There are some activities that, as a teacher, I look forward to every year. Here are some of my favorite lesson plans for my Spanish class that I’m sure you will enjoy and your students will too.

1. Corte Ingles Clothing Webquest
This is one of my favorites because it makes students discover the vocabulary on their own. Instead of teaching a list of vocabulary words, I give them the words and they have to figure out what the words mean by looking at a Spanish department store. It is very engaging and students have fun “shopping” and learning how to use context to discover meaning. The teacher can walk around the monitor but the lesson is student centered!

Here’s what other teachers say about it:
“This was a fantastic activity! I used it with my middle school students. It was fun and allowed them to take responsibility for learning some of the vocabulary on their own. “

“I just used this with my first year Spanish students (mostly freshman) and it was a lot of fun! They loved seeing something in Spanish that they could totally relate to (especially girls), and they were learning new vocab along the way. I look forward to using this again next year! “

“My students loved this activity! They liked going to an authentic Spanish store/website and looking at the styles. Many were surprised to discover the same brands that we have in the US. They learned a wide variety of vocabulary for shopping online by completing this web quest. “

2. Playing “Guess Who”
After learning about physical descriptions, the most logical game is to play “Guess Who” in Spanish. Hit up your local thrift stores, or ask students to bring in a gameboard from home. Students get to put their knowledge to the test and ask questions about hair color, eye color, if the person wears glasses. If you want to give your students a visual aide, check out our cheat sheet which will help keep students in the target language (and telling them they lose a turn if they Speak English).

Reviews:
“I like how the information on this sheet is organized. My 7th and 8th graders love playing the game!”

“Cute! I have been looking for an easy way to create a Guess Who activity. You just made my life much easier…thanks for sharing “

“I printed these off and laminated them for future use”

3. A Day in the Life of… Project
This has always been a fun project. Students can be very creative. I’ve had some excellent presentations (and some not so great ones) depending on how effort the students put into the presentation component. I don’t allow students to repeat any character so I have completely different ones throughout the day, otherwise I’d be watching 20 groups of Spongebob. The most comical ones are usually when the students end up presenting a day in my life! (I’m always a good sport and enjoy seeing what the kids think I do after school.)

4. Past Tense Songs
I look forward all year to this topic and wish I had more weeks to expand on going over talking about the past. But my introduction to the past tense is through these great songs. We read the lyrics and watch the videos for “Pobre Juan” by Maná and “La Historia de Juan” by Juanes and then discuss the themes of immigration and childhood abandonment/abuse. If I don’t have time to use other songs, I definitely use these two.

What others are saying:
“This is just what I needed to supplement my materials for the preterite. I’m always looking for new ways to spice up my grammar lessons! Thanks!”

“Very nicely done. A motivating way to practice el pretérito. Culturally appropriate as well.”

“Good product, the songs are slow enough for students to understand and follow. Thank you for this great product.”

5. Writing and Responding to a Letter for help
In my curriculum, this comes in our health unit. After learning about body parts, and talking about health, there is also the grammar of giving suggestions, including the use of commands. I have my students write a letter where they ask for help. It doesn’t have to be a health related problem. It could be anything from not having time to do homework, to being mad at your brother for having a messy room. Students must describe the problems, their feelings, and ask for help. Then, after collecting those, I hand them back to another student in the class who writes a response.

Those are my favorite lessons! Do you have a lesson you look forward to all year long or can’t wait until next year to teach it again?