Games and Activities

1. Restaurante (Restaurant)

Vocabulary Topic: Food and meals

Materials: Menus in Spanish, diner-style guest checks, worksheets with a picture of an empty

dinner plate, colored pencils

How to Play: Pair students up and have them decide who will be the mesero (waiter) and who
will be the cliente (customer). Meseros bring clientes their menus and jot down their orders on
the guest check, then go to “cook” the meal requested.
This is done by drawing the meal on the plate worksheet. When they serve the cliente, they’ll
know right away if they got the order right, and clientes can leave additional feedback by tipping
well (or not at all!). Students should switch roles for the second round.

Variations: Students can make their own menus to practice writing and tailor the game to your
specific vocabulary. Menus can also include culturally specific foods if you are studying a
particular country or region. You can also allow clientes to sit together and chat in Spanish while
they wait for their meals.

2. Adivina Quién? (Guess Who?)

Vocabulary Topic: Physical appearance, clothing

Materials: 20-30 full-color photos of people

How to Play: Hang photos in a grid on the board where everyone can see them, or project a
PowerPoint slide containing 20-30 photos of people. Working in pairs, one student will choose a
photo of a person to describe. The other student asks questions about appearance and clothing to
narrow the field until he or she is ready to guess. Partners switch roles and play continues.

Variations: For an even easier version of this game, skip the photos and have students simply
choose a classmate to describe. Use portraits to focus on facial features or full-length photos to
practice clothing and color vocabulary.
 3. Mi Familia Loca (My Crazy Family)

Vocabulary Topic: Family and pets

Materials: Blank family tree template worksheets, a set of 20-30 small photos of famous people
and animals (the sillier the better—cartoon characters welcome!) for each student, a folder or
binder

How to Play: In pairs, students sit facing each other with a binder standing between them to
block the view of each other’s family tree template. One student will place photos on the family
tree template to create a familia loca.
The second student must recreate that family tree without looking, so will ask questions like,
“¿Quién es tu mamá?” (Who is your mother?), using the answers to place photos on their family
tree. When the tree is complete, students remove the binder and check their work.

Variations: To make the game more challenging, use photos of non-famous people to force
students to also use their physical description vocabulary, i.e. Mi mamá es alta y rubia. (My
mother is tall and blonde.) If you use photos of animals instead of people, you can incorporate a
review of Spanish animal sounds as well.

4. El Taxista (Taxi Driver)

Vocabulary Topic: Professions and workplaces

Materials: Play money, stations around the classroom with two chairs side by side

How to Play: Divide the class in half: Half of your students are taxi drivers, and the other half
are customers. Each taxi driver chooses a station and sits in the “driver’s seat.”

Customers each get a handful of play money and must decide what person they need to see (a
pharmacist, teacher, lawyer, etc.). Each customer sits in the “passenger’s seat” of a cab station
and gives a clue about where they are going—without naming the person they need to see or the
place they are going.

For example, someone going to the doctor might describe having a headache. The taxi driver
makes a guess about the location based on the clue. If the taxi driver is correct on their first
guess, the customer gives him or her $5; if not, the passenger gives another clue. A correct guess
on the second guess is worth $3.
If a third guess is needed, the customer can name the profession of the person they wish to see; a
correct guess is now worth $1. When the round is over, customers move into a different taxi
station and play continues. The taxi driver with the most money at the end wins.

Variations: You can make this game more or less challenging by structuring the questions and
answers to match students’ skill level. AP students can play a very open-ended game, while
beginners can stick to yes/no questions and have prompts on the board to help. For example, you
can prompt passengers to give clues by writing “Necesito _____.” or “Estoy _____.” on the
board. Taxi drivers can guess using the prompt “¿Vas a _____?,” which passengers can answer
with a simple sí or no

5. Limpia Tu Cuarto (Clean Your Room)

Vocabulary Topic: Parts of the house and its furnishings

Materials: A worksheet with a cross-section of a house or labeled floor plan, small photos of
furniture and items found around the house, a binder or folder

How to Play: Students play in pairs, with a binder or folder standing between them to keep their
home diagrams secret from the other player. Each student selects a photo card to place in each
room—locations do not have to make sense. The goal is to “clean up” your partner’s items
before he or she can clean up yours.
To play, one student must ask the other for an item, i.e. “Necesito una silla. ¿Está en la cocina?”
(I need a chair. Is it in the kitchen?) If they correctly guess the location of the item in their
partner’s house, the partner must hand them the photo. Play continues as students take turns
guessing; the first person to collect five items wins.

Variations: You can also use photos of family members, pets, food and clothing instead of
furniture to keep the game interesting over the course of the school year.

