Can you think of anything kids love more than talking about their likes and dislikes? Teaching the Spanish verb gustar is something you will want to teach as soon as possible! First, consider passively teaching Me gusta and No me gusta during the first week of school and then revisiting the phrases during each unit throughout the year for lots of repetition.
How to Introduce the Verb Gustar
On Day One, post a slide on the board with these statements:
Next, pass out a list of likes with some cognates like this one:
Then ask students to pick 1-2 things they like. Start by modeling:
“¡Hola!” (Wave) “Me llamo Profe (Mimic drawing the outline of a name tag) y me gusta (Thumbs up) el arte.” (Mimic painting)
Ask students to also use actions when they introduce themselves. This is a good way to introduce TPR. After each student says what they like, tell the rest of the class to call out “¡Yo también!” if they also like that activity. This is a great way to build community.
As students introduce themselves, take notes on what they like. When everyone has gone, go around the circle and summarize what they said:
“Este es Luke. Le gusta el basquetbol. Bobby, Billy y José les gusta basquetbol también!”
If the majority of the class likes the same thing you can add: “Nos gusta ____.”
¡Yo Tambien!
Another version of this activity that works well with small classes involves some running. Students form a circle and you start in the middle. Then say something you like such as, “¡Me gusta arte!” All students who also like art have to yell “¡Yo también!” and run across the circle to trade places with someone. They cannot swap with the person next to them. The last person to find a spot is in the middle and makes the next statement.
Bingo Game
Next, teach students how to ask someone “¿Te gusta _____?”. With older students, Bingo is a great tool to teach how to ask and answer the question: “¿Que te gusta hacer?” This free bingo card allows students to practice speaking to each other while moving around the room. After the game, students can practice Le gusta by reporting what each classmate likes based on their Bingo card.
Videos to Teach Gustar
Super Simple Spanish has several cute videos to teach Me gusta and Te gusta. This can be part of a lesson for younger students or as a brain break for older students. Play the video and ask students to give a thumbs up or down based on their own likes and dislikes.
How to Teach Gustar Grammar
The best way to teach the conjugation for gustar and its pronouns is through activities with lots of repetition in context. However, if you have to explicitly teach grammar, there are a few ways to approach it. Here are some ideas I’ve used over the years:
How to Conjugate Gustar
First, teach them the 2 forms: Me gusta for one item and Me gustan for more than one item. It’s important that students understand that gustar is a verb that does NOT mean “to like” but rather “to please someone.” Therefore, when we talk about what we like in Spanish, we are NOT the subject performing an action (Bill likes cookies); instead, the objects we like are doing the action (Cookies are pleasing to Bill). This also explains why we use indirect object pronouns instead of subject pronouns for who is being pleased. After this is clear, you can add the structure Me gusta + verb. Here is an example from my food unit:
How to Teach Les Gusta
After students have mastered Me, Te, and Le Gusta, I found this idea from Step 5 of this article to teach Les Gusta. Give each student or small group of students some categories of people and animals (i.e. children, teachers, athletes, dogs, etc.) and have them brainstorm things they generally like. For example, for the category of “cats” students might come up with: A los gatos les gustan los ratones.
Verbs Like Gustar
If you need to introduce all the object pronouns and/or all the verbs like gustar at once, here is a useful set of notes:
Just remember that vocabulary is more important than grammar! When you introduce the Gustar Unit, spend a lot of time on the vocabulary (see example presentation below) before you begin taking notes on the object pronouns for gustar.
You can also try a customizable bingo game with verbs like gustar:
Object pronouns
Once students master verbs like gustar as vocabulary, continue the notes and introduce the object pronouns for gustar. Be sure to provide lots of practice and repetition.
Sentence Structure
Puzzle sentences are also a great hands-on activity to practice gustar sentence structure and word order. This is a good alternative for kinesthetic learners. Provide students with a bag of words and ask them to create logical sentences using verbs like gustar to express their likes and dislikes in Spanish.
I hope these ideas and activities help your students master using the Spanish verb gustar!
