Spanish teaching routines

This is what I do at the beginning of class. 

(It might take a few classes for students to master these basic routines but in 3 or 4 classes they will be familiarized with it and it will make the beginning of class smooth)

Routine 1 - Greetings.

I say, "Hola"

Students say, "hola"

Then I say, "buenos días" or "buenas tardes"

Students say, "buenos días" or "buenas tardes"

Then I ask, "¿Cómo estáis?" I use the "vosotros" form of estar, some teachers might prefer to use the "ustedes" form so you can say "¿Cómo están?" instead.

Students say, "bien. Gracias, ¿Y usted?"

I say "Bien. Gracias"

Routine 2- Days of the Week.

I have a poster with the days of the week that I put it on the board (if you don't have one you can write the Spanish days of the week on the board). I say:

"Vamos a cantar la canción de los días de la semana." (Listen to the Spanish days of the week song here). We start singing and I have one student point to the days of the week as we sing them. (Once they know the song, we sing one loop of the song without listening to it otherwise it gets long and boring).

Routine 3 -¿Qué día es hoy?

I ask, ¿Qué días es hoy? 

I call on a voluntier and s/he says,  "hoy es martes." 

I ask, ¿Qué día es mañana?

I call on another student and s/he says "mañana es miércoles."

I ask, " ¿Qué día fue ayer?"

Another student says, "¿ayer fue lunes."

Routine 4- Months

We do the same  thing that we did on routine 2 with the days of the week.

I say, "Vamos a cantar la canción de los meses del año." We sing one loop of "los meses del año"  (listen to Spanish months of the year song) and I ask "¿En qué mes estamos?"

I call on a student and s/he says, "estamos en septiembre."

Routine 5 -Date

I ask "¿Quién me puede decir la fecha?"

I call on a student to say the date In a full sentence. For example "hoy es martes uno de septiembre de dos mil quince." I make sure the sentence is correct and then I have the whole class reapeat it while the volunteer writes the date on the board.

Routine 6 -Weather

I say, "mirad por la ventana" (I use the "vosotros" form some teachers prefer to use the "ustedes" form "miren por la ventana"). I have students look out the window and I call on a volunteer to respond using a sentence about the weather. For example, "hoy hace sol," "hoy está lloviendo," etc. We do not sing "¿Qué tiempo hace hoy?" Spanish weather song during this routine but it is very helpful if they know the song since it contains vocabulary and grammar structures related to weather in Spanish.

Once students are familiar with these routines you can go over all of them in about 5 minutes. In a few minutes you get your students speaking and interacting in Spanish while they are reviewing basic and important topics. Meanwhile, you have most of the class left to focus on new things!

Routine 7 -Clean up

I've always had a hard time at the end of class to get students cleaning up and ready to go on time. That's why I wrote the "A limpiar" song.

It is a 2 minute song so I play it every day at the end of class. Students know that the minute they hear the song it is time to clean up so it really is helpful. I encourage you to give some type of reward during the first days of school to students who take this routine seriously since it can improve the way you finish your classes throughout the year.

You can see the song lyrics and drawing below,

I hope you find these teaching routines useful.

See you next week!

César