Sports in Spanish is a thematic unit that many of my students really enjoy. Talking about their favorite teams, athletes, and rivalries really motivates and engages some quieter students to speak up!
Here is a preview of how I have taught sports in Spanish with my own students.
Introducing vocabulary
There can be a LOT of vocabulary related to sports in Spanish! I break down the vocabulary into smaller chunks by focusing on one sport at a time. My students and I look for cognates and then I help them fill in the remaining words. Whenever I introduce vocabulary, we also draw a picture or come up with a word clue to help us remember.
At this point in the year, we have worked a lot on circumlocution, so we write our definitions in Spanish. For example, if we are defining the word “equipo” (team) we write “un grupo de personas que juega el deporte. Unos ejemplos son los Bears, los Bulls, y los Cubs.”
Reading activities
After I introduce the sports vocabulary in Spanish and we practice writing and sharing our definitions, we read a short story. Each story provides more repetitions of the sports in Spanish vocabulary and lets the students see the words in context.
I usually read to the class the first time so they can hear the pronunciation, then I ask students to re-read to a partner in Spanish to practice their own speaking. Finally, they read to each other in English, to make sure they understand everything they have read before working on the questions.
Listening activities
Oftentimes for homework, I assign students these listening activities. I prefer to do these as homework because it allows students the opportunity to listen as many times as they personally need in order to successfully answer the questions. Occasionally we will do this together as a whole class and then I will only play the recording twice, but in general, I think it lowers students anxiety to be able to listen on their own.
Games
Because there can be so much vocabulary for the sports in Spanish unit, there are lots of opportunities for games! Here is a short list of some of the games we play during this unit.
- Catchphrase – students have all their vocabulary words on cards. They get 2 minutes to describe the word without saying it, using the definitions we wrote before. Their teammates need to guess the word!
- Word sorts – Categorize the words into groups. Explain your rationale. Repeat with a new classification system.
- Around the world – face off against a classmate. The first person to call out the correct word based on the image shown, wins and advances to compete against the next student.
- Quizlet live
- Kahoot
Sports in Spanish Culture
Culture is such an important component of any Spanish lesson! During our sports unit, we watch videos about soccer culture, the rivalries between Barca and Real Madrid, and we look at famous athletes of Latino descent.
Grammar
In a lot of textbooks, sports are usually paired with stem-changing verbs in Spanish or sometimes comparisons. I incorporate those into my lesson plans as well. To see the full 7 week unit plan, click here!
