In this post, I share activities and strategies that have worked well in my French and Spanish classes to increase student engagement.
If you're giving Spanish interactive notebooks a try for the first time in your Spanish classes, you may be wondering what supplies you will need to be off to a successful start. Here's my detailed photo list of 7 things (plus a bonus FREE download) that you need to get started on your interactive notebook journey! **Totally confused about Spanish interactive notebooks and what they are?? START HERE with this blog post!** 1. THE Notebook! Well, it seems quite obvious that for an interactive notebook you need a notebook, but does the kind matter? In my opinion, YES! Definitely go for composition notebooks like the ones pictured below. Spiral bound notebooks just don't work as well and can easily lose pages throughout the year. Composition notebooks are tightly bound and can endure all of the use you'll be giving your notebook. 2. Scissors! You'll need a classroom set (or have students bring their own) to cut out your notebook inserts. 3. Glue Sticks! I prefer glue sticks a MILLION times over bottled glue to attach notebook inserts. There is a less likely chance of a goopy mess in the notebooks. While some have mentioned glue sticks not sticking as long, I've personally never had this problem and they seem to do the trick just fine. 4. Colored Pencils and Highlighters! While I don't spend an excessive amount of time in class adding color to notebooks, I do encourage students to do so when caught up on their class assignments or have extra time. I explain the use of color like this: "Wouldn't it be boring to look at a black and white textbook? Well, if your notebook is supposed to act as a 'textbook' in this class then it should be visually appealing as well". We all have students from time to time who just don't like "to color"...that's ok, BUT I do include "Appearance" on my rubric which I use to assess the notebooks (see below), so I encourage students to use color (whether with colored pencils or highlighting) in an effective way to make their notebooks more interesting and visually appealing. 5. Table of Contents! This 4 page document is stapled together and the the final sheet glued to the inside front cover of the notebooks. As we go throughout the year, students add the topic to the corresponding page number on their table of contents. This keeps everything nice and organized. Students can easily find and access topics just by a quick scan of the table of contents. 6. Rubric! This goes on the inside back cover of the notebook. I assess notebooks with the rubric once per grading period (for me that's once every 9 weeks). My rubric includes categories in Preparation, Use of Time, Organization, Appearance, and Completeness. My Rubric and Table of Contents are both available HERE in my TpT store. The rubric is even in editable format so that you can customize it for your classes. 7. Envelope! While I encourage students to attach inserts to their notebooks before adding in information, sometimes it just may not happen in class. They made need to finish something that they've already cut out but haven't attached at home. An envelope (either a letter sized OR a small manilla envelope) attached to the last page can store inserts and templates that haven't yet been glued. *Bonus* 8. Cover! A teacher recently emailed to ask if I would create a standard cover for all of her students to attach to the front of their notebooks. You'll find 3 different cover options and I've also included a few interactive notebook templates in the download which may be useful additions to your own INBs. Just pop in your email address below to get the download. Enjoy! :) Any other must-haves for INBs? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
See how I taught a unit on sports in Spanish with my beginning students. Use these readings, listening activities, and games to engage students!
If you’ve been wondering what the best Spanish resource to learn Spanish free is, then good news…there’s more than one! And you can easily start using them
Ideas for teaching Spanish geography, including games, activities, maps, and more. Learn the Spanish speaking countries and capitals.
Spanish Interactive Notebooks If you've read my posts on teaching Spanish without a textbook, you know I've moved away from teaching explicit grammar. I don't introduce verb charts until at least December, and every year that gets later. For the first part of the year, our grammar section sits empty. This is because students are acquiring grammar structures through comprehensible input, even when they don't know it. Our 'class content' section is chock-full of grammar. It's just not explanations, dissections, or drills. If I have to teach it, I keep in mind I'm really teaching 'linguistics' and try to make that
This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy for details. I’ve found a fun and interactive homeschool Spanish curriculum that I am so excited to share. Read on for a full review customize a foreign language program to perfectly fit your homeschool. For a full list of your secular homeschool curriculum options, see…
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What if you could teach CKLA Unit 1 in Spanish using interactive slideshows presentations? Don't wish anymore, this resource is what you need because it contains student friendly presentations for each lesson and will engage all your students. Grade 3 CKLA Amplify Unit 1 in Spanish google slides are aimed to support teachers while teaching with visual slides. Students will be engaged and have opportunities to interact as they learn reading skills in Spanish. What's included? It includes slideshow presentations in Spanish for lessons 1-15 of Unit 1: ¿Qué está incluido? Este producto obtiene una presentación completa de la CKLA Amplify Caminos Unidad 1: Cuentos clásicos: El Viento en los sauces Sera muy fácil presentar la lección ya que todos los elementos están incluidos en la presentación. Lección 1: En la Orilla del Río, Parte I Lección 2: En la Orilla del Río, Parte II Lección 3: Por la carretera Lección 4: El Bosque Silvestre Lección 5: El Señor Tejón Lección 6: Dulce Domum, Parte I Lección 7: Dulce Domum, Parte II Lección 8: El Señor Sapo Lección 9: Las aventuras de Sapo Lección 10:Otras aventuras de Sapo, Parte I Lección 11: Otras aventuras de Sapo, Parte II Lección 12: El regreso de Sapo, Parte I Lección 13: El regreso de Sapo, Parte II Lección 14: Cuentos clásicos, continuación Lección 15: Cuentos clásicos, conclusión Also, if you like this product please be so kind to write a review on my TPT store and you will get credit for future TPT purchases :) Follow ⭐CKLA Unidad 1 Vocabulario ⭐ CKLA Unidad 2 Vocabulario Keywords: CKLA, Caminos, Spanish, Grade 3, slideshow presentations
Looking for engaging Spanish class activities? Check out this post for five great ideas to help your students learn school vocab in a fun way!
