Spanish Writing Activities, 25 Spanish Writing Projects

In this series on teaching Spanish writing skills, we’ve discussed using templates to model good writing, as well as the importance of Spanish transition words to decrease choppiness.  This post will continue the writing discussion with ideas for great Spanish writing activities and Spanish writing projects to use all year long with your high school or middle school students.

Without further ado, here are some ideas:

Spanish Writing Activities (Level 1)

For level 1, I focus primarily on speaking and communication skills for at least the first half of the year before adding in a whole lot of writing.  Sentences or short paragraphs are fine, but avoid long compositions until they are more confident and competent with their communication skills.

That said, here are a few shorter projects:

Postcard Project (Level 1) 

Students pretend they are on vacation in a Spanish Speaking country.  Pass out an index card and have students draw/print and paste photos of the scenery on one side and describe their vacation on the other.

Teach them a little bit of preterite to help them talk about where they went and what they saw.  (Fui a . . ., Fuimos a, Vi, Vimos, Fue  muy divertido, muy interesante, un viaje fantástico.).  Don’t teach them the whole verb conjugation – only teach that “Fui a” means “I went”, “Fuimos a” means we went, “Vi” means “I saw”, “Vimos” means “We saw” and “Fue” means “It was “.  Ex.  I’m in Panama.  There are a lot of colorful birds here.  The weather is nice.  Today we went to an incredible national park.  We saw lots of interesting animals:  iguanas, agouti, and wild parrots.  Etc.

Social Media Profile 

Have students write their own Facebook profile or other social media profile.  They can answer questions such as:  Where do you live, what do you like to do, what is your profession, etc.

Secret Valentines

Select another student’s name for each student (boys to boys, girls to boys, girls to girls) and have them write super cheesy valentines to their secret valentine.  Tell them that the whole point is to write the cheesiest valentine.  Students give you the valentines when they are done and you pass them out.  They try to guess who their secret valentine is.

Grab your free list of Valentine’s vocab in the Free Resource Library.

JOIN THE FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY!

All about Me Writing Project

This one is great for an end-of-year project.  Students describe themselves, their families, their likes and dislikes, etc.  Get this free template in the Free Resource Library.

Spanish Writing Activities (Level 2) 

Instagram Posts

Students take photos and write Instagram posts describing what they did over the summer, winter break, spring break, etc.

Personal Narrative

All about Me Project (with or without the template).  See above.

Describe a Typical Day

Students describe their daily routine (great for reflexive verbs and time).  If you want to add an extra fun element to this, offer extra credit if they act their days out in front of the class as funny people.  Student A is behind Student B and is the arms and does all the actions while Student A talks.  This is really funny as they try to brush teeth, hair, etc.  Students love this activity.

Collage People

Students cut out pictures of different activities and paste them (or they can draw them) onto an outline of a person.  They then write about the person that they have created, describing their likes and dislikes.

Commands

How to Project

Write instructions explaining how to make or do something (could be a recipe or a simple craft).

Create a Pamphlet

Make a pamphlet or brochure for a gym/weight loss program.

Preterite 

One Crazy Family

Write about a crazy family and all the crazy things that they did all week long.  Have them act out the actions in front of the class with props.

Ex.  The Gonzalez family is really crazy.  On Tuesday, Marta ate worms and crickets for dinner.  On Friday night, Luis and Rosa rode elephants and parked them in the supermarket parking lot.  What a mess!

Postcard Project (Level 2)

Students pretend they are on vacation in a Spanish Speaking country.  Pass out an index card and have students draw/print and paste photos of the scenery on one side and describe their vacation on the other.  Can be used with just preterite or preterite/imperfect.

Get more preterite/imperfect activities here.

Imperfect

Your Life As a Kid

Write about what your life was like when you were a kid.  Students leave the name off and attach a photo from when they were little.  Post them around the class with a number by each essay.  Students try to guess who each person is.

Famous Person’s Life

Write about the life of a famous person.

Penpal Letters

Connect with another class in a Spanish-speaking country and have your students correspond with other students throughout the year.  Collect the letter and mail them in one big envelope to save on postage (or even better, correspond via email).

Letter for Next Year

Write a letter to next year’s students telling them about your teacher and what they should expect from Spanish class.

Spanish Writing Activities (Levels 3, 4, 5)

Preterite vs. Imperfect

Class Story

Write a class story.  Begin with a starter sentence like:  It was a dark and stormy night.  Students in class take turns adding on sentences.  To get more touches with the language, divide the class into groups and let them brainstorm their own stories and then write on the board as they go.  Share and correct the stories as a class afterward.

Life in the Past

Compare and contrast life today with life 50 years ago.

Photo Prompt

Use a funny photo as a writing prompt.  Ex. What happened to cause this event?

Photo Writing

Show a picture with lots of things happening in it.  Have students write as much as they can about the picture for 2-5 minutes.

Retell a Fairy Tale

Students write out a traditional fairy tale but change some of the details to give it a funny twist.

Change the Ending

Write the ending to a story that the class is reading before you read it.

Famous People

Students research a famous Hispanic and write a resume based on that person’s life.  I like to have them add an audio-visual element to the presentation (showcasing their art, music, etc.).  Get a ready-made Famous Hispanics game and project.

Movie/Book Review

Students write a review critiquing a movie or book.

Blog Post

Students write a blog post about a topic of their choosing:  exercise, sports, fashion, healthy eating, etc.  Have them use info. that you are studying (specific verb tenses or grammar points, transition words) in their posts.

Journal Writing

Have students write once a week in Spanish journals (either in class or at home).  Be sure to tell them not to write stuff that is super personal because you will be reading it.

Journal Writing with Prompts

Give students a new prompt for each writing session.  Base the prompts on the season or specific grammar points that you’re studying.  Ex.  (For Halloween)  Describe the best Halloween costume that you ever wore.  Ex. (For imperfect subjunctive)  If you could change one thing about your school, what would it be?

Controversial Opinion Piece

Students present one side of a debate for a controversial topic.  As the teacher, you may wish to select certain topics to choose from or you may decide to give students permission to choose (just have them check with you first before they start to write).

Future Plans

Describe what your life will be like in 10, 20, or 30 years.

Conditional

Have students answer any of the following writing prompts:  1.  What would you do if you won $1,000,000?  2.  What changes would you make if you were the principal of your school?  3.  If you could have any special power, what would it be and why?

End of Year Projects for Upper-Level Students

Spanish Fairy Tales

Students write and illustrate fairy tales using complex verb tenses and transition words.  Give them a specific amount of transition words to use (10-15), and specific verbs (must use at least 3 conditional, 5 preterite, 5 imperfect, 3 subjunctive, etc.).  Get the instructions, rubrics, and samples to show your students here.

Write a Chapter

Write an additional chapter from a book that you’ve read this year.  Include elements in the style of that particular author.  My favorite book is “Cuentos con sazón“.  Each chapter talks about a moral problem that a kid encountered with some sort of resolution, centered around a festival in a Spanish-speaking country and involving some yummy traditional food.

Hope you found these ideas helpful and inspiring!  Have a great Spanish writing project that we should all know about – let me know in the comments so I can add it to this post.

Be sure to check out the other parts of this Spanish writing series:  “Using Spanish Writing Templates” and “Using Spanish Transition Words to Improve Writing“.

Helpful ready-made resources:

Grab these ready-made helpful writing resources:
101 Spanish Transition Words
Spanish Fairy Tale Project
Spanish Writing Section for an Exam

Happy Teaching!
~Sherry