqui” (Colombia). I am going to try it with my second graders tomorrow. I haven’t played it virtually yet, but I plan to ask my students to write an “0” or an “X” next to their names. I see my students in groups of 8 to 10. I usually ask questions related to a story we have done in class. Sometimes I show pictures for them to retell a story before taking a turn on the “triqui” game. ¡Dedos cruzados que Google Drive no tenga problemas mañana! ?
A post shared by Fun For Spanish Teachers (@funforspanishteachers) on Sep 20, 2020 at 12:35pm PDT

Have fun playing triqui with your classes!

You may like these resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers:

A “TOUR” OF MY VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

by Carolina | Sep 7, 2020 | DISTANCE TEACHING

Every year I like to give a virtual tour of my classroom or bags if I am a traveling teacher. For obvious reasons, this year is different for all of us. Right now I teaching synchronous classes from my classroom, but once we go back to in person classes I no longer will have a classroom. Meanwhile I am enjoying teaching from room 60.

I decided to give you a tour of my space. I have been using my document camera for Story Listening and for read alouds. I also purchased a computer riser and it has been the best thing I could have done for my back.

I have been enjoying creating different welcoming messages on Google Slides, and my students seem to enjoy them. How is this school year looking for you? Are you teaching from your classroom, from home, traveling from room to room? Are you teaching synchronously or asynchronously?

Have a wonderful school year!

You might like these resources available on Teachers Pay Teachers:

SEESAW ACTIVITIES TO START THE SCHOOL YEAR OFF RIGHT!

by Carolina | Jun 30, 2020 | DIGITAL

Seesaw is one of the most valuable teaching tools I have used during Distance Teaching. I have been using it for over three years, but I’d always limited myself to asking students to retell stories or to send them messages with links they would need during class. I have also used Seesaw as a backup plan for third grade and up when I had a sub that didn’t know Spanish. Seesaw is a wonderful portfolio that allows students to see their progress. It has also been a tool that has replaced paper assessments (Yay for the trees!). So I realized that I really needed to learn more about Seesaw during Distance Teaching. I feel that I now have created a bank of resources that I can use as emergency lessons or reuse if we continue with online teaching.

If you want to learn more about Seesaw, they have been offering different types of professional development (PD) and also have a lot of information on their website.

These are two activities that I created during Distance Teaching. Feel free to copy them to your library and make the changes you need to make them work for your students. You will need to have access to a premium Seesaw account to make changes to it. If your school is using Seesaw, you likely already have access to it. If you or your school have a free account, you can assign it to your students as is.

The first activity is based on the story “La vaca que decía oink”*** by Bernard Most. I read this story to my kinder and first grade students and used this activity as a way to review key vocabulary.

This second activity is a retelling of the story “La gallinita roja”*** in a much simpler way. Just like the activity above, you can edit it to make it fit the needs of your students.

I hope you and your students enjoy these activities!

***Amazon affiliate links

You may like these resources available in Teachers Pay Teachers:

OFF-SCREEN ACTIVITIES FOR ELEMENTARY SPANISH

by Carolina | Jun 3, 2020 | ACTIVITIES

Zoom burnout is real! After I completed my 3rd week teaching online, one of the things that made me tired the most was the amount of time I was spending in front of a computer every day. Some of my students were not only attending our Zoom classes but also having to complete assignments afterwards. One of the things I appreciate is when my own kids get assignments from their teachers that invite them to be creative and away from the computer. With that in mind, I wanted to think of ideas children can do at home to a least get them to think in Spanish a bit.

Here are some off-screen activities you can recommend your students do at home. Click HERE to download them all:

Label the rooms in the house.
Classify objects by color
Group objects by number
Play a counting game in Spanish.
Play hopscotch naming things in Spanish. If there is not chalk available, make a small hopscotch on a piece of paper to play with your fingers. Time each person who plays it and see who can do it fastest.
Read a story to your pet or plush toy.
Put greetings on the door, just like many teachers do in their classrooms.
Play a memory game with animal flashcards.
Play a guessing game
Sing a favorite song in Spanish