Day Before Thanksgiving Break Activities for Secondary Spanish Students
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The day before break can be a tough one to plan. You might be feeling kinda done, your students are probably feeling pretty done, and let’s face it: half of them are missing because they’re already on the road somewhere. Let’s talk about chill day before Thanksgiving break activities for secondary Spanish students!
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Day Before Thanksgiving Break Activities for Secondary Spanish Students
- Turkeys of thankfulness
- Paco el pavo story and activities
- Thanksgiving Movie Talk
- Thanksgiving gallery walk
- Design a turkey
- Listen to a song
- Roll a story
- Conjugation crafts
Lesson Plan for the Day Before Thanksgiving Break Activities for Secondary Spanish Students
The day before break is usually low motivation for everyone. In my opinion, it’s best to go with a plan that is really low energy for everyone, not a waste of time, but also not a BIG deal if 50% of your students miss it, you know? That leaves us with a few options.
If you teach multiple preps, you can do the same thing with every class, or you can pick a couple of the ideas I’m going to share with you – whatever floats your boat!
Either way, I always begin the class period the same way: our start of class routine.
Then, we’ll move into one of the options listed above. Let’s talk about them!
Gratitude Writing on Day Before Thanksgiving Break Activities
The Turkey of Thankfulness is one of my favorite activities, and it’s super accessible to novice learners and upper levels! Start by brainstorming a list of nouns/infinitives in the TL on the whiteboard. Pass out turkeys, have them write, then color, cut and hang.
Upper levels can do this activity, too. Skip the brainstorming step, encourage sentences instead of words or chunks, and then they can color away!
Tip for an extra relaxed day: always play music while they’re working independently!
Paco el pavo Story and Activities
If you want upper levels to do the gratitude writing activity, this is great for your ones, especially if you’ve done a clothing unit at all in your semester so far. There’s enough here that you could use it for your whole short week, too!
Thanksgiving Movie Talk
If you missed my post with the free download, make sure you check it out. This is a LITTLE more energy than I personally like for the last day before break, but it’s a good option if you need a plan in a pinch!
Thanksgiving Gallery Walk
Gallery walks are an awesome laid back plan for a day when YOU want a break, but your students have a few wiggles and need to move. Print, hang, and give your students the activities that go with, then post the digital version in your secured LMS for students who are already traveling.
Design a turkey
While I often use Thanksgiving to focus on themes of gratitude with students, sometimes it’s just fun to do something seasonal and a bit silly with students, too! I recently created this free printable activity for Thanksgiving so I wanted to share it with you. It would be great for a last minute lesson on the day before Thanksgiving break.
Utilize Music
I love using music in my classes. “Si No Te Tengo A Ti” by Álvaro Soler is one of my favorites for this time of year. This song is nice because there’s a LOT of “tengo” in it so students hear it a lot, but the chorus is also really comprehensible. It’s easy to connect to the attitude of gratitude with a little reflection.
Roll a Story
A Roll a Story activity is a fun option if you’d like to include a little creativity and don’t want students to share about their own plans!
Students roll a die, then write their own story. There’s a few options for them to illustrate and interact with each others’ finished stories, too!
Conjugation Craft
Sometimes your students are working on some conjugation activities and it’s fun to just do a little craftivity. Not a huge deal if a traveling student misses it, and it’s nice to just break out the crayons and colored pencils before break. 34 verbs are included here, plus a blank turkey to add your own if you need more!
Easy Wins for a Low-Pressure Day
If you’re like me, the day before break is not the time to be printing ten-page packets or trying to explain the subjunctive. This is the time for easy wins.
One of my favorite super simple activities is a Would You Rather board. Write a few themed questions on the board like Would you rather eat ten empanadas or one giant pavo and let students move to different corners of the room to show their answers. They can chat with the people in their corner, defend their answer, or just giggle at the chaos. It gets them up and talking with zero prep.
You can also hand out blank papelitos and have them write their own silly Would You Rather questions in Spanish. Collect them in a bowl and pull a few at random. It’s fun, interactive, and totally student-powered.
Add a Dash of Gratitude with a Twist
You’ve probably done gratitude writing before, but what if you flipped it a little this year? Have students write thank you notes but as if they are a character you’ve studied. Maybe Frida Kahlo is writing to her paintbrush. Or Capibara con Botas is thanking the rainforest.
This twist works for upper levels, too. You could ask them to write in a specific tense or to include certain vocabulary. Let them decorate the cards, hang them around the room, or even mail them home if you want to go all in.
These kinds of simple, creative options are perfect for that pre-break energy. Keep it light, keep it purposeful, and let your students leave class smiling. That’s the win.
Looking for more Day Before Thanksgiving Break Activities?
Check out my Thanksgiving in Spanish BUNDLE which includes 4 resources to help you plan your Thanksgiving festivities in your Spanish classroom!
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