Dice Sentences {Free Printables}

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Want a quick and easy way to do some review in groups with verbs and the formation of sentences? All you need are these printables {see below} and some colored dice {These work well.}. Basically, students roll four dice at a time (red, green, blue, and orange) and depending on what numbers they get on each colored die they create sentences.  Here's an example:

Let's pretend that a student rolls the following: red 2, green 3, blue 4, and orange 6. The sentence he or she creates would be "Tú estudias español todos los días en la biblioteca." These sentences can be done in groups out loud as a class starter. They can also be written by students. Small groups of students (3 to 5) tend to work well for this activity. 

I have created four printables: 

Basic verbs (present tense)

Shoe verbs (present tense)

Verbs with "GO" in the Yo form (present tense)

Irregular Preterite verbs

You will notice with some of the charts the students create a sentence that conveys four pieces of information: who, what happens, when, where. Other charts have three pieces of information and then the type of sentence they are to create (affirmative, negative, interrogative). This adds another level to just straight sentences and makes them think about how to form different types of sentences.

So pull out some colored dice and get your students forming sentences!

How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth {Book Activities for Spanish Learners}

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There are just some children's books I read that are so endearing that I immediately have to share them with my students. Como Lavar a un Mamut Lanudo is one of those books, because don't we all need to know how to wash our woolly mammoths?! This precious book takes you step-by-step through the process. Fill a bathtub. Add bubbles. Add a mammoth. You get the picture. So here are a few activities you can do with your young Spanish students after reading this book...

Younger students can count the steps (There are ten of them.) mentioned in the adventure of mammoth washing. You can also have them count in Spanish the useful items (that can clean your mammoth) on the back cover. Another idea would be to count how many times the "pato" shows up in the story or count the leaves in the illustration of the messy mammoth at the beginning of the story. Here is a coloring page to go along with the book in which your students can count the bubbles.

With the story you can do a  review of body parts and the learning of a few new ones your students may not know like tusks, hooves, and wool. Teach and review the words and then call them out to see if they can find the parts one one of the pictures of the mammoth.

There are a ton of actions words in the story...have your students get out a piece of paper (after you have read the book to them) and call out one of the steps in cleaning a mammoth. Can they draw the steps that you call out? Along the same lines, can you call out two or three of the steps in Spanish and have your students tell you if they are in the correct order or not. The steps could also be written out on cards to see if your students who are reading Spanish can put them in order.

This book lends itself well to doing some bubble painting! Here are some simple instructions for this cool art activity. After the painting are done and dried, you can talk in Spanish about the bubbles represented in the art and work on noun/adjective agreement...

Burbujas moradas, burbuja grande, burbuja chiquita, burbujas verdes, etc.

Have fun learning all about giving woolly mammoths baths!

Teaching Words with Multiple Meanings

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As students of a language get more experience with its vocabulary, they can then branch out into learning multiple meanings of words. Homographs are words that are spelled the same way but have more than one meaning. For example, "perezoso" means "lazy", but it is also the word for "sloth". "Sierra" is both a mountain range and a saw. This fall I will be doing the following activities with my high school students to increase their vocabulary. Below you will several free printables I have created: flashcards that can be used in games and several worksheets. Many of these activities can be used with younger students as well.

I created these flashcards so that I could teach my students the words and double meanings. These cards could also be used to play Memory or Go Fish. I am also planning on using them for what I call the "Slapping Game" (more on that later in the post).

Set 1
Set 2
Set 3
Set 4
Set 5
Set 6
Set 7
Set 8
Set 9
Set 10

Here are three worksheets you can use. The first one is just fill in the blank. The other two are definitions in Spanish where the student has to provide the word for.

Worksheet 1
Worksheet 2
Worksheet 3

With the definitions I plan on playing the "Slapping Game" with my students. You need a set of cards for each group of students (Groups of five work well.). Have the students lay out the cards in front of them. You call out a definition for one of the cards (You can use the definitions in the worksheets). The first student to put their hand on the correct card gets to keep the card. The object of the game is to get more cards than your opponents.

Silly Sentences in Spanish

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I love using flashcards to help kids review vocabulary, but let's face it, review with flashcards is rather boring. So when I can, I use flashcards as a basis for creating crazy sentences. Most of my flashcards are stored in categories. For example, all modes of transportation are together or all items in a house are in another pile. {NOTE: I make flashcards with the pictures from these books: Basic Vocabulary Builder and Practical Vocabulary Builder.}

I pick about three categories of vocabulary cards and lay the piles face down. For example, I could use professions, places in a city, and modes of transportation. A student picks up the top card of each pile and then says a sentence based on the three pictures. For example...

El mecánico va al cine en la moto.

The next student then turns over the next set of cards to create a new sentence. Many of the sentences will be "crazy"...like "The doctors go to the supermarket in a helicopter."

