Summer vacation is fast approaching and it's always about this time of the year that I have a little bitty panic attack that is accompanied by this track playing in my head, "But they will be gone for weeks! And they won't practice Spanish at all. They will come back next year and we'll have to spend the first three weeks just reviewing and then we will be behind before we even begin."
Does that sound familiar to you? I don't know if your mental gremlins torment you with such thoughts or not, but keeping our students involved in Spanish over the summer can be a challenge. It's even more of a challenge when they are going on to another teacher next year and we can't offer credit for work they accomplish over the summer.
So what is the answer? In a word: fun! Make the "work" into something fun and you might spark their enthusiasm. Coming up with a
fun summer packet is a challenge that I assigned myself a few weeks ago. It was a bigger task than I thought at first. I wanted to review typical Spanish I topics such as clothing, colors, likes and dislikes, foods . . . and some of the functions of the language such as present tense, adjective agreement, reading and listening comprehension . . . It was a lot to think about and I didn't want to make a worksheet packet.
I decided to make summer the theme of the packet. I loaded it full of fun vocabulary related to summertime excitement - grilling, swimming, bike riding, playing sports, and going to the beach. Then I used color and entertaining activities to get student attention and get them interacting with the vocabulary. Finally I added in multimedia - music, games, a virtual tour, and video. I think it's a winning combination.
The level is for students who have finished Spanish I and are getting ready to go on to Spanish II. The focus is fun and review, but the rigor is not especially high because at home there is no teacher scaffolding or feedback.
It's 20 pages of student motivation and teacher peace of mind. (Okay, I might exaggerate just a bit. But it is definitely
a good packet!)
The summer fun packet is temporarily $5 over at my
Teachers Pay Teachers store. And if you email me and tell me you bought it, I might just have a special gift for you. (My name is AnneKarakash and I am at gmail.com. Put the two together and you have my email address.)
Thank you for reading, amigos. Have a brilliant summer!
Hasta pronto,
--AnneK
2 comments :
This is a fabulous resource, Anne! I actually bought it before you posted it on your blog and it is my go to resource for the last couple of weeks of school. Once again, congratulations on such thorough, well-organized and attractive materials! We are getting lots of great communication opportunities from of Verano :)
Michelle
Michelle, I am so happy to hear this! I put weeks of work into the packet and worked hard on the little details (like the ants at the picnic, for example) because I felt like it would bring it to life and make it fun. I am delighted to hear that you like it and I hope your students are having fun with the material too.
If you get a chance to leave a review over at TPT I would be immensely grateful. Those reviews and upclicks make a big difference when people are searching for something to buy. <3
If you want to send me an email, I will send along a little something to you as a thank you.
~hugs~
--AnneK
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