Spooky Spanish: Interactive Alebrije Monsters

Spooky Spanish: Interactive Alebrije Monsters

An interactive KS3 Spanish homework on body parts: build Mexico’s fantastic alebrije creatures, as seen in Coco!

A cat with bat’s wings and a fish tail? In 1936, Mexican artist Pedro Linares fell ill and dreamed of strange creatures shouting “¡Alebrijes!”. Today these colourful fantasy animals are famous around the world, and every October giant alebrijes parade through Mexico City. Three short, self-checking tasks:
• Lee y descubre: two short texts with tap-to-translate words and audio, a keyword match and true/false.
• Las partes del alebrije: label a creature with la cabeza, los ojos, las alas, la cola, las patas, el cuerpo.
• Crea el alebrije: read two orders and build them to the description (tiene cabeza de gato, alas de murciélago…), then design your own and watch it appear on screen!

What’s included
• Interactive HTML page: works offline in any browser, on computers, tablets and phones
• 1-page worksheet that matches the web page, with “draw and describe your own alebrije”
• Teacher page with answers, a cultural note, and the texts with translations
• Optional student vocab list (2 per page, to print and cut)

Perfect for homework: each task unlocks letters of a secret code word. Students write it on the worksheet, so you can see at a glance who finished.

Language covered: body parts with el / la / los / las; tiene + body part + de + animal (alas de murciélago = bat’s wings); animals; colours; es + adjective.

Flexible use: homework, a starter or plenary, cover lessons, or a Día de Muertos / Halloween lesson (15–20 minutes). It’s also great alongside a body parts unit, and makes a lovely classroom display.

Part of the Spooky Spanish series: Fiestas misteriosas, spooky celebrations and legends from Spain and Latin America, including La Llorona (Mexico), Los Barriletes Gigantes (Guatemala), La Queimada y las meigas and Gau Beltza (FREE).

VLE tip: upload the HTML file to Teams, Google Classroom or your VLE. Students open it in a browser and their progress is saved on their device.