Valentine’s Day is around the corner so I put together some resources to use in the Spanish classroom! I focused on authentic material and items that would “hook” students into the lesson. This year, Valentine’s Day is on a Sunday but you can still use some of these resources Thursday and/or Friday, leading up to Valentine’s Day! I’d love to hear what great ideas you use to have a more comprehensive list!
All of the below ideas can be found on my Pinterest Spanish Valentines Day board: https://www.pinterest.com/diosestrella/spanish-class-valentines-day/
1. Twitter
When looking for authentic material and hooks, consider interest of your students, such as social media. During major holidays, Twitter is filled with authentic texts for students to read. Just search a hashtag related to the topic. I searched for #sanvalentin a few days ago and already found items. I'm sure that when Valentine's day appraoches, the wealth of authentic texts will increase! Below is an example of what I found.
Another Twitter related activity can be found on Zachary-Jones.com. The activity is titled: Twiccionario: #QuieroUnNovioQue & #QuieroUnaNoviaQue. The link is attached to the image.
2. Music! Who doesn't love music! I'm lucky to have a husband whose heart beats with the rhythm of music and he always finds great songs! He found a great song, Tengo Tu Love by Sie7e. The link is attached to the image.
3. Infographics! They are popping up everywhere and are a great tool for using authentic texts but in an eye catching format with great visual aids! I have found some great ones for Valentine's Day. Just click on the image to see more!
4. Humor! Sharing Spanish humor with students is so much fun! It also helps bring the language alive to them instead of scripted units in a text book.
5. Valentine's Day is all about showing you care for someone and a major way is through cards. There are several ways you can have this same tradition in your classroom.
You can give your students cards.
I made these this year for my students. The template to both of them can be found on my Pinterest site. Just click the image below.
You can also buy the candy hearts in SPANISH!! I know Teachers's Discovery sells them and so does Amazon! You could first have the stduents read these cards, process what they mean and then make their own! It wouldn't cost too much as each student only needs a few hearts! Click on the first image to see what other teachers have done with the candy hearts in their classrooms!
Take it a step futher and decorate your classroom with the candy hearts! What a cute and easy banner to make!
You can also check out this website for a cute printable banner in Spanish: http://hellolittlehome.com/diy-conversation-heart-banner-spanish/
You can have the students write a nice thing about each student in the classroom, then each student has a great poem to put together! Click on the image to read more about Roxanne Wright's lesson.
You can also have students make their own Valentine cards for someone they care about! You can provide phrases for them that are romantic, friendship based or phrases of thanks! Just click on the image to get the phrases!
6. Games! Who doesn't love games! You can play a simple BINGO game to review numbers or for the more advanced students, use the questions for speed dating, hot seat or use them as part of a board game.