Learn to talk about the various modes of transport in Spanish with a comprehensive vocabulary list, engaging books and catchy songs.
Hi all!! I hope you all have enjoyed your summer as much as I have. Mine was busy, busy, busy and packed full of changes. I'll save all that for another post, but I wanted to publicly address some questions that I've recently received from several readers who are interested in starting Spanish interactive notebooks in their classes this upcoming school year. Thanks guys for inspiring me to jump back on the blog train and share what's worked for me in regards to using Spanish interactive notebooks in my classes. I'm going to tackle this Q & A style. :) Q: What is an interactive notebook? A: You'll get varied answers on this and my own definition will probably continue to evolve, but, at this point, an interactive notebook in my Spanish class is a notebook with which students can literally "interact" in order to learn a concept. I give input (generally via PowerPoint notes) to students and then the students "respond" in some sort of manner. It is NOT just a notebook with worksheets glued inside. It generally includes some sort flipable or foldable template, flip book, graphic organizer or a hands-on activity which is added directly to the notebook. Q: What do I need for INBs? A: I recommend the black (or any color cover) composition books. You can choose to have students add a cover to the composition. I have several cover choices (along with some sample templates) posted for FREE in my TpT store HERE. I find you're less likely to lose pages with a composition notebook than if you were using spiral notebooks. You also need scissors and glue sticks (or glue) for each student. I know that some teachers prefer glue over glue sticks, but I used glue sticks and never had a problem with things coming un-glued. In my opinion, there's less mess potential using glue sticks. Students also have colored pencils and highlighters to use with the notebooks. Q: How do you organize your notebook? A: I print a blank table of contents template for my students and have them attach this to the inside front cover of their notebooks. Students then number the pages of their notebooks (front and back). This all happens before we do anything else with the notebook. Each time we begin a new page, we title the page and add the title and corresponding page number to the table of contents. I am a stickler for having students keep up with the table of contents. It makes accessing previously learned info much easier as I can quickly tell them to go to page ____ for an explanation to their question. Some teachers like to follow a format of left side/right side for teacher input/student output. I may get there someday, but right now, I'm not nearly organized enough for that. Just being honest with you guys. ;) We just keep going on whatever page we leave off on. Inside the back cover we glue a rubric. More on this below. :) Last year, we began our notebooks, with a 5 Reasons to Study Spanish Assignment. You can see more about that HERE. I will definitely use that one again. Q: How do you assess your notebook? A: I will sometimes grade individual pages or activities within the notebook as daily or homework grades. At the end of each quarter, I collect notebooks and they receive a notebook grade (which assesses things like completeness, accurate table of contents, effort, etc. using a rubric). This grade counts as a quiz grade each quarter. Click the picture below to link to the table of contents and editable rubric that I use to set up and organize my notebooks that available in my TpT store. Stay tuned for Part 2 on Starting Interactive Notebooks in Spanish Classes. I'll have that posted later this week. In that post I'll talk about what goes in the notebook (and what doesn't) and how these have helped my students. UPDATE: Part 2 is now posted HERE. :) SaveSave
Spanish Interactive Notebooks If you've read my posts on teaching Spanish without a textbook, you know I've moved away from teaching explicit grammar. I don't introduce verb charts until at least December, and every year that gets later. For the first part of the year, our grammar section sits empty. This is because students are acquiring grammar structures through comprehensible input, even when they don't know it. Our 'class content' section is chock-full of grammar. It's just not explanations, dissections, or drills. If I have to teach it, I keep in mind I'm really teaching 'linguistics' and try to make that
Check out these Gustar Spanish Activities. Free Spanish worksheets, activities, and a step by step teaching guide for verbs like gustar
Looking for a New Way to Practice La Rutina Diaria Vocab? Check out this fun and easy Spanish lesson idea to use in your class tomorrow!