There are tons of card combinations you can use to create sentences. Here are just a few ideas with the cards you would use and an example sentence:

• Subject pronouns~Verb~Place  {Yo bailo en el banco.}
• Family Members~Food~Colors {La hermana come las fresas verdes.}
• Household Items~Rooms in a House {La cama está en la sala.}
• Clothing~Colors~Seasons  {Uso la camisa blanca en el verano.}
• Animals~Preposition~Items in a House {El mono está a la derecha de la mesa.}

Don't want to make your own cards? Here are cards that would go well with this activity...


Photo Cards {Already separated into 16 categories}

Photo action cards











Noun Cards {Things Around the Home}

KLOO {Great Language Learning Game}

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Games are so vital to my language teaching. Through them, students can learn vocabulary and grammar in a less tedious way. A few weeks ago, one of my parents mentioned the game KLOO to me. I immediately went and ordered it and fell in love with it! 

The game requires that you can read in English and then have a basic knowledge of the sound system of the language you are learning. I would say that it is appropriate for late elementary kids all the way to adults. The players DO NOT need to know all the vocabulary to play. Actually, the point of the game is to play and learn the vocabulary as you go. 

The game involves sentence building, but your students don't need to know necessarily how to build a sentence in the language as the arrows on the cards indicate what type of word comes next. Points are earned by creating longer sentences and translating the words. After my students create a sentence, I do make them say the sentence in the target language before translating it. That way I can check their pronunciation. Because the cards are color-coded you can actually use them to talk about the parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective).

The game comes in Spanish, French, or Italian, and the vocabulary is based on vocabulary from Spain, France, and Italy. I have never been to Spain; I speak Argentine Spanish, but that in no way lessened the value of the game. There were a few words I didn't know. I would say it is just another opportunity to talk to your students about dialectical and vocabulary differences between countries.

Here is the KLOO game site with videos that explain how the game is played. {I believe there are several ways to play.} The original version, "Classic KLOO" is super-easy to learn in a few minutes. Here is a look at all the versions that are available:

Spanish

KLOO's Learn to Speak Spanish Language Card Games Pack 1 (Decks 1 & 2) {Food and Clothing}

KLOO's Learn to Speak Spanish Language Card Games Pack 2 (Decks 3 & 4) {Everyday Objects and Places}

KLOO's Learn to Speak Spanish Language Board Game - Race to Madrid {The board game version with all four decks}

French
KLOO's Learn to Speak French Language Card Games Pack 1 (Decks 1 & 2) {People and Food}

KLOO's Learn to Speak French Language Card Games Pack 2 (Decks 3 & 4) {Places and Everyday Objects}

KLOO's Learn to Speak French Language Board Game - Race to Paris {Board game with four decks of cards}

Italian

KLOO's Learn to Speak Italian Language Card Games Pack 1 (Decks 1 & 2) {People and Food}

KLOO's Learn to Speak Italian Language Card Games Pack 2 (Decks 3 & 4) {People and Eating/Drinking}

Happy Sentence Building!!

Story Cubes {Fluency in Second Language Writing}

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Yesterday I had a post about using Rory's Action Story Cubes  to practice with verbs in your language classroom. {See the post here.} Today I am going to show you a simple way to get your students writing creatively with these cubes. 

First of all, you will need this printable, Story Cube Writing. It is for Spanish students, but you could make a different one in you teach another language. Basically, I give a space for students to list the pictures they rolled on the dice. They are separated into categories: nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Then there is space for them to write a story.

Then you will need at least two sets of these cubes. One of the sets needs to be the Action One and then you can pick any of the others which contain mostly nouns and some adjectives.

There are several sets of Rory's Story Cubes, here's a list of all of them that you can choose from...

Rory's Story Cubes-The original set
Rory's Story Cubes Actions-The "verb" set
Rory's Story Cubes - Voyages- These are awesome! Pictures of a camera, cave, circus tent, mountains, and so much more!
Rory's Story Cubes Mix- Enchanted, Prehistoria, Clues-Pictures related to fairy tales, dinosaurs, and crime investigation.
Rory's Story Cubes - Original, Actions, Voyages, Prehistoria, Enchanted, Clues (Set of 6)- This includes all the sets!

Give your students the dice and have them roll all of them at once {the two sets}. Have them list on the printable in the target language at least five nouns and five verbs. Since there are not many adjectives tell them if they get one or two that will be fine. Their job then is to come up with a story using all the words they listed. NOTE: If you are doing this with a large group of students, break them down into groups. Have someone in the group roll all the dice once and then each student in the group writes down the words they want on their own paper from that one roll of the dice. This negates each student having to roll which takes time.

You should be able to read some pretty creative stories! I know I have!

Join me at 31 Days of Teaching Tips for Language Learning.

