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
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!
Looking for more?
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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