Teach your students this authentic Christmas carol (villancico) from Venezuela. Included is a cloze activity and explanation of regional vocabulary. Also included, is a brief grammar review sheet over the concepts of diminutives and correctly using accent marks using examples from the song.

When I first introduce the concept of the Preterite vs. Imperfect in class, I set up a time with a colleague to come into my class while my back is turned and "steal" something. When I turn around and my students tell me what happened, I feign shock and tell them that we will need to write up an incident report and turn it in to the office. That's when I hand each of them one of these forms. :) You could adapt the "incident" to be anything you want. This form is general. Students begin to see how describing the scene is usually in the Imperfect and describing the specific actions is usually in the Preterite. I use DUWIT (Imperfect) and DISC (Preterite) but this is in Word Doc format so you can replace this with your own acronym. You can also add your school logo, if you would like, in order to make this more "official" looking. Also included is a poster that I put up that illustrates DISC vs. DUWIT.

Activity using the song "Me Gusta, Me Gusta" by los Buitres de Culiacán Sinaloa. This ready to use activity is appropriate for novice and intermediate students.

This is the Powerpoint I use to introduce students to Quijote and Cervantes before we read the Teacher's Discovery graphic novel. This multimedia powerpoint is almost entirely in Spanish but with vocabulary helps to make it comprehensible for Spanish 3's.

When you are presenting family vocabulary words, why not use a culturally authentic example? This Powerpoint uses the Spanish royal family tree to introduce words like padre, madre, hijo, etc. UPDATED to reflect the abdication of Juan Carlos.

This authentic resource guides your students through an interactive website from Spain that allows children to write a letter to the Wise Men for the Día de los Reyes Magos. The download contains a .pdf and .doc that can be edited. I first work with students to figure out keywords that they will encounter. I then have them look up the words they didn't get in small groups. After that, they must individually go to the site and successfully create a letter to one of the Wise Men and answer the questions on the Preguntas page which includes a Venn Diagram for comparing and contrasting Christmas in the US with Los Reyes in Spain. After they have written the letter, they are given the option of printing. Would be a great way to decorate your classroom.

This presentation talks about how and when to use the present subjunctive using the popular acronym W.E.D.D.I.N.G. and asking students to visualize the word "que" as the ring that binds the two separate clauses together. This presentation also introduces the most frequent irregular verbs using the acronym D.I.S.H.E.S.

When teaching the location prepositions in Spanish, I use this rhyme with gestures to help my students. This Word doc includes the rhyme (with the English translation) and a link to my Youtube video showing the gesture for each preposition.

This is the storyboard template that I use for my Spanish classes when we read different TPRS novels such as ¿Dónde Está Eduardo?, Rebeldes de Tejas, Esperanza, Vida y Muerte en la Mara Salvatrucha, La Hija del Sastre, Guerra Sucia, etc. This storyboard template is blank, so it could be used for whatever novel you use. The template asks students to write their name, the book, the chapter, who, when, and where in Spanish. I sometimes use it as a worksheet and sometimes I use it as an assessment. It works great for both.

This is a low prep, high impact review game. Great for sub plans. Students write in their vocabulary words on the spaces (in English or Spanish). Then in teams of 3-4 play by rolling, moving their piece, and then saying the word. If they get it wrong they must go back. I have a box of 10 or so dice that I can pass out to the students and I usually just have students make their own game pieces out of coins, paper scraps, erasers, etc.

Listening activity with answer key for the song Don Quijote by Rocio Durcal. You can find the video for the song on Youtube. I use this when I do my Don Quixote unit with my Spanish 3's.

This simple, low prep game is a fun way to help students practice conjugating verbs. This game can be reused every time you introduce a new verb tense, i.e. Preterite, Imperfect, Future, Conditional, etc... Included is a PDF and DOC so that you can use right away, or modify this to fit your specific needs. Also included is an instruction page for the the teacher with tips on how to best implement this in your classroom.

This powerpoint is what I use when I talk about the grammar point of Ser vs. Estar in my Spanish classes. The powerpoint is over 90% in comprehensible Spanish (per ACTFL guidelines) making it possible to maintain TL use even when explaining this tricky grammar concept. There are three opportunities for students to practice/formative assessment.