Fun Spanish Activities for Elementary School

Celebrate the Spanish culture in the classroom.

Whether you are teaching Spanish in your elementary classroom or simply doing a section on Spain or Mexico for history, you can incorporate some fun activities. Celebrate the Spanish culture to make the language or history come alive for students. These activities can be done in an afternoon with just a little preparation.

Experience the Cuisine

Give your students a taste of Spanish cuisine. For this activity you may wish to enlist the aid of a few parents for food preparation, serving and help with cleaning up afterward. Serve your students authentic Spanish or Mexican food. Let them have a taco day or focus on classic desserts, such as flan. Remember there are many Spanish speaking cultures, such as Cuban and Salvadorian, to draw from for food inspirations.

Enjoy Dancing

For this activity you might devote more than one day. For one grading period have Fridays become Spanish dance day. Teach students Spanish folk dances and classics such as the Mexican hat dance. Students will enjoy the chance to get up and move around and work off some of their youthful energy. Perhaps your school has a talent show in which your students can showcase their dancing ability. Put together authentic folk costumes to aid in the presentation.

Play Instruments

Students love music and love making noise. Let your students learn to play the maracas or castanets, two well known percussion instruments from Spanish culture. As a craft, you could even let students make their own maracas. Simple instruments can be made using empty (and clean) soda cans with some dried beans inside. Students will have fun making and playing these basic instruments. However, expect it to be a noisy day.

Christmas Songs

As the holiday season approaches, you can incorporate a little Spanish culture by having your students learn Christmas songs in Spanish. They'll enjoy the familiar tunes with Spanish lyrics. You might even get your principal's permission to allow your class to patrol the hall and offer Christmas carols to other classes. Students will enjoy the chance to get out of the classroom and sing for their friends. And the other classes will enjoy the brief interlude.

References

• Spanish Teaching: Games, Lessons & Activities
• Spanish Programs: Free Spanish Worksheets for the Classroom