Manipulativos

I like to make activities once in awhile that get the kids sitting around in groups together and playing a game to practice their vocabulary or their grammar.  This particular activity calls upon them to put the words of a sentence in order - including the object or reflexive pronoun.  And, since there are two verbs in the sentence, there are two places that pronoun can go.  Pronoun placement always seems to be a bear, but this activity takes the drudgery out of it.

Once the students correctly put together Mis amigos me van a comprar un regalo,  I then ask them to move the word me to the other correct place it can go in the sentence.  (They overlap the cards to show that the pronoun is attached.)

I will not lie to you; this activity takes some time to set up.  But once you have made it, you can keep the cards in envelopes and save them for the next time you teach pronoun placement.  Our school requires that students complete at least 100 hours of community service to graduate, so I always have willing volunteers to cut, copy, staple, and fold!

Materials

• Heavy card stock in various colors
• Small envelopes
• Scissors
• Printer

Steps

• Write the sentences, making sure to include pronouns which can change positions in the sentence.  (I strongly recommend that you use the current vocabulary when you write the sentences so that you are killing two birds with one stone.)
• Type the words in a document using the Tables feature.  Copy the same sentence on the paper over and over on the same sheet, depending on the number of card sets you want to create.
• Repeat with the second sentence . . . third, fourth, etc.  (I don't recommend more than 6-8 sentences or the game starts to get tedious.)
• Print the sentence cards onto paper and use a copy machine to transfer them to heavy card stock.
• Cut them out, sort them into groups, and put them in the envelopes.
• Have fun! 

Make sure each sentence gets its own unique color or the students will have no way to tell which cards go together and they are likely to become extremely frustrated.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK