I’m trying to make a calendar with the most relevant Hispanic festivities. Does anyone know where I could find one?
Could you tell me the festivities you celebrate in your class, apart from Christmas, 5 de mayo and Día de los Muertos?

Just want to say that I LOVE your products as do my students.  Keep them coming, please.

My question is on how we may use the products that we purchase.  Are they only to be shown in the classroom, or may I put them on my web page so they can access them from home? 

Gary Barnard
Glens Falls High School
Glens Falls, NY

I have been using nearly all of the IceBreaker activities in class, but really loved this interactive Smart lesson.  Keep them coming!

Also: I like the games you are offering now and will give them a try as well.

If you have to teach body parts and verb “DOLER” at any point, make sure you get this packet from Bablingua!

Susan

I ordered a set of the flashcards and they are great.  I do have one suggestion though.  I like to have my students learn new vocabulary words (nouns) with the articles (el, la, los, las).  It really helps with words like “calcetín” where the gender of the word is not clear.

Keep up the great work!!

Gary

Tell your students to think about what they’ll answer if you ask them how they are. Tell them to be original, you don’t want everybody to say “bien”.

Ask them to stand up, and explain to them that you’re going to say different adjectives and, that when you say the one they were thinking of, they must sit down.

Then, say as many adjectives and expressions as you can imagine to answer a “¿Cómo estás? question. Something like “bien, mal, muy bien, muy mal, regular, así así, cansado, aburrido, feliz, alegre, contento, enfadado, enojado, enfermo, estresado, etc.”

Stop when all your students are seated, or when you run out of ideas. If that is the case, ask the ones who are still standing the word they were thinking about.

This is an easy way to start the class differently, and you might get some ideas from it to continue the activity with further questions (i.e. if half of the class sat down after you said “cansado”, you might want to ask them why).

You can repeat the activity another day, asking for a volunteer to say the adjectives instead of you.

1.- Ask your students to pick a Spanish name. Most textbooks include a list of common names, otherwise just type “common Spanish names” in a search engine.

2.- Once they’ve chosen a name, ask them to form a line in alphabetical order, using only Spanish. For example:

  Learner1: ¿Cómo te llamas?
  Learner2: Me llamo Isabel, ¿y tú?
  Learner1: Rodolfo.

Then Isabel moves to be in front of Rodolfo.

3.- Once the learners have formed a line, ask them their names to check they did it right.

4.- Once the activity is finished, you can ask them to bend round into a circle to play a different game. For example, you can have them say the alphabet in order, starting at some point with “A”, and continuing one by one after they all participate.

1. After explaining the differences between the present perfect and the past simple, explain to your students that you’re going to play a game.

2. First of all, you need to give them an example. You should then write 2 sentences about yourself using the past simple and 2 using present perfect. Try to provide meaningful examples using things your students don’t know about you, but avoid non-interesting topics such as “he desayunado cereales esta mañana”.

One of your sentences must be a false statement. In other words, it should talk about something you haven’t done.

The “F” activity in the “El día de San Valentín” PDF shows 2 examples, with Javier Bardem and Paz Vega.

3. Ask students to try to guess which statement is not true. You can do this by asking them to rise their hand in turns for each of this statements.

4. Talk about each of your sentences, starting with the ones that are true, until you get to the false one.

5. Ask students to write their own sentences following this pattern. While they’re working, you can check whether they understood the difference between both tenses.

6. Once they’re all finish, they can play with their partners or in small groups. You can even try to set a tournament to find the best liar of the class. If they read their sentences aloud, that will give you the opportunity to ask them questions about what they say in their sentences.

I’d like to include a speaking section in the final exams my students have to take, but I don’t know how to do it, since I have more than 25 students in each of my three classes. Any suggestions?

I teach High School Spanish and I’m trying my best to improve my student’s fluency. My Spanish II students have no problems describing themselves and people in general, talking about the weather, and describing pictures.

Does anybody have some ideas to work on their fluency in a fun way?

Muchas gracias!