Are you tired? Counting down the weeks? Need something new for your Little Darlings?

Here’s an online version of Lotería, the beloved Mexican table game, that I love because La Sirena makes better wardrobe choices and it’s missing a few other problematic characters from the original. Since we still want to give our Little Darlings loads of input, even at the end of the year when we are exhausted, here’s a slideshow explaining how to play Lotería, in Spanish, comprehensible for your Level 1 babies:

To play with your Little Darlings, click “host game” at https://playloteria.online/ and you’ll want to click the “School Friendly Version”.

Then you’ll pick which version you want to play (Columns, Four Corners, Black Out, etc. Tip- If you want a quick game, pick Rows, Columns or 2×2…Diagonal, Letter N, Letter Z and Black Out will eat up quite a bit more time before you get a winner.) Once you’ve set up the game, students will click the same link and enter your Room Code to join and they’ll be prompted to pick their unique, digital lotería board. Before we start playing , I add a few phrases to the board that they can (and should) holler for every card I draw. Then we get playing, I call a card and I wait expectantly to hear ¡Lo tengo! or ¡No la tengo! or ¡Ay chuhuahua! or ¡NECESITO UNO MÁS! before I draw and call the next card.

When you have a Lotería winner, scroll down on the hosted game to click and verify the winning student’s board. Then if there’s time, play another round. After they’re familiar with it, sometimes students want to be the caller, which I love because I’ll catch up on a few emails or sit back and relax with my cup of tea.

I hold off introducing Lotería until the end of the year because once I teach it, they want to play it every class. And it is just the thing this tired teacher needs at the end of the year when they’re clawing at the walls and I need something new to reign them in!

If you want to go deeper with the Lotería theme, have you seen the cortometraje Suerte?

Here’s an article about the short film with some great background info.

It would make a great Clip Chat. However, I haven’t created any resources for it, because it’s the end of the year and I’m as exhausted as the next teacher. If I were to create resources for my level 1 Little Darlings, I’d wait until after we’d played a few times and they’re familiar with the characters. I’d definitely focus on these vocabulary structures:

• Sueña con
• Trata de
• Busca
• Ayuda

and divide it into a few segments to do over the course of a few days. If I get real motivated and create something, I’ll definitely link it here!

Oh yeah… and HAPPY TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK! I hope that your Little Darlings and Administrators are appreciating you as you deserve!!! Hang in there, tired teacher! You’re not alone!