Spring into Spanish Verbs!

Spring into Spanish Verbs

It is spring time, my favorite season on the year! This is the time when the flowers start to bloom and the leaves on the trees start to grow back.  I truly enjoy spring weather in general. 

So here is something I thought of to help older students learn Spanish verbs in a fun way. This activity is appropriate for grades four and up.

So here is what I did:

I drew these flowers, colored and cut them. After, I wrote on each flower stem a Spanish verb. These verbs have endings in “ar, er, and ir. 

I use these little cute clay pots to classify the Spanish verbs according to their endings. I labeled each clay pot with a verb ending as shown in the picture below. 

Then place each flower in the correct clay pot. See picture below.

Once all the flowers are in the clay pot have one student at a time come up and pick a verb from any of the clay pots. The rest of the students should not know which verb was picked out. The student with the verb will then act the verb out (no words should be said) for the group to guess and once they group figures it out they should say the verb in Spanish. 

This game will work well also by dividing the group in two teams (or more if you prefer) the first theme that guesses correctly by saying the correct verb in Spanish wins a point. The team with the most points wins.

This game is useful for assessing the student’s knowledge in Spanish verbs. It evaluates reading and comprehension. By acting out the verb it helps to further internalize its meaning. Students will have fun as they attempt to act out the verbs. Be prepared for lots of laughter and fun!

Another activity or game that can be done is to have students pick a verb out and create a sentence in the present tense using first person singular. So for example if student picks out a verb that says; “bailar” student thinks of a sentence and could say for example: “yo bailo todos los días” (I dance everyday)

Another activity similar to the one above is to change from present tense to present progressive. So using the same example with “bailar” student creates a sentence using the present progressive form in the first & second person singular:“ estoy bailando” (I’m dancing); "Pedro está bailando" (Pedro is dancing) 

For this activity the "Spanish verbs task cards" will be excellent for practicing verbs in the present progressive. Will expand more on these in my next post. Keep tune :-)

Tips and recommendations:

To encourage and help students feel more comfortable acting out the verbs you could even start acting out several verbs for students to guess. Doing this will also serve as an example of what they will do. Students are more likely to participate in activities when their teacher is also actively participating. 
You can make your own flowers for this activity but if you would like to use the ones that are here on this post you can access it for free here. Print them out on card stock for firmness. There is a colored version and a black and white version. Just write the verbs on each stem. The small clay pots can be purchased at dollar stores. Then just cut a piece of paper and label each clay pot.

You can even have students color their own flowers and write the verbs on the stem.

These little cute clay pots can be displayed on your desk, by the window or any part of the classroom for students to have access to at any given moment or just for reviewing and practicing.
“Las acciones” and “Más acciones” are excellent for teaching the verbs.

As an extension to this activity you can have a student select verbs from the flash cards "Las Acciones" and "Más acciones" and say which actions they like doing. For example a student may pick out the verb: “caminar” the student can say “me gusta caminar” (I like to walk) in another opportunity with verbs they can say they actions they don’t like for example: “no me gusta correr” (I don’t like to run)

The ideas are endless. Create your games and activities. Your feedback, comments and your experience with your students or kids are welcomed! 

Have fun!

 To purchase Las acciones click here.

To purchase Más acciones click here.

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