Interesting Spanish Games for Learning Purposes in a Classroom Environment
Matamoscas
You will need - two flyswatters, a projector, pictures or words of the current vocabulary.
Step one - Call two students to the front of the room where vocabulary words, or pictures of vocabulary words, are being projected onto the white board or the pull down screen. Typically, these vocab words and pictures are laid out in a “tic tac toe” formation. Give each of the two selected students flyswatters –plastic is preferable– and have them stand on opposite ends of the board.
Step two - Either choose a student to call out the vocabulary words or call them out yourself. Let’s say, for example, “Amarillo” is one of the words on the slide. You can say “Spanish for yellow,” “Amarillo,” or spell it in Spanish “A-m-a-r-i-l-l-o” and the first student to correctly hit the vocabulary word with the flyswatter gets a point. You can either write down the score or delegate that responsibility to another student.
Step three - The first student to reach three points is the winner and both students return to their seats. Call two more students up to the front.
Matamoscas is a great way to end a class period because it can be a lot of fun and the class really enjoys watching their fellow classmates compete. Students learn how to listen to the vocabulary and react to it quickly. They also learn to associate pictures with spoken Spanish.
Sentence Relay
You will need - construction paper, scissors and two bold markers.
Step one - Write out a number of sentences using vocabulary and grammar from your Spanish class. One example is, “Voy a ir a la escuela” when learning ir + a + infinitive. Write enough of these so that each student in your classroom will receive at least three words. Write two identical groups of the same words in different colors so you and the students can tell them apart.
Step two - During class, instruct each student that they will be receiving at least three words. Tell them that you will be reading a sentence in either English or Spanish and they have to, along with their fellow classmates, put the sentence in the correct order at the front of the class. If the sentence is read in English, they have to translate it into Spanish to know where the words go. Typically, they place the words on the chalk tray at the front of the class. You want to make sure that the whole class can see the words from the back of the room.
Step three - Divide the students into two teams, based on the color of the cards they have. You stand at the back of the room and read the sentence in either Spanish or English and if a student has a card that was in your sentence, they move to the front of the room and work with their classmates to put the words in the right order. The first team to place the words in the correct order gets a point.
Step four - As a supplemental activity, or homework assignment, you can have the students translate the sentences that they formed during the activity in their notebooks or on a worksheet that you provide.
Students will learn Spanish sentence syntax as well as review vocabulary. They will focus in on the vocabulary words they have on their desks and will be practicing listening as the teacher calls out the sentences.
Circle Study
You will need - a number of objects to pass around and room to form a circle.
Step one - Have the vocabulary words that you are studying visible somewhere in the classroom. Have your students form a circle.
Step two - Instruct your students that they will be passing an object around the circle. The teacher starts by saying a vocabulary word in Spanish. The teacher then passes it to the right. The student who receives the object has to translate that word into English and then chooses a word in Spanish from the vocabulary list and passes the object to the right. That student who receives the object translates the Spanish word that the previous student said into English and then says another Spanish vocabulary word and passes the object to the right. This continues until the object reaches the teacher again.
Step three - Once your class has become good at using one object begin to use two, and then three objects. Experiment with switching, passing to the right with passing to the left.
Your students will fortify their understanding of the vocabulary and will practice their pronunciation with this exercise. They will also have a lot of fun.
This post is part of the series: Spanish Games
This is a great resource for Spanish teachers looking for great games!
