Xtine says:
“Hi all! My district is moving more towards a centers based learning and I was wondering if you have any suggestions for centers for K-2 Spanish? We are currently working on numbers 1-10 and wanted to see if I could somehow incorporate centers. I have no curriculum so I’m all on my own. I have 19 classes with the class size ranging from 8-22 students. Any advice or help would be great!”
Kelly: using color sticks at one table, numbers at another, vocabulary matching at another, copying printed words in Spanish (lots of web sites for this) just a few ideas off the top of my head
Joe: If you can get some internet-connected devices then one or two centers can provide online activities. tackk.com/colorsinspanish
Janet: Calico have some great ideas: Calico
Susan: I do centers every Friday. Some favorites are:
Candyland (say colors and count in Spanish)
UNO cards with toss across ( they earn a bean bag to throw for every color and number they can say correctly from the UNO CARD)
Puzzle: One center is a puzzle of the world to help them with geography.
I usually have groups of 5 students and rotate every 5 minutes. If one of the centers was a worksheet, I let them use the rest of class to work on it so they are calm by the time their teacher picks them up. Hope this helps!
Jessica: With 2nd graders I do a conversation center, a listening center, a game center, technology center (Spanish apps on tablet generally), independent work center & one with me. . I do centers with 1st grade too, though I don’t generally do conversation center with them. With kinder I do “actividades” = sort of center like with lots of games and puzzles. (example shape memory, number memory, body parts puzzle match up etc)
Diane: get some of the shape cutouts from dollar store and make matching cards. Pictures & words or just some in English and same ones in Spanish. We have table races where groups match up the pairs. Sometimes individuals match so I can assess. Other times kids play memory with the cards in small groups.
Amy: I got a number puzzle and labeled the numbers in Spanish so they can say the numbers as they take it apart. The puzzle also has a plus, minus, and equals sign, so they can use it to make math problems. I also got a fishing set with fish in different colors on one side, and numbers on the other. They can “fish” by number or by color. I also got a Zing-O game, several varieties of Bing-O games, and books they can read alone. I still don’t have much, but it’s a start!
I got some Legos and labeled them with days of the week. They have races to put the days of the week in order. A Twister game that I covered up the English with Spanish. I am currently trying to come up with some Go Fish games. I also have a “free draw” corner and some Sp-Eng dictionaries. They can put their name in a box for prize drawings if they do any writing in Spanish.
I also have a puzzle of South America, a dice game, and an emotions game. ha… I guess I have more than I realized. . It still doesn’t seem like a lot of variety, though. It’s almost all vocabulary-based except for the books.
Fun for Early and Elementary Spanish Teachers: Here is just one more idea: https://bit.ly/2hmWqk6
Soyla: Check out my Bilingual Pinterest boards for ideas: https://www.pinterest.com/castilloesc17/
Xtine: Thank you all for your help!!! I’m going to definitely incorporate some of your ideas!
