Hispanic Heritage Month: Activities for Spanish Class
I used to be an actress and still write, so I LOVE to use drama in my classes. This is a particularly fun one, in my opinion, as it combines fun activities from theater and language, as well as teaches language and culture.
Each person selects someone from a Spanish-speaking country to research. You can theme this any way you like (i.e. artists, people still living, historical figures, etc.). Here is a list to get you started:
| mujeres | hombres |
| Frida Kahlo | Mark Anthony |
| Isabel Allende | Rubén Blades |
| Isabel | Ferdinand |
| Salma Hayek | Sammy Sosa |
| Jennifer López | Nuñez de Balboa |
| Malinche | Bruno Mars |
| Selena | Diego Rivera |
| Ellen Ochoa | Fidel Castro |
| Nancy López | Che Guevara |
| Gemma Mengual | Simón Bolívar |
| Shakira | Benito Juarez |
| Jessica Alba | José Marti |
| Eva Perón | Pancho Villa |
| Carolina Herrera | Emiliano Zapata |
| Rigoberta Menchú | Tito Puente |
| Celia Cruz | Chayanne |
| Gloria Estefan | Juan Luis Guerra |
| Sor Juana de la Cruz | Oscar de la Hoya |
| Laura Esquivel | Julio Cortazár |
| Gabriela Mistral | Carlos Fuentes |
| Alfonsina Storni | Geraldo Rivera |
| Rita Moreno | George López |
| Penelope Cruz | Desi Arnaz |
| Selena Gómez | César Chazez |
Now, the students research their people by answering the following questions:
¿Cómo te llamas?
¿De dónde eres?
¿Qué te gusta hacer?
¿Cuáles son tus pasatiempos?
¿Juegas deportes?
¿Cuáles son tus intereses?
Describe tu ciudad o país.
Describe tu familia.
Describe tu día ideal.
Describe tu casa.
Describe tu trabajo ideal.
Describe tu pareja ideal.
¿Cuáles idiomas hablas?
¿Dónde vivirás en 10 años?
Describe un festivo especial.
¿Has asistido la universidad?
¿Adónde has viajado?
Si pudieras cambiar tu vida, ¿qué cambiarías?
I think that this project does nicely in Spanish III or Spanish IV and can easily be adapted to lower levels. I would tend to start this right around the 15th or so of September and do the activity towards the end. It can serve as something that is worked on at some point in each class. Doing this over a long period of time gives the kids a lot of opportunities to practice speaking before the “test”. You will likely want to divide this up (research, written answers, practice, test) with separate due dates.
I like to do this as speed dating or an exchange student party. Like real-life speed dating, the time speaking to one person is limited. After speaking for a fixed amount of time, they change partners. You could even organize the people by tables for the party version. On hearing the signal, everyone must go to a different table.
In speed dating, people make notes about the other people after they have met. I require this in my class in Spanish. If you choose to do the party version, require them to take the “addresses” of different people. They will write them a post card or e-mail as a follow up.
The students should not use their notes to speak in this activity. You decide how many things they should talk about with each person. I like to keep it simple: no English, just target language. I would also put some bullet points on the board as reminders of things to talk about.
I always give extra credit for dressing up like their person. They can also bring a dish from their country. This makes it a lot of fun to speak and learn about culture.
This is a great remote learning activity. Students do the research ahead of time and go to the Hot Seat on your Google Meet!
Hispanic Heritage Month Activities: La familia real española
The student selected one member of the Spanish royal family from the tree.
The student created an oral presentation/autobiography consisting of the following:
4 biographical facts
How their people are related to 3 other people in the tree.
1 interesting story/detail about their lives.
The student found a photo to represent their people and uploaded it to a Google slide and narrated it using Fishbole or FlipGrid.
This is also fun done remotely, too.
Below are some resources to do some activities about Spain. I DO realize that they are a bit Spain-centric! I went to college in New Mexico and wanted to travel abroad as a student. I chose Europe I also have a love of French. I can’t wait to get travelling again and fulfil my lifelong dream of seeing all of South America.
Hispanic Heritage Month Activities: Some Resources from Spain
http://reallifelanguage.com/reallifelanguageblog/
Here are some activities to bring Spanish culture into your class:
176 photos from Spain and a post card writing project:
Give your students a glimpse of real communities in Spain:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lugares-en-la-comunidad-1606435
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/-erias-pack-1605540
Bullfighting:
Spanish Food and Drink:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spanish-Fruit-and-Vegetables-Pack-1636860
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Las-comidas-y-las-bebidas-comunes-1634803
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Las-frutas-y-las-verduras-1633353
Flamenco
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Flamenco-Lectura-y-Actividades-Didacticas-1593123
Photos from Spain:
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Photos-from-Cordoba-Spain-1563597
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Photos-from-Toledo-Spain-1557499
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Marbella-Photos-1557461
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Madrid-Community-Photos-1557447
Are you looking for some ready-made CI immersive materials for your beginningSpanish classes? Check these out: https://real-life-language.teachable.com/p/immersive-beginning-spanish-lessons
I went from intermediate high to advanced high in Spanish because I wanted to speak like a native. Do you want to reach your goals? I created a course on how to set goals and measure progress. Check it out: https://real-life-language.teachable.com/p/measure-your-progress-and-fluency-in-any-language