Help wanted -- Activities to teach present tense verbs!! :)
Hola! Very soon, I am going to teach a group of students about the present tense of Spanish verbs, as well as pronouns and several other basic topics in a series of short presentations (they are pretty much just beginning, so they don't have a big vocabulary or anything yet). I was wondering if any of you fine teachers out there had any suggestions on fun games, exercises, quizzes, resources, etc. that I could incorporate to the presentation to make it more exciting. Also, any tips on how to teach this or any other basic Spanish grammar topic would be highly appreciated. Thanks!!
6 Answers
Regular -ar verbs in the Present Tense (for beginners)
Kiwi has worked hard on this post. The flashcards and the Burrito Game may be useful?
Like Gringo said by doing. To cover some verbs play Simon says using the infinitive and randomly ask the ones playing what are you doing, randomly ask the ones that sit out for not doing what Simon said what is/are he/she/they doing. Also, ask what am I doing for the tú form.
You can also do a simple craft that has repetition. Or a piñata project a little each day. Like Gringo said what's going on in the classroom not just project verbs.
Good luck
Regarding any tips, here is something I would mention early on to ward off any bad habits. That would be to use the present tense even though the progressive present feels more natural to us native English speakers. Using the verb hablar as a example, it feels a bit awkward to simply say 'hablo' when you want to say 'I am talking'. I seems to make more sense to say 'estoy hablando' instead. In English we always use the present participle with the 'ing' ending, i.e. I'm talking, walking, thinking, doing, etc. when the action is occurring in the present. In fact, if you enter 'I am talking' into the translator on this site, it will give you 'estoy hablando' as the answer, not 'hablo'. My experience talking with native speakers of Spanish is 'estoy hablando' would be wordy, and typically used to add emphasis. For example if you were being interrupted while you were speaking, you might want to politely say 'hablo' to point out that you were speaking first. If they didn't get the message you might escalate to 'estoy hablando' to add emphasis. For the very stubborn you might need to go to 'estoy hablando ahorita', (I am talking right now) as a last resort. lol. So, I would suggest this is a good concept to add to a beginning present tense verb lesson.
You might want to emphasize that English verbs always use subject pronouns (a grammar term) and Spanish verbs rarely do because the endings indicate the subject.
Getting them used to making the changes in endings might be something you can do with stick figures (there are probably teaching charts with these). One pointing to him/herself representing "yo", one pointing to another while facing him/her is tú (or usted - a child facing an adult). A man pointing to a woman at his side is ella, and a woman pointing to a man at her side is él. The plural forms just require more stick figures to make it clear. This is especially helpful with ser Soy hombre Eres mujer Es alumno(a) etc under the stick figures. I found this technique in a teach yourself Hebrew book years ago so it's not my creation.
Que tengas éxito.
I would start with things that are happening in the classroom.
talking, listening, writing, coloring, watching TV, reading, laughing, crying, comb hair, etc.
All of these are happening in the classroom in the present tense.
So maybe ask the first student to do something and then the next has to say what the first is doing in the present tense, then the one who just answered does something else and so on.
You can even make up cards to give each student a thing to "do".
good question!
