In my Spanish classroom we call this ¡Pasa la pelota! (pass the ball... much like hot potato).
Procedure:
1. I group students into two teams (or more if you want)
2. Students pass the designated items (balls, stuffed animals, koosh balls, etc) while music from the target culture is playing.
3. When the music stops, the student with the ball must stand up and compete against the other team for points.
4. I usually use powerpoint with pictures of a vocabulary word and show this to the class on the projector.
5. The first student to correctly identify the word in Spanish gets a point for their team.
6. Repeat
Helpful hints: I have students pass the ball in order so they don't get too out of control. Also with the power point, I mute the screen (turn it to black) until students are ready to answer the question. When they are ready, I unmute it with a new picture up on the screen.
Adaptations: You can also use this without pictures and say (sign) the word for students to correctly interpret.
Whiteboard Activities (VS/Sarah Naranjo)
The following vocabulary activities came from a fellow German colleague. They can be done on small whiteboards.
1) Find the sentence
-Write 10 sentences on board that depict a scene from something (weather, story, movie, etc).
-Students read sentences and choose 1 sentence and draw the picture on their whiteboard
-Students walk around sharing pictures with others, and others should guess which sentence the picture is depicting.
-If student guesses correctly, they should write their initials on bottom of person’s white board.
2) Am I Lying ? (can use tenses here)
-Write on the board 3 or 4 different topics: Four things I did yesterday, 4 things I do at home, 4 things I want to do in future
-Start with the first topic and write 4 things on the whiteboard. One of them should be a lie.
-They should find a partner and partners guess which one is a lie.
-Then start on the 2nd topic.
3) Can you identify me? (uses adjectives)
-Students write 6 adjectives or activities that describe themselves on whiteboards.
-5 volunteers go out in hall and exchange boards with one another.
-The rest of the class tries to guess which whiteboard belongs to whom.
4) Storytelling (one of my favorites)
-Split students into groups of 4.
-Each student draws a pictures of their own choosing on their board.
-Once the pictures are drawn, the group works together to make up a story in the language based on the pictures.
-Exchange white boards with another group and use their 4 boards to make up another story.
5) Row Conjugation practice (any tense) or spelling practice
-Students should be in groups of 6.
-Write pronouns on whiteboard.
-Each person conjugates one and passes it on until it’s complete. First group done with correct conjugations gets a point.
6) Unscramble the word (can be done in groups or whole class)
-Come up with 5 sets of 5 scrambled vocab words in language.
-Show first set and students race to be first to unscramble the set on their whiteboards.
-Repeat with other sets.
7) Pictionary (team Pictionary) - one of my favorites
-Divide into groups of 4.
-Create 4-7 rounds of pictionary, each round having 5-6 words students draw.
-A student from each team comes up and I show them the word.
-They go back to team and draw it.
-Once someone guesses it they come and tell me the word they just guessed. If they get it right, I give them the next word.
-This is fun because all teams are playing potentially at different paces and are on different words.
-This game gets wild, so I subtract a point if I hear any English. It works well.
8) No name for this one
-Come up with a list of 15 questions.
-Have students be in groups of 4-6.
-Ask whole class one question. They all write the answer on their boards.
-Call on a group at random. All members should hold up their whiteboard.
-The team gets one point for every member with the correct answer on the board.
-Be sure to call on each group an equal number of times.
9) Outburst
-Divide class into groups of 4.
-Each group of 4 divides into pairs of 2.
-Assign each group a category.
-Then they write as many words as they can think of in that catetory.
-Pairs then combine into their group of 4.
-The first pair tells the other pair the category.
-The other pair needs to guess all they can from the category.
-The first pair crosses off the ones they have guessed from their boards as they go.
-Then the other team goes.
Signo-Bingo (DK)
This is a small group activity. One student is the 'caller/signer'. This is 6 small bingo games with just a strip of 5 vocabulary combinations that each student fills in from the choices listed.
Matamoscas (JP)
This is a class activity to review verb forms and vocabulary that is new. Write all of the vocabulary on the whiteboard in different colors and at different angles. Divide the class into teams. Each team sends up a representative to play. They must find the correct word/verb on the board based on description or direct translation. This can also be used with pictures. The first student to swat the correct word and say it correctly wins a point for their team.
