Take your students to the computer lab for an hour to learn about Day of the Dead. Webquest guides students through important vocabulary and provides links to video links for students to observe Day of the Dead traditions and to respond with their own reflections. Lesson takes one class period to complete and is appropriate for level III or higher where students have some comprehension of Spanish.

This multi phase project works well for level II students or level I students during the second semester who are learning vocabulary associated with the house. Students must create a classified ad to sell their home, field questions from a prospective buyer on the phone(you) and design a dream home to be built with their lottery winnings. They must also advertise for a maid to keep their dream house clean. Directions for this lesson and grading rubric are in English, with possible phone interview questions in Spanish and French. Lesson is easily adapted to either language as well as German. Project contains written, spoken, listening components as well as one creative component that could be designed as a power point or on paper.

This is a kind of spooky little short story from Puerto Rico about a girl who has a crayfish stuck in her leg. (Magical Realism) It has a surprise ending and lots to talk about in how the characters treat each other. I taught this story in my Heritage Language Speakers class this year but it would also work well for a level IV or V class with older students who are willing to work through the vocabulary. My students enjoyed the story and creepy surprise ending.

This is a difficult concept for Spanish II students, and these notes and practices will take them through the process step by step. Positive TU commands are explained first followed by 50 practice examples that also address pronoun placement. Then Negative TU commands are presented with 50 more practice examples. Graphic organizer note outlines are great to introduce this concept or for students who need extra practice or a brush up.

Students studying identity or simply interested in recent current events will respond to this short 8 minute film on the topic of wearing the Hijab in school. Lesson includes link to video (there are a lot great free short films on this site) and questions for students to respond to as they view the short film. Writing prompt discusses the topic of mandatory dress codes in schools vs uniforms and provides opportunity to respond to a prompt in a persuasive paragraph. Lesson takes one class period to complete, but could easily be expanded to two. class periods for a discussion/debate after students have seen short and answered preliminary questions. Writing prompt can be completed in class or assigned as homework. This mini lesson is an excellent activity for a level V or Heritage Learner class preparing for the AP test.

This project works best for students who are completing French II or higher and have already had practice with partitive articles and passe compose verbs with AVOIR. Students prepare and demonstrate a recipe giving commands to a classmate to prepare their project step by step live in class. Hilarious project, especially when a student is randomly paired who has never cooked before. This project works best as a final assessment after a unit on food and incorporates their knowledge of past tense verbs, words of quantity, partitives, words of order and food vocabulary. Project takes several days to watch in class, you can see about 5 students per day in a regular class period, more if they are making sandwiches. Students will need time outside of class to write their presentations and you may wish to give them a day in class to proof their work and make corrections before they begin to memorize.

This little chart is great for episode one to introduce students to the characters. Students track what they know to be true about each character (professions, relationship) and what they observe to be their personality. At the end, students make quick predictions about what will happen next. This telenovela works great for Heritage Spanish students and fits neatly in one class period.

These are simple step by step notes on how to tell time in Spanish. Each section has practice examples for students to write time on the hour, half hour, quarter hours and random in between times. Page two has blank clock faces where students can practice writing times you read to them, and there is a partner practice where students can ask and answer times in Spanish speaking capital cities. Four pages total to practice telling time reading, writing, listening and speaking. This lesson is best suited for students that are just beginning telling time, or for those students in 2nd year re-visiting the topic for a day to brush up their skills.

This worksheet is designed to be follow up examples to my other lesson on Direct Object pronouns. Two pages of examples look at DOP usage in 1 and 2 verb sentences, answering questions using DOP's and managing DOP's with Tu commands in positive and negative. This works well for extra practice or as a warm up/review activity for level III or higher.

This powerpoint uses emoticons to introduce students to many of the emotions that are used with ESTAR. There are also slides of easy situations where students can express a reaction to how they would feel and a bunch of clip art and photo slides of different people they can describe with ESTAR and feelings vocabulary. 27 slides total.

These are clear printable notes for students on the usage of POR and PARA with examples for each case followed by 70 practice sentences to be used as either in class exercises or as homework. There never seems to be enough practice for this concept but it should be a good start.

