Spanish Scavenger Hunt

{Affiliate Links Used}

I am currently setting up for my summer camps and was looking for some extra activities to do with my more advanced students that are reading. I found this set and decided to turn it into a scavenger hunt. It is used to teach young ones the alphabet, but I found that it was perfect to hide items (included in the set) for my students to find. 

In the set, there are 26 acorns (bellotas) and 26 little plastic items that can fit in the acorns. I set up the hunt to have the possibility of five teams (great for about 10-15 kids). If you have less than five teams that's ok. You can still set the game up and put all the acorns out even if they aren't going to all be picked up. It will add to the challenge. If you have around 20 kids then you will need two sets.

I have created a file with the scavenger hunt lists already set up. You can find them here. (Scavenger hunt document) You will see two versions of the scavenger hunt with five groups each. The first number refers to which version. The second number refers to the group. At the end of the file, there is the word, "Socorro" printed several times. I will hand out one of these to each team in case they need help with a word. They can hand the SOCORRO paper to me at any time during the hunt to get a definition.

Set up the acorns with the correct items according to the document. Hide them outdoors (or you could do this in a classroom if it's big enough). Give each team (groups of two or three students) one list of what they need to find and a SOCORRO paper. Tell them GO and see which team can find all their items first. 

Please note that there will be one extra acorn and item that won't be used. You can leave them out or you can tell your students that once they have collected their five items and have had them checked by the teacher that they then need to go find the last acorn (which I am going to leave empty-la bellota vacía).

Also, instruct students that if they open an acorn and it's not the one they need then they will need to make sure they put the item back in the acorn and close it tightly before putting it back in its hiding space.  Otherwise, it will be mayhem!😱

Here's the set you need: Acorn Scavenger Hunt Set

And here's the file to set it up and play: Two Versions of the Hunt

Have fun!

Las Banderas Volteadas (Flag Game)

{Affiliate links used.}

This summer I will be hosting a Spanish camp where we will focus a bit more on geography and the flags of the Spanish-speaking countries. I have been coming up with activities (games and crafts) to focus on the flags. (You can see more ideas here.)  I recently came across a game called Flipping Flags in which you flip over cards with three flags on them. Those playing keep turning over cards on the table until they see a match. As soon as they do, they call out the name of the country. It is fast-paced and looked fun. The only problem was that it contained all the flags from around the world. I only wanted to focus on the 21 Spanish-speaking countries. 

I had recently bought a thematic unit on Spanish-speaking countries from The Enlightened Elephant (You can see it here.). I printed out the flags at a reduced size. They needed to be small enough to fit three of them on one 4 inch by 3 inch card.  I printed out about 10 copies of each flag so that I could make a ton of cards. I then put three different flags on each card and then laminated them. You don't have to worry about which three to put on a card just make sure that they are different. I ended up with about 60 cards give or take which will allow me to split up the cards and have two games going with two different small groups (2-5 players would work).

Here's how you play:

• Give each player an equal amount of cards.
• Players don't look at the cards. Instead, they place the stack face down in front of them.
• One player announces "Volteemos" and everyone flips over a card from their stack.
• If there is a match, then the first player to call out the country with matching flags gets those two cards.
• If there is no match then leave the flipped cards on the table and keep playing by calling out "Volteemos" and flipping over cards until a match is seen. It can then be called out, but remember, the player can only pick up the two cards that he/she calls and that match. All the rest of the cards are left on the table. 
• You can set a timer and the player with the most cards at the end wins.

This is a great way to get kids looking at the flags which in turn will help them recognize the flags later on.  Have fun!

Flag Relay Game

{Affiliate links used.}

This summer will be the third year I have done Spanish camps. I am so looking forward to it! My more advanced students will be working with a bit more geography and with the flags of Spanish-speaking countries. I was trying to come up with ideas on to get them more familiar with the flags. We will paint some of the flags on rocks (see the end of this post for more information). We will also be making the flags out of Legos (See Mundo de Pepita's post about this activity HERE.) But I also wanted a game we could do that would get them moving.

So I decided to make a relay game out of the flags...

