6.5 days. That is how many days of school we have left. (Not that anyone is counting, right?) The anticipation of summer vacation has students acting crazy and teachers struggling to find ways to harness all that energy while still being academically productive. Getting students to focus this time of year is TOUGH. Most are day-dreaming of swimming at the lake, trips to the beach, summer camp, and driving around with their friends. One trick to keeping them on-task and productive? Sidewalk chalk! With sidewalk chalk, you can turn just about any lesson into an engaging, hands-on activity that gets students outside like they have been begging for AND provides students with a meaningful learning opportunity! Win-win!
IDEAS FOR USING SIDEWALK CHALK
REVIEW:
The Spanish 2 students below are reviewing for their final exam by working in pairs to compare and contrast preterite and imperfect. Each group took over a square and had to draw a picture to help them remember the differences between the two tenses, write five “buzz words” for each (siempre, los domingos, el jueves pasado, etc.), list five examples of when each tense is used (weather, age, single completed action, etc.), conjugate 3 verbs in each tense, and write two example sentences for each. Once squares were complete, we spent 10 minutes gallery-walk style checking out all the squares. Students had to discuss with their partners what made sentences examples of preterite or imperfect. Again, could I have done the same thing as a worksheet? Absolutely. Did my students have a lot more fun, were more engaged, and retain more by doing the task this way? Absolutely. Lots took their phones out afterward to take a picture of their square to use as a study tool over the weekend. Love it! This activity works great for any review day, any level of Spanish.
SENTENCE WRITING:
Give students scrambled sentences and have them write out the sentences with the words in the correct order.
VOCABULARY REVIEW:
TIC-TAC-TOE:
GAMES:
TASK CARDS:
Looking for task cards to review everything your students learned in Spanish 1 and Spanish 2 before you send them out the door for summer? Check out these cute summer-themed sets! Each is designed to give your students a well-rounded review of topics covered in Spanish 1 and Spanish. Click HERE for the Spanish 1 task cards and HERE for the Spanish 2 task cards! These would be perfect for using outside with sidewalk chalk!
There are hundreds of different ways you can use sidewalk chalk with your classes. Please leave a comment below if you have a great idea you want to share! I would love to hear it!
4 Responses
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For Hispanic Heritage Month, you could have students or Spanish Club members draw flags of different Spanish-speaking countries with sidewalk chalk.
Oooo! I love that idea!
Thank you for your hard work that make students learn and teacher life more easily