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 song".

For the record, I've only had to ban one class from continuing to sing the 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 first in Spanish 1 because I want kids to learn each other's names and get to know each other first.

I teach it 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 marching song because it includes all the letters (RR, LL, etc), and it's catchy.

It's so catchy, some of your students might still break out into the Alphabet Song at the end of the school year. 

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 speaking and listening activities for a few days. 

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, including writing "eme" (M).

The Complaints:

They'll complain about how you're forcing them to learn THIRTY letters 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, dobe ve, equis, i griega are the tricky ones. All the other letters are extremely obvious.

Their lives are not that hard. 😂

The Best Part:

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.

How to make it easy for yourself:

I have this Spanish Alphabet Unit available in my TpT store.

It includes:

• lesson plans for this 5-day unit
• bell work
• listening, speaking, and writing activities
• listening scripts
• a rubric, rough draft, and example for the Alphabet Book Project

If you have any other suggestions for teaching the alphabet, please share in the comments below!