Here’s a super easy, low energy way to talk about their winter breaks (or weekends!) that gives them loads of input and carefully scaffolded output, inspired by Rita Barrett’s Thanksgiving Lotería game. It is just perfect for lower level classes!

This was a nice way to ease back into Spanish 1 after 2 weeks + 2 snow days and it couldn’t be simpler:

Before class:

• Make a copy of the slideshow below and personalize it for your students.
  • “Qué hiciste durante las vacaciones lotería” Spanish Slideshow
  • What did you do during break German Slideshow (Danke Suzanne Greenwalt!)
  • What did you do during the weekend Italian Slideshow (Grazie Tanya Ferretto!)
  • Tu as fait quoi pendant les vacances/le week-end? French Slideshow (Merci Amanda Mendoza)
• We had record breaking snowfall during our break and many of my students lost power for days, so you’ll see that mentioned in the slides. If you’re teaching without snow, you’ll need to make adjustments: change the question and give them 2 or 3 or 4 options for each question. Also, be sure to update slide # 9 with your state (and a neighboring state’s) name! You’ll need 9 total questions with options.
• As you update your questions and options, update the options on the very last slide as well.
• Print out the very last slide and cut apart the options. Put these in an envelope. You’ll use these to call the options when they’re playing Bingo.
• And of course, if you’re not a Spanish teacher but you adapt this to your target language, if you share it back with me, we can post it here for other language teachers to use! Share it with me a senorachase <<at>> gmail <<dot>> com! Merci! Grazie! Danke! ありがとうございます and 谢谢你

Students set up their Bingo Boards:

• Project your slideshow and pass out scratch paper.
• First they should fold their papers to make 9 spaces. (Fold in thirds hot dog style, then hamburger style, and you’re set.)
• Moving through the slideshow, ask each question (make sure it’s comprehensible!), then reveal the options. Students copy and illustrate ONE of the options, ANYWHERE on their board. (Of course, students may have gone skiing AND played in the snow, but they have to pick just ONE option from EACH question for their bingo board.
• For my Spanish 1 students, I asked them to copy it in Spanish AND illustrate. For a level 2 class or higher, you might ask them to only illustrate (and not copy to words) so they have to produce the language when they get 3 in a row.
• Now if you’re really on fire, while they’re creating their boards, you could use this time to chat a bit with them: “Who went skiing? Where did you go? Was it snowing or sunny?” You know, the things good CI teachers do…I’ll be honest here. I was tired so I sat on my stool, clicked through the slideshow and let them create their boards without much interaction. And you know what, it worked out just fine!

Let’s play!

• Explain to students that for each round they’ll use a different symbol to mark their board. So the first game they mark a little circle on their board, the next game a tiny triangle, the next is a heart, and so on. But if you don’t mind picking up a zillion beans off the floor after class, skip this step and pass out beans or bingo markers. You just go ahead and follow your heart here.
• You call an option, students listen carefully and if they did that during break, they mark the established symbol on their board. When they’ve got 3 in a row, they holler “Lotería”.
• To verify their win, ask ¿Qué hiciste durante las vacaciones? and they use their boards to respond Quité nieve, no celebré el año nuevo y fui a California. As a follow up question or two and then keep playing. You can decide (or ask them!) if they are ready to start over with a new symbol or if they want to continue with the same symbol. We played about 15 minutes (after it took about 15 minutes to create their boards) and it was enjoyed by all.

Wrap it up:

Finally, pair students up (we use Animal Buddies but do whatever floats your boat) and then with their partner they share about their breaks, using their Bingo Boards for support. In our class, for each thing they both did, the partner listening says, “¡Yo también! ¡Chócala!” and they high five each other. It’s adorable. It makes my teacher heart smile.

Adaptation for Weekend Talk:

If you’ve already been back to school and you want in on the fun, here’s the Spanish slideshow for Weekend Talk Lotería. (Just be sure to update slide #9 with your surrounding cities/towns, and don’t forget to update the last two slides with any changes you make in the slideshow!)

And Grazie to Tanya Ferretto, here’s the Italian version of Weekend Talk Lotería.

They you have it folks! Hope this brings you and your Little Darlings some joy this upcoming week!