Hot Potato (JP)
In my Spanish classroom we call this ¡Pasa la pelota! (pass the ball... much like hot potato).Procedure:
1. I group students into two teams (or more if you want)
2. Students pass the designated items (balls, stuffed animals, koosh balls, etc) while music from the target culture is playing.
3. When the music stops, the student with the ball must stand up and compete against the other team for points.
4. I usually use powerpoint with pictures of a vocabulary word and show this to the class on the projector.
5. The first student to correctly identify the word in Spanish gets a point for their team.
6. Repeat
Helpful hints: I have students pass the ball in order so they don't get too out of control. Also with the power point, I mute the screen (turn it to black) until students are ready to answer the question. When they are ready, I unmute it with a new picture up on the screen.
Adaptations: You can also use this without pictures and say (sign) the word for students to correctly interpret.
Whiteboard Activities (VS/Sarah Naranjo)
The following vocabulary activities came from a fellow German colleague. They can be done on small whiteboards.1) Find the sentence
-Write 10 sentences on board that depict a scene from something (weather, story, movie, etc).-Students read sentences and choose 1 sentence and draw the picture on their whiteboard
-Students walk around sharing pictures with others, and others should guess which sentence the picture is depicting.
-If student guesses correctly, they should write their initials on bottom of person’s white board.
2) Am I Lying ? (can use tenses here)
-Write on the board 3 or 4 different topics: Four things I did yesterday, 4 things I do at home, 4 things I want to do in future-Start with the first topic and write 4 things on the whiteboard. One of them should be a lie.
-They should find a partner and partners guess which one is a lie.
-Then start on the 2nd topic.
3) Can you identify me? (uses adjectives)
-Students write 6 adjectives or activities that describe themselves on whiteboards.-5 volunteers go out in hall and exchange boards with one another.
-The rest of the class tries to guess which whiteboard belongs to whom.
4) Storytelling (one of my favorites)
-Split students into groups of 4.-Each student draws a pictures of their own choosing on their board.
-Once the pictures are drawn, the group works together to make up a story in the language based on the pictures.
-Exchange white boards with another group and use their 4 boards to make up another story.
5) Row Conjugation practice (any tense) or spelling practice
-Students should be in groups of 6.-Write pronouns on whiteboard.
-Each person conjugates one and passes it on until it’s complete. First group done with correct conjugations gets a point.
6) Unscramble the word (can be done in groups or whole class)
-Come up with 5 sets of 5 scrambled vocab words in language.-Show first set and students race to be first to unscramble the set on their whiteboards.
-Repeat with other sets.
7) Pictionary (team Pictionary) - one of my favorites
-Divide into groups of 4.-Create 4-7 rounds of pictionary, each round having 5-6 words students draw.
-A student from each team comes up and I show them the word.
-They go back to team and draw it.
-Once someone guesses it they come and tell me the word they just guessed. If they get it right, I give them the next word.
-This is fun because all teams are playing potentially at different paces and are on different words.
-This game gets wild, so I subtract a point if I hear any English. It works well.
8) No name for this one
-Come up with a list of 15 questions.-Have students be in groups of 4-6.
-Ask whole class one question. They all write the answer on their boards.
-Call on a group at random. All members should hold up their whiteboard.
-The team gets one point for every member with the correct answer on the board.
-Be sure to call on each group an equal number of times.
9) Outburst
-Divide class into groups of 4.-Each group of 4 divides into pairs of 2.
-Assign each group a category.
-Then they write as many words as they can think of in that catetory.
-Pairs then combine into their group of 4.
-The first pair tells the other pair the category.
-The other pair needs to guess all they can from the category.
-The first pair crosses off the ones they have guessed from their boards as they go.
-Then the other team goes.
Signo-Bingo (DK)
This is a small group activity. One student is the 'caller/signer'. This is 6 small bingo games with just a strip of 5 vocabulary combinations that each student fills in from the choices listed.
Matamoscas (JP)
This is a class activity to review verb forms and vocabulary that is new. Write all of the vocabulary on the whiteboard in different colors and at different angles. Divide the class into teams. Each team sends up a representative to play. They must find the correct word/verb on the board based on description or direct translation. This can also be used with pictures. The first student to swat the correct word and say it correctly wins a point for their team.