Have you played board games in your elementary Spanish class yet?  I used to think the only way to use board games was to bust out Candyland during our colors unit.  Thankfully my awesome colleagues introduced me to the idea of making the board games fit the content in our elementary Spanish curriculum. 

Shout out to Sra. Schreiner & Sra. Gloudemans!

Why play board games in Spanish class?

My goal for using board games in class has always been to increase student engagement while giving them a reason to communicate in Spanish.  Each turn provides an opportunity for a question/answer mini conversation.  Nowadays my goal has shifted slightly to include intentionally teaching & practicing social skills, turn taking, & winning/losing gracefully.

What do you need to play board games?

What’s nice to have?

In order to set kids up for success, I like to provide a student resource page for kids when they’re playing board games in small groups.  I either print off a copy for each group or make sure to have key vocabulary on the board while they’re playing.  Even younger students are able to use the resource and feel more confident about their answers.

Teaching students how to play

I love to teach new games to students by playing it as a whole group first.  We play “clase vs. Sra” starting in kindergarten.   Then when they play in small groups they are familiar with the rules and able to play independently.

We occasionally play board games in small groups during the kindergarten year.  That said, we play with small groups much more often starting in 1st grade.

Procedures for Play: Stories by Señora Style

Set Up–Whole Group

When I play a board game with the whole group, I put the game board on my google slides.   *Since I move the game pieces around, you can’t play while in “present” mode.

I use a digital dice roller and switch back and forth between the tabs.  To make it easy on myself, I just link the dice roller to an image of a die on my slide.  A colleague (shout out to Srta. Younkle!)  has kids roll a big die and that sounds fun as well.

For game pieces, I insert 2 shapes into my slides.  Mine is always purple (my favorite color) so I don’t have to think about it.

Playing the game–Whole Group

When I play with the whole group, students always go first.  I roll the digital die, move their game piece, and call on volunteers to say the term for the space they landed on.  Then we go back and forth taking turns.  I always play it up when I’m losing, trying to roll a bigger number.  Kids love the competitive nature of the game even though I tell them it’s just the luck of your dice rolls.  We also always say “buena jugada” or good game at the end.

I try to add in extra language that’s meaningful while we play.  “Me toca a mí” & “les toca a ustedes”are a natural fit.  I tend to say “la clase tiene tres” & “Señora tiene dos” after rolling and we always count the spaces out loud in Spanish.

Winning the game

In order to win, Señora’s rules say you have to roll the exact number needed.  Looking at the sports board game below, the orange player needs a 1 in order to win.  They have to roll a 1 or else they’re stuck until their next turn.  This is a fun way to ensure an early lead doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll win in the end.

Set Up–Small Group

When playing with small groups, I copy the game boards on card stock or put them in plastic page protectors.  I also have a bin with dice & game pieces (we always use ositos).  *Foam dice are nice so you don’t hear a million rolling dice for the duration.

Playing the game–Small Group

Rules for the game are the same when playing in small groups.  I like to have enough copies of the game board for groups of 2-3 students.  That makes sure no one has to wait too long in between turns.  

I find about 10 minutes is plenty for small group play.  It’s important to make your expectations for Spanish use during the game clear.  I always tell students I want to hear Spanish numbers and lots of the content words!  Walking around and engaging with the groups helps students use lots of Spanish.

Paper vs. Digital Versions of the Board Game

The lovely virtual teaching of yore initially forced me to come up with a digital version of board games.  I still use the digital version from time to time to mix things up from one unit to the next.

Our district uses Seesaw & it works well for board games!  I just create an activity, upload the game board, add some game pieces and a digital dice video.  I usually include a student resource page as a second slide in the activity.  Take a look at this activity to see what I mean.

Make Your Own Board Games

If you don’t love creating resources like I do, please find a ton of board game options in my shop.  If there’s a topic you’re needing and you don’t see it, please contact me! I’d love to make it for you.

That said, making your own board game isn’t too tricky.  You can find blank game board templates on TPT.  Then after you’ve collected images for your content, you just copy and paste them into the blank spaces.  Give it a try!  I bet your students will enjoy it as much as mine do.

Interested in other game ideas?

Tic Tac Toe is always a fun one!

Baamboozle is a fun online whole group game.

To read more about why I am mindful to include playing in my lessons, this post might interest you.

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