Here are tips to plan conversation hours during which students  spend an hour before or after school interacting with their classmates in Spanish.  Students learn and reinforce vocabulary, grammar, and cultural topics as well as improve their language skills.  Any of these activities can also be done at a game night or they can be done during Spanish classes of all levels.

Here is a complete list of the really popular interactive activities we have used for game nights and conversation hours in the past!

Conversation hours last one hour each and they include many interactive games and activities.  An example conversation hour begins with a warm-up partner vocabulary game similar to Tic-Tac-Toe or El Gato.  El Gato is a game where the students work in pairs and ask and answer vocabulary definitions as they mark which boxes on their boards they completed correctly.  Topics included are family, clothing, house, professions, sports, places, school, transportation, travel, airport, countries, capitals, nationalities, body parts, and health.

Next, the students sing a song and they follow up with a cloze activity, a dance, or a discussion with comprehension questions. 
For example, the students sing the lyrics to "Mueve Tu Cuerpo" by Beyoncé.  Then, they do a commands verb activity followed up with the dance

During football season, the students especially love to play the Fantastic Spanish NFL Pro Football Warm-Up Game.  One student at a time comes up in front of the group and reads a definition of one of the professional teams while the other students have to guess which team is being described.  The student with the most correct guesses wins a small prize.

Then, the students watch a video that they have to narrate using the past tenses.  This is our favorite video to use for practicing the past tenses.

 

Or, if we are studying the future tense, the students have to guess what will happen next after the video is paused in a key spot.  Check out this free worksheet for this future activity.

Finally, if we have additional time, we play a game to reinforce grammar and vocabulary concepts such as El Peligro (Jeopardy), La Pirámide de 100.000 Dólares, El Frenesí Familiar (Family Feud) or ¿Te Gustaría Más… o…? (Would You Rather?).

Or, Lenguas Rápidas is another fun and crazy fast-paced vocabulary game that reviews tons of topics.  To play, divide the class into two teams and have three or four students from Team 1 stand next to the screen in front of the class to guess vocabulary terms while the rest of Team 1 gives clues in the target language.  Each picture in this free Power Point game has an expression or a word that the team is trying to guess.  The team that is giving the clues may not say the words that are on the screen for that picture or they lose that point.  Here are the game instructions.

¡Adivina Qué! is a crazy, fast-paced vocabulary expression guessing game that students love!  The 20 themes included in this Spanish version of the game are Familia, Casa y Muebles, Bebidas, Comidas, Profesiones, Frutas, Deportes, Lugares, Materiales, Naturaleza, Partes del Cuerpo, Rutina Diaria, Servicio de Mesa, Aeropuerto, Cumpleaños, Animales, Transporte, Ropa, Salud, and Materiales Escolares.  There are 10 vocabulary expressions for each of the 20 categories.  There are several ways to play this game. Teachers can play Adivina Qué as a whole class or the students can play it in small groups. Adivina Qué can be played with Chromebooks, on a screen with a Power Point, or with cards that students hold up to their heads.

There many other interactive ideas and guided speaking presentations on our website.  Ideas include a preterite and imperfect Twitter activity, a whole class people search activity, guided speaking activities, video comprehension activities and more!

***We have many other cultural events that we organize throughout the school year with additional interactive activities that involve music, movies, telenovelas, game shows, holidays, commercials, TV shows, and more.  Click here to learn more:
Media/Pop Culture Event
Holidays Around the World
Immersion Day
Game Night







 
CONVERSATION HOUR

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