Wow! The play dough tree mats that I made for counting from 1-10 a couple weeks ago have become so popular! I hope that you all are enjoying using them! Sunday, I received an e-mail from one of you requesting the play dough mats in Spanish. I confess, Spanish is not my strong suit. (Something to do with every time I try to speak Spanish, Georgian comes out instead...) But I can count in Spanish! This can even be a great tool for teaching Spanish to young children.
Spanish Interactive Notebooks If you've read my posts on teaching Spanish without a textbook, you know I've moved away from teaching explicit grammar. I don't introduce verb charts until at least December, and every year that gets later. For the first part of the year, our grammar section sits empty. This is because students are acquiring grammar structures through comprehensible input, even when they don't know it. Our 'class content' section is chock-full of grammar. It's just not explanations, dissections, or drills. If I have to teach it, I keep in mind I'm really teaching 'linguistics' and try to make that
Are you are looking for Spanish reading for the kids to take on vacation? Or hoping to expose them to more Spanish before school starts? Be sure to check out these free Spanish iBooks as a way to engage children with language. You can also check out our Spanish
Pear Deck has been one of the most effective virtual learning tools I’ve experimented with during this crazy year as a Spanish teacher! But...
Here is a Printable Spanish Interactive Learning Folder that teaches the alphabet, numbers, and basic Spanish vocabulary.
Get your students a hands-on, creative visual for telling time! These telling time worksheets in Spanish are great practice for your novices!
A guide to Montessori Spanish instruction, including toys and activities that promote language acquisition during the early years.
Spanish Interactive Notebooks If you've read my posts on teaching Spanish without a textbook, you know I've moved away from teaching explicit grammar. I don't introduce verb charts until at least December, and every year that gets later. For the first part of the year, our grammar section sits empty. This is because students are acquiring grammar structures through comprehensible input, even when they don't know it. Our 'class content' section is chock-full of grammar. It's just not explanations, dissections, or drills. If I have to teach it, I keep in mind I'm really teaching 'linguistics' and try to make that
Inside: End of the year games for Spanish class. The end of the year can be… interesting, right? Everyone is tired, you have run out of ideas, testing has already been done, and summer is on everyone’s mind. Here are some ideas that work with ANY unit or theme and put all the summer energy to
Hi all!! I hope you all have enjoyed your summer as much as I have. Mine was busy, busy, busy and packed full of changes. I'll save all that for another post, but I wanted to publicly address some questions that I've recently received from several readers who are interested in starting Spanish interactive notebooks in their classes this upcoming school year. Thanks guys for inspiring me to jump back on the blog train and share what's worked for me in regards to using Spanish interactive notebooks in my classes. I'm going to tackle this Q & A style. :) Q: What is an interactive notebook? A: You'll get varied answers on this and my own definition will probably continue to evolve, but, at this point, an interactive notebook in my Spanish class is a notebook with which students can literally "interact" in order to learn a concept. I give input (generally via PowerPoint notes) to students and then the students "respond" in some sort of manner. It is NOT just a notebook with worksheets glued inside. It generally includes some sort flipable or foldable template, flip book, graphic organizer or a hands-on activity which is added directly to the notebook. Q: What do I need for INBs? A: I recommend the black (or any color cover) composition books. You can choose to have students add a cover to the composition. I have several cover choices (along with some sample templates) posted for FREE in my TpT store HERE. I find you're less likely to lose pages with a composition notebook than if you were using spiral notebooks. You also need scissors and glue sticks (or glue) for each student. I know that some teachers prefer glue over glue sticks, but I used glue sticks and never had a problem with things coming un-glued. In my opinion, there's less mess potential using glue sticks. Students also have colored pencils and highlighters to use with the notebooks. Q: How do you organize your notebook? A: I print a blank table of contents template for my students and have them attach this to the inside front cover of their notebooks. Students then number the pages of their notebooks (front and back). This all happens before we do anything else with the notebook. Each time we begin a new page, we title the page and add the title and corresponding page number to the table of contents. I am a stickler for having students keep up with the table of contents. It makes accessing previously learned info much easier as I can quickly tell them to go to page ____ for an explanation to their question. Some teachers like to follow a format of left side/right side for teacher input/student output. I may get there someday, but right now, I'm not nearly organized enough for that. Just being honest with you guys. ;) We just keep going on whatever page we leave off on. Inside the back cover we glue a rubric. More on this below. :) Last year, we began our notebooks, with a 5 Reasons to Study Spanish Assignment. You can see more about that HERE. I will definitely use that one again. Q: How do you assess your notebook? A: I will sometimes grade individual pages or activities within the notebook as daily or homework grades. At the end of each quarter, I collect notebooks and they receive a notebook grade (which assesses things like completeness, accurate table of contents, effort, etc. using a rubric). This grade counts as a quiz grade each quarter. Click the picture below to link to the table of contents and editable rubric that I use to set up and organize my notebooks that available in my TpT store. Stay tuned for Part 2 on Starting Interactive Notebooks in Spanish Classes. I'll have that posted later this week. In that post I'll talk about what goes in the notebook (and what doesn't) and how these have helped my students. UPDATE: Part 2 is now posted HERE. :) SaveSave
Help Spanish students really learn and retain their numbers with 10 days worth of lesson plans and activities for numbers 1-100.
