First of all, I am so thankful for all of the wonderful ideas posted out there by amazing teachers! I honestly never feel like I have time to share the things I create. My family recently relocated, and my husband and I have started new jobs. I went from teaching HS Spanish 2-4 to MS Spanish 1-2. It's been a refreshing change, but it's been a very busy summer/fall. Without the wonderful ideas out there, I wouldn't be able to keep my head above water. So, since I have done lots of "borrowing" of great ideas out there, it's only fair that I share something, right?! Inspired by Martina Bex's Spanish 1 Units 1-4, I wrote a story around Halloween (yes, I know it's Christmas), that ended up being a hit with my students. I used lots of the high frequency phrases from Martina's units 1-4, and added my own 4 phrases to the story (agarra la comida, come la comida, duerme en la cama, empieza).
Day 1 - PQA (click here for PDF of slides)
Day 2 - Story asked (using the template - click here for PDF)
Day 3 - Gave students a copy of their unique class story, and had them read it out loud in English, alternating sentences, with their partner
Day 4 - Students re-read their copy of the story, and were allowed to use that, along with the slide of vocabulary phrases that I projected (click here for PDF) to write what happened NEXT in the story. I gave students a set amount of time (10 minutes) to write their ending on this paper (click here for PDF)
Story translated into English (as requested) - Click here
My classroom is in an old science lab (wonderful for acting out stories/movement), so I have a nice, big science table in my classroom, and the student who played the "ghost" in the story (well, I had the student hold up a ghost puppet I'd made), slyly hid behind that and the class forgot about him/her, so when the ghost appears at the end, it really was a fun surprise for the students. I also made a big pumpkin out of a sheet of poster board for the student playing that role to wear, and had a set of cat ears (a tail will be added next year) for the student playing that role. I found that the kids really did have a lot of fun coming up with "disgusting/strange" foods that could be taken from the "refrigerator."
In addition to those activities on days 1-4, we are singing songs, doing bell ringers, playing games, etc. But I wanted to share the story with you at least.