Story Cubes for Verb Conjugations

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Anytime as a teacher you can give your students another fun way to practice what they are learning you have succeeded! I am constantly looking for other ways to help my students practice Spanish in unique ways. Verbs tend to be one of the hardest concepts to master in Spanish because there are so many forms. So I was delighted one day as I walked down the aisle of a local store to find Action Story Cubes! There are nine dice in the set each with a small picture of an action on each side so that's 54 different verbs! Here are some ways they can be used when teaching another language...

-Create cards that have the subject pronouns on them {I, you, he, she, etc.}. Place them face down on the table. Then have your students roll the dice {They can roll one or all of them.} and pick up one subject pronoun card. They then pick a verb {if they rolled more than one die} and conjugate that verb according to the subject pronoun card.

-For more advanced students, add another set of cards with the names of the tenses on them {present, past, future, conditional, etc.}. Now the students must conjugate verb according to the subject and the tense on the cards.

-For beginners, have the student roll all the dice and see how many actions they can name.

-Roll the action dice along with other Story Cubes. Have them create sentences using at least one action and one other cube. NOTE: Each set of cubes is in a different color which makes it easier to separate out the sets later and for your students to see which are the action cubes and which are the regular ones. 

All of the above activities can be used with small groups. If you teach a larger number of students you can break them down into groups of four or five. Because monitoring what students are doing in several groups is hard, I would sometimes have them write down their answers from what they did. Later you can go back and briefly check their papers to see if they were understanding. Writing what they came up with is particularly great if they are creating sentences. 

There are several sets of Rory's Story Cubes, here's a list of all of them that you can choose from...

Rory's Story Cubes-The original set
Rory's Story Cubes Actions
Rory's Story Cubes - Voyages- These are awesome! Pictures of a camera, cave, circus tent, mountains, and so much more!
Rory's Story Cubes Mix- Enchanted, Prehistoria, Clues-Pictures related to fairy tales, dinosaurs, and crime investigation.
Rory's Story Cubes - Original, Actions, Voyages, Prehistoria, Enchanted, Clues (Set of 6)- This includes all the sets!

Come back tomorrow and read about how I use these cubes to encourage my students to write in the target language. There will also be a free printable!!

Here are some more ideas for your classroom...

Ocean Unit Study in Spanish

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This coming spring I will be teaching an ocean unit to some of my Spanish students {ages 4-12}. Here's a look at the materials I have prepared and the resources I will be using...

I LOVE reading children's books to my younger kids. Here are some options:

Cómo atrapar una estrella - A boy tries to catch a star, but in the end finds that a starfish is his friend.

Perdido y encontrado  - A boy tries to help a penguin find his home.

Una Isla Bajo el Sol - This is a sweet story of a boy visiting an island. The language is simple and repetitive. As of this posting it is out of print and is expensive. You might want to see if the local library has it. The price may change if they print it again.

Un Día Una Señora Se Tragó Una Caracola - Modeled after "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", this book has a fun ending!

Océanos: Mundos submarinos - For older kids with more language experience. This is more of a science book about the oceans.

Estela, la estrella del mar - I have been loving the Estela books in Spanish lately! Estela has such cute conversations with her little brother, Samuel. This one is all about the sea.

Si quieres ver una ballena - If you want to see a whale there are certain things you must do. I have paired this book with a drawing and listening activity that you can read about here.

Another item that I picked up for this unit is a game,Spot it! Splash Card Game . My students love Spot It! games because they are fun and competitive. I love them because when you use them in another language vocabulary learning happens fast!  Here is how I use Spot it! in my lessons.

To teach the different sea life animals (see the vocabulary list below) I will be using these cards from Teachers pay Teachers. If you make two sets of cards you can play memory and Go Fish with them.

Sea life Cards

For my younger students I will be using two games from Mrs. Home Economist...the Build-a-Crab game (a good way to review body parts in Spanish) and the Ocean Animal Race. You can find both of them here. Also, for students that are just starting to write I am going to use Peces Plurales to have them practice how to make words plural in Spanish.

For older kids you can have them create "Sea Life Riddles" in Spanish. Have them write a description of an animal that lives in the ocean in Spanish. See if your other students can guess which animal the description is about. I also have my more advanced student either write or describe an ocean scene like this one.

Here are some other activities that can be done in Spanish...

Ocean I Spy- A great way to review animal names

Pearls in a Seashell- Counting review for younger kids

Flota y Hunde - Do an experiment on items that float and sink

Ocean Zones- Great activity for slightly older kids. Here's more information on ocean zones in Spanish.

And finally, here is an activity to review the names of the oceans in Spanish along with the continents so that you can teach a bit of geography.

And my list of vocabulary for the students and parents...

Los Océanos Vocabulary

I am looking forward to all these fun activities and learning possibilities with my students soon! If you have any more ideas that I could incorporate please don't hesitate to share.