ACTIVITIES FOR EARLY FINISHERS

STRATEGY HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT

CHALLENGE • Step 1: At the bottom of your exit slips or guided practice
QUESTIONS handouts, paste a question that students struggled with on a
past exam/exit slip.
• Step 2: Tell students that if they finish early, they can earn
extra credit if they accurately respond to this “challenge
question”.

ACTIVE READING • Step 1: Include a sentence in Spanish at the end of your exit
slip/handout
• Step 2: Ask students to underline all the words they already
know (or the ones they don’t know) and then to do their best
to translate it into English.

DESCRIBE THE • In Spanish, tell them to write 1 sentence that describes what is
ACTION happening on a picture/poster/cartoon that you’ve pasted at
the end of a handout/exit slip.

TAKE-AWAYS • Step 1: On a sticky note or at the end of a handout, have

student write down 2 facts from the lesson
• Step 2: On the same sticky note or space on the exit slip,
have them write down one thing that they will remember 2
weeks from now.

QUESTION STRIPS • Step 1: Draft a list of easy-win prompts/tasks/questions that

assess students’ mastery of topics or vocabulary covered
during earlier units.
• Step 2: Cut this list up into individual “question strips” and
place these question strips into a container.
• Step 3: Have early finishers draw from this container and then
respond to this question in a blank space provided at the
bottom of your exit slip.

Here are some example prompts for your question strips…

• List the four seasons and typical weather for each one
• Make a list of foods that are served (or never served) at the
school cafeteria
• Write a 5-word description of your favorite place to
visit/favorite food/favorite class.
• Finish the sentence: La maestra es _____________ porque
_________________________________.
• Name 4 famous people and tell what country they are
from/what clothing they would wear/ what they look like.
 INTRODUCING NEW MATERIAL
STRATEGY/ACTIVITY HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT
USING GESTURES • Use gestures, like hitting the desk, stomping feet, standing
TO TEACH up, lifting a piece of paper, or some other physical
demonstration to indicate if….
-A word is masculine or feminine, singular or plural, etc.
-A sentence (either written or spoken) is true or false
-A verb is in the past or present, future or conditional,
indicative or subjunctive tense
-A given situation requires the past or imperfect, etc.

USING GESTURES • Have students use gestures/signals to demonstrate their

TO CFU mastery of key points/vocab that you introduce during INM
Concrete Example from a Family Unit:
Show me, by holding up fingers, how many
hermanas Sr./Srta. ____________ has
Show me, by holding up a number card, how many
padrinos Sr./Srta. _____________ has
-->Show me, by hitting your desk, if you think if the
following fact in Spanish is true about Sr./Srta
_______________’s family. (Then read family fact
aloud in Spanish).

LISTENING
RESOURCE HOW TO ACCESS
NSE AUDIO CLIPS Visit the following link and select the “Proficiency” option for
the course level that matches what you teach.
• Course levels key:
o Intro to Spanish= Level 01
o Spanish 1= Level 1
o Spanish 2 = Level 2
o Spanish 3 = Level 3, and so forth…
STRATEGY/ACTIVITY HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT
Go FISH • Step 1: Divide students into pairs and give them a stack of
picture cards that feature people/places/things that you
studied during the current unit
• Step 2: Have them each draw 7 cards. If they pull 2 of the
same kind of card, then have them set those pairs aside on
their desk.
• Step 3: Have students ask each other (in the target
language) if their partner has a particular picture card (e.g.,
 if student A had a picture card of a cat, Student A would ask
Student B: tienes un gato).
o If Student B does have a picture card of a cat, then
he/she would hand that card over to Student A and
Student A would set the pair of cat cards aside on
his/her desk. For each pair of cards Student A
accumulates, he/she earns 1 point.
o If Student B does not have a cat card, then Student
A would have to “go fish” and spend their turn
drawing a card from the stack.
o If Student A or B did not understand how to
say/interpret the word cat in Spanish, then he/she
would have to reference the sheet of translated
terms (this list would include the word cat and its
Spanish translation “gato”).
• Step 4: The game ends when all picture cards have been
drawn from the deck. To determine the winner, each
student must subtract the number of times he/she had to
reference their vocab sheet from the total number of pairs
that they successfully arranged. (Total Points = # of card
pairs - # of times student looked at vocab sheet).
o Rationale: This ensures that students only look at
their vocab sheets when they have to and
encourages them to try to recall the vocabulary from
memory.
FOUR CORNERS • Step 1: Hang a sheet of poster paper in each corner of the
room and label it with a specific category of vocab from that
unit.
o For instance, if you were reviewing food vocabulary
for your food unit, you might label each corner:
“Fruits, Vegetables, Meat, Dessert”.
• Step 2: Tell students to move to the corner that matches the
category they most prefer (e.g., if Student A likes meat
more than other categories of food, then he/she should go
to the corner labeled “Meat”).
• Step 3: On the poster paper, tell students to work
collaboratively to draft a list as many vocab words in
Spanish that fits into the category they selected
• Step 4: The group with the largest list of Spanish vocab
words that matches their preferred category will earn X
points.
CONVERSATION For listening comprehension prompts that involve 2 people,
RECORD have students respond to the following questions on a card or
half-sheet of paper:

Who is speaking? ____________________________

 To whom?
____________________________

Where are they? _____________________________

What is the purpose of this conversation?

______________________________
List the topics discussed:
1.
2.
3.
4.

What was their final decision?

___________________________________
CIRCUMLOCUTION • Step 1: Provide every study with a set of picture cards
ACTIVITY: • Step 2: Draw a card from your copy of the stack
LISTENING VERSION • Step 3: In Spanish, begin to describe the features of the
person/place/thing that is featured on the card that you
pulled (e.g., To describe a cat, you might say: “Veo un
animal que le gusta comer pajaros)
• Step 3: As the teacher speaks, students must hold up the
card of the person/place/thing that is being described.

SPEAKING
STRATEGY/ACTIVITY HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT
CIRCUMLOCUTION • Step 1: Divide students into groups of 3 and pass out 2 sets
ACTIVITY: of the same picture cards to each group. These cards
SPEAKING VERSION should feature a person/place/thing that students should be
able to describe.
• Step 2: Place students in small groups and have students
decide who “Student A” will be.
• Step 3: Ask Student A to grab one of the stacks of cards
and turn his/her chair around so that he/she is not facing the
rest of the group members.
• Step 4: When the teacher gives the signal, Student A must
then randomly select a card from his/her stack and has 60
seconds to describe (in Spanish) the person/place/thing that
is featured on the card.
• Step 5: Group members must then work collaboratively to
identify which picture card Student A is describing before
the teacher calls “time” at the minute mark.
• Step 6: As soon as the group has reached a consensus
answer, Student A must then hold up the card that he/she
described. If it matches the picture that the group identified,
 then student A will receive a point and will remove the
picture card from the group’s stack. If the group identifies
the wrong card, student A does not earn a point and the
card will remain for someone else to describe.
• Step 7: Students then set the card aside and pick a new
“Student A” before repeating steps 3-6. (Note: During each
round, every student must get a turn as Student A). The
student who finishes with the highest point total after 2-3
rounds wins.
VOICE MESSAGE • Assign students to call you on your school phone and leave
EXERCISE (For a 1-2 minute voice message in Spanish. Make sure you
teachers who have a provide a lot of structure/guidance as to what they should
school phone with talk about in their voice message (e.g., you might ask
voicemail or a home students to greet you, identify themselves, tell you
landline with something/ask you something, and then say goodbye).
voicemail) o Some ideas of things to ask students to do…
 Name 3 things they saw at a local store
and want to buy and then tell them to ask
you to lend them money
 Tell the teacher about a time that they saw
another classmate outside of school,
where he or she was, and what he or she
was doing (good for preterite/imperfect
review)
 Pretend they are at a restaurant in Madrid
and to tell the teacher the name of the
restaurant as well as what they are eating.
Then have them ask a question about a
famous monument/museum in that
 Have them respond to a unique question
in Spanish that you assigned for them to
answer

READING
RESOURCE HOW TO ACCESS
NSE READING COMP Step 1: Visit the following link and select the “Proficiency”
PASSAGES option for the course level that matches what you teach
Step 2: Select “Start Now” and scroll down the page until you
reach the reading comprehension section.
• Course levels key:
o Intro to Spanish= Level 01
 o Spanish 1= Level 1
o Spanish 2 = Level 2
o Spanish 3 = Level 3, and so forth…
STRATEGY/ACTIVITY HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT
SCAVENGER HUNT • Step 1: Post sheets throughout your designated “Scavenger
Hunt Area”) that feature multiple copies of an image
depicting specific person/place/thing (e.g., post a sheet of
paper that features 8 copies of a picture of a man wearing a
tie)
• Step 2: Divide students into groups of 3-4 and provide them
with the following materials:
o 1 Glue stick OR roll of scotch tape
o 1 pair of Scissors
o A Scavenger Hunt list of various items that are
written in the target language (e.g., “una foto de un
hombre con una corbata”)
• Step 3: Provide them with a specific time frame in which
they can work. Tell students that during this time frame,
they should cut out the images of the objects, and then glue
(or tape) that image next to its corresponding description on
the Scavenger Hunt list.
• Step 4: During the allotted time, ask students to cut out the
image of the object and then glue it next to its Spanish word
on the vocabulary list