Spanish Flea sheet music by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass. Sheet music arranged for Piano/Vocal/Guitar in Bb Major (transposable). SKU: MN0087623
Ocean life Spanish learning activities include fun Spanish letters, reading, syllables, and sight words along with interactive games.
Earlier in the week, I wrote Part 1 of Starting Spanish Interactive Notebooks. You may want to check that out HERE if you haven't already. Today, I wanted to share a few more thoughts that have developed from my use Spanish Interactive Notebooks. Q: How often do you use the notebook? A: I don't necessarily use them every day. My general process went like this when beginning something new: introduce new topic, add topic and page number to the table of contents. Make sure all your students number the pages of their notebook (front and back) at the beginning of the year. Then, students take notes on the topic or add a vocabulary list to the page (if it's a vocabulary topic). I do grammar notes and introduce vocab using PowerPoint presentations. After notes are finished, students add the foldable/flipable template or whatever interactive piece we are doing for that topic to their notebooks. This process may take a couple of lessons (depending on your class period length, what you want them to do for HW etc.). Q: Does everything you do in class get added to the notebook? Every single thing doesn't go in them (I made students have an additional pocket folder to store handouts/assignments not in the notebook). During the unit, they may sometimes add other assignments (like a dialogue or occasional book work) to the notebook if it could be incorporated well and could serve a purpose as a study tool. We also play games and do other speaking and listening activities that wouldn't be included in the interactive notebook. I DO have students do their Para Empezar (bell-ringers/warm-ups) in their INBs because I believe that these can be useful for study purposes. I save about 20 pages at the beginning of the notebook which they labeled "Para Empezar". Q: What are the benefits of using Interactive Notebooks? Do they help students? A: One of my favorite things about these notebooks is that students are creating an organized study resource. This is huge for students who have organization issues. They aren't digging around their backpacks for a page of notes on whatever. It also serves a a great review tool, so that when students asked a question related to something covered earlier in the year, I could tell them to look on page ___. It became their own "textbook", with condensed, organized info. Students often used the interactive pieces to study/review. They would express that it was more helpful and engaging than staring at pages of notes. For example, if they finished something early in class, they could go back and pull out a vocabulary matching game from earlier in their notebooks to play. This way, they can review previous concepts in a different manner in hopes of promoting more long term retention. Are you using interactive notebooks in your language classes? I'd love to hear your thoughts! :) Would you like some free covers and foldable templates to get your Spanish Interactive Notebooks started? Just sign up below! Jump on over to this follow up post on Essentials for Spanish Interactive Notebooks.
What are French phonics foldable flaps? This post will show you how one foldable flap can be used in several different ways to practice French sounds.
This booklet for interactive notebooks covers these basics: Greetings (los saludos) Numbers 0-10 (los números) Colors (los colores) Days of the week, months, seasons, and weather Pronouns Classroom objects, and/or common adjectives, and/or 10 high-frequency verbs in three forms (yo, tú, and él/ella/usted). You choose which of the last three options to include! **Update** This booklet now includes a video (same as the preview) to show your students how to assemble, with instructions in Spanish. You can use the Mp4 included in the file, or show it from YouTube . Designed to give students vocabulary they can use right away, this is a great way to cover the basics so students can navigate their immediate environment in Spanish. Special thanks to Rebekah Brock, My Happy Place, and Deeder Do for the cover graphics!
