Bell ringers or Warm-up activities during the first 5 minutes of class are a perfect way to create community, review important material and help with classroom management. One of my favorite activities to start class are my calendar talk lessons. Below, you can learn about them along with other ideas to help you create a beginning of class routine your students will love. Beginning Spanish class each day with these routines helps to engage and hook your students.
WHAT IS CALENDAR TALK AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
What is Calendar Talk? Calendar Talk is a great way to give your students TONS of comprehensible input – the essential ingredient to build students’ linguistic system – by having organic conversations 100% in the target language about the date, weather and other notable holidays and special events throughout the year.
Here’s how I use Spanish Calendar Talk with my students throughout the week:
- Day 1: Weekend Chat Slide (preterite slide) – students discuss what they did over the weekend and where they went.
- Day 2: Monthly special day and video clip – teacher guides students in conversation about a special day that month and shares an optional video clip
- Day 3: Weather or Emotions Check-in Slide – students review feelings and emotion vocabulary along with the date
- Day 4: Weekend Chat Slide (immediate future) – students discuss what they are going to do over the weekend.
I love using Calendar Talk to begin class each day. It helps transition students from other classes and gets them thinking and speaking in Spanish right at the start of class. Reviewing the date each day is a great way to incorporate a review of numbers, months and days of the week in an organic and more natural way. I don’t teach a separate unit for these things, but rather incorporate them into my Calendar Talk.
“HAZLO AHORA” Bellringer Activities
Bellringer activities are a great way to review previous material and provide a daily routine at the start of class. Ideally these activities can be completed independently by students and should not take more than five minutes to complete. The Spanish 1 Review Activities can also be used at the end of class as an exit ticket or to collect formative data.
I like to use the term “Hazlo Ahora”, but there are several other great variations like “El Calentamiento” or “La Campanada”. Go with what feels right for your class.
Check out these Spanish 1 Review Activities. Each resource includes over 200 Editable Google Slides™
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