3 Interactive, Hands-On Activities for Spanish Class that Grab (And Keep!) Students’ Attention!

Humor me for a minute – close your eyes and picture your ideal lesson.  Are your students interpreting Spanish?  Are they creating with the language?  Is everyone actively engaged and participating in your activity?  Are all class members (including you!) having fun?

Now, I’m sure you answered “YES!” to all those questions 😀 We want all our students to be using Spanish, developing their skills while enjoying class as much as possible.  After all, students who like class activities are more likely to participate, and increase their language proficiency levels as a result!  So today, I wanted to share with you three of my all-time favorite interactive, hands-on activities that will engage even your most reluctant students! 

I love scrambled sentence puzzles so much that I incorporate them into every single unit that I teach for Spanish 1-3!  Full disclosure: there is some prep work required at the beginning, but once you have your puzzles made, you’ll have them for years to come!

Making scrambled sentences puzzles is easy, if a bit time-consuming – all you have to do is write some (6-9) sentences in Spanish pertaining to the topic you’re studying.  The sentences can be as simple or complex as you like, as appropriate for your students!  Then, you type them up in large font, print as many sets as you’ll need for your class, laminate them, and cut out each individual word.  Pro tip: Print each set on different color card stock.  This will help keep you organized!  Place each set of mixed-up sentences into a plastic baggie or an envelope for safe-keeping.

In my classroom, this is a group activity – I think groups of 3 are ideal, but you can make this work with groups of 2 or 4 as well.  When you are ready to have your students do the activity, have groups put their desks together (if they do not already sit in groups) so that they have a large surface area to work with, or have them sit on the floor so they can spread out.  Students should open the plastic baggies or envelopes and get out all of the words they’ll use to form their sentences.  Then, it is their job to unscramble the sentences you wrote and put them back together!

One of the reasons I love this activity so much is that, as students work together with their groups, you’ll see them reason together why sentences are right or wrong.  For example, if you’re studying family and adjectives, one student in a group could put this together: “Mi hija es alto.”  However, another group member will likely point out that “alto” will not work because “mi hija” es a girl, and so another adjective needs to be used.  This reinforces the concept of adjective agreement and you’ll be able to see your students’ ability to apply what they’re learning!

Variation: Sometimes, especially in lower-level classes, I don’t have my students unscramble all the sentences.  I might ask them to come up with 3-4 awesome sentences using whatever they find in the baggie.  This is a nice confidence booster for novice-level students as they see that they can create with the language!  Students also like this variation because they like to see who can come up with the funniest or most original sentences.

Possible Extension Activities: If students finish quickly or just need an additional challenge, you can have them write their own original, corresponding follow-up sentences or questions.  For example, if you’re doing family and adjectives and the sentence is, “Mis hermanos menores son graciosos y simpáticos,” students could write back with something like, “¡Qué guay!  Nuestros hermanos son simpáticos también, pero son tímidos.” or, “¡Qué interesante! ¿Y cómo son tus padres?”  

When all groups are finished, you could have groups circulate throughout the room and read the sentences that the other groups created with the cards.  Have them evaluate what they saw with Post-It notes: what is one really good sentence and why, and what is one mistake that the group made?

Finally, for a bit of fun, you could have students illustrate their sentences, especially sillier ones – my students have a lot of fun with this!  This is a great way for novice-level students to show understanding of what they read, too!  

Task cards are my #2 favorite interactive activity because my students love them and there are SO MANY different ways to use them!  If you have never used task cards before, they are easy to make!  Basically, you take an index card and write a question or prompt on it that is related to the topic you’re studying.  That’s all!  If you want, you can also type them and print them out – this is a great option if you want to add images, but don’t want to draw them yourself!  I recommend numbering your task cards – this is helpful for organizational and review purposes!

Once you’ve made all your cards (I think 30-40 is a good number), the possibilities are endless!  Here are some ways I like to use task cards with my students:

• Greet students at the door to begin class.  Show each student a task card from the stack, which they will need to answer.  After they answer correctly, they can go inside!

• Hang task cards up around your classroom or in the hallway outside your classroom.  Have students move around and write down the answers to the questions.  You can make it so that different students have different questions to answer at certain times (for example, boys answer odd numbers and girls answer even numbers, then have them switch after a set amount of time) – this can help avoid crowding at the cards.

• Put students in pairs.  Divide up your task cards and distribute a few to each pair.  Students should hold up a card for their partner to answer.  (For this, is it helpful if you have the answer, or if it is an open-ended question, the way the answer could be structured, on the back or on a separate sheet of paper, so that students can be sure their partners are responding correctly.)

• Tape the task cards to your board to make a Jeopardy-style trivia game.  Assign each card a points value.  Divide students into teams, and then have students come up to the board and take a card to earn points for their teams.  This is a fun way to review before a test or quiz!    

• Give each student a task card to answer as an exit ticket at the end of the class period.  This provides great formative assessment data to you, so you can see what your students understand well and where they might need additional support! 

I also have digital task cards available for Google Slides or through Boom Learning if that better suits your needs!

My students LOVE to be creative and incorporating projects has been a great way to provide these opportunities for them.  I have found that students like being in control of how they want to use the language, and some of their best work has been while completing a unit project!

Note: I do not assign projects outside of class time.  This is because I want my students to turn to me with questions, not Google, their older sibling who took my class three years ago, or their neighbor who takes college-level Spanish.  I have found that making projects in-class-only assignments has produced the best, most authentic, and most original results.

So, what do you need for a good project?  The good news is that it’s not a lot: just a set of instructions outlining what you want your students to do, and a rubric or checklist that tells students how you are going to assess them.  Once you have these in place, the students will do the heavy lifting!

When coming up with my ideas for my unit projects, I ask myself how my students would use the material we’re studying in a real-life scenario, and try to create a project that gives students the chance to use Spanish in a similar way.  When we study the preterite vs. the imperfect, I have my students write a children’s story in which they will use these two tenses to narrate past events.  In real-world settings, students would have to understand the difference between these tenses when telling a story to others, and so this project mimics this task and helps improve students’ abilities to use these tenses to communicate outside of the classroom.   

I also look for ways to make the projects personal, so that students will connect with them. For example, when we study the imperfect tense, I have my students create a slideshow about their childhoods: what they used to be like, what they used to do, etc.  Students really enjoy reminiscing about the things they used to do, the toys they used to play with, and the places they used to go.  During the presentations, they love seeing their classmates’ baby pictures or seeing the similarities and differences between themselves and their peers.

What should you include in your rubric?  Well, that’s totally up to you!  Ask yourself what you really want your students to show you by completing this project, and put those points on the rubric.  Do you want them to use certain themed vocabulary?  Add it to the rubric!  How about checking for a grammar point your studying?  Make it another category!  How about comprehensibility or fluidity of language?  Category #3!  Task completion or group processes (if applicable)?  Definitely!  You could also use proficiency-based rubrics for presentational speaking and/or writing, depending on your project – I think the AP rubrics are worded well, and they can be used in all levels.  All you have to do is remember that “appropriate” looks different in Spanish I vs. Spanish III vs. AP Spanish, and with that in mind, the AP rubrics can be used across the board – but that’s another post for another day!

Here is a FREE project on family to try out in your classroom!

Thank you for reading, profe!  If you have tried any of these ideas, I would love to know how it went for you!  Have a wonderful week!