Spanish 1 Lesson Plans: School Supplies and Classes Spanish Short Story

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If you are trying to dip your toes into providing comprehensible input for your Spanish students, chances are you are including more reading in your classes! Today I wanted to share some Spanish 1 lesson plans for school supplies and classes Spanish vocabulary with your students, and how you might use it over five class days.

About the Story

I think your students are going to enjoy the story! It’s about a character who is hurrying between class periods, jamming stuff into his locker, until- ! He can’t even get it open because it’s such a disaster. Chances are you have at least one “Cade” in your classes who has experienced something similar and will find it relatable. I wrote a shorter version and longer version of the story, so I wanted to address the two versions of the story and what you might do with them.

The long form includes numbered paragraphs and space in the margins for students to record additional vocabulary as needed.

While you could choose between the short version and the long version of the story and just use one or the other. If you have time in your classes, I recommend doing first the short version and working with it for a few days, then moving onto the longer version of the story. Your students will have additional confidence in tackling the longer version as they will recognize much of it after working with the short version.

Let’s look at a sample timeline you could use!

Spanish 1 Lesson Plans for Las Clases en la Escuela

Days 1-2: Start by telling the story. Write words or phrases that they may need some more help with on the white board. The word bank on the bottom of the story might give you some ideas! I would also circle a bit as you tell the story. Check out my post here for some tips on how to circle!

Remember to take your time with it and make sure your students understand as you tell the story! At the end of the second day, choose one or two of the activity pages for students to work with.

Day 3: Go over the activity page(s) you chose with students, and discuss their responses. Next, choose an activity to have your students read out loud. Here are some options and ideas for you!

For this story, I would personally choose between Speed Date Translate or Mentirosa, but you know your students and classes best. End the day with another page from the activity options.

Day 4: Go over the activity page you chose with students, and discuss their responses. Give your students a copy of the short form of the reading (I would copy this on a color and tell them not to write on it) and a copy of the long form of the reading. Give them a highlighter. Have them take some time and highlight sentences in the long reading that can also be found in the short reading. This is not to read for comprehension just yet – they’re just looking for what they recognize.

Next, have them take a pencil. Have them go through the longer reading and underline what they understand. For the next step of the lesson, this will depend a bit on your students’ levels.

If you think your students are close to being able to manage it on their own (90% successfully or more) let them read it silently, and just have them circle any words they can’t guess from context clues. If you think your students need more support, have them work in pairs or small groups to do the same.

Even more support? Go through it paragraph by paragraph as a class with you reading aloud and pausing to check for understanding, or circling as you prefer. Finish the day with the last activity sheet of your choice.

Day 5: Make copies of the locker craft for your students. Students complete the activity in class. As they finish, you can hang them to make a display!

Of course, this is just a sample. Your students may need more or less time at any stage, but I wanted to give you some ideas of how you could use this for a week of lessons with your students. You could also use this with any of these reading activities as well!

School Supplies and Classes Spanish Vocabulary Craft

On the fifth day, students can complete the locker craft. They will write the name of their classes in Spanish. Then, draw the materials that you need for that class and label each of them in Spanish.

When they finish drawing, coloring, and labeling, they will cut out the boxes on the dotted lines. Fold them along the solid lines. Then, you will glue the fold into your locker. Here is a step by step of how to assemble the locker craft: