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.

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).

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-chán! 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!