First Day of Spanish Class Plans

Inside: My plans for the first day of school with students I am meeting for the first time!

Welcome back! If you're reading this blog you are most likely looking for ideas and materials for that first day of school and I am here to share with you some of my favorites.

Let's start with my go to lesson plans for students I have never taught before.  With classes that are new to me , which historically has  been novice classes like Spanish 1,  when I was a department of one. As time has gone on I have stopped teaching Spanish 1 and my new students to me have become Spanish 3 students, but what I love about this first day of school lesson plan is that it works beautifully for all levels.

1) I start my greeting students at the door with an "Hola. Me llamo Profe". I like to model what we will do and that  greeting at the door is something I wan them to get used to. You can choose to either have students get a number that matches the number of a random seat to randomize seating OR you can  have them choose day one. Either way you can gather some useful data based on  how they do where they are sitting on that first day, so make sure to note any undesirable behaviors you notice based on their seats.

2) I then do a QUICK introduction of myself AND usually teach at least one attention getter to my students because they can never learn those fast enough! Day 1 I like to teach the attention getter where I say -- Hola, clase and they respond Hola, Profe -- just really simple, but a classic.

3) I then play the speed name ball game which I learned when student teaching with Allison of Mis Clases Locas (you can read her blog about the game and how she plays it HERE.) I then have students get in a circle around my room. Being that my room is deskless this is pretty easy to do, but even with  desks a circle around the perimeter should be doable. I have a soft ball  that has actions on it. It's a thumball. I have linked it here  (this is an affiliate link), but you could easily get a ball from the Dollar Store and with sharpie   write on the ball which would personalize it it to you and your students specifically (with upper level courses you could put it in Spanish commands for extra repetitions). 

How to play: 

Step One - Walk students through  how it's going to work with a practice , low-stakes round.

Teacher: I am going to throw this ball at a student and I am going to say "What is your name?" (in your target langauge , of course.) and you are going to respond "My name is ______ insert your name.". Let's practice saying these phrases together as a class. (Say and have class repeat as a whole both phrases.  ) Okay, once you have told us your name you are going to pass the ball to someone else and ask them "What is your name?"  and we are going to continue until everyone has been asked and told us their name.

Step Two-  Add another step.

Teacher: You guys  rocked that round. Let's add another step. Now we are going to repeat back the name of the person that just threw us the ball. So it will go -- throw ball. What is your name? 
Person that caught the ball responds - My name is..... and then follows it up with his/her/their name is... and then throws the ball to a  new person. (Same as before have the class repeat the new phrase as one voice (ex. in Spanish Se llama...).

Step Three- By now they are probably saying all the things and going through the motions, but it's  time to add some fun.

Some ways to add FUN!-

1)  When you catch the ball now announce the action on the ball and we will all do it .
2) I timed you last round . Let's see if we can beat that time. Write it on the board and see if they beat it. They tell them you are going to leave that time on the board for next class to beat to see which of your class will be the champions -- do they want one more go at it, etc.

No matter what way you decide or if you don't -- the fun will be there. Students are up and they are moving. You are learning names and the class culture is starting. It's a very positive ice breaker for day one.

If you have a classic short 1st day this is probably all you need, but if you're like me and teaching on block I tend to have a full 80-90min to fill day one, so  I usually need something else and I try to steer clear of syllabus or rules day one -- it's about getting to know each other and positive vibes ONLY! lol

So from that necessity comes the Name Glyph activity. (Best for Spanish 2+ --  In Spanish 1 I would explore  having them do Card Talk -- make a name plate and then on the back of have them draw something they like, dislike, something important to them, and   their favorite sport or animal maybe).

The name Glyph has students write their names in bubble letters and then color and decorate them according to the prompts on the Glyph Guide. I   recommend  modeling this and doing the activity as a class. 

So I would print the name plate side of the paper and then on the board project a picture of the prompts. I then on the white board or using an Elmo model what MY name glyph would look like in the target language.

For example:

How old are you? Hmm, I am 28 years old. Profe Wessels is 28 years old. My name is Sierra. I am going to use red, because. I am more than 18 years old. Austin, are you more than 18 years old? No? Are you 15 years old? Yes, the A in your name is blue. Who is 15 years old like Austin? Okay, Sabrina and Michael will make their S and M  blue , too. Carmen is not 15. How old are you Carmen? 16. Okay, what color is the C in your name?  Pink,  yes.

I repeat this pattern with all the questions. If I printed the prompts and the coloring page front and back -- which is great you can have students follow along and answer all the prompts wether they have a 3 letter or 11 letter name. If students have 13+ letters in their first name I tell them they get to have artistic freedom with how they design those other letters -- it's up to you if you have students with short names do their middle/last etc. I tend to just not -- it's not that deep to me and more about the input they get from the activity. So Bo got to be done coloring quickly, oh well, they still want to listen and answer the prompts so they can do the free write at the end aka write up the information represented in your name in a paragraph in the target language with all 12 pieces of into the Glyph should be telling me.

I included an example of what mine looks like in the instructions of this activity and you can grab if  for FREE on my TPT. If you use it I would love for you to post and tag me on social media or leave a review. It's one of my favorite activities of the year.

Oh! Still need more? Or just a fun bonus activity? Here's a fun time filler/brain break. Have students try to guess the English name of popular songs covered in Spanish. Here's my Spotify playlist link to ones I use!

And a reminder -- at the end of the day they remember most how you made them feel, so I hope these plans help you feel less stressed and allow you to have fun and connect right away with your new students.

Looking for ideas of what to do with students who you taught last year? Check out this  AMAZING activity!

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