Picture Dictionaries in Language Teaching

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Picture dictionaries are a great jumping off point for conversations in the target language you are teaching.  I love using the types of dictionaries that have "scenes" that you can use to talk about many different topics.  The dictionaries I have listed here are {at the time of this posting} out of print {at least the Spanish versions are...other languages are available}, but they are readily available on the used market through Amazon and other sites.

Picture dictionaries with scenes can be used in a variety of ways.  Here is a list of ideas:

{NOTE: All of these activities are done in the target language...on both the teacher and student side.}

1. Ask where certain items are in the target language and the student points them out.

2. Counting items on the page.

3. Show them a scene and they have to describe it in the target language.

4.  Practice prepositions by describing where things are located.  I normally do this by giving the student(s) two items in Spanish.  They then have to tell me how the first item is positioned in regards to the second item.  For example:  El gato esta encima de la mesa.

5. Call out an item and the students give you an adjective for it.

6. Have the students describe the actions going on in the scene.

7. Discuss the emotions of the people in the scene.

8. For pages with lots of food pictures on them call out a color and the students tell you the foods that are that color.

9. Also, for food pages, call out an adjective like sweet or salty and have students list foods that fit that description.

10. Call out a letter of the alphabet and see if students can list any items on the page that start with that letter.

Let's Learn Spanish-Picture Dictionary-I love this dictionary particularly for its opposite page {see above}.  With this page I ask questions like, "Where is the fast mouse?"  "the tall mouse?", etc.

First Thousand Words in Spanish-This dictionary is the one I have used the longest in my teaching.  Scenes in the middle with vocabulary around the sides.

Everyday Words in Spanish-Most of my younger students love this book with claymation type characters. Once again there are scenes with vocabulary on the sides.

I have found that if I have enough copies of dictionaries (they don't all need to be the same) that my small group of students can have a little friendly competition. I call out a review word and each student looks through their dictionary to see if they can find a picture of the word first.

More teaching tips here.

Book Series for Kids in Spanish

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When I am teaching younger kids I always take the opportunity to read to them. Children's books are a great way to listen to the language and pick up vocabulary along the way. I especially like when I can find a series of books to read to my students. They get familiar with the characters and fall in love with them. They also start predicting what will happen, because of their familiarity with the personalities in the books.

Recently, I found two great series my students have been enjoying, the Estela books and the series of books on the lady that swallows everything (i.e. flies and the like). Many  of them are out-of-print, but easily found cheaply on Amazon.

The Estela Books

Estela and her brother Sam have great adventures at the beach, in the snow, in the forest, and at night. The conversations they have are super cute. Sam is always asking his older sister about the world around them with questions like, "Do snow angels fly?" or "Do seahorses gallop?". There are four of them available...

Estela, la estrella del mar
Estela reina de la nieve
Estela, Hada del Bosque
Estela Princesa de la Noche

The "There Once Was an Old Lady" Books

My youngest students love the Lady who Swallowed a Fly! There is a whole series of books in which she swallows different items related to a theme. The language in these books is repetitive which aids in retaining some new vocabulary.


¡Un día una señora se tragó una mosca! -the traditional version
¡Un Día Una Señora se Tragó una Caracola!-filled with beach vocabulary
Un dia una senora se trago una campana!-the Christmas version
¡Un Día Una Señora se Tragó unos Libros!
Una Senora Con Frio Se Trago Un Poco De Nieve!-Vocabulary related to winter


The Froggy Books

I have mentioned the Froggy books several times here in the past. My students adore Froggy and the antics he does! Actually, they love him so much that I have even gotten a few of the books in English and translated them into Spanish for them.

Froggy Books in Spanish

More ideas for teaching another language.

Using Stories to teach Spanish

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I love a well-written story. It is through stories we learn about the world. Stories open up our hearts to learn in situations when we are closed to new ideas and concepts. I own a huge collection of children's books in Spanish for my younger students, and I am constantly collecting good literature written in Spanish for my high school students. Many of these stories I have posted about here on the blog. If you are looking to use stories in your teaching here are some posts with book suggestions and ideas.

By far my most popular post is the one on literature for high school students. In my post called Teaching Spanish Literature, I talk about a book called Album. This is an excellent collection of short stories for advanced students who are starting out with literature. It is out-of-print but very cheap on the used market. One of the stories in the book shouldn't be missed, Una Carta a Dios. Here is a post with more information and resources for the story.

Last year in January, I did a series of Spanish children's books for kids. Here is the post. There are thirty-one books to check out for your younger learners.

Here are a few more posts with some great children's books...

El Monstruo de los Monstruos

Arriba, Abajo, y Alrededor

Teaching Numbers with Children's Books

Learning Spanish with Children's Books

More language teaching tips...

Flyswatters in a Language Classroom

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Many people used to walk by my classroom when I taught at a local high school and would shake their heads in disbelief. During my high school teaching career I would hand each of my students a flyswatter, break them into groups of five and then start a vocabulary review game that would bring out excitement in my students. So, yes, flyswatters are useful in a language classroom! It may not look like learning with a bunch of students with swatters in hand, but it actually was a great way to review vocabulary.

