A wonderful cultural project is the foundation for this lesson where students can practice their listening and speaking skills, do some translation, debate… and all this while working on the topics of the environment, immigration and the multicultural society. I love starting this lesson with… Today, we are going to a fancy restaurant in the middle of Paris. I hope your students engage with this lesson at least as much as my students did.

Postcards still exist and these are one of those things I would not like to see as a thing of the past any time soon. It was always lovely to receive one from your friends and family while they were abroad or also when you were the one away from your loved ones. It could be a great activity to write some words and decorate this printable as a way to revise the topic of holidays for example or perhaps these could be handy if you want to create an exchange with another school or already have one. This is just the base. Some other options are: Imagine you have been on holiday in Spain and you are writing to a friend about it. Imagine you have won a prize and you are spending an all-included trip in Spain. Imagine you are a local Spaniard who is writing a friend (who soon will be visiting you) to inform him/her about all the amazing plans you have made for him/her. Imagine you are going to slip into a bottle a message written in this postcard and then you will toss the bottle into the ocean. You can also present other messages that have been found in other bottles and make them translate them into the target language. Use it to decorate your classroom, etc. Feel free to add any more ideas in the reviews section! I hope you find this resource useful.

These last years I’ve been compiling a collection of linguistic mistakes I happened to read on Twitter. These tweets have been great real examples for my students. They found them fun and challenging.  Here it is a small selection of the top 30 and different ways to exploit this freebie. The presentation is pretty simple: Students get a tweet and they try to find orthographic mistakes Click and the mistake is highlighted to confirm or to show what is actually wrong with the text The students then try to explain why is it wrong Click again and a linguistic, detailed explanation will appear. You can then teach them the reason in a more detailed manner with the linguistic explanation and the example corrected. More info: https://mflandbeyond.wordpress.com/category/freebies/

Sometimes while I am creating activities my brain is so exhausted that I can’t think of more than 5 proper names so that’s when I tend to have a variety of names by using this list that includes the top 100 popular Spanish names and Surnames. It really helped me so that’s why I decided to share it. I hope it helps!

I decided to digitalize these doodle slides I created and since they turned out to be pretty handy for me I thought that perhaps I should share them in case they are useful for someone else as well. The slides include shapes such as notebooks, speech bubbles, arrows, folders, tags, signs... I hope they help!

3 speaking activities based on the topic of fashion and clothing. The instructions for each activity are included as notes on the PowerPoint (Menu>View>Notes).

A simple page with lots of interesting facts about the film that will help the students to understand it a bit better. This will probably be the last resource I share so... hasta la vista baby!

This is the latest Christmas activity I designed for a Spanish B2 lesson. It consists of an article about a gigantic nativity scene that has been built in Alicante not only as part of the Christmas decorations but also as a way to brake a record Guinness and as a touristic attraction. It is a topic perfect for a debate since there are divided opinions about the money spent on this masterpiece. In such difficult time is it a good idea to spend so much money on it or is it a clever touristic strategy that will generate consumption in the area? This is the way I proceed with the activity but this is just a guide so please feel free to use this resource in the best way it fits your students. First, we read the article and then we work on the vocab they find trickier. There is only one tiny thing I do not explain or translate which is the expression of the headline since is part of activity one. After they get the gist of this piece of news, we move on to activity one. The students look for the meaning of this expression on the Internet so they do a bit of independent learning. Here you will find more info on its meaning: Armarse el belén: This expression is used to say that, in a certain situation, there is a mess, chaos, confusion… Source. We can also add as teachers that this expression is not limited to the festive period and it can be commonly heard all year long. Then, you can proceed with the rest of the questions either by doing some speaking or writing with them. The last ones are especially great to practice the conditional tense and you can even add some subjunctive forms if they feel brave enough. Lastly, you can divide the class in groups and organise a debate on the pros and cons of the massive nativity figures. It could be a great opportunity to teach them some expression in order to express their arguments: Me parece que… ¿Cómo es que…? Si fuera tú… Creo que sería Bueno que… Tienes razón, pero… No digo que no, pero…

I have created in this collage a photographic composition that covers all the main topics for the GCSE SPANISH Speaking exam by AQA (8698). You can use this not only the typical speaking exercise for the exam. A fun way to take this as a listening activity would be to give them their mini whiteboards. They are giving their backs to the image projected and only one student that can see the picture would describe to the others this crazy creation. The one that is able to reflect more details in their drawings wins. All the main topics were covered and the student’s reaction was very positive.

After spending endless hours compiling a collection of free to use and share photos I’ve created this presentation in order to help students with the Spanish speaking exam. I hope this presentation saves you up some precious time and is helpful for your students! The PowerPoint includes an interactive menu so you can easily access the photos (48 speaking cards) and the vocabulary section (both foundation and higher). In the photo cards, you will find a photo to be described + questions + a short alternative description of what’s in the photo and in the vocabulary section a list of the vocab needed for each level divided into the different topics. The themes included are those required for AQA’s Spanish GCSE (8698): 3.1.1 Theme 1: Identity and culture Topic 1: Me, my family and friends Topic 2: Technology in everyday life Topic 3: Free-time activities Topic 4: Customs and festivals in Spanish-speaking countries/communities 3.1.2 Theme 2: Local, national, international and global areas of interest Topic 1: Home, town, neighbourhood and region Topic 2: Social issues Topic 3: Global issues Topic 4: Travel and tourism 3.1.3 Theme 3: Current and future study and employment Topic 1: My studies Topic 2: Life at school/college Topic 3: Education post-16 Topic 4: Jobs, career choices and ambitions Last but not least, I would like to thank the people who share this sort of images free of charge and that therefore make possible that we can create valuable resources for our students and also the people who nicely takes a couple of seconds to rate and review the resources we share. THANKS A BUNCH!!!

Because one never has enough gap fill exercises here you have a complete selection of slightly adapted articles (one piece of news for each subtopic) ready to be projected and printed for your students. You have also an interactive menu to take you directly to the piece of news of your choice and also a button on the texts (upper right margin) to take you back to the main menu. Your feedback is highly appreciated it! Just pressing some stars will do :) . Thanks!!! Examination board: AQA > Spanish (2695)