I picked out ten of the 21 flags. I limit my camps to ten kids at a time so with this game they can either work by themselves or in pairs. Basically, they will line up at the start line, and I will give each student or pair a country. Out in the field in front of them will be all the flag pieces. They will have to race to collect the correct pieces of their flag and put it together at the start line. Because my students are not going to know the flags at the beginning I will be providing them a paper with all the flags on them for reference.

I started by cutting the appropriate color cardstock into pieces to make the ten flags I chose (see above). I then when and printed off any coats of arms or stars that were needed. All of the pieces are laminated for durability. While the game won't be completely fair (some flags will have a few more pieces than others), I think it will be a fun way to work with them.

See below for a few more activities related to flags!

Other ideas for flags?

Collect some rocks and get painting! We will be using acrylic paint (like this set) to paint several of the flags. You can seal the paint afterward with this sealer.

I bought a lot of sidewalk chalk (Here's a big pack of it.) in order for my students to draw flags. They really enjoyed this activity!

Any other ideas for flags? I would love to hear them!

Easter Island {Cultural Craft for Spanish Students}

{Affiliate Links Used}

I am gearing up for another summer of Spanish camps and so looking forward to it. My camps are composed of language practice, cultural crafts, games, geography, and stories. It is a great introduction for kids in the language. You can find all my posts about summer camp if you click here.

Last year we made personal piñatas, molas, Chilean rainsticks, and a few other cultural crafts. For the kids that will be returning this year, I needed to have some new material to teach them and some new crafts. One of the days we will focus on body parts and the country of Chile so I thought it would be a great opportunity to make Moai, the famous Easter Island statues. 

I wanted an easy, quick way for students to make the statues without us taking too much time. I happened to find this ice cube mold and thought it would be perfect! (You can find it here.) Next I wanted a no-mess, easy clean-up clay that would air dry. This air dry clay is perfect, and I bought several packages in gray to make the heads with. To add to the educational value of the craft we are going to model the actual island (which is triangular) and  add a little bit of the ocean around it. I am thinking that I will make the clay for the island and the water to save on money. You can find a recipe here.

Along with making the islands, we will be spending sometime learning/reviewing body parts. I have made some extra statues in order to play a game that I saw online a few months back. Here's how it is done: You create two lines of students and have them face each other so that each kid has a partner. They need to be seated on the floor/ground. Place between each set of kids a Moai statue. Then begin to call out body parts in Spanish. Whatever body part is called the students have to place their hands on that part of themselves. So for example, if I say "cabeza" they will put their hands on their head. Call out several body parts. Then at some point say "Vayan" (or even "estatua") which means the pairs have to grab the little statue that is between them. Whoever grabs it first between the two kids wins and gets to stay in the game. Have the remaining that are still playing pair up with a new partner and do another round. Continue until you have only one student remaining. You can modify this game to make it a little less competitive for younger kids who sometimes struggle with winning and losing. Don't have anyone exit the game. Let everyone continue playing no matter who got the statue first.

I am also planning on doing a scavenger hunt with the statues by hiding them in an outdoor area and having the students search for them. I will probably do directions in the target language for older kids.

Here are some other resources to use in conjunction with this craft...

For my summer camps I limit the number of students so that kids get to practice in the language. So I will probably be buying several sets of these excavation kits for kids to work on in pairs. They get to dig up some Moai! (You can find them here.)

Also, have you been to Mundo de Pepita? It is an awesome blog with tons of resources and ideas for teaching Spanish to children. She also has a Teachers pay Teachers store which you can find HERE. She recently came out with a bulletin board set for the country of Chile! I will be using it during my camps as I like to have visual representations of the different countries we study. The set includes Moai, guanacos, the Chilean flag, some of the flora of the country, and a few other items.

Finally, here is a game to use, especially if you are breaking your students into groups to do center work. They can call out the numbers in Spanish as they play. The game is called Sneaky Statues and can be ordered HERE.

If you have any other ideas to go along with the Moai I would love to hear them!!

