Hola!
The new school year is underway for me! I am teaching Spanish 1 and 2 this year after having just Level 1 for the last year. I typically do not enjoy Level 2 but I am truly excited to teach this group of kids again. They were fantastic last year and I am looking forward to continue guiding them on the path of acquisition! Our school goal this year is to build connections with students and families. I really love this goal because it is one that I know everyone can always improve on. I want better connections with my kids and I want to initiate positive phone calls home to families right off the bat to open the lines of communication. I am also the vice president for the teachers association at my school and I want to build positive relationships with all members so we can unify to make positive change in our district.
I really wanted to start the year off right with this group of Spanish 2 students and do something a little different that your typical icebreaker activity. I HATE having to get up during meetings and talk to people across the room. I also hate doing large presentational activities like sharing my name, grade, hobbies with 35 other people. Anxiety in children is at an all time high and instead of saying “Well when I was in high school we had to (insert something from the 90s early 2000s)”, let’s just come up with ways to make our kids feel comfortable and calm their nerves. Instead of meeting kids at the door with a stern face and never smiling until Christmas (actual advice that was given to me at one point), I chose to meet my kids with an enthusiastic “¡Hola!” and told them how happy I was that they were in my class.
So back to this icebreaker. Over the summer, I did a team building activity with the OFLA Board where we had to create objects with playdoh based on the prompt that we were given. For example, we were asked to make something that represented our professional life, our personal life, and what goals we had for the year. I loved this idea so much that I immediately ordered play-doh that day to use on the first day with Spanish 2.
I set the stage for this activity by telling kids that if they let me talk for 10 minutes about boring things like class supplies, cell phones, and simple expectations, we could play with play-doh for the remainder of class. They were SO excited. I promise I am not being sarcastic. They were pumped and I think they listened just a litttleee bit more to my 10 minutes of “boring.”
Each kid grabbed their play-doh and I instructed them that they were going to be given prompts. Everything they made had to be school appropriate and they had to try and think outside the box. Oh, and no eating the play-doh.
The prompts that I gave them were:
I set a timer for 1 minute for students to form their objects and then I asked if anyone wanted to share. I had a surprising amount of volunteers! I wasn’t going to force anyone to share but rather walk around and ask kids 1-1.
Due to weird schedules and extra time in some classes, I was able to play this activity with some of my Spanish 1 classes this week as well. I wasn’t expecting a ton of volunteers and my expectations were met because they were still too nervous to share some things with me. I didn’t force anyone, but rather shared what I made and asked if anyone had something similar.
I am really excited that this activity went so well and that I have these materials for other activities. I am thinking of other ways we can turn some Spanish lessons into more hands on activities with the play-doh. For example, instead of drawing to show meaning, maybe we will form something? I have some other ideas brewing in my head that I will share soon.
I hope your back to school season goes smoothly and that you are able to build connections and make memories with your learners right off the bat!
