Baseball or golf – it’s a toss up which one is more boring.😆But being able to talk about them and other sports in Spanish is a must for most kids. Plus, kids can learn 2 high-frequency verbs: juega and hace. I have 9 activities to help your kids learn them.
These lessons build on previous lessons, so please check out my Start Here page if you haven’t completed the previous lessons.
Click the link to see the schedule, what is taught, and a list of activities:
You can buy the bundle with the activities here.
How I Taught My Kids Sports in Spanish
We didn’t come up with actions for TPR for the sports because I have a script with actions for this lesson, so I had them act out sentences instead. Super funny to watch! The script includes questions about what they are acting also. Here is a link for the ASL sign for makes.
There is more vocabulary for this lesson, so I did PQA (which is basically conversation) over a few days. Otherwise, they get super annoying antsy. They are mostly answering in English which is fine. When they answered in English, I repeated it back to them in Spanish to continue modeling Spanish for them.
For example, I asked Aidan, “¿Qué haces en la cocina?” He answered, “cup-o-noodles and popcorn.” I repeated back in Spanish, “Tú haces cup-o-noodles y las palomitas de maíz.” If your kids are answering in English, also, I really encourage you to repeat the statements back to them in Spanish just like when they were little and learning English.
I started making videos with some examples from the PQA (Conversation) printable. Your kids can listen to the conversation videos and practice with me.
I introduce vocabulary to my students with pictures and clipart that I find online. Obviously can’t do that with my blog without breaking copyright laws. I missed having pictures to go with the vocabulary, so I hired Aidan (who works for Cheez-Its) to draw pictures of people playing the sports for this lesson and then made a short video with them for listening practice. Hopefully, they will be helpful!
The script asks questions about sports, and Aidan has played soccer and baseball in the past but hated it. So I asked him more questions about playing video games. He loves Minecraft and Roblox and also loves to watch several YouTubers that create things in Minecraft. For the questions about playing a sport, I changed it to Minecraft and asked him if he plays Minecraft with the YouTubers he watches.
He was so funny when he answered! He took it so seriously and was like, “No way, I’d never be able to play with them. They’re so much better.” Umm, I wasn’t serious. I also asked about what the YouTubers make and what he makes in Minecraft. If your kids don’t like sports either, you can ask them about games they play or use the alternate questions to ask about playing in the snow instead.
I’ve been making more of a conscious effort to use the vocabulary the boys have learned throughout the day. For instance, Aidan was building an airplane with Legos, and I was his assistant digging in the bin for the Legos he wanted. It was the perfect opportunity to continue practicing the vocab.
I asked him questions like, “¿Quieres un Lego blanco?” “¿Qué haces con los Legos?” ¿Dónde busco los Legos verdes?” Another day he was playing Roblox, so I asked him some questions like, “¿Qué juegas?” “¿Juegas Roblox con Sally (his friend he plays Roblox with)?”
When I couldn’t find the M&Ms I had out, I asked Alex, “¿Dónde están los M&Ms?” They were still answering in English, but it was good to use the Spanish they are learning in context. They were answering logically, but I also asked a couple of times for them to tell me in English what I was asking to double check they were correctly understanding what I was asking.
Reading Activities
I used the mini-story outline in the PQA printable to make a story with Aidan. I asked him the questions and then jotted down his answers on the script. When writing the story, I tried to stay as close as possible to the script and story outline for an example. But Aidan was making the story difficult by saying Parrot doesn’t have any friends and making other details complicated, so this story doesn’t follow the script exactly.
And don’t feel you need to! There’s a lot of flexibility depending on how much Spanish you know. I like adding extra details when writing the story that my kids and I create together. I wanted to give an example, though, so you can see how easy it is to keep it simple especially if you’re learning Spanish with your kids.
I included a short non-fiction reading called ¿Quién es? about famous people. My kids prefer non-fiction, so I thought I’d change it up a little this time. The people include Olympic athletes, a couple of chefs, and a couple of people who make the most amazing things with Legos. Aidan didn’t know who some of the people are, so I pulled up the websites where I found the information so he could read more about the people. The websites are on the sources page in the printable.
I included another Todo sobre mí (All about Me) booklet with sentence starters. Alex plays soccer and baseball, so his book was about playing sports. I decided to use pictures of winter time/playing in the snow for Aidan’s booklet, though, since he doesn’t really like playing sports, and I have lots of pictures of us playing in the snow since that is a favorite pastime every winter. ❄⛄❄
Movie Talk
I included a Movie Talk with this lesson because I don’t have as many reading activities, and I wanted to make sure there were enough activities for kids to acquire Spanish. Here is an explanation of Movie Talk in case you’re wondering what it is. The video is of sports fails which are pretty funny. Aidan and I laughed a lot. Thankfully, they aren’t all of people getting hurt. I know people find that funny, but I usually just feel really bad for the injured person.
When he was working on the reading activity, he told me he forgot everything and couldn’t do the second activity which is putting events in order. I gave him the script to look at since it meant he would be reading Spanish to figure out what happened when. Ji ji (hee hee)
Flashcards
There are two different sets of flashcards with this lesson. One with the vocabulary for the lesson and a separate set with sports vocabulary. I decided to make two sets because there was a lot of vocabulary for sports, and I wanted the Memoria game to be sentences with the verbs conjugated.
One of my biggest pet peeves is seeing picture books or flashcards that have the infinitives for the activity like jugar al fútbol. I don’t want my kids (or any other kids!) talking in infinitives: I to play soccer. <shudder>
Using these different activities will help your kids learn to talk about sports and games which are very popular topics! Did you teach your kids sports in Spanish or know anyone who wants to? Please share with the buttons on the left!
Did you make a story with your kids using the mini-story outline? Tell me about it in the comments below!
P.S. Are you looking for a quick and fun way to help your kids start learning Spanish? If so, check out my free Spanish for Kids Starter Guide! You can immediately use any of the 9 simple tips to introduce your kids to Spanish. Know what the best part is? You don’t have to know Spanish to use it!
