I used this short, spooky story to review making comparisons, using prepositions of place, and vocabulary for describing houses.
Here is the video story narration:
Here is the activity sheet that I used in class that you can download.
I´d love to know if you use this story in your classroom!
In this activity, we’ll practice formal, usted commands in Spanish as well as useful travel vocabulary.
First, we’ll watch a video about some travel safety tips.
Then, we’ll review & practice with formal commands by completing each sentence on the handout with the correct form of the verb.
Finally, we’ll write more travel advice.
Any feedback is always welcome and appreciated 🙂
Note: This video lesson & activity is adapted from my Intermediate Spanish II class for students in their fourth semester of Spanish classes.
Los mandatos informales, informal “tú” commands, can be a bit challenging at first because you must remember to conjugate the verb differently depending on whether the command is affirmative (Yes! Do it! ¡Sí! ¡Hazlo!) or negative (No! Don´t do it! ¡No! ¡No lo hagas!) This cultural presentation will take you on a journey of table manners around the world while practicing affirmative versus negative tú commands.
Objectives:
First, conjugate the verbs in this handout: Modales curiosos: Mandatos Informales Handout
Now, see how you did with this video lesson!
Also, here’s a Powerpoint presentation based on this lesson (especially for teachers!): Modales Internacionales Powerpoint
Share your reflections and what you´ve learned in the questions at the bottom of the handout. Do you think any of these tips for international table manners will come in handy someday?
The images in the presentation were adapted for educational purposes from an infographic & article by Huffingtion Post España.
Also, thank you to the Teaching & Learning Spanish Blog Facebook Page for sharing the Huffington Post article.
If you would like to share these materials, please do so by providing a link to this blog post. Thank you!
Update: A typo in the handout has been corrected (10-8-2018)!
Update: This post has been changed & updated to include the video lesson (5-21-2020)! We re-posted to the front page of the blog for visibility without deleting the previous link for those who may have saved it.
“Un día típico de un estudiante universitario” is a read-along story for beginner-level students. There’s a special focus on “yo-go” verbs, por versus para, and food vocabulary, my class’ learning objectives for this unit.
Before making this activity a few years ago, I polled my beginner Spanish students about the most well-known families from a TV show or movie. The Kardashians won, but Family Guy consistently took second, ¡so I went with la familia Griffin!
Here is the latest video in the “Practice Spanish with Memes” series! In this video we start with a quick review of how to conjugate formal (USTED y USTEDES) commands & where to place the pronouns. Then it’s on to the memes!
Last week, a student emailed me that she was watching our “Direct Object Pronouns: Practice with Memes” video with her 11-year-old son, and he wanted to know what my very favorite meme in Spanish was! Our email exchange got me excited to make another video with more memes!
Here’s the latest video in the “Practice with Memes” series! It is meant to be a fun way to help students practice with stem-changing verbs, expand vocabulary, and especially to invite them to explore the Spanish-speaking world through the internet!
Many students are surprised to see that there are memes and YouTube videos in Spanish just like the ones they like in English. I hope that the memes video series can be just one way to encourage these sorts of connections between students’ interests and Spanish language learning!
And here’s a link to see all the memes and posts on this site categorized to stem-changing verbs! Stem-changing verbs posts
Enjoy the video! Any feedback is welcome!
Main Street is closed for the whole city to enjoy 2 kilometers of cakes! Yes, this really happened! I came upon this scene January 7th of last year in Zacatecas, Mexico, and have been wanting to share this fun celebration the day after Día de Reyes with my students ever since. The result: this read-along video story (narrated by a native speaker from Zacatecas) and accompanying handout for story-based activities. I hope you will find it useful to incorporate into a unit on holidays, for targeted practice for preterite versus imperfect, and/or as a reading comprehension activity.