Choose a Spanish holiday or celebration to use as an excuse to throw a Spanish-themed party for your class. Ask each member of your class to contribute a traditional Spanish dish for the party. Decorate with traditional Spanish decorations, such as a pinata and paper flowers. Require your students to speak only Spanish during the party to help them practice their skills. If you choose a holiday with songs, sing the songs in Spanish during the party.
Even though pen pals are usually more popular with younger children, finding pen pals for your class from a Spanish-speaking country can be a fun, educational experience. Your students can practice their Spanish reading and writing skills by corresponding with Spanish youths in countries such as Mexico and Spain. Not only will your students improve their Spanish skills, but they will also make new friends from other parts of the world. With the use of the Internet, your students can correspond via email instead of regular mail, which can take much longer to respond to each other.
Learning to read and write Spanish is very different from speaking and understanding the spoken language. Some Spanish speakers talk quickly, making it hard for students with little experience to understand. Expose your students to as much vocal Spanish as you can. For instance, ask your students to listen to and translate children's TV shows and radio broadcasts. You can also turn listening translations into a game of telephone for your class. Whisper a phrase in English to the first student. That student must translate the phrase into Spanish and whisper it to the next student. The last student must take the Spanish phrase he heard and translate it into English. This Spanish twist on a childhood game can provide lots of laughs.
Allowing your students to practice both listening and speaking in Spanish can aid their conversational skills. One way to do this is to assign each student or group of students a children's book to translate and recite. If you use groups, they can turn the book into a play instead and act it out. Another alternative would be to create social situations and assign each group of students a particular situation. Each group can create and execute a Spanish dialogue that fits the situation.