Fun Holidays Ideas in the Spanish Classroom

'Twas the week before Winter Break, when all through the schools
Every student was stirring, and breaking all the rules...

That's how that poem goes, right?! 

If you're looking for ideas to keep students engaged in learning Spanish vocab, while they have holiday ants in their pants - I have some fun ideas for you!

Scavenger Hunt

I love this activity. 

It's easy to prep and students get to get up out of their seats, so it's engaging and a great review activity.

There are both paper and digital versions, so whether you're in person or remote - this activity will work for you.

For the paper version...

The teacher has to hang up the half-sheets around the room in a random order. Students walk around the room and look at the clipart clue on any half-sheet they want to start with, find the vocabulary word hanging around the room, write it down on their handout, walk over to the next vocabulary word and look at the next clipart clue, and eventually the last one will lead back to the first. 

If you're thinking "wow... that's a lot of steps 😳", then check out this blog post for a step-by-step explanation for how scavenger hunts work.

For the digital version...

Students have to choose the correct vocabulary word (of 3 choices) for given clipart images. The correct answer tells them "congrats!" and the wrong answer tells them to try again and returns to the question.

Students practice 34 Christmas, Hanukkah, and winter-themed Spanish vocabulary words with either version. 🤓

You can check out this Scavenger Hunt activity in my TpT store here.

Three Kings Day {El Día de los Reyes} Webquest

This activity is public school-safe! I try to avoid anything that can be seen as too religious in public schools. 

It can be like poking a sleeping bear. It seems totally fine, right until the bear wakes up and you find yourself in a meeting with the principal and a gang of angry parents. Has this happened to anyone else?

This webquest gives students three websites to read about how Christmas and Dia de los Reyes are celebrated in Puerto Rico. 

So while, yes, the holidays do have an (obvious) religious background, these are not emphasized. It focuses more on how the holidays are celebrated, rather than why.

Oh, and it also has a digital version! 💁‍♀️

Verb Conjugations Coloring Activity

I also really love coloring activities. I've blogged about how awesome they are. 

There is a verb in each part of the elf and students have to color each section in based on which subject pronoun the verb matches. 

Students can do this with present tense, future tense, or preterite tense verbs, so they get to practice with whichever tense they are familiar with. 

And coloring activities are so calming - every teacher's best friend! 😆

You can grab this activity here.

Bingo {Lotería}, Memory, and I Have Who Has

All three games use the same 34 Christmas, Hanukkah, and winter-themed vocabulary words from the Scavenger Hunt activity. 

Bingo and Memory also have digital versions! 💻

These games will all keep students engaged and learning new Spanish vocabulary in those last few (crazy) days leading up to Winter Break.

All of these activities are available individually in my store, or bundled together HERE.

I hope you find these activity ideas to be helpful!  What else do you like to do in your Spanish classes right before Winter Break? Comment below! 👇