Inside: Plans for the 1st day of Spanish 2, Spanish 3, or Spanish 4 that get your students up and moving! What to do on the first day of upper-level Spanish class. First day of school plans for your Spanish classes in upper levels.
First day of Spanish Class Plans
I have realized that there are so many back-to-school or 1st day of Spanish class resources that focus on level 1 for Spanish teachers. I think this is because it is easy to start at the beginning.
When everyone is starting from ground zero, you can start with anything.
For example, in high school or middle school Spanish 1 Day 1 is always Name Game Speedball while wearing name tags.
Then day 2 of the first year of Spanish, we start my original Super 7 unit or digital hybrid Super 7 unit.
What to do on the first day of Spanish 2-4?
Starting with higher levels is messier. New students are possibly coming from a variety of teachers and schools and have a wide range of prior Spanish knowledge. You can read here why I don’t start with a review unit and what I do instead.
At the same time, you need to get some kind of baseline of where your students are at. Also, getting to know them is very important.
I have had a unique situation as a #deptof1 that I have previously taught all of my incoming Spanish 2 and above students. This means that on day one I could skip the introduction of myself, the expectations, classroom management, the seating chart, and the name games and get right to communicating in Spanish.
Our first day was usually a short one. I wanted to start with a big weekend talk to hear about the students’ summer (and sneakily use past tense).
I do not know about your school, but I know that on the first day, my students can not wait to talk to each other and move around. They are bored stiff from syllabus day in every other class and just want to catch up. The whole class need to be a big brain break with a fun activity.
Instead of fighting the chatter and trying to spend the whole class discussing and circling, I decided to create a “find someone who” people search to get them up and moving. A great way for Spanish students to start the year on the right foot.
I now have the same resource available in FRENCH too!
Also, if you need something to mix it up, I have a similar activity, but now with differentiated question cards for the first day of Spanish 2+!
Learn many ways to use a Find Someone Who in this blog post.
Before 1st Day of Spanish Class – Which Resource & Version to Use?
1st Day of Spanish 2 Activities
- For the first day of Spanish 2, I would now use this Find Someone Who instead with high school students. It only has one verb, went (fue), so it would be much better for supporting new Spanish 2 students. All you need to introduce or review is fui, fuiste and fue. Instead of or in addition you can use the same questions again in small groups using the fue Question Cards.
- Update – I now have the same 1st day of Spanish 2 activities in my website store as well. First Day of Spanish 2 Activity ¿Fuiste? Find Someone Who & 1st Day of Spanish 2 Conversation Cards. A perfect way to get in repetitions of a new past tense verb at the beginning of the year.
First Day of Spanish 2 Activity ¿Fuiste? Find Someone Who
1st Day of Spanish 2 Conversation Cards for Preterite Ir – Fuiste
1st Day of Spanish 3-4 Activities
- Depending on your situation you might want to use a mix of these Mi verano preterite activities.
- UPDATE You now have the choice to get the same activities from my website store or on TPT.
- Mi Verano Find someone who TPT OR Mi Verano Find Someone Who in my store
- differentiated Mi Verano question cards OR Conversation Cards Mi Verano in my store 1st
- Mi verano editable Google Slides activity.
- Get all three in the Mi verano bundle & spend a few days reviewing preterite during the first week of school.
- For the first day of IN-PERSON Spanish 3 & 4, when you print find someone who you will want to decide which of the differentiated versions to use. I always pick an A questions side & copy it double-sided with a B and write about another side. When in doubt about Spanish 3, go with more support of pages 1-2, that way students will have a prompt to help answer with the correct I form. (Remember the last 2 school years have not been “normal”) With Spanish 4 or AP, you could use pages 3-4 or 3,5.
- 1 – A – questions with yo form of the answer provided – most basic
- 2 – B – write about friends with the support of s/he forms included – most basic
- 3 – A – questions (without yo form)
- 4 – B – write about friends & yourself with the support of a word bank
- 5 – A – write about friends & self – most advanced
- IN-PERSON Spanish 3 & 4 – option 2 question cards (TPT). If you need something to mix it up, or for an extension to use the same questions with small groups, I have a similar activity, but now with differentiated question cards (from my store).
- Print the large cards and post them around the room & have students sign under them. Then use the small cards for partners or conversation groups to help support the flow of conversation. An easy way to ease into the first days of school.
- ** DIGITAL/DISTANCE Spanish 3 & 4 – If you or a few students are fully digital or need/want to exclusively use digital resources, I have a brand new Mi verano editable Google Slides activity.
- Use these slides to post each day of the 1st week to get the conversation going in any mode of teaching. Or you can assign a mix of the slides for reading, speaking, and writing practice as a first-day digital activity for Spanish 3 or 4.
Get all three in the Mi verano bundle & spend a few days reviewing preterite during the first week of school.
