Using Board Games to Teach Spanish

Follow my blog with Bloglovin I have been teaching Spanish for a little more than twenty years, whether it be in the public school system, private tutoring, or small group classes.  Over the years, I have used a wide variety of games to teach the language.  Some of them were homemade and others were just regular games you could buy and convert to use for language learning.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Guess Who An excellent game in which you ask yes/no questions to find the right person. Great for reviewing physical description.

Guess Where  Similar to Guess Who.  This game would review places in the house.

Candy Land A game for preschoolers to review color words.  I have my students say the colors before they move to the space indicated.  You can also have them count in the target language the number of spaces they get to move.

Operation For reviewing body parts.

Spot It This game is BEYOND awesome!  Almost every student that plays it loves it.  The parents that watch their kids play the game with me realize that not only is this fun, but because of the way you play kids are highly motivated to learn the vocabulary.  What is cool is there are several versions of this game (Animals, One the Road, Alphabet, Numbers and Shapes, and Basic Spanish).  Here is a description of how to play the game:

Put your visual perception skills to the test with Spot It, a fun, fast-paced, and simple card game that everyone aged 7 years and up can enjoy. In a group of two to eight players, you'll draw cards and match symbols, like light bulbs, snowmen, or puppies, but with one catch--only one matching symbol exists between any two cards. The first person to spot the matching symbol and call it out wins. 

Secret Square Board Game Another yes/no question game.  This one can help review colors and other descriptive words.

Here is my post on the game, Elephant's Trunk, another game  reviewing clothes and colors.

I am sure there are more board games out there that have potential in a language classroom.  What have you used?  Would love to hear other ideas!