Listing Activities for the Language Classroom

Many times the simplest, no-frills activities are just the best! Use simple LISTING ACTIVITIES for Spanish, French, or any foreign language class. I racked my brain today to come up with fun final exam review activities for my high school Spanish students.  High-tech, low-tech, nothing came. At this time of the year, the well is parched.  Then LISTING activities and contests popped in to my mind. If you use target language prompts and questions then students won’t need to fall back on their native language at all.

Students are to make speedy-lists: on paper, on a mini white board, in pairs, groups, or class teams for the front board. Use a timer to see who can list the quickest for contests.  Or, the lister who comes up with the first 3,5, 7, etc. wins. They love the excitement of some time pressure and a contest.   Check out this cheat-sheet of  Listing Activities.

Vocabulary

What do you put in? book-bag, a class schedule, school supply shopping cart, grocery cart, mall shopping bag, suit-case, etc.   Use this target language prompt.

Where do you go on . . . ? weekends, school days, nights, the summer, Spring Break, etc.

What do you wear . . . ? seasons, occasions, etc.

Actions- Verb Phrases

What do you do in . . ? seasons, school, home, part, mall, etc.

What do you do at 1 o’clock, 5 o’clock, etc?

How do you . . . ? get to (directions), make, create, play, etc.

Content

• Characters from a literary work or story.
• Scenes.
• Conflicts.
• Dates.

• Important People.
• Cities
• Continents
• Geography

It’s 6 de mayo, but I’m going to do some Cinco de Mayo activities tomorrow in my Spanish classes.  The name and the date of Cinco de Mayo are so familiar to students, but be sure to tell them it is not Mexican Independence Day and that celebration is on the 16th of September. Cinco de Mayo is still fun and a great excuse to bring in Mexican geography, history- The Battle of Puebla- and culture in to your classes. I’m a lover of content based lessons and activities so I take Cinco as another fun opportunity to do content lessons for all levels. But, if you don’t have the time, use a Cinco de Mayo activity as a warm up or as the class-closer or reward.

To Do’s

• Project a map of Mexico and teach geography basics and the location of the Battle of Puebla
• Practice Days, months, dates and years.  Birthdays are great lead- in to the dates of Mexican history
• Plan a virtual Cinco de Mayo fiesta with an invitation, a list of foods, decorations, music, and dancing. Bring clothing in too.
• For more advanced students, bring in Mexican history internet summaries
• For more advanced students, do a lesson on the French influence on Mexican history and culture

Click here to download our work-in-progress:  Language Learning Apps.  We haven’t even scratched the surface of  all the apps we like/recommend, but we wanted to share the draft anyway.  We’d also love your help.  What other apps belong on this list?  How else can we categorize them?  We will share the finished product on our website and as a download at no cost when it’s done.  Thanks for your help!

p.s.  May is a crazy month, but I really want to get a nice resource together for my students before the end of the school year so that they can practice their language over the summer.  That’s why some of the descriptions of apps are aimed at student learners.

Earth Day is almost here and it is one of our favorites for bringing Content and Culture in to our Spanish and French classes.Teach simple content about the planet Earth on April 22. Review the weather, some simple world geography, and introduce the easy verbs for Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.  For our young learners here are some coloring sheets 

Free French Earth Day Coloring Sheet, Free Spanish Earth Day Coloring Sheet.  And for the older set in grades 6-12 here are some word searches.  French Earth Day, and Spanish Earth DAy

Here are some useful vocabulary words for teaching about the Earth in English-French-Spanish:

Earth – la Terre – la Tierra

globe – le globe – el globo

planet – la planète – el planeta

land – la terre – la tierra

water – l’eau – el agua

sky – le ciel – el cielo

blue – bleu – azul

green – vert – verde

brown – brun/marron - café

I (Diane) cannot imagine teaching without my inflatable globe ball.  It’s perfect for rolling, tossing, identifying land, water, continents, countries, cities, and more.  If you know of some great globe games, I’d love to hear from you!

Video Sources for Language Classes

Here is a time saver! Sourcing and then “qualifiying” videos for our classes takes far too much time. For Levels 1 and 2, full-throttle authentic videos can be used carefully, but the native pace target language can be overwhelming to novices.

BBC and LAITS  Videos

Have you used the BBC language  videos for your novices? The BBC has French, German, Italian, Spanish and Chinese video programs for free. They have some interactive activities and my high-schoolers loved them. For Spanish teachers the LAITS videos from Texas are excellent. The program offers four different sets of videos based on language proficiency. The videos are monologues of  native speakers describing a high-frequency topic. And, subtitles in both English and Spanish are available. The text or scripts of the videos are available too.

Bringing the Target Culture into Class- For Real

I want to include more Culture in my Spanish classes. So, why don’t I? There is always the unit, curriculum, and then the assessment freight train we’re all on that makes me feel like I “don’t have enough time.” I’m getting over that excuse; my 4th quarter resolution is to bring in culture somehow, some way each class in a natural, relaxed, and uncontrived way.  I teach high school, and high-schoolers can smell contrived a mile away.