6. El Juego de Correr

To play this game, split your class evenly into two teams. Start counting at #1 and give a
different sequential number to each member of the team. Then dole out these numbers to the
other team’s players as well. If there are 12 students in your class, this means that you’ll now
how two groups of 6 with students numbered from 1-6.
Have each team line up in a row. Next, say any English word and then a number in Spanish. For
example, “apple” and “nueve.”
Both students numbered “nueve”  should rush to the whiteboard and write manzana as quickly as
possible. The winner is then awarded a point. The game continues until one team scores the
winning number of points (determined by you or your students).

7. Bingo

Not as in the farmer’s dog, although you could likely incorporate that song into class if so
desired as well! This Bingo is a tried and true game that makes practicing new vocabulary
engaging and interactive for students.

To play, print out blank or prepared Bingo grids for each of your students. You can fill out the
grids with an assortment of vocabulary that you’ve been teaching lately. If the cards are blank,
have the students fill in each blank on their grid with a different vocabulary word.

Afterwards, call out each of the vocabulary words. The first student to get an entire row (vertical,
horizontal, or diagonal) yells out “bingo!” and wins. Once many students have a “bingo,” you
can continue to play for “blackout,” meaning the entire board is crossed out.

For a free bingo card generator, check out print-bingo.com or osric.com.

8. ¿Qué es?

This game will get those neurons firing in your students’ minds as they try to guess certain
Spanish objects.
For this activity, you’ll need a deck of cards with pictures of different things on them. You can
do any category you like: foods, animals, colors, etc. You can then pick students one by one or
ask for a volunteer to come up to the front and select a card.

Instruct the student to show the card to the rest of the class without looking at it him or herself.
Then, the student will have to guess what’s on the card he or she selected based on clues from
the rest of the class. This should all be done 100% in Spanish, of course!

9. Circumlocution Game

Ever have a word on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t remember it? Or, do you ever want
to describe something but you don’t know the word for it in another language? Well, this game is
useful for just those instances!

At the start of class, divide your students into pairs or groups of up to four. Next, write a broad or
specific topic on the board. For example, comida or, more specifically, frutas rojas. How broad
the topic is will depend on how much vocabulary your students have learned and on how
difficult you want the game to be.

Once all students have read the category, have all of the students in the group except one turn
away from the board. Next, write some vocabulary words specific to the category on the board.

For the frutas rojas example, you could write manzana, fresa, tomato and frambuesa. The one
student per group who can see the board must then describe the vocabulary words without
actually saying them. This will force them to venture out of their vocabulary comfort zones and
get creative with adjectives!
All set for vocabulary games now? Great! Let’s move on to some vivacious verb games.

10. Verb Tic-Tac-Toe

Tic-tac-toe, three in a row! Unlike the version of this game with which your students are already
familiar, they’ll have to do a bit more work to win the Spanish verb version.

First, have your students pair up. Next, ask each one to draw a tic-tac-toe board with various
subjects in the spaces. For example, they could write “nosotros” in one square and “yo” in
another.

To play, students will need some kind of reference sheet filled with Spanish verbs. You could
whip one up yourself to print and distribute in class, or you could have them use the index of a
verb conjugation book or choose from a deck of cards with verbs written on them. To start taking
their turns, have the students choose verbs by pointing to a random one on the give sheet, book
index or deck of cards.

Each round of the game should focus on a particular verb conjugation. For example, “for this
round, we’ll conjugate in the imperfecto.” When the student is up at bat and wants to put an X or
O in a certain box, they’ll need to consider the verb tense you indicated, the subject in the square
and the random verb that they and their partner selected. They’ll then need to do the conjugation
for the selected verb properly. If they don’t get the conjugation right, they don’t get their square.

Whoever gets three Xs or Os in a row first wins!

11. Simón Dice

Touch your head! Uh oh, Simon didn’t say! You’re out! Surely you’ve played the game Simon
Says at least once in your life, and it’s likely that your students have too. Simón Dice, the
Spanish version of this classic game, is a perfect way for your students to practice mandatos and
vocabulary simultaneously.
Ask for one student to volunteer or pick on someone to come to the front and
be Simón. Simón  will need to give commands to the rest of the class. Anyone who does an action
that isn’t preceded by “Simón dice”  is out!

12. Direcciones 

Just in case Simón Dice didn’t provide enough mandatos fun for your students, there’s always
the game Direcciones! The practical applications of this game make it an optimal one to play in
class.

During this activity, ask your students to partner up. Distribute maps of cities and ask your
students to take turns leading each other to destinations on the maps.
The student giving the directions should have a destination in mind, but they can’t share it with
their partner. The partner being guided must listen carefully and make their way to the intended
destination on the map. Mes-english.com has a simple option of a town map that works for this
exercise, as does maps-kid.com.

13. Cucharas

Perhaps you’ve heard of (or have played) the card game “spoons.” This is simply the Spanish
twist on the game, which can be used to teach or review Spanish verbs or vocabulary.

