¡No soy un pavo!

November and the cold weather have arrived, and with it so has the excitement for Thanksgiving break. Well, whether you celebrate this holiday or not, the ¡No soy un pavo! activity will surely entertain and engage your students.

I have used this activity with students ranging 4th grade up to my collegiate and adult learners. All you have to do is modify the prompts to their level of proficiency, but all levels showed great excitement and overall engagement. 

The main point in this activity is for students to create a disguise so that their turkey can be spared from becoming this holiday's dinner. Students can color, use fabric, crafting materials, OR, with my older students they can even explore digital options of their choice.  

Once they have completed the disguise portion, it is time to create a story for this unique guest at their Thanksgiving dinner table. In this new identity, students can (according to their proficiency level)

- Give the turkey a new name

- Give them a place of origin (ser)

- Describe their guest (ser + adjectives)

- Places where they go (ir + a) and what to do (ir + a + verb, and different tenses)

Your beginner students, for example, can simply share the basic information. My intermediate students are asked to include adjectives to describe their personality (ser + adjectives) as well as including likes and dislikes (gustar).  My intermediate high students are expected to also include a rough set of activities this guest enjoys doing during the week (ir + a) and other things they do (present tense). 

For my college students, depending on the semester that I am teaching, options range from preterit and imperfect story telling to subjunctive suggestions this guest shares in order to have the best thanksgiving ever !!! This has also turned into an essay prompt, yielding entertaining submissions.

Students can also be asked to present to the class depending on your time availability. My college students, for example, due to the class of classroom time, are asked to create a Flipgrid submission.

During the new year return, these projects become a great way to review the material previously covered by converting them into a game of guess who! Simply display these around the room or create a Google Slides presentation and have students read descriptions printed and thrown in a hat! It truly is one of my students favorite way to review material. 

You could also type the descriptions with some grammatical errors and asked students to correct them.

I hope your students enjoy this resource as much as mine have done through the years. 

Thanks for reading. 

Profe Botero-Moriarty

Here is the link to the resource.  It comes in English and Spanish to accommodate any and all classrooms.

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Some other fun examples

 

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Mi casa

La casa

Talking about different homes and different styles based on geography has always been exciting to me. When the unit of La casa approaches my classroom, I try to do new and different things that engage my students in different ways.

As a creative person, I encourage my students to experience language through crafts, colors and more! I try to bring different options to accommodate those less creative and there is always a more open ended approach that my most creative students can take and go wild!

In the past, I have used homes to address cultural topics like Cinco de Mayo. You can read that here.

This time around, I wanted to students to see the value of pictures as a mean to familiarize themselves with new vocabulary. We often doodle and create connections in that manner, so I had high hopes for this manipulative.

Visuals are super important for our young learners, but never underestimate the power of a "cute" handout when you teach older students (high school and college). These simple activities in those age groups can really spark wonderful conversations in the target language.

This week, we are starting a unit on houses: rooms, furniture, accessories, etc. We are also working hard on spatial descriptions and physical ones as well. Students usually resort to copying their vocab on their notes or Quizlet. Enter @FunforSpanishTeachers' lovely resource. My students loved labelling it, coloring it and just getting creative with it.

The second day after it has been labelled and customized, my students will walk the classroom and chat with different partners about their unique homes. They will talk about what rooms they can find in the home, what furniture, accessories, etc. They will review how to create descriptions and be able to share details of their particular homes.

¿Cuántos cuartos tienes?

¿Cuál es tu cuarto favorito y por qué?

¿Cómo es tu sala?

¿De qué color es el sofá en tu casa?

But this is just the beginning!!!

Another approach for our more novice learners is to come up with sample questions as a group, have them displayed or written on the board along with some sample answers. This will build the student's confidence and serve as a resource for when they may feel stuck. You more proficient students will not need the help, but it will make a huge difference to those who may struggle a bit.

Stay tuned for more house resources and ideas.

I have no business relationship with Fun For Spanish Teachers. I just bought this resource and loved it so much I wanted to share. 
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/La-Casa-House-Interactive-Notebook-3702194

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