Juego Divertido

I was thinking that I was some sort of game theory genius yesterday.  I had made up a vocabulary review game and my students loved it.  They got into it so much that I was worried that their enthusiasm was interrupting the class on the other side of the wall from us.  Then I shared the idea with my daughter (who is in Spanish III with another teacher) and she responds nonchalantly, "Oh yeah, we play a game like that in Ms. B's class."

Seriously?

Since the game was such a hit with Spanish II yesterday, I decide to play it today with Spanish IV and see if it is a success with them too.  And indeed it was!  Then a student comments to me, "We used to play a game just like this in Ms. C's room."

Wow.  So I'm not the genius that I thought I was, sadly. 

How is it that all these great games are out there and we aren't telling each other about them?  I'm guessing that our schedules as teachers are so full that we don't have ample time to sit down and discuss methods and techniques with one another.  Or perhaps we figure that our colleagues already have the same tools in their toolboxes that we do?  Regardless of the reasons, sharing knowledge and inspiration is the reason for this blog so I'm going to tell you about this original vocabulary review game so your students can have the same fun that mine did.

 The premise is simple; students race each other to recognize the vocabulary first on a paper filled with vocabulary words.  The first student to find the correct vocabulary term on the sheet colors it in with their marker.

With advanced students you can define the vocabulary term for them in Spanish and let them look for it on the sheet.   With intermediate-low students you can give hints, or opposites as clues.  With beginners you might just have to call out the words in English and let them look for the Spanish.  The game great fun, regardless.  All my classes gave it a thumbs-up.

One caveat to my fellow teachers of teens - the game gets intense as students are competing head-to-head.  So you will want to set some norms ahead of time.  ("No stabbing each other with markers" is a good one, I discovered.  *smile*)

Because I am so grateful for my followers and my visitors, I'm creating one for you to use in your classroom.  Click here to download it or click the picture above.  I put the nationalities vocabulary on this game because that is something that we will all find useful for beginning students (or as a review for more advanced speakers).  There are two copies of the same activity on the sheet, so copy them and cut them in half.  Save paper!  Or save more paper by laminating them and giving the students dry erase markers to play.  Then you can use them again and again.  (You could also put them in page protectors and use dry erase markers.)

For an extra challenge, call out the capitals of the countries and have the students find the nationalities that correspond.  Or simply call out the name of the country, but make sure to have fun with it, amigos!

Hasta la próxima,

--AnneK