Bananagrams, Dígame, and More

{Affiliate links used.}

I love adding games into my language teaching. Games break up the monotony and give students an alternate way to learn. Over the past few weeks, I have been buying some new games to add some spice to my lessons. Here's a quick look at the ones I am using...

I am looking forward to using Spanish Bananagrams  with my students today. I bought it because I read about it at Spanish Playground. {I LOVE her teaching tips and ideas!} I am not going to re-invent the wheel in trying to figure out how to use this with my students when she has written this stellar post with ideas on how to incorporate it into your lessons. You just have to check out this post! You can find it here.

For about two weeks now some of my students and I have been playing KLOO. {Here is my post about these games.} I am loving how these teach kids vocabulary as they play. Students don't need to have an extensive background in the language to enjoy this game. They need to be able to read well in English and sound out the Spanish words. I actually played this game yesterday with two girls who have only been studying Spanish for a couple of months! There are two different sets you can buy (each set has two decks).

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}

Finally, I have one more game waiting in the wings to figure out. I hope to "test drive" it with my husband and son (both speak some Spanish) this weekend. It is called ¡Dígame! . It looks like a lot of fun, and I love the idea that it is all done in Spanish! Here is a video about it. I will post more about it as I get more experience with how the game works.

Have fun playing and learning!

KLOO {Great Language Learning Game}

{Affiliate links used.}

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!!

Harold and the Purple Crayon Activity in Spanish

{Affiliate links used.}

I love children's literature, and many of my students love to draw. There are several books out there that lend themselves well to drawing the scenes from the story after you read it to your students. I especially like the books in which I can incorporate prepositions for my students to review. Here is an example from the book, Si Quieres Ver una Ballena.

Harold y el Lapiz Color Morado  is another great book to use if you want your kids to practice or review prepositions. Basically, I read the book to them and then have them get a blank sheet of paper which we fold in half three times. This gives you eight "boxes". In each of the boxes, your kids will draw a sketch of what you say to them in Spanish. Here are some of the sentences I have my students draw, but you could definitely do your own based on the book.

La luna está sobre el camino.

Hay manzanas arriba en el árbol.

Hay un dragón debajo del árbol.

Harold está debajo del agua.

El alce está cerca de los pasteles.

El puercoespín está lejos de Harold.

Harold está encima de la montaña.

Hay una cesta debajo del globo.

El globo está enfrente de la casa.

La luna está afuera.

La ventana está alrededor de la luna.

La manta está encima de Harold.

El lápiz morado está en el suelo.

Have fun drawing with prepositions!

And by the way, if you have any great book recommendations for doing this type of activity I would love for you to leave them in the comments!