I don’t know about you, but I got pretty tired of asking my students to name 10 Spanish speaking countries and hearing answers like: Texas, Germany, Japan (?), Europe, and the United States. So today I’m sharing my favorite 10 Spanish speaking countries activities to help students get excited about Spanish class.
Personally, I find it most effective to focus on 1 country every two weeks and delve a little deeper into each one rather than trying to teach all the countries and capitals at once. Students are more likely to remember a country if they know something interesting about it.
10. Post the country flag, capital, and some fun facts on the wall or classroom door.
Use any of this information as a bonus point on your weekly quiz or test to give kids extra incentive to learn it.
9. Listen to songs from each country.
Here are a few of my favorites.
Clandestino by Manu Chao (Spain) – Teaches about the difficulty of refugees who have to flee their homeland.
La Resistencia – Carolina Bessolo (Bolivia) – The people of Bolivia rise up to fight for justice in a corrupt country.
Mujer Latina – Thalia (Mexico) – Showcases what it is like to be a passionate “mujer latina”, born from the sugar cane fields.
8. Have students partner up by nationalities.
I love doing this because it not only teaches students the nationalities, but gets them working with 20 different students in class throughout the year.
At the beginning of the year, students fill out the sheet with a different student for each nationality. Then start with the first 4 countries for 4-5 weeks. Each time there is a partner activity, call out “Parejas mexicanas” or “Parejas hondureñas” and students pair up with that person. If there is an odd number, create a group of 3 – same thing if a student is absent.
7. Post colorful photos from each Spanish-speaking country around the room.
Change the photos each week or two to showcase a new Spanish-speaking country. Luckily for you, I created a ready-made colorful resource with photos and facts for each country.
Grab 150+ Hispanic photos now!
6. Have students color a flag for each country.
Did you know that even high school students like to color? It’s super fun to color a new flag each week – the perfect activity after a quiz or for when your students don’t want to listen to you anymore. Find them on the Internet or grab some ready-made Spanish speaking countries flags here (large or small size).
5. Discuss current events from Spanish-speaking countries.
Every Monday, have students find articles from Spanish-speaking countries in Spanish and talk about the article. Assign each student a different country to get a good variety.
4. Have students research famous Hispanics.
Every year, my students would do famous Hispanic people projects. We started off with playing a 20 question guessing game for famous Hispanics and then they would research their own and create PPT presentations to introduce famous people.
Variation: Have students write their own 20 clues about a famous Hispanic.
3. Create a chant to learn the countries and their capitals.
Practice the chant once or twice a week until the students know it by heart. Make up your own or use these free ones.
2. Give digital flashcards to learn the countries and capitals for homework.
Check out these Spanish Speaking Countries Boom Cards. FYI – Boom accounts are free for teachers – no need to get a paid version bc you can use the FastPlay link with your students.
Check out this helpful post with all 21 Spanish speaking countries and capitals and catchy phrases to help your students learn them.
1. Travel virtually to Spanish speaking countries with video clips.
This is my favorite way to teach about the Spanish speaking countries bc the video clips showcase culture, traditions, and the beauty of the Hispanic world in a way that photos, flags, and facts can’t quite do.
When students watch these, the discussion automatically ensues because it makes them curious about why people in other countries have different traditions.
Showing 2-3 of these on Fridays is a nice way to end the week with something fun and to give you time to prep/grade for the next week. Or save them for sub plans when you’re out unexpectedly – so easy!
Grab 101 video clips with questions for each video now!
Check out this blog post with my 5 favorite Spanish speaking countries video clips to show in class.
Hope all these ideas help you and your students master not only the Spanish speaking countries and capitals, but also learn the beautiful traditions and culture from all 21 Hispanic countries.
Happy Teaching!
~Sherry
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