Using Centers & Stations in Kindergarten Spanish

It has taken me a good long while to get to a point where I like doing centers. I don't recommend them for novice teachers. You have to really know the proficiency level of your students and have solid classroom management for them to work well in my opinion. Eight years in and I have finally braved doing centers with kindergarteners.

We are currently in our Animals Around Me unit where we learn numbers to 10, pets, colors, and size. Here are the three centers that they cycled through during 2-3 classes.

Making Patterns

This is a great and super age appropriate activity. It is a math skill that they learn in kindergarten and it's a great way to repeat vocabulary over and over. You could use this center with any vocab you are teaching really.

We practiced this activity in whole group at the end of class for several class periods before I tried it as a center. To set it up, I printed the cards, color coded them with a dot on each card that matched each envelope and then each student got an envelope. They found a space in the room (either at my Ikea coffee tables or on the carpet) to spread out and make their patterns.

You can get your own FREE pattern cards here.



Counting Up to Ten

This is another simple but engaging activity that reinforces skills they are learning in math. I gave them cups with dog and cat erasers (bought this summer at Target Dollar Spot). They picked a number and then counted out that number of erasers on their ten squares.

Free templates are here and here.



Pattern Block Puzzles

This is another activity that students do regularly with their classroom teacher so why not also do it in Spanish class! It's great for reviewing vocabulary - in this case pets - and for practicing colors. It also helps students work on fine motor control while I walked around and asked them what animals they were building and what colors they were using. We didn't touch on it this time but you could also easily add in shapes.

You can get your own Pattern Block Puzzles here. 


Additional Tips for Kindergarten Centers - I usually only do one center a class but the littler they are the shorter their attention span so some classes did one and some classes did two in a 25 minute class. We switched when I could see they were getting antsy or they asked if they could move to a new center.

I also checked with my kindergarten teachers to make sure that our students would be able to do these activities independently. The classroom teachers know their students really well and I always go to them to make sure I'm on track. Plus it's good for them to see that we're working on reinforcing concepts in Spanish class - stealth advocating!

And of course model, model, and model some more. All students can benefit from modeling but ESPECIALLY at this age it helps with expectations and success at each of the different centers. It also helped that we had done these activities or something very similar in whole group beforehand so it wasn't brand new.

What kinds of center & station activities do you do in your classroom? Share in the comments below!

Labeling Activities in Google Classroom

This year I have been trying to make better use of Google Classroom and having access to Chromebooks. My third graders have loved doing labeling activities in Google Slides. Labeling is perfect for Novice Mid learners and they loved the bright pictures. Some kids even asked if they could finish at home or during indoor recess (ummm, yeah kid you can!)

It takes a little prep but it saves on paper and the kids love working on the computer in Spanish class.

Setting Up A Labeling Activity

In this activity, we were working on our Meals I Eat unit. Students had to label different breakfasts from around the world. I found the pictures online and copied and pasted them into Powerpoint.

Next, I saved the Powerpoint slides AS PICTURES. Go to Save As and click on the drop down menu below where you name your slideshow and choose JPEG. It will ask you if you want to save all the slides as pictures or just the current one. You will want to choose all slides. 

Now go to Google Slides. So that students can't mess with your pictures, you want to make your Powerpoint slides the background of your slide. Upload your pictures that you saved in Powerpoint. You will do this with each slide.

Once you have your background then you add the text boxes with the labels that you want students to move around. 

You can also add text boxes that just say "Type here" and students can put in an answer rather than dragging and dropping. After labeling the different breakfasts students typed what they wanted to eat. 

When you add it to Google Classroom make sure that you set it up so that each student gets a copy. 

You can assign a grade in Google classroom or if you're a FLES teacher like me you just check it as a formative assessment to know what students are getting and what they are struggling with. If you just want to do a quick check you can go to your Google Drive, select the Google Classroom, and then hit the preview button (the small eye). Then you can quickly click through to see who is where on the assignment.

Tips for kids in class - I highly suggest showing students how to select a text box and then use the arrow keys to move it around. It is much easier than the touch pad on the Chromebook. Also teach them how to use the undo button in Google Slides because inevitably someone will delete a text box, add 12 blank slides, or turn a text box upside down (all real examples!) If students don't have their Chromebook or it's dead then I assign them to work with a partner. 

The great thing about this is that you can use it for almost any topic or theme. We did another similar activity in the next unit on family celebrations. It's also a great sub plan since students are working independently! 

What sorts of activities do you do in Google Classroom? I'm always looking for more ideas - Share in the comments below! If you want the activity shown above simply click here!