Fun Spanish Food Vocabulary Activities for La Comida Unit

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I always love the food unit in Spanish class. There is SO much culture involved when exploring food and recipes around the Spanish-speaking world and it’s tasty to sample, too! Sometimes all of the options of activities for food in Spanish class can be overwhelming, so I wanted to give you a little list of fun Spanish food activities you can do with your students! These are great for middle school and high school students, from beginners in world languages to your native speakers!

I like to incorporate our writing, reading, speaking, and listening into the unit. They help your students work on their skills while experiencing the language and culture. Here’s a look at several fun Spanish activities for food in class you can do this unit!

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La Comida Spanish Vocabulary Activities

Resources mentioned:

Explore Traditional Foods and Spanish Culture

Virtual field trips are one of my favorite ways to kick off a unit as students want to explore a Spanish-speaking country! They get students curious and excited about the culture while they connect it to the geography of where they are studying. This virtual field trip explores different Spanish-speaking countries and foods. Each marker includes the food’s name, and some background. Great for novices or introducing your students to a variety of foods in the Spanish-speaking world! 

Click here to download the resource!

Cooking with your students is a great way to introduce foods and it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive! Here are 12 recipes you could use with your Spanish class or Spanish club:

  1. Guacamole – recipe
  2. Pico de Gallo
  3. Alfajores – recipe – YouTube video from Cocinar en la Cocina series
  4. Tortilla Española – recipe y video – YouTube video from Cocinar en la Cocina series
  5. Dulce de membrillo – quick explanation & recipe with pictures – receta en español
  6. Horchata – recipe – video
  7. Fruit with Tajín – this is SO simple there’s not really a recipe. Cut up some fruit like watermelon, mango, pineapple, and sprinkle with Tajín
  8. Arepas con queso – Youtube video
  9. Gazpacho – recipe – Youtube video
  10. Churros (y chocolate, claro!) – recipe – the same website has a recipe for “churro bites” instead which might be nice if you’re doing a few different recipes for students to try! One more thing – I found this recipe for air fryer churros that definitely got saved to my to try list. I’ll letcha know how it goes!
  11. Calabaza en dulce – recipe – Youtube video from De mi Rancho a Tu Cocina
  12. Chorreadas de maíz – recipe – Youtube video 🌽Chorreadas de maíz costarricenses 🌽

Click here to learn more about cooking with your Spanish classes!

If you’re looking for a unique way to reinforce food vocabulary, your students will love this reading comprehension activity. This scavenger hunt reading activity is an engaging gallery walk activity that incorporates reading comprehension, food from around the Spanish-speaking world, citing text evidence and critical thinking skills. It also includes an escape room style challenge of a final mystery word to solve the riddle, encouraging your students to finish the task.

Students will revisit the readings about various foods from the Spanish-speaking world multiple times practicing reading comprehension skills as they rotate around the room seeking the correct answer to the code word questions. Click here to download the scavenger hunt game!

Likes and Dislikes with Food Vocabulary Lesson Plans

I love using story telling as a way to introduce new vocabulary in a unit! This resource includes a short reading about a girl who is trying to grow a flower written in comprehensible language. Silly Ana – flowers don’t like people food! This story focuses on food vocabulary and gustar. Perfect for novices! Your students will practice a variety of Spanish words for different foods.

Click here to download the digital story!

Grab the digital story here.

Grab the printable story here.

It’s no secret that I love using Sr. Wooly’s resources with my students! He has a great video “Qué asco” that works well for the food unit. You could get really creative and have students share combos of food that they enjoy eating, or have them draw and describe the most disgusting dish they can think of.

This resource brings in movement as students get up and out of their seats talking with their classmates. Students choose choose three foods from words you have used in class. They chat in Spanish about classmates’ preferred food and keep a tally of responses.

Then, they will compile their data using the graph. (Can you say cross-curricular? CHECK!) There is also a follow-up writing activity you can do with your students to sort foods they like and don’t like. This resource can be used with any set of vocabulary!

Boom Cards are one of my all time favorites because they combine reading, writing, and listening in one instant feedback digital resource. They’re great for interactive Spanish games! These digital task cards review la comida, me gusta, and no me gusta in Spanish. There are a variety of practices included in this deck:

  • Look at the illustration and choose the correct food item
  • Write sentences using me gusta or no me gusta and food vocabulary based on a given illustration
  • Read a sentence and choose the correct illustrations
  • Read several sentences describing likes and dislikes and move the food accordingly
  • Listen and choose the correct vocabulary word

A great resource for some creative writing is this Roll a Story activity. Students roll a die 4 times to determine key elements of their story. Then, students write a short story in Spanish, filling in any details creatively as they need to finish their story!

This activity also includes some additional vocab for the stories to help them take a few creative twists as your students are writing! For instance, none of the main characters are people, and they will run into some interesting problems – and interesting solutions! It’s all up to chance! Click here to download the roll a story writing activity!

Restaurants

Depending on the age of your students and the size of your classes, it might be a good time for a field trip! Do you have any local restaurants that students would enjoy? Contact them and see if the staff would be open to some conversation practice in the target language for your students! If students are overwhelmed, you can have pairs of students work together to place their order for some more support.

If your class is just too big, or your school doesn’t have the funds for a field trip, it might be a good idea to make this an event for your Spanish club instead. I know it’s something students have enjoyed in the past!

If a field trip isn’t going to happen, you might like this idea for bringing in a food truck! You don’t have to pay for transportation for your students, and it’s definitely a fun way to draw attention to your program. Again, it is worth speaking with the owner to see if they’re open to some student practice while they are making their orders. Even creating a special, limited menu might be something they’re up for! Check out the local foodie groups and see if anyone has a food truck recommendation for you.

Free Resources & Fun Activities

Josefina has an awesome free PDF in her TPT store to practice Spanish food vocabulary. This freebie includes vocabulary lists, worksheets, collaborative activities and more! Perfect for a trip to the grocery store.

Erin has a great free resource if you’re working on restaurant vocabulary in your food unit. This is a prompt that supports students to write a conversation or skit that takes place in a restaurant between a waiter/waitress and two clients.

Rachel also has a great resource for the beginning of your unit with a print and go vocabulary list of Spanish food vocabulary. Check it out here.

Great Video Options

Here are some great video options to include in your Spanish food vocabulary practices!

Spanish Teacher Tees for your Food Unit

Okay, not exactly a resource, but fun to wear while you’re teaching your students during your food unit!

or, see more options here!

Classroom Decor

This bulletin board is one of my favorite print and go options for a classroom display while learning about food in Spanish class. It includes 22 full color illustrations of a variety of foods and beverages with clear and easy to read labels, along with 6 speech bubble phrases to use with food such as “¡Qué rico!”.

These posters from Señora Speedy would make a great word wall or bulletin board, too!

Food in Spanish Class

Several of these easy food activities are included in my Food in Spanish Activities Bundle! The bundle includes 4 resources you can incorporate into your food unit in your secondary Spanish classroom.

La Comida Food in Spanish Activities Bundle

$13.50 $10.80

Save yourself time with four ways to practice food vocabulary in your Spanish classes!

Ashley Mikkelsen

Hi, I'm Ashley. I'm so glad you're here! I love helping secondary Spanish teachers with engaging activities and ideas for their lesson plans. I can't wait to support you with no and low prep activities to help reduce your workload!

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