First Day of French 2-4 Activities
- For the first day of French 2-4, I have the Find Someone Who. You can use a similar process as above to decide which version is best.
- If you do not think your French 2 is ready for the past tense, another great option is the French Super 7 get to know you Find Someone Who.
1st day of Spanish 2-4 Plan (or for French)
- First, Greet students at the door in the target language so they know they are in the right place.
- Also, have music playing as students enter and a photo booth set up for students to take pictures.
- In Spanish, welcome students back and show them a couple of pictures of my summer, describing it in Spanish. It could even be a short story if you prefer.
- Then, give students a couple of minutes to brainstorm something they did over the summer (and write it if they would like). During this time I will write some common summer phrases on the board as an example. (This processing time makes sure that no one is put on the spot with their rusty Spanish).
- Next, Discuss a few volunteers’ answers, circling and repeating the high-frequency phrases.
Using the Find Someone Who on the 1st day of Spanish 2-4
- Then, pass out the find someone who sheet of your choosing. Students will get a chance to look through the possible questions and make sure they know what everything is asking.
- Next with a clipboard (or binder), sheet, and pencil, students will go around asking each other the questions in Spanish. To be kind to their summer mush brain, and to build confidence, I have the yo form of the verb already listed. They will add elaborating details and sign each others’ sheets.
- Finally, once they have all squares signed, students will practice the s/he forms by writing about what their class did. They will also write about what they did using the I form. Completing both sides typically takes up most of the class period.
- If you still have a few minutes of class, you could have students discuss in small groups. Or this a a good time for important information like pass out a syllabus, or sign up for Google Classroom.
Ideas to make a Find Someone Who distance or hybrid friendly:
- Use the TPT EASEL digital add-on to share with students & collect responses with distance learning.
- Click Print and then save as PDF with the pages you want to use digitally and share with students.
- Email students and have them call, snap, email, or message each other in Spanish to ask the questions if you do not meet as a group. This will encourage them to connect in Spanish. Or they could ask people they live with as well.
- In a Zoom class, use the break-out rooms to have students ask each other questions in small groups.
- In a group class zoom or meet, project the grid & call on students, or have them raise their hand to respond to one question.
Ideas to make a Find Someone Who social distance friendly
- Do the paper FSW activity outside.
- Instead of having other people sign the form, have each student just write the name of the person who said yes instead.
- Instead of interviewing the entire class, just work with a partner or small group. – This a good idea for students with severe anxiety as well.
** Read this blog post about mixing up Find Someone Who for more ideas for using this activity face to face, hybrid, and or virtual both on paper and digital.
Optional Extensions
Also, depending on the time left, class, and interest I may pick a couple of extensions. These would probably happen the next day or two depending on time.
- Discuss as a class or in small groups who did what.
- Make a giant Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting students, or the teacher and a student. (This would be a good way to add in the plural forms).
- Students draw what a classmate did. Put these up around the room or project with a document camera and guess who the picture is describing.
- Have students draw what they did. These could be used to have them describe to each other in Spanish or have the teacher use them to describe what they did.
- Play 2 Truths and a Lie (students write two things they actually did and one lie. The teacher then reads these and the class guesses who it was and what their lie was).
- Do a free write where students write what they did and what a classmate did. (This has been my baseline assessment**)
- Use the question cards of your choice to get students to ask the same questions in partners or small groups. You could also post the big ones around the room and have students sign under them as they enter the room the next day.
Other 1st Week Ideas for Spanish 2, Spanish 3 & Spanish 4
Later in the week, do a couple of stations for administrative purposes. This will include students reading through the syllabus and writing down questions, filling out my start of class Google Form, getting set up with the LMS & Sr. Wooly account, and reviewing the proficiency puzzle. I like to wait for this administrative stuff and get them using Spanish day 1 instead. For my plan for the rest of the year, here is my tentative curriculum plan
- For more ideas about how I have started the school year, here are all of my posts labeled back to school.
- If you would like to download all of my other back-to-school resources, you can find them here.
- La Tomatina! Want a cultural unit? Have a “food fight” to get to know each other. (I typically do this unit after the fue activities in Spanish 2)
- For starting the year with Spanish 1, you can get my high frequency verb unit in Spanish or in French.
- If you did the Mi Verano find someone who previously needed something to mix it up, I now have a similar activity, but now with differentiated Mi verano question cards for Spanish 3-4 & fue Question Cards for Spanish 2.
**More ideas for the 1st day of Spanish Class
What about the 1st Day of Spanish 1?
- Spanish 1 Day 1 – Name Game Speedball (teaches me llamo, cómo te llamas & se llama)
- Spanish 1 day 2 original Super 7 unit or digital hybrid Super 7 unit depending on your situation
What are your plans for the first day and week of school in Spanish Class?
Grab a first day of Spanish class freebie below
Originally posted 7.24.17 by Allison Wienhold – most recently updated 8.12.25
