Teaching Spanish Online with Games and Stories.

Teaching Topics Using Stories

El Pato Quiere Uvas is a Picture Book that it’s funny and easy to understand. For all kids, from kindergarten to High-School.

Carlos es un pato irritante. Carlos quiere uvas. Va al puesto de limonada. En el puesto de limonada no hay uvas. Hay un chico que se llama Pablo y hay limonada.

Carlos will keep annoying Pablo for grapes until …

This story is ideal for kids learning Spanish. It has less than 100 different high-frequency words. It will make your kid proud and self-confident. It is based on the famous viral song “The Duck Song.”

Check it below:

Playing Games during Online Live Lessons

 Ideas For Live Lesson Games –  games that can be adapted for
Online Live Lessons

Whiteboard- draw some whiteboards on the screen – Ask students to write their names on it, ask questions and they have to write their answers on the board. You can divide them in groups or determine some partners. I also use a red box and blue box. Students will write their answers on the box for their team. All of them can write or you can specific numbers or names.

2. Fly Swatter- Play the fly swatter game by doing the following:
Have on the board pictures of the vocabulary.Divide students into 2 groups. Give them also numbers.Call number 1 from both teams.Call it in Spanish and students need to write their name (or place a smiley face with Initials)The team who got the word first (make sure you ask for a volunteer judge), gets a point.Then call the other numbers from the group.( You can also use words in Spanish, you say the word in English, and they have to make a circle,
etc. )

3. Find someone who You will have on the screen a table with
sentences such –
Soy alto, Me gusta la clase de matemáticas,
No me gusta comer chocolate (sentences related to your topic)

Divde the students into 2 groups.Give them numbers.
Call number 1s from both team. Number 1 from team A will ask a question such as: ¿Eres alto?
If student from team B says yes- Student A says: firma aquí.
Student B signs and student A mark a tally on the answer for
the team ( I normally divide into Azul y Rojo).Then Student
from team B asks a question: Te gusta …If student says no, no
point.Call the students number 2 now.

4. Webquest: Here, I divide the students into Azul y Rojo.
I create a question or task that they will need to find it online –
For example- Cómo se llama la madre de Shakira – I cover the
question with a square and uncover when it’s time for them to
answer.

I also have on my screen 2 squares- a blue and a red one.
Students will write their answers on the square corresponding
to their respective team.

I ask a student to volunteer to be the judge- who wrote the answer first.

Another student will be the score-keeper throughout the game.
You can have one question per slide or a bunch of questions.   

Another option is to have a table with many things they need to look for and divide the table into red and blue.Rojo:
Un actor gordo
Una actriz alta
Un cantante guapo
Un político de Texas
Azul
Una actriz gorda
Un actor alto
Una cantante bonita
Un político flaco
Students will write answer in the box.

5. Assembling- Creating- Drawing
Divide the students into two teams.Put them in rooms. Put the timer for 3 minutes.
Students will create according to the task –
For example, create a monster and write 6 descriptions- Es alto, es gordo, es rubio, tiene los ojos grande, tiene 6 orejas.
When they are back, team A will read their descriptions to team B.
Team B students will draw accordingly (use a timer).
Then, the team B will describe and team A draws.
Check, at the end, which team did a better job in less time. You can also judge the best sentences and descriptions to determine the points.

If you do not wish to separate them in Break-out rooms, just ask for
volunteers from each team, and give them one minute to think about a description.

Another option is for you to give the descriptions to both
teams at the same time and check which team got the best result.

6. Quién tiene – Who has
Divide students into groups.You will ask for item, such as: quién tiene
un lápiz, a pencil -Student needs to either a: appear on video showing
the item and saying the sentence: Yo tengo. / b. Taking a picture and
posting it on the board.

An option is to have them search online for pictures- Quién tiene una mochila roja – Students search online and post picture on the board.
This game is good to practice the direct object- Yo lo tengo. Yo la tengo. Etc.

7. Jeopardy
To prepare a Jeopardy game, just create the questions on PowerPoint – using table – then cover the questions with squares with the values 100, 200, etc.Divide the students into groups.
Different students from the same groups answer questions.

8. Pictionary
Divide students into 2 teams.
Students from team A will try to guess the words one student from the
team A is drawing.
Send the words to the student who will be drawing through chatbox.
Set the timer for 1 minute.
The student starts drawing and students write on the board what they
think he/she is drawing.  
When he/she sees the word, he/she will say: Correcto, and then go to
the next drawing. Count how many right words they got in a minute.
Now, repeat it with team B.

9. Completing a task:

Divide students into 2 breakout rooms, or more, depending on how
many students you have.
Have a page with instructions and copy it to the break out rooms.
Give a budget and a list of products or a website.
For example: Students need to plan a Quinceañera for Marisa.
They have to plan her party (including vocabulary words learned)
within a certain budget.
You can have a page with the item and they decide which ones they should get or eliminated.
Also have some basic sentences they can use to communicate in
Spanish (teachers should try to get to the groups to check if they are trying to communicate mostly in Spanish).

If you prefer, you can just let them search for a list of necessary item
online, and see which group will be able to get all of the item within
the budget. Students will need to write sentences such as:
Yo compro la ultima muñeca en www.   .
La muñeca cuesta ….
Other tasks:Build a family tree with celebrities or characters – but each person needs to be from a different Hispanic country.
Buy the necessary ingredients for a recipe.
Plan a trip to a certain city – list 5 places one must go and restaurants
they should visit.
Plan a summer/winter camp and list the activities your camp would
offer- in Spanish.
Buy clothes to a trip considering the weather. For example – Vas a Argentina en Julio – Cual es la estación,cómo es el clima, que ropas necesitas llevar.
Plan what gifts should …………………… buy to ……………
Create a simulation.
Maybe it is a famous couple, and the woman is mad at the guy for some reason, what should he buy to her – Write the sentences using dar+ indirect object.

10. Musical Chair   
Have a slide with chairs on it. Make sure to have one less chairs than
students ( place the chairs on your clipart collection).
Put a song, and ask a question.
Students will write their answers in one chair.
Only one answer in each chair.
The last student to write the answer is out.
This student now can volunteer to ask a question based on the topic.
Questions should be personal so they don’t copy from each other – For example- ¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?

11. Verdad o Mentira
 On your screen write 4 sentences, some are verdad (the truth) and some are lies (mentira). Try to use the vocabulary from the lesson –
Me gusta, Tengo, Mi casa es, etc.
Students will vote if the sentence is a lie or is a true statement by
polling- green check – the truth, red “x”- it’s a lie.
After the vote, you let student know.
Now, you will have a screen with white squares,
students will volunteer to write their 4 sentences.

12. Matching with questions
Create a table with matching words
(English- Spanish/ Spanish-pictures)
Also in one of the squares include a question ( For example- Te gusta la clase de matemáticas) 
Cover the squares with a square made in Blackboard.
Students will get points for matching and also for answering questions.
Normally, I divide students in groups and ask for a volunteer to keep
score.

13. Quién soy yo –
Ask students to get a picture of a celebrity or character.
Student will place the picture on the whiteboard.
Students will try to guess who picked which celebrity by asking yes/no questions.
For example – Maria asks Pedro- Are you a singer?
(Pedro is Alex Baldwin), so Pedro will say no, so Maria knows Pedro
can’t be Rick Martins or Shakira.

You can share with them a graphic organizer – a table where they can
put the name of the students (column) and name of celebrities (rows)
to help them discover who picked whom.

Have some examples of questions on the screen using the vocabulary and structure you want them to practice.

Another option is to ask them to put their own pictures.