Valentine's Day Ideas for Spanish Class

{Affiliate links used.}

El Día de San Valentin can be called by many different names depending on which country you are in. It's El Día de los Enamorados (Argentina and Chile), El Día del Amor y La Amistad (Mexico, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador) or El Día del Cariño (Guatemala). Regardless of its name, it's a great time to do some activities surrounding the ideas of love and friendship.

Need some ideas for Valentine's Day to use in your lessons in February? Here's a list of books, games, and ideas!

Books

Adivina Cuánto Te Quiero-A sweet book between a father and son and their love for each other.

El Primer Beso de Froggy-My students love Froggy books! This one is about the gifts and the kiss he receives from Froguilina.

Mi Amor Por Ti-Cute book that uses numbers 1-10 and comparisons like "taller than" and "bigger than".

Oso Cariñoso y La Tarjeta del Día de San Valentin-Story of a bear that has a hard time expressing his feelings.

El Primer San Valentin De Clifford

Activities

El Cupido

Have your students been learning prepositions? This ¿Dónde está el Cupido? drawing activity will help them review. I even modify this and make it into a listening activity instead of a reading one.

Roll and Write

These charts allow your students to practice creating whole sentences with guidance. You will need some dice for the activity. The vocabulary is related to the holiday.

Media Naranja Sentences

I am planning on using this silly sentence game this year with my students. It is based on the idea of "media naranja", the Spanish phrase for "soulmate".

Conversation Hearts Printable

A printable and ideas to go with it.

Valentine Questions and Answers

Using the photo given in this post you can have a question and answer session with your students. I like the fact that the photo is from a Valentine's Day fair in Chile.

Bingo
You could play bingo using Spanish vocabulary instead of English.

Valentine's Day Glyphs
I love these glyphs! Students answer the questions in Spanish by coloring each section of the picture with the color assigned to their answer. These would be great to do and then hang up to display!

Valentine Podcast Activities
These activities are for upper level students (Third year of Spanish in high school and above). All of it is in Spanish!

Extras

Terms of Endearment

I love these lists that Spanish Mama has come up with...terms of endearment for kids and for couples. A great way to add more vocabulary and culture into your lesson!

Conversation Hearts in Spanish

Hide-N-Seek Vocabulary Game (for Second Language Learning)

{Affiliate Links Used}

I struggle sometimes on how to get my youngest students to use the language especially when they are in the first few months of exposure to Spanish. The first problem is that with lower elementary-age students their attention span is very short, and when you add the fact that they have limited vocabulary at the beginning it can be challenging to find activities to get them talking in the target language. This week though I came across an activity that really worked! Not only does this activity require that they speak in Spanish, but it incorporates repetition of the vocabulary in a way that keeps them motivated. Here's how it works...

I create picture cards with the vocabulary on them we are working on. The ones you see here are for the weather, but the cards could be any group of vocabulary as long as you can use pictures: clothing, rooms in a house, places in a city, foods, etc. I laminate the cards (VERY IMPORTANT) so that I can use the dot stickers on the back of them. If the cards aren't laminated then you won't be able to get the sticker off as easily.  I lay out the cards face up on the table. If you have a large group of students you can make bigger cards and hang them up. Then I ask my students in the target language to turn around (away from the cards) and close their eyes (young ones are expert "peekers" so I have them do both actions). I then take a colored dot (See these here as they are easy to remove.) and stick it to the back of one of the cards. Then all my students can turn around and open their eyes. They take turns asking in the target language about a card to see if the dot is behind it.

So for example, if we are working on weather words they would ask, "¿Está nublado?" or "¿Hace viento?". I then reveal the underneath of the card to show them whether the dot is there or not. After I have hidden the dot a few times, I let some of my students do the hiding. If you have a large group, you may not be able to let everyone hide each time you play the game. So you may want to keep track of who has hidden the dot so that next time other students can do it. My students absolutely LOVE hiding the sticker and being in charge of answering the questions and revealing the backside of the cards. Another variation I do (normally at the end of the activity) is for me to "hide" the dot one more time. However, this last time around, I don't actually hide the dot on one of the cards. I put it some place else out of sight. This forces the students to ask about ALL the cards and review all the vocabulary. When the last card is revealed there may be some surprised looks! 😊

While I have used this with great success with elementary-age kids, it can be used as a quick review for older students (like in high school). I love how it requires students to use the language and how they get to hear the words/phrases over and over again. The other added benefit? If a child has the task of hiding the dot, he or she then also has to practice finding which card the other student is asking about. There's plenty of repetition and review without it being boring!

