Alphabet beads for centers in Elementary World Language Classes

ALWAYS ON THE LOOKOUT FOR CENTERS ACTIVITIES for my elementary Spanish classes that are both easy to prep and lend themselves to independent work-bonus when literacy development is involved! Using a combination of different types of ALPHABET, NUMBER, & SHAPED BEADS along with pipe cleaners has definitely fit this!

I found both the alphabet and star beads at DollarTree, and have also found ones with numbers on them at Dollar General-of course this means very economical! To prep, I cut 5 full length pipe cleaners in half and curl over one end so the beads don't come off. This creates 10 pipe cleaners for numbers 1-10. For larger numbers, don't cut the pipe cleaners so you have sufficient length for the quantity of beads. 

Then, using the alphabet beads, spell out each number word on one pipe cleaner each. Put the beads in a bowl or container, and ¡ta-chán! you have a center ready to go with minimal prep :) Great for fine motor work, hands on learning, and one more way to practice content.

VARIATIONS:

-For younger learners, I put numeral beads in place of the spelled words and encourage them to count out loud as they put the shaped beads on each pipe cleaner

-If you are able to find shaped beads of different items (like fruits, animals, etc), you can spell the words for each bead and they need to match (gato with a cat bead, for ex). You could also do "dos gatos", etc!

-For colors practice, any mix of beads will do!

AND DON'T MISS OUR ADJECTIVE BRACELET activity, celebrating identity-check it out here!