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Activities for Distance Learning That AREN'T Online

DISTANCE LEARNING CAN BE CHALLENGING, ESPECIALLY FOR ELEMENTARY WORLD LANGUAGE CLASSES where we are used to getting up and moving with our students, and doing lots of interactive activities with them. Many of us have moved to sharing links and resources online, but I've been also trying to mix those up with activities which don't involve a screen or have an off screen component. Here is a growing list of ideas you can add to a choice board or share with your students via your regular communication channels.

Off Screen No Tech Distance Learning Activities for World Language Class

*SCAVENGER HUNTS: My students love doing these in class, so why not encourage them to do one at home? Students can draw or put items on their scavenger hunt board, then have parents take a photo and share it with you. Here's the link to one for colors, in SIX languages, which you can download for free.

*EXERCISES IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE: Give your students an exercise regimen! Have them do 10 jumping jacks, bunny hops, burpees, skips, cartwheels, sit ups, etc and prompt them to count in the target language.

*PLAY UNO: A perennial favorite game at home, now they can say the colors & numbers in the target language! War, Go fish!, and Crazy 8s would all be great card games to play in the TL, too!

Play Uno en espaƱol Distance Learning Games in Spanish

*NATURE ART: Inspired by our art teacher, this is a simple activity that any age group can do. Simply provide a verbal or written prompt of what they should "draw" outside using natural elements, such as sticks, leaves, stones, and more. For example, right before school closed, my Kinders were finishing up our theme on El Zoo...so, one of their at-home activities is to choose one (or more!) of our zoo animals and "draw" it outside. I have paired it with a Youtube link to one of a series of videos we've already watched in class-they are awesome! Here's the one for el elefante And here is a video I took of me giving my students instructions for this activity :)

Give a Prompt in the Target Language to Create Nature Art

As a follow up to the nature art, depending on proficiency & age level, you can have kids label their art, take a photo & share with you. They can also provide a list of target vocabulary along with the photo instead of labeling it.

*CREATE & DESCRIBE: Inspired by a number of photos I saw on Pinterest, and along the lines of nature art, kids could also create a person out of objects, such as this leaf person, then provide a short description-could be a simple as just sharing a name & it's color, or could write or record additional details such as what the "person" eats, or likes to do, etc. You can also see my video introducing this activity to students by clicking here.

Create & Describe Activity for World Language Classes

*PLAYGROUND GAMES: I wrote a post a few years ago with games we can play OUTDOORS, which are perfect to share with students (who can play with their siblings & families!) Here's the link to that post.  Along with those FIVE TRADITIONAL games, you can also share how to create a traditional rayuela (hopscotch) and/or this cool African version frequently played in many Spanish speaking countries.

*HAND CLAPPING GAMES: Speaking of playground games, don't forget about Choco-choco-la-la and Mari-po-sa, amongst others that your kiddos may already know-have them teach a family member or pet!

*TRADITIONAL BOARD GAMES: Games, games, and more games! Another fun way to incorporate culture is with board games, such as the set I created featuring FIVE board games from a variety of countries. Share the rules as well as the boards with students-they can play at home! You can grab them by clicking here!

5 Traditional Board Games from Spanish speaking Countries

*WEATHER JOURNAL: Prompt students to start a WEATHER JOURNAL by drawing seven squares on a piece of paper, labeling each square for a day of the week (hey, calendar vocabulary, too!) and then tracking the weather each day by drawing icons to represent the weather and writing in the target language the associated phrases. BONUS FUN: Share with them a link to a weather website in a target language country and have them track the weather there, too! You can find calendar pages to create a weather journal as part of our Spanish and French Weather Bulletin board kids.

*BIRD WATCHING COLOR TRACK: I LOVE watching birds come to our feeders outside-even here in Maine, we have a large variety of birds that visit! Though the names of birds in the target language might not constitute high frequency vocabulary, colors are. Repurpose the free scavenger hunt page(s) above by having students use the one in your target language to tally the colors of birds they see outside-set a time limit of 10-15 minutes (or longer)... students put tally marks in the boxes representing the colors they see, then share with you/the class via the platform you are using. (The great part about this activity, as well as many in this post, is kids can do them multiple times! ;) )

*WRITE A POEM: I love the poems which utilize vocabulary words as the outline for a drawing. Provide your students with a set of vocabulary words (could be just one or a set) and prompt them to create a drawing using those words as the outlines-they can then share with you/the class :) The one shown below has just two words- flower & leaf.

Word Poems for World Language Class

*NATURE WALK: One of the activities I include in my En el jardĆ­n / Dans le jardin theme packs is tracking what one sees out in nature (worm, bird, flower, etc). Invite your students to do the same when they are out in their garden (if you already have the theme pack, awesome!), or on a hike. They can use tally marks to indicate what they see of each thing.

*SING WHILE WASHING HANDS: Challenge your students to sing a familiar song in the target language while they are washing their hands :)

*COOTIE CATCHERS: Many kids know how to make cootie catchers (they could teach me!)-prompt them to create a cootie catcher using the target language, either entirely, or as a bilingual one (numbers and colors for the initial two rounds, for ex, while fortunes are in the home language).

