By Allison Wienhold
Originally posted April 27, 2015 & most recently updated May 8, 2024
Inside: Guantes de cartόn an activity for any sports unit or the book Felipe Alou. How to make Cardboard Gloves in Spanish class. An engaging end of year activity in Spanish class.
Why Cardboard Gloves?
While teaching the novel Felipe Alou: Desde los valles a las montañas in Spanish II, I was inspired by a blog post (that no longer exists) from wesleyhilliardspanish about making cardboard gloves. It is similar to something many children do in the Dominican Republic. The Monday after prom is notoriously blah and low energy, so I tried to spice it up by making guantes de cartόn (cardboard gloves).
Cardboard Gloves Prep Before class
- Hook – Tell students to bring in something that could be used to make a baseball.
- Prep – Collect cardboard boxes from the recycling and get enough scissors for each pair of students.
Class Plan to make guantes de cartón
- Discuss in Spanish about pobreza (poverty): would they be happy living in poverty, how would they survive, what would they have to do without, what they need to participate in their favorite activities, and what would they do for fun if had very little.
- Go through reading in Spanish found in this post about children in the Dominican Republic making baseball gloves out of cardboard boxes
- Give directions to make the glove
- Each pair can only use cardboard & one pair of scissors
- They should have something they have found to make a ball
- They should be speaking Spanish while creating (I should have done a better job making sure they had the vocabulary for staying in the TL while creating – cut, fold, etc).
Students create gloves
Go outside to play catch/game
- If it is not nice out and you are brave let students try them out in class, or head to the hallway or gym.
- If you would like to try and play an actual game, find a stick or old bat for an authentic feel. The plan is to head outside tomorrow to try everything out.
Watch Videos & Discuss – Mariano Rivera (from Panama) makes a cardboard glove. Compare the simplicity of his glove to those they tried to make in class.
- REFLECT! The key with any new experience is to have students reflect either out loud or in a free write about what they learned, how their perspective has/has not changed, and their empathy level for those in poverty.
Extension Watch the Film Pelotero blog post & movie guide
This is something that I will keep in my plans for future years. Students were engaged and energized during a usually dull Monday. Next time I will do it sooner in the novel, maybe after chapter 2 of Felipe Alou.
More End of the Year Spanish Class Activities
- End of School Year Spanish Class Activities
- End of the year Spanish – Running out of Time
- Fun Spanish Classroom Games to Increase Engagement
- Take Your Spanish Class Outside
