Spanish Lessons: Teaching Clothing in Spanish

Some of the most engaging novice Spanish lessons to teach are themed on clothing. The lessons are fun, active and provide lots of opportunities for immersive comprehensible input and communicative activities.

These Spanish lessons are written based on the lesson bundle I link to below. You can also curate the visuals using stock image sites, too.

Day One. I love to introduce clothing by walking around the room and talking about two or three items that individual students wear. It’s great in context and serves as a great visual.

The second thing I tend to do is show the Presentation of just a quick introduction of the vocabulary. After we’ve introduced clothing with the Presentation, I like to get into the verb quizzes. We do about 6-­‐8 words a day.

Here’s how the verb quizzes work:

1. Select 6-­‐8 (or whatever you see fit) words from the Immersive CI Visuals you printed out. Introduce words 1 or 2 at a time. Have students identify them (point, thumbs up, walk to the board-­‐ whatever).

2. Use adhesive to stick the word to the board until they have identified them all.

3. Do a speaking activity. They all must identify and say the word.

4. Next, have them get out paper and number their paper with the number of pictures you have. Write letters under the pictures. Students write the letter of the word you said. Go over the responses.

5. Next, do a reading quiz. Erase your first answers, and write the words next to the numbers. The students write the letter that matches the word.

6. Lastly, erase the words, and they write the word for each letter.

These quizzes follow the natural way we learn language. They will learn these words quickly, as well as reading and writing.

The students then do some clothing puzzles and/or color puzzles.

Day Two. Again, talking in context about what people are wearing. I love to play a game called Guess Who? There are many versions of this game. In this one they’re going to sit down when they know you’re not talking about them. Of course, you might need to help them a little bit if they’re not getting it, but it’s fun. You can do this every day during this unit.

Do another clothing vocab quiz. From this point, I either like to do a Clothing Bingo (print out PDF game and calling cards. (Available in French, too!)

OR a game of Go Fish. Each double set that you print out is going to make a game that four or five students can play.

Post-­Its. Students pair up or groups of three or four-­‐ whatever suits your class. You give each group a different color Post-­It and set the timer. They write down as many items of clothing and post it if they can. It’s super fun.

I love to play games where they have to dress up. One is a really fun way to review the weather. You talk about the weather and they have to put on the right clothes that you have in the center. You’re probably wondering where you’ll get these clothes. Thrift shops, hand-­me-­downs, send out emails to parents-­‐there are lots of ways to use clothes people no longer want. It’s fun to have really odd clothing in a pile. It’s a great way to introduce clothing as well. If you’re lucky enough to have maybe some rope, you can even do a little clothesline.

They can also work in teams. One student on one team asks what the vocabulary word is and if they don’t know it, they have to wear it. A lot of times students take pictures at the end, then we all share the crazy outfits that they wore and it gives us lots of great prompts to talk about.

Day Three. I like to repeat the activities we did the previous day (the quiz and the games). 

For some extension, give them the puzzles and the mini-­project. You can repeat these even one more day: the quiz, Go Fish, Bingo. I also like to hand out paper and have them draw what I say. They can even do this with each other in pairs. The repetition is key, so don’t feel hesitant about a day of fun and games in Spanish.

Day Four. Do a vocab quiz from the immersive visuals.

After you’ve done this, and played a short game, I like to do a Desfile de Moda. Students work in pairs and follow the directions on the handout-­ really straightforward and simple. They have to say without notes what their partner is wearing, how their partner models and vice versa.

Day Five. Do a quiz if you have words left to do the immersive quizzes with. Now, start El Mercado.

I like to culminate these Spanish lessons in the unit with El Mercado. They come in bringing clothes or use the clothes that you have in your classroom (or even pictures or drawings of clothes, like from the handouts that we gave). They buy and sell at the market (dramatization, of course). They spend at least one class period preparing their markets and practicing, and the actual simulation is the next.

Looking for the bundle? Clothing in Spanish Unit includes:

5 days of lesson plans to teach clothing.

Includes:Power point presentation

Cards for Go Fish and Concentration

Clothing Bingo

Immersive CI Visuals for Quizzes

Mini-project to learn clothes

Fashion Show

Market Project

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spanish-Clothing-Lessons-Unit-1648207

Looking for more ideas for your language classes?http://reallifelanguage.com/reallifelanguageblog/2016/02/16/using-the-calendar-to-teach-spanish/