Using Objects at Home to Spell in the World Language

*FOUND OBJECTS SPELLING: A special shout out to SeƱora Dana who inspired me with her idea of leaving words spelled using sticks on hiking trails for her students to find... (how cool is that??!!) How about providing your students with a list of words they can choose from (or for older kids, the prompt can be "choose 'x number' of words") to spell using objects found in or around their home & yard. I love this because regardless of what type of socioeconomic group students are from, they have access to the activity, as can be seen in the photo below where I used carrots to spell 'Hola' and stones to spell 'AdiĆ³s'. I also love the idea of having the objects themselves connect to the word being spelled, such as in the foto above where I spelled 'rojo' using all red items :)

Use found objects to spell words in the target language

LET ME NOTE: I have been careful to not include activities like cooking and crafts because so many kids either may not have these materials at home and/or I do not want to encourage families to go out to stores during this #stayathome time.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMk0RMH8MFmOB_yJMuvVMH7xBx_qfLl8oqOQXbA

Photo Prompt Activities for Remote School Learning with Pepita

MANY OF US ARE SUDDENLY IN NEED OF REMOTE LEARNING ACTIVITIES as our schools close for extended periods of time due to Coronavirus. I have created a set of 12 activity pages in Spanish you can send home with your students (click here to download for FREE), and thought that additionally some of you might want to keep connected with Pepita, the gang, and the themes from our resources. To that end, over the course of the next month (at least) I will be posting 2-4 picture prompts a week featuring our characters which you can share with your students.

Remote Learning Photo Prompt Activities for Elementary Spanish

HERE'S HOW TO USE THEM:

*SHARE A PHOTO WITH STUDENTS-you can do this by downloading the photo from my drive (links will be updated on this blog post each week) and sharing it via the platform you are using to connect with students-just be sure to give photo credit where/if applicable.
*PROMPT STUDENTS to generate a list of vocabulary they see in the photo-could be one or two words, or could be many. These are geared for Novice students, so single words, chunks, & simple phrases are what one would expect at this level. You can have them record their words or type them (for upper elementary students). You can also pair the photo with a list of words they can circle virtually (such as on Seesaw)

So, for example, in the above photo, words generated could include:
Pepita
pera
manzana
mora
rojo (a)
verde
blanco
rosado (rosa)
azul
frutas
cuatro frutas
cuatro
Hola
conejo
Tengo hambre.
Me gustan las frutas
Me gustan las peras
No me gustan.....

I think you get the drift! :)

*SOME PHOTOS WILL CONTAIN PROMPTS-my plan is to have some of the photos come with prompts embedded in the image itself (for example, it could contain a question related to what is pictured) which I am hoping will provide extension for your students.

That's it- ¡pan comido! Here we go:

Click here to download :) 
En el zoo photo prompt for remote school learning
Click here to download
Click here to download
Photo Prompt for Distance Learning Pepita Nest
Click here to download 
Picture Prompts for Distance Learning in World Language Spring Crocuses
Click here to download
I love this one with the crocuses to foster seasonal vocabulary along with what's actually in the photo- spring, "it's warm out", "it's sunny", "I like spring"; you could also add the question Which is your favorite season? or Do you like spring? etc :)

Photo prompts for Remote Learning Picasso
Click here
I was inspired by the person who did an art museum for their guinea pig! These are props from our theme pack Pepita lee sobre Pablo Picasso :) And below, for French teachers, Monet painting in a field :)

Monet Field of Poppies Picture Prompt
Click here
Let's not forget about Frida Kahlo!! Here's a simple vignette with one of her paintings of fruit :) Some of the props come from my theme pack Pepita lee sobre Frida Kahlo :)

Frida Kahlo Photo Prompt for World Language
Click here



https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMk0RMH8MFmOB_yJMuvVMH7xBx_qfLl8oqOQXbA

Alphabet Bead Bracelets which Celebrate Positive Attributes for World Language Class

ONE OF MY THEMES FOR FOURTH GRADE SPANISH IS YO SOY... with personal adjectives that celebrate positive self descriptors, such as adventurous, generous, artistic, etc. This year, after a student told me in wistful tones that he wasn't good at anything, I decided I wanted to do an activity which would build up all my students & provide something they could take with them and actually use after class was over... which led to us making ALPHABET BEAD BRACELETS.

Yo soy alphabet bead bracelets for world language class Spanish French

IT TOOK ONE CLASS PERIOD (30 minutes) TO MAKE THESE BRACELETS. (If you are concerned about time spent in the target language when doing a small project like this, read my previous post about how you can maximize language use when incorporating projects by clicking here).

Yo soy adjectives bead bracelets for World Language Class Spanish

SO, HERE'S HOW WE DID THEM:
***This activity came at the end of the theme, so my kids were already familiar with the adjectives to choose from.

MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED:
-elastic cord (you can find this at Walmart, Michael's etc in the jewelry aisle)-for 95 kids, I used approximately two packages of cord
-alphabet beads-this can get EXPENSIVE if you have a lot of students UNLESS you can find the beads at Dollar Tree or another dollar store. Some letters are used WAY more than others, which means you need extra packs. I went through about 12 packs of beads, with 500 beads in each pack. You can find alphabet beads on Amazon as well, but the cost is prohibitive.
-optional: little silver beads to put one on each end-I had found a bunch free this past summer so I used them for this project, definitely not necessary!

PREP
-DISTRIBUTE BEADS INTO CONTAINERS
-CUT LENGTHS OF CORD (it really helps having these ready to go before class)

IN CLASS
1) Have students CHOOSE AN ADJECTIVE that they connect with (I had kids write the adjective down on a 3 x 5 card so everyone was ready to go)

2) Put out BEADS in bowls or small containers-my students are already in groups, so I put one bowl per group. Also hand out lengths of elastic cord so kids can begin stringing.

3) Once the word they've chosen is spelled, tie both ends of the cord together and ¡Ta-chĆ”n! they've got a bracelet to wear-in the target language!

NOTE: the alphabet beads did not have accent marks, which takes a little away from the spelling, but because my kids were so familiar with the vocabulary, it was a minimal issue for me.

INTERESTED IN THE THEME PACK I MENTIONED? You can grab it here in my shop!

Yo soy Theme Pack for Spanish class

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMk0RMH8MFmOB_yJMuvVMH7xBx_qfLl8oqOQXbA