Games to Teach Young Kids Hello & Goodbye Expressions in Spanish
Every conversation in any language starts with “hello” and ends with “goodbye.” Teaching kids to say hello and goodbye in Spanish could be the first steps to language mastery – and it is fun. You can start with a few expressions and slowly introduce ways to extend the salutations. It is easy to make a game of it by having one kid start and letting other kids try to remember the other phrases.
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Basic phrases
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Start with four basic phrases for hello and four basic phrases for goodbye. Don’t write them down – and certainly don’t write them down in Spanish. Say them over and over until the students start to get them. The first day go around the class having each student say one of the phrases. Encourage the students to use the phrases with each other outside of the class. Four good hello phrases are "hola (oh-la)” for “hello”, “como estas (komo ee-stas)?” for “how are you?”, “que tal (kay tahl)?” for “how is it going?”, and “como te va (komo teh vaa)?” for “how is it going for you?”
The Simplest Games
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The simplest game starts when you choose one student who greets a student of his choice, who then return the first student's salutation with a different Spanish phrase. At this point, the game cannot go too far because they only know four greetings. Four simple “goodbye” phrases are “ciao (chow)” which came into Spanish from Italian, “nos vemos (nos vaa-mos)” which is similar to “we’ll see you,” “hasta luego (asta luu-way-go)” for “until we meet again” and “hasta pronto (asta pronto}” for “see you soon.” These four goodbye phrases can be used to end each student's turn in the game.
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More Complexity
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There are several ways to extend the four basic phrases. You can add “mi amigo (mi ah-me-go)” for “my friend” to any of the phrases. You can also add “senor (seen-yore)” if you are talking to a boy and “senorita (seen-yore-ree-tah)” if talking to a girl. When saying goodbye and using “hasta (asta)." By adding an additional word like “manana (mahn-yah-nah)” to get “hasta manana (asta mah-yah-nah)” for “see you tomorrow.”
Extra Phrases
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You should add all these phrases as the students master the previous phrases. A couple more easy phrases are “buenas dias (buanos dee-os)” for “good day” – said during the day -- and “hasta la vista (asta la veesta)” for “until we meet.” Another short "goodbye" is “adios (ah-dee-os).” You can also add “muchachos (moo-cha-chos)” to get “adios muchachos (ah-dee-os moo-cha-chos)” for “goodbye, boys” and “adios muchachas (ah-dee-os moo-cha-chas)” for “goodbye, girls.” You can also add these phrases to greetings such as “hola muchachos (oh-la moo-cha-chos)” for “hey guys.” A common slang greeting by young men is “que paso? (kay pah-so?)” meaning “what’s up?”
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