First, make a deck of about 50 cards for each group of about six students that’ll play in class.
What goes on these cards? Well, that’s totally up to your and your current teaching topics.
Generally speaking, you’ll want have 25 cards with 25 matching card. The first half might be
infinitive verbs, and the second half might be conjugated versions of these verbs. Or the first half
could be conjugated verbs and the second half could be subjects that match up with them. Once
you’ve gotten your content created, print out the flashcards.

When the students can match two related cards, they can take a spoon from the center of the
table (and try to do so without the other group members noticing). When other players notice that
a spoon is being taken, they too may grab a spoon. Whoever gets the most spoons at the end
wins!

14. Globo

This game is a little more active than the others, so get ready to move. Prior to playing Globo,
you’ll need to track down a sports ball such as a volleyball or a beach ball. If you’ll be playing
the game indoors, try to choose a ball that will cause no damage to indoor furniture. That being
said, it’s probably best to play Globo outside or in a gymnasium, if available.
For this game, have students take turns throwing the ball. If the ball hits a certain object (for
example, the wall or a tree), then the student gets a question corresponding to a specific category.
You could say that hitting the tree means the student gets a grammar question. Need ideas for
questions to ask? Check out e-spanyol.hu or take exercises from the textbook or workbook you
use in class.

This is a nice, easygoing game that really doesn’t have winners or losers, it just gets everyone
moving, active and thinking on their toes.

Another game that can touch on any topic that you cover in class is Jeopardy, which is sure to
please any student. For further information on playing Jeopardy and other games, check out our
previous Spanish grammar games post!
For even more resources on game or lesson ideas for the Spanish classroom, there are tons of
sites that you can visit on the Internet.

Just get exploring!

As long as you’re ready and able to have some fun, games will become an effortless addition to
your lesson plans.
 

15. FOUR CORNERS

“It” counts to ten while everyone else quietly chooses a corner of the room to stand in. “It” calls
out a corner (without looking), and everyone in that space is out. Last student in, wins.

To review vocabulary, tape a sketch of four vocabulary words onto each corner of the room.
(Write the terms in Spanish on the board.) Student who is it counts to 10, then calls out one of
the terms on the board. Everyone in the matching corner is out.

To take this up a notch, make each corner a category (food, things to do, etc.). Write a bunch of
terms on the board. “It” calls out a word from the board, and the corresponding corner is out.

16. CHARADES / PICTIONARY

Play charades and pictionary combined, to give the students more choice. For each term,
whoever is up front has the option to act it out or draw it on the board. You can also get everyone
more involved by playing reverse charades, by giving the class whiteboards. The student who is
“it” guesses while his/her entire team mimes or draws the term.
 17. CELEBRITIES
Write the phrases on slip of paper. Students sit in a circle. Divide the class into 2 or more teams
by counting 1-2. For each team’s turn, set a time (1-2 minutes).

1st round (actions): Team 1 begins as a player draws a slip. That student acts out the phrase.
When the team guesses correctly, the next player on Team 1 draws another slip and the play
continues until the time is up. The timer is set again for the other team, and turns continue until
all the slips are gone. Count the slips and give those points to their teams.

2nd round (verbal clues): This round is the same as the first, except that the students must use
clues in Spanish. If the slip says va a la casa, for example, the students could say cuatro palabras,
es como camina, corre o advanca, donde vivo, etc. This will be very difficult for beginners, so
you may want to let students make word webs for the phrases before playing, to brainstorm and
think of related words and synonyms. This is great practice for circumlocution.

3rd round (one-word clues): This round is the same as the second, except that the students must
only use one word. If the phrase is va a la casa, the student could say vivo, and the team has to
guess the phrase from this one clue.

*In the original game, the actions are for the third round and that’s supposed to be the hardest
round. For students learning another language, that is probably the easiest, so I made it first.

18. SLAP-IT/ FLYSWATTER

Divide the class into groups of 4-5. Pass out only picture cards to each group. Lay the picture
cards face up, in the middle of the group. Call out the terms. The first student to touch the
corresponding image keeps the card. Whoever has the most cards at the end wins.

Flyswatter is similar, except that two students come up to the front and hit pictures projected
onto the board with (clean) flyswatters. My La casa Slideshare would work with this.

19. RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT

Line up the students on one side of the space. Whoever is “it” calls out a specific action to
perform, like dance. Everyone advances, dancing. When Red light! (in the TL) is called,
everyone freezes and anyone who moves is sent back. Often I will stand at the front and yell out
what action to do (so I can control what they’re practicing) and the student who is “it” just
concentrates on saying red light and catching unlucky moving friends.

20. NO-PREP MEMORY

Make game cards to play Memory in groups. Pass out paper squares to the groups, and each
student in the group comes up with several questions and answers, OR words and pictures.

Have the students check their cards with you when ready. Set a minimum, but let early finishers
do extra cards. Then let them play in groups! The activity should be self-monitoring since the
students themselves made the cards.