Clothespin Monsters and Language Learning

{Affiliate links used.}

I am always looking for new ways to teach Spanish vocabulary I have taught for years. It adds spice to my lessons and also keeps the teacher (me) engaged. Last week I came across this post on making little monsters and decided to make them in all the colors that I have taught my students. I also laminated them and used this glue (click here) which is incredibly durable. In the post, she suggests playing games with pom poms (find them here) with the monsters. I am using the monsters and the pom poms to review colors. Here's how I do it:

I lay out all the monsters on the table and then give instructions in Spanish like "El monstruo rojo come azul." One of my students then needs to find the red monster and use him to pick up a blue pom pom to deposit in a nearby cup. Once I have done this enough with students, I then ask them to "be the teacher" and give instructions to fellow classmates. 

Another activity is to have small disposable bathroom cups for each child. Lay out all your pom poms on a table. Each child gets a clothespin monster to use. Time them for thirty seconds or one minute and have them fill their small cups with as many pom poms as possible using only the monster to get them in the cup. When time is up, have them count the pom poms in their cups in the target language and tell you how many they got.

I also have doll clothes that I use for teaching which can also be used with these monsters. Give students instructions on which colored monster is going to eat which article of clothing. Have them deposit the clothes in another container that serves as the "stomach" for the monsters. Actually, these monsters can be used for all kinds of vocabulary in this same manner as long as you have something for the students to pick up with them. 

If you have any more ideas on how to use these monsters in a language classroom I would love to hear them! 

Spanish Camp for Kids {Day 5}

{Affiliate Links Used}

The final day of camp! Time for review and fun and games! We will review all previous vocabulary through different activities. We may even go back to some of the earlier activities in the week. {To see all the posts for my Spanish camps, click here.} We will finish off the week with making personal piñatas. You can find the instructions here.

We will also play some extra games today...

Minute-To-Win-It games- We will do several of these games...especially the ones with pompoms.

Mano Nerviosa- A simple game that uses regular decks of cards to review numbers. My students LOVE this game!

Cerdos- We will have played this earlier in the week, but for today I have set up this game to review more of the vocabulary we have learned.



To finish off, I will read La Piñata Vacía to my students and hand out these little packages of bilingual cookies to them as they go! They are available here.

To see all the ideas for each day of my Spanish camps, click HERE! And I would love to hear from you! If you have done Spanish camps before, what activities have you done? What has worked well?

Spanish Camp for Kids {Day 4}

{Affiliate Links Used}

I had the privilege of living in Buenos Aires, Argentina for awhile to improve my Spanish. One of the interesting places I visited was the neighborhood of La Boca with its brightly painted houses. So for the fourth day of my Spanish camp we are going to focus on houses and the vocabulary surrounding them (door, window, up, down, outside, inside) and then recreate some of the typical houses in La Boca.

Today I have decided to rely heavily on die cuts. I made six houses each in a different color. I also made die cuts of different weather symbols. So to review weather, house, and color vocabulary I will give students instructions in Spanish and see if they can create the scene I describe. For example...

Llueve sobre la casa roja.

Nieva sobre la casa verde.

I am also going to take this opportunity to review animals with the die cut houses. I found some animals that were smaller than the houses. I will lay out all the different colored houses and then hide one of the animals underneath one of the houses. Students will need to ask me in the target language if the animal is behind the blue house or the yellow house, etc. 

Another activity we will do is to draw in the details of houses following my instructions in Spanish. See this post for more information. And this post for the printable of houses you can use.

One of our active games today will be using the colored cups I bought for the week. With them we will play "Arriba/Abajo". Take several cups (maybe twice as many cups as you have students) and place half of them right side up (arriba) and half of them upside down (abajo) on the lawn or large play area. Divide your group into two teams one that is "arriba" and one that is "abajo". Tell them to start...the object of the game is to change the cups to fit what team you are on. If you are on the "arriba" team then you need to run around putting all the cups right side up. If you are on the "abajo" team then you want them all upside down. Give them one minute to play. The team with the most cups in their position wins.