Our Own Experiences in the Target Cultures

Why did you become a Spanish, French, or German teacher?  When posed this question at a faculty meeting this morning my department chair told me about how much she loved her cool Spanish teacher who consistently talked about all of her travels, brought in realia, and zany stories too. I have always loved Mexican culture, art, folk art and people and communicating and relating in Spanish. So why not bring it all in to class?

Ways to Bring in Culture to your Classes

• Project scary, dated photos of yourself in the target countries. The older the photos, the more students like them.
• Project photos of cultural monuments and building related to your unit of study. I projected images of the Gran Mezquita in Córdoba, España since mezquita is a vocabulary word in our unit. I also showed a photo of me in front of it.
• Bring in folk art or collectibles; I display my alebrijes (colorful fantasy animals)  from Oaxaca, Mexico.
• Tell stories about your travel and experiences in as much target language as you can get away with.
• Postcards are fantastic to pass around.  Laminate them for wear and tear.
• Show a target language weather forecast at least once a week as a warm up. So much to be mined here. Rotate countries.
• Show a target language recipe-video for an authentic dish. This can spiral in to some country information and facts.

 Easter is a Cultural Smorgasbord for Spanish, French, and most western language classes, so pick and choose the Easter tradition. Most Spanish speaking countries shut down for Easter week- the week before Easter Sunday since there are parades, family gatherings, and religious services. Here are some links to sites and videos that you can use as a quick warm-up. *Even beginners benefit from hearing about the target cultures in the target language.

Spanish Easter Week- La Semana Santa
Semana Santa Daily Schedule of Events in Spanish

Semana Santa en Mexico

French Easter-Paques

French Easter

Free French Easter Slideshow

Conversational Activities to Follow the Sites, Videos, and Slide-shows

• Cultural Comparisons. It is always fun to do a cultural comparison between American and the target culture with a Venn Diagram, and then some simple descriptive sentences . . all in the Target Language of course.
• Preferences: What do you like about American Easter?  What do you like about Hispanic or French Easter?  Which Easter do you prefer? Why?
• Family Traditions.  What does your family do (or not)  for Easter? What do you eat? What is your favorite tradition?

Here are a couple of FREE EASTER ACTIVITIES.  Enjoy.  Spanish Easter Activity.  Free French Activity.

We are huge fans of the Hunger Games book and movie.   We are also huge fans of getting our students talking in the target language.

You can bet that the new Hunger Games movie will be a major topic of conversation for teens this week.  Encourage your French and Spanish classes to talk about it in class.  This can be accomplished even with novices.  Consider questions such as:

Did you see the movie?  When?  At what time? Did you read the book?  Why or why not? Do you like the Hunger Games?  Why or why not? What kinds of books/movies do you like?  What is your favorite book or movie? Do you prefer the book or the movie? Where is Panem? Describe Katniss.  Compare Katniss and Prim. How old is Katniss?  How old is Prim? Do you prefer Gale or Peeta?  Why? Who is your favorite character?  Why?  Describe him or her.

We tried to include questions that will allow students who did not see the movie or read the book to still have something to say.

We like to pair students for Q & A with each other before talking with the full class.

We found Wikipedia to be a nice resource for background information if you choose to develop the theme further.  Click here for French and here for Spanish.  Here’s an excellent site in French.   You can create matching activities for characters/descriptions.  The French Wikipedia page includes a nice list of the districts and what they produce–great vocabulary building!  The story synopsis can also be turned into a timely reading comprehension activity.

CLICK HERE FOR FREE DOWNLOADABLE FRENCH HUNGER GAMES CLASSROOM CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES.

CLICK HERE FOR FREE DOWNLOADABLE SPANISH HUNGER GAMES CLASSROOM CONVERSATIONAL ACTIVITIES.

For advanced students (or teachers!), the books are available in both French and Spanish. Click the images below for ordering info.

The following clip in Spanish is announcing the release of the trailer.  Not quite as timely, but great listening practice:

Click here to watch the movie trailer in Spanish.

Click here to watch the Hunger Games trailer en français.

Here are some of our other general products that can reinforce or support some of the basic content:

Have a great week teaching and . . . “May the odds be ever in your favor.”

Diane & Catherine

P.S.  Do you know some great resources in French or Spanish for the Hunger Games?  Video clips, interviews, articles, etc?  Please comment and share.

Card games are a fun, hands-on way to get all of your students talking in the target language. Diane learned this “1-2-3″ game from her Quebecois host family many years ago. I have wonderful memories of laughing around the kitchen table . . . now that’s how language is quickly learned and acquired!

The following directions are from our Middle School Madness games and activities guide.   We wrote it like a cookbook, so you’ll see the Ingredients, Serving Size, Time and Method necessary for a successful language-learning recipe!

Our ad for magazines, conference brochures, etc.!  It hasn’t been printed lately.  Where should we advertise?