La Muñeca Menor by Rosario Ferré is a short story full of magical realism. This story is great to teach for a Heritage Learner class or a level IV or higher where students already have a fair vocabulary base in Spanish. Files also contain a supporting powerpoint that provides information about the author, some definitions of key vocabulary and some guiding instructions for students as they read, re-read and discuss the story. Story will take about 4 class periods to teach with thorough comprehension. Download contains comprehension questions, essential questions and a graphic organizer for students to summarize the story and identify incidents of magical realism as well as a copy of the story. (Story is available on line for free as well, google the title + free PDF) Ferre has a lot to say about the way women are treated in this story that finishes with a kind of spooky surprise ending.

Another round of "better than you", this game keeps the whole class moving, engaged and receiving instant feedback on the concept of Preterite vs Imperfect. Put desks in pairs, number each station of paired desks. Students write the first station number on their paper and game begins. Students decide preterite/imperfect and race their partner, slamming pencil on desk when finished. Reveal the answer and have ALL students rotate desks. Winning student goes one station lower 6-->5, losing student goes one station higher 6-->7. Settle all ties and disputes, dual wrong answers with a round of ROCK PAPER SCISSORS and continue the game. First student back to their seat WINNING wins the game. Game can be played for entire class to practice or as a warm up before the quiz. Product contains 35 practice sentences with alternating answers to play the game. This lesson works great with level II or higher students who have been practicing the Preterite vs Imperfect concept for some time.

Partner practice for students to take turns asking a classmate how long people have been doing actions. Each partner has 8 people to ask about and 8 people to give answers to their partner. Practice takes about 15 minutes to run in class and practices using the formulas Hace + time + que and Cuanto tiempo hace + que + action. Works best with Spanish II students who have had some basic leisure time activity vocabulary.

This four page packet reviews usage of verbs like GUSTAR (encantar, importar, fascinar, molestar, fastidiar, interesar) and then applies them to subjunctive clauses. Lesson contains one page of reference notes and charts with examples, 1 page of review simple sentences using verbs like GUSTAR and two pages of practice sentences with GUSTAR verb clauses that prompt for subjunctive. (one page of translations, one page of questions to answer) This lesson works best with a level III class or higher where students have already been practicing the basics of subjunctive usage and conjugation. Practices may be assigned as homework or completed in class together.

This short poem by Pablo Neruda focuses on how we create our own destiny and how we are responsible for our own successes and failures. Its a great poem to launch a unit on Neruda or to use with a level III or higher class where you are studying poetry. (Realidades 3, AP Lit) Lesson download includes a word version of the poem, quotes from poem for students to reflect upon and think/pair/share, an audio link to listen to the poem and a writing prompt. Lesson takes one class period to complete if you assign the writing prompt for homework. Poem is easy to understand and works well for students at level III or higher.

This 26 slide powerpoint walks students through proper usage of the verb GUSTAR and other verbs that work like it. It covers pronoun selection, matching GUSTAR to items and actions and use of clarifiers. At 28 slides with opportunities for students to practice, it takes one full class period to present with opportunities to work examples and check their answers.

This practice sheet explains the conjugation of Perfect tenses in Spanish. (Present, past, future and conditional) It covers how to form the past participles for regular verbs and provides a list of irregular verbs for students to use. There are practice examples, 50 easier sentences and a few more challenging sentences for students to practice using the perfect tenses. This lesson works best for Spanish III or higher who are just learning the perfect tenses and how they can be used.

Students discover the meaning and excitement of having a Quinceañera. They visit many different websites to acquire vocabulary, become acquainted with events of the big day, plan their own Quince event (keeping a budget) shop for a dress and ultimately connect the Quince experience through personal reflection. Adventure takes at least one day in the lab, could be two or assigned as homework. Adventure comes with a page of useful links that have all been tested (working) and are kid appropriate. Questions are in English, this lesson is best suited for beginning levels of Spanish.

7 mini quizzes for conjugating irregular preterite verbs. SER/IR/HACER, PODER/PONER, TENER/ESTAR/ANDAR, QUERER/VENIR, DECIR/TRAER and LEER/CREER/OIR, SABER/HABER Each quiz has conjugation boxes, and simple sentences for students to choose the correct verb and conjugation in the preterite tense. Verbs are quizzed by spell change groups to help students get a grip on all the irregulars step by step. Each quiz takes about 10-15 minutes and work great as a warm up. Quizzes could also be used as study guides for a bigger preterite test.