Our craft will be to re-create the houses of La Boca, Argentina. Here are the instructions for the project with a little background information on La Boca. 

You will need a paper crimper for this project to give the right look to the sides of the buildings. Here is a link to get an idea of what to look for...

Paper Crimper

For our reading today we will dive into the following books:

Harold y el Lapiz Color Morado
Ruidos en la Casa- Cute book of a puppy who is scared being home alone
La Casa Adormecida
El Pastel Esta Tan Arriba
Oso en Casa

To see the rest of my plans for the other days of camp, click HERE!!

Spanish Camp for Kids {Day 3}

{Affiliate Links Used}

If you have been following along, you know that I am hosting Spanish camps this summer. You can read about the other days by clicking this link. For day three, we will be focusing on animals. Here's a look at our activities...

I selected a list of about ten animals to focus on for the day and made flashcards in order to teach the vocabulary. You can find some great animal flashcards in Spanish HERE.

We will do several games today like Color, Colorcito. Here are the instructions.

We will do an animal hunt game. I have several die cuts of animals that I have laminated that I can hide in the lawn. I will call out an animal and the students will race to find it. Whoever does can then call out an animal. Just a simple way to review the vocabulary.

I made an Animal Tally Game by taking scrapbook paper of animal skins or pictures (see below) and punching out squares. Each student will receive a page (I made about five different pages so that not every single one is the same combinations of animals, but it is still the same number of animals to find.) Then I have a set of cards with the same scrapbook paper punched out, backed with cardstock and laminated. These will be laid face down. Students take turns picking up a card and telling us in the target language the name of the animal represented. If they need that animal they place it over the square on their sheet. If not, they return it to the pile. The first student to get all the cards on his or her sheet wins.

For our craft for the day, we will be making paper molas (See the top photo in the post). Molas come from the Kuna tribe in Panama. They are normally made out of cloth and worn by the women.  Here are some examples. And here are the instructions for making paper molas.

And finally, here are the books I will be sharing with the students:




Yo Tenia un Hipopotamo
De La Cabeza a Los Pies
Sali de Paseo- A good way to review colors also.

Spanish Camp for Kids {Day 1}

{Affiliate Links Used}

For the first time ever, I am going to be doing summer camps for Spanish! I am really excited about it as I will have time to do some of the extras (like crafts) that I can never seem to get to. So here's a look at what I have plan for Day One (two to three hours worth of activities)...

Today we will be doing introductions and then really focusing on learning the vocabulary for colors and some clothes. I tend to teach vocabulary to young kids with flashcards and then ask them questions/give commands about the flashcards in the target language like "Where is yellow?" or "Touch the pink card." After we have worked with the words a bit we are going to do the following activities:

Discuss where Guatemala is and the idea behind Worry Dolls. We will create our own worry dolls. I bought embroidery floss and these round doll pins for us to use. You can find the instructions for making these dolls here. This is a great time to reinforce the vocabulary you taught your students by talking to them about the colors and clothes their dolls are wearing.

We will do this color wheel activity and speak in the target language to talk about how the primary colors make the secondary colors (Rojo y amarillo hacen anaranjado.).

We will play Camino de Colores from Spanish Playground...a quick and active game.

I have purchased this set of plastic cups to play different games with during the week. Today we are going to play the color cup game. I will divide my students into two teams. One team will be azul and the verde. On the lawn there will be stacks of cups (two cups each). Some of the stacks have the blue cup on top; others have the green one on top. Each team runs around for one minute trying to change the stacks so that their color of cup is on top. Time the game. At the end of one minute, the team with the most stacks for their color wins. Try to use the target language for instructions as much as possible. 

For my older group, we will do battleship with colors and clothes at the end of the day.

Interspersed throughout the few hours today we will read stories. Here is our list for Day One:

Froggy Se Viste

Demasiados Globos

Colores (Very cool book with some clear pages in it that change what is happening on the paper pages. See this English example.)

