<p>Hi,
I am planning on teaching fourth and fifth graders Spanish after school this fall as a community service project. I am trying to think of a fun way to help them learn Spanish vocabulary words each week. What are some methods that you use to keep kids entertained and attentive?</p>
<p>Many kids learn best when experiencing things. Since this is going to be an after school program, the kids will need to be up and moving if possible. Think about attaching the words you want to teach to an activity. If they are learning clothing words, collect some old clothes and have the kids dress up in them. If they are learning body parts, you can create a Simon Says type activity. Kids love food, so maybe a cooking activity to learn about those words. Action verbs can also revolve around games. Colors can be learned through an art project. For numbers and letters, try Bingo. Be creative and I bet you can think of lots of things!</p>
<p>Sort of along the same lines as shennie...
Twister in Spanish? They'd learn the words Right, Left, Hand, Foot, and five colors in what, about 5 minutes?</p>
<p>How big is the group, or are you doing individual tutoring?..makes a difference to what I'd suggest.</p>
<p>Wow thanks for the responses! I love these ideas (especially Twister!). I thought about Bingo, but then I would have to make 20 different board versions..Also the program is one hour and twice a week. I plan on giving out vocabulary words and worksheets (matching activities, word search and cross word puzzles) on Tuesday and playing games to reinforce the word list on Thursday. Do y'all think that fourth and fifth graders will be able to remember the vocab words two days later for the games? That's one issue that I am worried about. The program being hosted at a gifted elementary school is also a factor. I will have an elementary school teacher with me, but she does not teach Spanish and is only there for supervision.<br>
paying3tuitions, There are roughly 15-20 kids planned to attend the program.</p>
<p>Have them make podcasts! Check out the Learn Spanish podcasts on iTunes. Then let the kids make their own. It's fun!</p>
<p>As a teacher, you must decide whether you want the kids to have fun and maybe learn some Spanish, or work a bit harder and definitely learn some Spanish... (I personally don't think all learning can be "fun"; in fact, it is very often hard work. Unfortunately, students have come to believe that "fun" is more important than learning, as in "how come we never have any fun in this class?" "what would be fun?" "playing heads up, seven up?" "what does that have to do with chemistry?" "nothing, but it would be fun.")</p>
<p>Anyway, if you really want the kids to learn some Spanish, I would suggest a weekly theme for the vocabulary. One week verbs, colors, one week food, one week body parts, etc. Expect the kids to create labels (thereby writing the words) using sentences. For the first week, create a simple fill-in-the-blank that they can do to describe themselves:
My name is ___________
My hair color is ___________
My eyes are ___________
I live on __________</p>
<p>Of course it would be in Spanish. Then they can read their descriptions to each other, in groups of three or four, or to the whole class if time permits. You can help them with their accents; they get practice writing, reading, speaking, and they learn a few simple sentences.</p>
<p>Do not assume that because the kids are "gifted" that language acquisition will come easily to them. "Gifted" kids can be gifted in many different ways. Some find math and breeze and struggle with words; others are the opposite. Some find everything easy--if it's written. And so on.</p>
<p>Board games (made by the students) and collaborative cooking projects are two ways to get them engaged, and practice both oral and written vocabulary. Participatory & practical activities augment the motivation to learn vocatulary, put it into a fun context, and appeal to many kinds of learners -- the visual, the auditory, the kinesthetic. (Especially the latter, since there tend not to be enough such learning opportunities for this style of learner in the regular classroom.) </p>
<p>Parenthetically, such activities assist some kinds of LD learners because of the reinforcement/repetition possible in such formats, and because that repetition is across more than one type of platform. (Rote drill will not necessarily accomplish the same thing when it comes to repetition.)</p>
<p>P.S. These can be just as helpful for highschool students. At my d's highschool, the 2 French teachers have always stressed foreign language as something to "play with," that lends itself to play, so this appeal spans ages, as well.</p>
<p>Might be a little advanced for 4th and 5th graders but cooking! It isn't difficult in this day and age to get recipes written in Spanish and to perhaps recreate those recipes in class or at home.
