Greetings in Spanish are sometimes difficult to practice because everything is so new to students and they can be hard to contextualize. Here are some strategies to help students use different greetings vocabulary in your classroom.
Greet students at the door
This is a great routine or procedure to set the tone for the school year. Explain to your students that you will greet them in Spanish at the door each day. They should line up outside your door along the wall. Use a different greeting phrase each day and model that students should greet you back with the same phrase. If your class meets at the same time each day, use this poster and give them two choices. “ยกHola, Jonny! ยฟBuenos dรญas o buenas noches?” The student should choose the correct greeting and then praise them and let them enter the room. Over time, you can add in other questions like “ยฟCรณmo te llamas?” or “Cรณmo estรกs?” I like to have the question written out on a mini-white board and have a sentence starter below it for students who may need it.
As time goes on, I post this poster outside my door and ask students ยฟCรณmo estรกs? (How are you?) every day when they walk in. It’s a good way to check in with each student before class starts.
Inner – Outer Circle
This is a fun game to practice greetings in Spanish. Depending on the layout of your classroom, you may need to move some desks or find a spot in the hall to play. Half the class forms an inner-circle and the other half forms an outer circle around them. Both circles face each other. Choose some fun Spanish music. When the music plays, the outer circle walks in the same direction. The inner circle does not move. When the music stops, the students freeze in front of their new partner. Provide guidelines and write them on the board.
- Each partner greets the other in Spanish.
- Each partner asks the other’s name in Spanish.
- Tell them it is nice to meet them.
- When the music starts, say goodbye and continue walking.
Continue stopping and starting the music to give students opportunity to talk to as many classmates as possible. Conversations will last about 20 seconds. Reinforce that all talking should be in Spanish or the target language.
Listening Comprehension
It’s really useful for Spanish 1 students to practice listening to accents from different parts of the Spanish-speaking world. This activity provides recordings of speakers from different Spanish-speaking countries greeting each other. You can be use it for assessments, stations, homework, language labs, or just as part of a regular class lesson. To read more about how to successfully introduce listening activities in your Spanish classroom, click here.
Puppet Shows
You may feel like middle school or high school students are too old for puppets or stuffed animals, but you’d be wrong. They LOVE them! Students love them so much, that you may have to set guidelines about writing before you even pass out the puppets, or they will spend most of their time playing.
Ask students to write a short 20 second skit between 2 characters. Use the same criteria as the inner-outer circle game. Each partner greets the other in Spanish.
- The characters should greet each other.
- The characters should ask each other’s names.
- The characters should respond politely (nice to meet you!)
- The characters should say goodbye
Students will be tempted to want to add other lines and make the skit funny. You have to decide how much translating you want to do. It’s also ok to tell the students to just focus on keeping it as simple as possible.
You can have students perform their skits live during class, or set up a recording station. Setting up a recording station usually takes less time and then everyone can watch them later on as a time filler activity. You can set up an iPad on a desk and use another desk or table as the stage. Tell students to crouch down under the table and place the iPad so it only frames the top of the desk where they will hold up their puppets and put on the show.
