Sunday, May 19, 2013

La Comida (Food) Lesson Plan

One of my favorite units to cover as a Spanish teacher has always been la comida!  These past couple of weeks I have been able to enjoy learning all about comidas with my own kiddos.  Here is what we've been working on.


la carne, las bebidas, la fruta, las verduras, los granos, el postre, el lácteo, la manzana, las uvas, la naranja, la banana, la pera, la lechuga, el pimiento, la zanahoria, las habichuelas, el brocolí, el aguacate, el agua, el jugo, el refresco, la leche, el té, el café, el jamón, el bistec, la salchicha, el pollo, el pavo, la limonada, el pastel, el helado, la tarta, los dulces, la galleta, el pan, el arroz, el cereal, la pasta, el queso, el yogur, los huevos, la mantequilla, los frijoles, el pescado, el maíz

Click here for a Wordonline document of my flashcards that can be printed on regular paper, card stock, or perforated business card paper.


Use the verb ser to classify foods into their respective groups
Use the verb gustar to say which foods the students like/dislike
Discuss plural vs. singular nouns and conjugate the verbs ser and gustar appropriately

Day 1:

Discuss the vocabulary associated with food groups (la carne, las bebidas, los granos, las frutas, el lácteo, las verduras, el postre).  Talk about different foods that would go in each category and drill the seven vocabulary words with flashcards. 

Look at a grocery store ad and take turns pointing out a food and naming the category to which it belongs. 

For the next few meals, name which category the foods fall into.


Day 2:

Go through the flash cards for the entire vocabulary list.  Hold up a flash card, say the name of the food, and then the kids repeat it. 

Use magnets to place the 7 food categories in a line across a magnetic whiteboard.  The kids take turns selecting a food and placing it in the correct category.  As they place the food in it's proper category, they use correct grammar to state where the food belongs.

Ex. Son #1 drew "la zanahoria".  He would stick it under "las verduras" and say, "La zanahoria es una verdura."  We did this until all the vocabulary cards were on the board.  I made a point to emphasize when to use "es" and when to use "son".  Ex. "Las habichuelas son una verdera."

It is unrealistic to expect the students to know the names of all the vocabulary after only going over them one time.  My goal was for them to practice saying the names, use correct grammar, and become more familiar with the vocabulary.

Day 3:

Review all vocabulary words.  While they are still fresh in the kids' minds, play a naming game.  Turn over a flash card, and the kids take turns saying the word in Spanish.  If they know how to say it correctly, they keep the card.  Each time they accumulate 10 cards, they may eat a small candy.

After the game practice using "gustar" to say if they like a food or not.  Work on using (no) "me gusta" and "me gustan" to express likes and dislikes properly.


Day 4:

Play la comida BINGO by inserting flashcards into a business card holder sheet protector.

Click here for instructions on creating your own easy BINGO.

Field Trip!  Go to the grocery store and find all the food on our vocabulary list.

Day 5:

Play "igualitos", an idea from a Spanglish Baby post.  Gather as many copies of a grocery store ad as participants in the game.  Each participant should cut out pictures of vocabulary words, and place them in a pile next to him.  Provide each person with a small brown paper lunch bag (if you don't have small paper lunch bags, use any small container as the shopping basket or draw a simple basket on a piece of paper).  This will be the shopping bag.  If time permits, the students can decorate their own shopping bags.

To play, the first person begins by saying, "Voy a comprar..." then proceeds to list 3 to 4 (more for older students) items he is going to buy.  As he says them, he places the pictures of the items in his bag.  The other participants listen and place their own pictures in their own bags.  It is important that the participants are unable to see the other players' pictures.  That way they are exercising their listening skills.   Once the player has listed everything he is going to buy, each participant shows what they have in their shopping bag.  Everyone should have the same items.  The players then take turns "buying" their groceries.

To add a math component, have the students add up the prices of the items after each round.  Ask the students which costs more or which costs less.  Give the students pretend money and have them pay for their groceries after each round.


Day 6:

Fun day!  Choose a recipe to make with some of the relevant vocabulary.  We chose to make una pizza de fruta.  Here is a link to the recipe from

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Spanish Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

We have done an incredible amount of car traveling over the past couple of months--over 50 hours.  At first I left the kids to be--happily playing video games on Nintendo DS or Leapster.  For many hours I enjoyed the peacefulness of a quiet car, until the guilt set in.  Certainly we could be doing something educational with all that time.  Yes, there are plenty of educational activities to do in the car, but my kids were already accustomed to their car-ride video game time (which is a treat because under normal circumstances video game time is severely limited).  Getting them to do anything else in the car brought about loud and angry protests, and heavily interrupted my peaceful quiet (which is also a treat, severely limited under normal circumstances!).

Finally I couldn't take it any more.  I couldn't stand the thought of those two precious little brains getting mushier and mushier with each passing mile.  Before our next trip I created a car-ride scavenger hunt in Spanish.  I let the kids know that there would be no video games in the car until they found all the items on their scavenger hunt.  After that they could play for an hour at a time with hour breaks in between for reading, activity books, flash cards, etc.  There were still loud and angry protests, but they came before we got in the car since I gave the boys plenty of advanced notice.  This is a move I highly recommend--at your own house you can close the door on loud and angry protests until they quiet down and eventually cease to exist.

The scavenger hunt turned out to be lots of fun for all of us.  It got the boys (and mom and dad) looking out the windows and took almost two hours.  Here is a link to the document.  Feel free to modify it to suit the area in which you will be traveling.