In my humble experience, the best way to learn is to have both an intellectual and a hands on experience-the practical and the academic.</p>
<p>I may be a little weird, but I still remember doing a "wheel" program when I was in 6th grade, and we learned a little French, then Spanish. I treasured being able to ask and answer, "What is your name" ("My name is..."), "How old are you", "How are you?" (of course!), and others.</p>
<p>I still remember "Where are you going?"..."I am going to the cinema..."</p>
<p>My take on it is...the best thing you can do for a bunch of 4th graders is make them excited about CONTINUING to learn the language.</p>
<p>Yeah, cooking sounds awesome. I can do that during food week. dmd77, I came up with exactly the same idea! Each week will be a different theme (classroom items, everyday expressions, etc.) I am a little confused epiphany. What kind of board games? Thanks so much for the responses guys! I am still putting together my lesson plans, so please keep them coming!</p>
<p>it can be any kind of a board game that reinforces vocabulary. This can be done in at least 2 ways: pulling a card in the language, that asks a question that the player has to answer in the language (in the beginning, naturally one-word responses would be best). Depending on the knowledge level of the students, the questions can be also made up by the student, but initially it might be best to have the teacher formulate simple questions, the class answer these & write out the answers on back sides of cards or whatever.</p>
<h1>2 would be simple vocabulary cards (as in flash cards) that would be drawn upon landing on certain spaces. Also, players should count their spaces in Spanish, of course.</h1>
<p>Again, initially you could announce that you are developing the board game and would like their help. This could be a really fun group project, & the fact that the teacher asks for the students' help is beneficial for rapport. You could vote, for example, on whether you want the board/theme to resemble Parchesi or Monopoly or CandyLand or something else. Or you could make up your own theme as a class or as a teacher, or in small groups. Thus, each group could come up with a board game theme, then get the teacher's assistance on creating Spanish-language questions. And eventually share & rotate these games so that the other groups could play them. (Depends on how many you teach at one time.)</p>
<p>All the doing of the board (decorating it, the lettering, everything should be the classes' work. You're just there to assist with content, share the enthusiasm, assist with the practicalities, correct the grammar, etc. Students really like challenging each other. You could also schedule a display day where the games are shared with others as appropriate, if appropriate.</p>
<p>teach them through songs or rhymes-
its much easier to learn
actually this is" it's OK" by dead moon
My younger daughter had an after school spanish class-( she was younger- 2nd & 3rd gd)
they did cooking and songs & had fun with learning the Spanish version of their names which is what they went by in class.
I think bingo is great idea- lots of reinforcement- although if you use a computer to print the pictures to match- it wouldn't take that long</p>
<p>Older D also had an after school class in Chinese singing- so I can sing Twinkle Twinkle in Mandarin, but hardly know any other Chinese ;)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I agree if you can teach a song, you'll help them remember it well.
Be sure to write out all the words of the song onto a poster-sized paper so they can see and sing it at the same time. If you can't sing, then use poems or rhymes as much as possible. </p></li>
<li><p>For review practice, if you have and overhead projector system (good for groups), hand out the vocab words you want to practice, one to each in the group.
On the board or overhead projector, write a story -- by that I mean, prepare it at home on a transparency, or prewrite it on the board before the kids arrive; it's boring to watch you write. The simple story is in English, but leave blanks which would be filled in by the Spanish words you've handed out. Use as many small words as they know in Spanish in your story. I don't think your entire story has to be in Spanish, just the fill-in-blanks part and a few small well-known words.
Have a strong reader (or yourself) read the English aloud, pausing for the blanks.
Whoever has the word comes up to the overhead raises his/her hand and gets to come up and pen in the missing word. As this is done, the others say and spell the word.
The "fun" comes in the story you write. The serious learning is in the practice on vocab words. This uses visual and auditory skills, as well as kinesthetic for the person writing in the word. Since everyone has one word, they all get to practice in each of these 3 ways of learning (visual, auditory, kinesthetic).</p></li>
<li><p>Kids are very visual these days, with tv's and video games. I get good response from that age group by having anything that looks like a cartoon, including stick characters with speech bubbles.
You can do all the same things as a worksheet, but if you can adapt it into a graphic cartoon, they'll be more motivated to do the work.</p></li>
<li><p>Post a "Word Wall" on the room. Do it with magic markers on index cards, one word per card, showing all the small words used frequently. Arrange them alphabetically and refer to them often. In any spare minute, run over to the word wall with a pointer (or let the kids use the pointer) and do a speedy review/recitation.
Post a second "word wall" of the theme words of the week.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>In my S's high sch. Spanish class, they made t-shirts using fabric paint (or puffy paint). They could put whatever they wanted to say (or picture with description) on the shirt but it had to be in Spanish.</p>
<p>Also brought in family photos to share with class but had to point out family members, pets,etc using Spanish words.</p>
<p>In answer to post #5 about bingo boards, I hand out blank bingo cards to my fourth graders. Then I list possible answers (such as vocabulary words) on the board. The kids each fill out their own cards. It only takes a few minutes and each card is different!</p>
<p>Thanks SO much for the ideas y'all. Th Pearl Jam idea is great! I can find other popular songs in Spanish and make a Spanish CD. Thanks TN Mom that solves my Bingo problem. Paying3tuitions, I really like the story and word wall idea. T-shirts in Spanish sounds like fun. I can ask the kids to bring ina plain white t-shirt.
Thanks again!</p>