Basically, I would make multiple decks of cards (one deck per group...each deck contains the same cards) with either Spanish words or pictures. My students would lay the cards out on the floor and form a circle around them with their flyswatters in hand. I would then call out a word. Depending on the cards I had I would either call out a word in English for them to find the written word in Spanish or I would call out a word in Spanish and they would have to find the correct picture. The first student to put their flyswatter over the correct card would take that card. At the end of the game when all the words had been called out, students would count out how many cards they had. The one with the most won in the group.

This game was one of the absolute favorites of my students. They begged for it! Yet, because I was using flyswatters with them and things can get out of hand easily I had some strong rules associated with the game. They were NEVER allowed to use their swatters on another student. If they did, they were out for the duration of the game. Normally, I didn't have too many problems with this since I was real consistent with this one particular rule. My students enjoyed the game so much that they rarely violated the rule. However, you know your students and what they can handle.

These days I work with much smaller groups (less than five in a lesson) and we use our hands. I still have the same rule...no slapping each other! However, because fingers can get hit easily I may end up getting a few swatters. The beauty of this game is that it works with one small group all the way up to a large classroom of students that you break up into groups.

{The type of cards I use.}

Another variation of this game is to used cards in which you have pairs (like pairs of opposites or pairs of rhyming words). You then call out one word and students need to put their swatters on the opposite word or rhyming word.

So here are some possible ideas for flyswatters...

Word And Number Swatters
Hand Swatters
Fly Swatters (set of 24)

Need more ideas for your foreign language classroom?

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...

Ideas for Teaching Colors in Another Language

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Colors are one of the first things I start with when teaching Spanish to my new students. Here is a list of supplies and ideas for teaching colors in any language...

Supplies

Colors Bean Bags

Monsters Stickers -For a variety of activities like this.

Color Dot Stickers- For this activity.

Demasiados Globos-This is the very first book I use with young kids to introduce colors.

Pinta ratones-I love this book on color mixing! I incorporate this activity with it.

Sali de paseo-Another great children's book.

Sharpie Accent Retractable Highlighters are great for older kids. I use them with picture pages and have the students follow my instructions like "Put a green circle on the house." I have also used these with more advanced students having them highlight the parts of speech in a Spanish paragraph. Each part of speech gets a different color.

Spot It! Numbers and Shapes-My students LOVE these games. The alphabet and the numbers game incorporate colors.

Ideas/Activities

Se Venden Gorros-By reading this classic book you can review colors.  There are a few activity ideas at the end of the post.

Mystery Pictures-To review colors and numbers.

Shape Monsters are a fun activity for younger kids.

Color and Number Bingo

Copy Cats- A simple game for the younger set.

Mr. Potato Head can be used to review colors especially if you have different sets of accessories.

So what supplies and activities do you use to teach colors?

Teaching Supplies {for World Language Teachers}

As a language teacher there are certain supplies that I come back to again and again.  Here's a list of the top ten supplies I use in teaching...

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1. Dice are useful in playing games and creating sentences in the target language. Read more about using dice to teach a language here. 

2. I recently invested in a classroom calendar which I find helpful for young kids. Reviewing dates, days of the week, weather, and seasons on a regular basis helps solidify the vocabulary. What I love about doing a calendar at the beginning of a lesson is that it only takes a few minutes, yet if you are consistent students really learn the information.

3. File folders are great for making games like this game to tell the difference between the preterite and the imperfect or this one for the days of the week. Library Card Pockets are also useful when making file folder games.

4. Speaking of games, there are some pre-made ones that work well in a language classroom like Spot It! Alphabet, Spot It Animals, and Guess Who.

5. Stickers are also great for listening activities. These monster stickers are great for reviewing body parts. Penguins stickers are great for reviewing prepositions {See this post.}

6.Color bean bags can be used to not only review colors, but also to work with prepositions. For example, you can give commands like "Put red next to blue." or "Put the yellow one under the black." I also use the bean bags with other items like plastic food or plastic animals so that I can review colors, prepositions, foods, or animals as the need arises.

7. An atlas in the target language is also invaluable to have. So many times students (elementary through high school) don't know where countries or landmarks are located. When you are teaching history or culture it is great to have an atlas in the language you are working with.  Here are some atlases in Spanish:
Atlas del Mundo
Mi Primer Atlas

8. Sharpie Permanent Markers can be used by students (especially high schoolers) to take notes. I like to have my students put verb endings in a different color to highlight that the endings are what need to be memorized.  See this example:

Hablar

hablo

hablas

habla

hablamos

hablan

Or to emphasize a stem change in verbs:

Pensar

pienso

piensas

piensa

pensamos

piensan

9. Having a laminator can help preserve any items that you create for your lessons or classroom. Even if you have access to a laminator at your school, it can be helpful to have a small one at home. This laminator works really well and is compact and not very expensive. I love mine!

10. Literature or reading material can play a big part in your teaching. Check out this post on literature for high school students and this post on children's books in Spanish.

So what are your favorite supplies when you teach? I would love to hear what you use!