Communicative Activities

"Timed" Pictionary

Students are very competitive in Elementary School - always wanted to be the "winner". A great way to channel this desire is by using teams to complete a variety of different activities, including the infamous, "Pictionary" game. The game we play in class, however, is quite engaging and all students agree at the end that even though there was a 'winner' and a 'loser', everyone was a winner when it came to vocabulary review. Students form teams - each team is assigned a set number of vocabulary words written on note cards to get through before the other team gets through theirs. The first person much go to the board, draw a picture of the vocabulary word, and then have their classmates guess what the picture is in Spanish. The first correct answer gets to put the current note card away and draw the next note card, going to board to draw that vocabulary word. Watch the video below of the students in action. Note: These students are in my 4th grade Spanish class practicing 35 different vocabulary words each revolving around family.

Spanish Coffee Hour

A very high recommendation is to pair with another student or group of students and talk over coffee hour. To further their enjoyment and involvement let them pick the topic. Even if the students don't have a very vast vocabulary, students are still able to learn from each other as well as gain new vocabulary

Latin Music Video Re-Creation

Students have the opportunity to recreate through lip syncing or karaoke their favorite music video in Spanish to show the class. There is the possibility to have students judge their favorite music videos or have a panel of judges, such as other teachers, principals, members of the community, etc. This could be a year-long event where students check out your video camera for the weekend (with a lot of trust!), complete and create their video and bring it back. At the end of the year students will have a video-viewing party. Hopefully this will help students bring music into their lives and enjoy it on a personally level. This will also help to show their creative side.

Spanish Pen Pals

Students keep in touch through email or written letters with students in a Spanish speaking country. Although the teacher has ways to find classrooms in Latin America or Spain, the Justo Lamas website offers a matching program for classrooms around the world, with a target audience classroom base in Argentina.

Authentic Restaurant Extra Credit

Educators can 'make a deal' with a restaurant in their community that will allow the students to go in to the restaurant and eat dinner/lunch there and utilize a Spanish-speaking waitress/waiter. The wait staff then signs a paper that the students attempted to speak in the target language throughout their meal, including ordering, asking for the bill, etc. Students are able to get extra credit for their attempt of usage of the target language outside the classroom and the restaurant benefits from the extra business.

Online Chatting

Students go to the computer lab (if available) and chat online using Google chat, MSN messenger, or AOL messenger and chat to each other in the Spanish language. Students will gain knowledge on typing in Spanish, reading in Spanish, and along with the activity many slang chat words will be taught to them. They will then save their discussion and either email it to me or print it off for an assessment. The assessment will not be graded, but will rather be an assessment for me, as the teacher, to see their level of communication.

Market Bargaining

Students set up a 'market' in the lunchroom and bargain with students for their items they have for sale, such as sweets, authentic food, classroom items such as notebooks, folders, pens and pencils, etc. Not only will students be required to speak only in the target language, they must convey their thoughts and ideas in the TL to those students who do not speak Spanish but still would like to make a purchase. Although this will be challenging to students, they will hopefully gain a lot of knowledge about how to barter with others and realize that they can actually speak in the target language.

Students are able to make the food as well as buy inexpensive sweets. Usually a community will donate items to the Spanish club or school. Money can be used towards a class trip to a Mexican restaurant, go on a trip outside the country, or towards a scholarship.

Flota de acorazado

A great game to play with the students is Flota de acorzazado (Battleship), of course using the target language. This will give them skills in the alphabet as well as numbers. Also, I'm sure some of the students will appreciate the translation of the war ships, as is follows: 'Battleship' - Acorazada, 'Cruiser' - Crucero de batalla, 'Frigate' - Fragata, 'Submarine' - Submarino, 'Direct Hit' - Impacto directo, 'Miss' - Tiro fallido. Of course you play on a 30 x 30 square board & it gives the students fun time while still interacting in the language.