*Tip: To minimize cheating, modify the lists so that various

groups are required to locate different items and cannot copy
from one another. Tell students that you’ve done this to keep
the game as fair as possible.
ILLUSTRATING • Require students to read a description of an object written in
the target language and then to draw it
• Have students read a story in Spanish. Then, ask them to
place photos depicting major events in the story in the
proper sequence (e.g., have them write the number 1 next
to a photograph depicting the first major event that has
been illustrated)
•

WRITING
STRATEGY/ACTIVITY HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT
SPEED RECALL • On paper or whiteboards, ask students to write all clothing-
related words that they can remember (or whatever vocab
from a unit you’ve already taught). Extra credit will be given
out to students who remember the most in a preset period
 of time.

DESCRIBE THE • In Spanish, tell them to write 1 sentence that describes what
ACTION is happening on a picture/poster/cartoon that you’ve pasted
at the end of a handout/exit slip.

TAKE-AWAYS • Step 1: On a sticky note or at the end of a handout, have

student write down 2 things from the lesson
• Step 2: On the same sticky note or space on the exit slip,
have them write down one thing that they will remember 2
weeks from now.

QUESTION STRIPS • Step 1: Draft a list of easy-win prompts/tasks/questions that

assess students’ mastery of topics or vocabulary covered
during earlier units.
• Step 2: Cut this list up into individual “question strips” and
place these question strips into a container.
• Step 3: Have early finishers draw from this container and
then respond to this question in a blank space provided at
the bottom of your exit slip.

Here are some example prompts for your question strips…

• List the four seasons and typical weather for each one
• Make a list of foods that are served (or never served) at the
school cafeteria
• Write a 5-word description of your favorite place to
visit/favorite food/favorite class.
• Finish the sentence: La maestra es _____________ porque
_________________________________.
• Name 4 famous people and tell what country they are
from/what clothing they would wear/ what they look like.
 SPECIFIC TOPICS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE
TOPIC ACTIVITY HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT
Verb Surrender • Step 1: Pair students up.
Conjugatio on Six • Step 2: Give each pair multiple copies of blank verb
n conjugation charts, a dice, and stack of cards with a
verb written on one side.
• Step 3: Have students pick heads/tails and then flip a
coin. The student from each pair who accurately called
the coin toss will start by drawing a verb card and then
use a verb conjugation chart to conjugate the verb in a
specific tense.
o If this student is able to conjugate the verb
before her partner rolls a 6 with the dice, she
earns a point.
o If she isn’t able to complete the conjugation
chart before her partner rolls a 6, she doesn’t
earn any points.
• Step 4: Students must then switch roles and repeat
steps Steps 2 and 3 until they run out of verb cards. The
student who is able to complete the largest number of
verb charts is the designated winner.
NUMBERS TPR with • Step 1: Show them your fist, saying in the target
Numbers language: This is zero.
• Step 2: Extend your thumb, saying: This is one.
• Step 3: Extend your thumb and index finger saying: This
is two.
• Step 4: Then ask students to show you zero, one, and
two. Then check for understanding by calling out the
numbers in random order and having them demonstrate
their comprehension by showing you that number with
their fingers.
• Step 5: Repeat these steps for larger numbers until you
get to at least 12 (so that students are ready for a basic
lesson on telling time)
Number • Step 1: Knock loudly on your desk or some other
Knocking surface and have the students count the number of
knocks silently to themselves
• Step 2: When you stop knocking, have students hold up
a whiteboard or sheet of paper with the correct number
on it
Connect • Step 1: Randomly number the dots of a basic connect
the Dots the dots picture, which you can find HERE
(listening • Step 2: Call out the numbers in Spanish in the order
exercise) they should be connected (e.g., 15, 3, 49, 22, and so
on)
• Step 3: Students receive credit for accurately
connecting the dots in the order they should have been
connected
Candy • Step 1: Hand out M&M candies or something similar
Challenge (e.g., Skitltes)
• Step 2: Have the students report how many they have
• Step 3: Have students recount in sets according to
colors
• Step 4: Have them subtract from their total by eating a