How to Teach the Spanish Alphabet so it Sticks

This post could also be called "How to teach the Spanish Alphabet so good that you have to ban students from singing it".

Or "For heaven's sake - it's March, please stop singing that Spanish alphabet song".

For the record, I've only had to ban one class from continuing to sing the Spanish alphabet song well into March.

That class was full of overly enthusiastic 7th-grade girls. 🙃

Spanish Alphabet - All The Deets

When:

I don't teach the Spanish Alphabet letters first in Spanish 1 because I want kids to learn each other's names and get to know each other first.

I teach the alphabet in the 2nd or 3rd week of school and I teach kids how to spell their names.

The Hook:

The Spanish Alphabet song you choose will help students remember all the letters. I have always used this Spanish alphabet marching song because it includes all 30 letters (including RR, LL, etc), and it's catchy.

It's so catchy, some of your students might still break out into the Spanish Alphabet Song at the end of the school year. I apologize in advance for that. 🙃

I show the video at least twice a day for about a week straight. I encourage loud and enthusiastic singing along!

The Work:

I have students do lots and lots of Spanish alphabet activities for a few days so they really get the Spanish alphabet phonics down.

For Spanish alphabet practice, I spell names of students in the room (once they figure it out, they go ballistic like suddenly they're a famous person), I spell the names of Spanish-speaking countries, I have students ask and answer questions about spelling any of the (few) words they know at that point.

Lots and lots of partner work.

I also have them write.

I know you'll never ever have to write how letters sound, but they need all the practice they can get, so I have them write the Spanish alphabet sounds, like writing "eme" (M).

The Complaints:

They'll complain about how you're forcing them to learn THIRTY letters of the Spanish alphabet IN.ONE.DAY.

What kind of a teacher does that?! Why are you such a MONSTER???

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Remind them that this alphabet is exactly the same as the English alphabet they already know.

The letters all make their sounds ("eme" is M... not hard), and there are really only a few tricky letters they actually need to learn.

Jota, doble ve, equis, i griega are the tricky ones. All the other letters are extremely obvious.

Their lives are not that hard. 😂

The Best Part:

My favorite tip for teaching the Spanish alphabet for beginners is to end with a project.

I love projects.

I love giving students work to do that is going to take them 2 days to complete, and then I sit back and monitor.

Preferably from a chair with my legs propped up.

For the Alphabet Unit, I have students create an "alphabet book" on powerpoint where they find a Spanish word that begins with each letter of the alphabet (I make some exceptions for ñ, x, etc) and include a picture.

Students learn some new words and can compare the two languages.

For example, "garden" begins with a G in English, but a J in Spanish.

And that's how I ensure they master the Spanish alphabet a to z!