¿Qué es?
This sounds like a simple activity but it is very effective and
engaging. It came to me when my Smartboard went out. I grabbed my color
flashcards and went through them with my first graders. Then, I passed them
out. Now 11 students had a flashcard and about 9 did not. I demonstrated in Spanish that they had to
find a student who did not have a card. Students walked around asking students
without a card "¿Qué color es?”, showing the flashcard in their hand. When
the other student answered "Es blanco". Student 1 would say
"Sí", and give it to the other one. This can be done for about 10
minutes without them getting tired, and can be used for any vocabulary.
The plates game
You will need: a bucket or
other container to place the vocabulary words, flashcards with the target
words, paper plates with a drawing of each word. Place the plates on the floor
in a circle, and have a student stand behind each plate. The rest of the
students stand in line outside the circle. Say: "uno, dos, tres, cuatro,
cincoooooo, ¡parad!" (or you can say “camina, camina, camina, camiiiiiina,
¡para! - or any other movement). Students walk from plate to plate and then
stop. The first student on the line picks a word from the bucket and reads it
aloud (or makes a sentence about it). The child standing behind that word has
to leave the circle and go to the end of the line, while the first in line
steps in. The winners are those students who stay in the circle the whole time.
Card games
Make sets of cards for each
vocabulary topic (2 cards of each word). Students can play Concentration, Go
fish or Slap. An alternative is to play with the whole class in two teams. You
can make a board with numbered pockets and place the cards in the pockets
randomly. Individual students say two numbers to try to find matches.
Slap: place the cards on the table
face up. There needs to be 3-4 students in each team. A student says one of the
words ( or ¿Dónde está la falda?”, for example); the first student to slap that
card keeps it. The student with the highest number of cards wins the game.
Jeopardy
A quick and easy alternative
to the popular game show is to play it in small groups (3-5 students). Each
group will need a list of words (mine have a notebook where they write the
vocabulary). One person is the host (or they can take turns being the host).
The others are contestants. Tell them to place their hands up; when the host
finishes asking the question (¿Cómo se dice ___?), the first one to hit the
table can answer and get points. I usually don't do categories because it is
quicker to do it with just 1 point per question answered correctly.
Duelo
Choose 2 students to stand
back to back, and give each one a flashcard of the vocabulary targeted. They
take 3 steps forward, turn around and show the other student the picture they
have. The first student to say the right word/sentence wins the duel.
Qué es esto
You will need a set of
flashcards, for example, classroom words. Pick 3, show them to the students and
ask ¿Qué es esto? to elicit “Es un lápiz”, etc. Then turn the flashcards so
that they don’t see the pictures. Shuffle them and ask ¿Qué es esto? pointing
at the one on the front (they still can't see the picture). Select a student
and give him 3 chances to give you the correct answer. If he guesses, give it
to him. Pick a new card and ask ¿Qué es esto? to elicit the new object. Shuffle
while chanting the new word and then select a new student. Students will have
to try to remember what the other objects were, or you can remind them of the
words that you still have in your hand, depending on the level.
At the end, try to get back
the cards from the students by guessing what each one has.
I made a video showing a guessing game I play based on a popular children game/song from Spain called Veo, veo. It can be used with different topics. I used it in this video to guess a fruit or vegetable.
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