Pintaratones

You can go to this link as I add more days and ideas for camp! Day two will be posted soon!

Spanish Camp Ideas

{Affiliate Links Used.}

This summer I am branching out and doing mini-camps to teach kids Spanish. The camps will be for elementary-age kids relatively new to the language and last one week. Mine will be two hours a day (although my ideas could totally be stretched to three hours a day).  Over the next week or so I will share with you my ideas...what I will teach each day, the games we will play, and the cultural crafts we will do. I have to admit that I have relied heavily on Pinterest for great ideas for games and crafts. The bulk of the work has been setting up the structure of what I am going to teach. So join me over the next week or so as I give you details of what you can do if you decide to teach a Spanish camp yourself. We'll talk supplies, activities, games, culture, and crafts. {Like these great bilingual cookies to hand out during the week.}

So join me! And I would love to hear your ideas, too! You can eventually find all the posts HERE.

Instant Lesson Plans for Your Language Classroom

{Affiliate Links Used.}

Let's face it. While teaching can be incredibly rewarding, it is also draining emotionally and physically (especially when you are sick). There are times when I really struggle to get through a teaching day. While I don't teach in a regular classroom (I give private and small group lessons), I still struggle from time to time to get through a lesson. Recently, I decided that I needed a master list of easy activities I could do with students when...

• I'm not feeling well.
• They have a make-up lesson.
• We have a game day at the end of the semester.

I prefer not to waste precious time with my students with activities that don't further their language learning, and yet there are days when we need to step back and do something different. I was also realizing that coming up with ideas when I'm pressed for time or feeling ill wasn't working for me. I needed a ready-to-go list I could just pull out. So on a quiet afternoon, I did some brainstorming of all the activities my students have been exposed to that we could do on a game day or a day when I'm sick. (Or if you are teaching in a regular school...a day when you need a sub). I created a file and then printed out several copies to have on hand. I teach a big age range (age five through high school) and a myriad of ability levels. So it is easier for me to have a master list and circle the activities we are going to do based on the ages of the students and their abilities. It becomes my instant lesson plan.

If you are teaching larger groups, you may need to break students into groups and have "stations" where they move from activity to activity during the class. That way no one gets bored and all the teacher has to do is monitor the groups.

Here's some of what is on my list with links to see how it's all done. However, since every teacher is different it would be ideal for you to come up with your own list of activities that work in your classroom.

• KLOO- I love this game (and my students do as well) because it really gets them creating the language. You can buy the board game version or just the deck of cards (There are four different decks in the Spanish version). This game come in Spanish, French, Italian, and even English for ESL learners.
• Guess Where House Game- A guessing game that uses family members and house vocabulary.
• Spot the Difference Cards- Can students talk about the differences in these cards in the target language?
• Spot It!- Fast-moving card game that can be done in any target language.
• Caramba- This is currently the top post on my blog. My students LOVE this vocabulary review game! It's easy to make it yourself and have on hand.
• Fast Flip Games-You can read about this game halfway down this post. A fast-paced game for reviewing foods. There's the fruit version and a pizza version. Yum!
• Mano Nerviosa-I started using this game this past school year and my students beg for it. Done in the target language with two decks of regular cards. Here's how to play.
• Secret Square- A simple game that uses any picture cards with vocabulary your students have worked with.
• Bananagrams-See this post for ideas on how to use Bananagrams with your students. You will need to get the right version of this game for the language you teach. Here's the Spanish version. And the French one.
• Card Talkers is a simple activity using a Spanish deck of cards and questions. I have four printables on my blog to use with the cards. You can find the links to all of them in this post. NOTE: This activity is better suited to older kids and high schoolers.
• Drawing Activities (this is for the whole group to do together.)- A plethora of drawing activites along with the printables to do them. These are definitely listening exercises for your students. You can find them here.
• Memory and Go Fish- If you have pictures cards (two of the same picture on two different cards) you can play a whole bunch of different games with them. Take a look at this post.

So pull out a piece of paper or open up a file and start brainstorming ideas for the days when teaching is tough!! I welcome any other ideas in the comments!!