To Practice Indirect Object Pronouns As a Group

VERBAL ACTIVITIES

Objective:

To practice indirect object pronouns as a group.

How to play:

The teacher provides 4 different colored light weight balls. Students stand in a circle. The teacher gives 4 students a ball:

Blue Ball: Pronoun or name (s)

Red Ball: Indirect Object Pronoun (IOP)

Green Ball: Verb conjugated in the third person, teacher indicates tense.

Yellow Ball: Noun (s) and/or adverb.

Students throw the ball and the receiving person says the meaning of the ball to create sentences that use the IOP. A designated student will write the sentences on the board and the class will go over them once the teacher indicates the end of the activity.

Example:

BB:CarlosAna

RB:mete

GB:regalarllamar

YB:el marayer

PRESENT:PRETERITE:

Carlos Me Regala el MarAna Te Llamo Ayer

Important:

The teacher might want to indicate what verbs can be used as not all verbs will work with IOP. It is also a good game to practice verb tenses as the teacher can indicate that the verb has to be in a certain tense.

Usually the resulting sentences are funny and students won’t mind writing them on their notes to analyze them. Write each sentence on the board , as a HW you can have the students illustrate them, or tweak them.

Objective:

To name objects and practice colors.

How to play:

Divide the class in several teams (as many colors you would like to include in the activity). On index cards, write a color in Spanish (one per card).

Give an index card to each team and then tell them they will have 5 minutes to gather the most objects of that particular color. The team with the most objects wins. Students also need to write the Spanish word for each item on their card to present to the class.

Make a sentence including each color and object.

Important:

You may want to tell students that your desk is out of bounds. Extend with questions “de qué color es…? Extend with a matching game

Objective:

To create a collective story.

How to play:

Students sit in a circle. The teacher says a word and taking turns the students add a word or a punctuation sign to form a sentence and then form a story.

Important:

The student taking the next turn will have to repeat the previous words or sentences.

You may want to give a vocabulary selection to play with in case you have a beginner’s class.

Have a recorder to retell the story as needed. Have someone type the story for the rest of the class. Make copies and work with during the following class. Students can also illustrate the story.

Objective:

To practice questioning answering with only 3 alternatives.

How to play:

One or two students leave the classroom while the rest of the class decides on a topic from the current unit. Once the verb is decided, the student (s) who was/were outside returns/return to the classroom, the teacher informs him/her/them about the topic and he/she/them starts asking questions trying to identify the secret. Students will answer sí, no or a veces to each question.

Example:

Topic: Occupations (veterinary)

Q: ¿Trabajas en una oficina? (from the occupations unit)

A: a veces

Q: ¿Usas la computadora?

A: a veces

Q: ¿Hablas mucho por teléfono?

A: No

Important:

Give the chance to each student in the class to answer a question. You can set a time limit or a questions limit. You decide if the student (s) guessing will have one or two chances

Can be played in teams.

Objective:

To practice numbers in Spanish.

How to play:

The teacher gives 10 dry beans to each student and decides how much each bean is worth. Each bean can be $1, $5, $10, $15, etc. Then students will decide how many beans they will have in each hand and when the teacher says: ¡YA! Students will start walking around the room trying to guess how much is in other student’s hand by quoting a dollar amount in Spanish. If the student guesses correctly, the other student will have to give away his/her beans. If the students guesses wrong, the student will keep walking and try it again with another student.

Example:

Teacher indicates that each bean is going to be $10.

S1 decides to hold 3 beans (30 dólares) in the right hand and 7 beans (70 dólares) in the left hand.

S2 says to S1: “Tienes 20 dólares en la mano derecha” He is wrong and moves to another student.

S3 says to S1: “Tienes 70 dólares en la mano izquierda” He is right and takes S1 left hand’s money and keeps playing.

Important:

Students can vary the number of beans any time before someone else tries to guess.

Teacher will determine how long is appropriate to play. Set limits in quantities.