Shapes

This is a great way to "teach" the shapes without really having to "teach" much at all. (This can also be adapted for many other vocabulary concepts. In class, we paired this activity with the same process for colors which then led us into a great discussion about cognates and how they will help us throughout the year as we teach/learn the language.)

Prep: Create enough "goodie bags" so that every group in your class can have one. Each "goodie bag" (aka. sandwhich bag) contains:
 * The shapes that you are teaching in their physical shape form, not just the English word.
 * Small sheets of paper with the Spanish (or French, or German) name for each shape.

1. Get students into small groups. (We had groups of 4.) 2. Distribute a "goodie bag" to each group. 3. Give the students time to go through the colors and the Spanish words and try to make the pairs that go together. (The directions were given to the students IN SPANISH. I went through step by step and had the students repeat back what I said, but in English.) 4. When the students believe that they have correctly identified the Spanish word that matches the physical shape, they had to raise their hand and have me check it over. If it was correct, they could create their "vocabulary list" in their Spanish binder.

This is really a great way to go about teaching the shapes because there really isn't much teaching involved. The students get to be hands-on and literally teach themselves and/or each other. It is also a good way for them to work on the problem solving process in a completely foreign way. Hope it's helpful to you! user:kristynd