“AAAAAAHHHHHHHH” and running feet are the norm in my house.🤪Hands-on activities to teach vocabulary like places in Spanish is a must. Having two boys sitting around completing worksheets to learn Spanish is a no-go.
Movement and hands-on activities are super important to learning! They are more interesting for kids so kids will be more likely to want to keep doing the activity and will learn more because they’re interacting with Spanish longer.
Plus, actions help us remember the words better (thought to happen because different parts of the brain are being used to understand meaning) and give a chance for movement for kids who have a difficult time sitting still. Like my kids!
Besides making the learning fun, this is an easy lesson for you to use with your kids! 💯 I’ve included a plan with detailed instructions and fun, interactive activities like coloring sheets to make a map of a city and videos for listening.
The lessons build on each other, but this one is almost a stand-alone lesson, so it is possible to start here. I included the translations of the verbs in the videos so you and your kids can still watch them and understand what’s being said if you haven’t completed previous lessons yet. If you do start here, just make sure to check out the start here page before moving on to the next lesson. There will be too much vocabulary from previous lessons to understand the activities.
But, if you’re like me and like order, check out my Start Here page for the best way to begin! Once you start following the instructions and complete the activities, you and your kids will be able to understand and speak Spanish muy pronto (very soon)!
Download the FREE printables and instructions here:
9. Video: Poco y la ciudad Story
How I Taught My Kids Places in Spanish
Total Physical Response (TPR)
This is the first activity with movement, and it’s also a listening activity. I love starting a lesson using TPR with both my students and my kids! Some of my high school students get into it, but most of them are probably thinking I’m evil for making them do this. 😂 They learn I’m super patient because I won’t move on until everyone does the action. Aidan does the actions but kind of rolls his eyes at me. I think maybe he’s actually a teenager in the body of an 11-year-old.
I usually use actions for the verbs when doing TPR, but the vocabulary this time is focused on nouns: places in the city. So the instructions include simple TPR just using the pictures of the places and a script for having kids go to the places if you do the map activity. You can choose to just do one TPR activity or do both.
Arts and Crafts (I think😄)
I’m not really an arts and crafts type of person; they’re way too messy. This activity has coloring, cutting, and gluing, so that’s arts and crafts, right? I have illustrations of each place in the city for this lesson and labels. I didn’t label the places in case you want to leave them off and have kids do the TPR activity without them to check how well they know the vocabulary.
Aidan painted some of the places, and I colored some with colored pencils. I’m sure markers and crayons would work really well too! There are two ways to make the city. You can print the places on cardstock, cut out tabs at the bottom, and have the places standing up. Or you can print on regular paper and glue them to a big piece of paper or poster board.
Aidan has a great imagination which I’m sure he got from me because when he used to play with his toys, he sounded just I did when I was kid. He’s in middle school now, so I’m not sure if he will want to play with our city but if your kids are younger the city could be fun to play with after the Spanish lesson.
Conversation
Aidan and I continued listening practice with conversation. The conversation script has questions (with examples of answers for you to use if you are learning Spanish) to ask about the places in the city. This is a review of voy and vas and introduces me gusta and te gusta. I have a video with the questions, so if this is your first lesson and you and your kids are just starting to learn Spanish, I highly suggest watching the video. The verbs with English will be on the screen.
Mini-Story
There is also a super short story about my cat, Poco, going to the city. I have a video of the story for listening and then a printable with the story and some questions for reading practice.
Games
I love playing games to practice Spanish, and they are great hands-on activities! You can use the flashcards to play Peces, Memoria, or Matamoscas. And, of course, Aidan and I spent lots of time playing Memoria. 😊
I hope you have as much fun with your kids using these easy, hands-on activities as I did with Aidan! Making our drawing of Poco, the cat, go to the different places on our map made the vocabulary come alive and helped Aidan remember it better. If your kids like to color as much as I do, start with printing the flashcards and having them color those. Then you can use them for TPR and playing games so your kids can start learning Spanish today!
Did you do these activities or know anyone who wants to start teaching their kids with fun activities to learn the vocabulary for places in Spanish? Please share with the buttons on the left!
Which type of map did you create? 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!
