Inside: Mix up Weekend Talk in Spanish class or mix up Weekend Chat in Spanish class including digital variations for Weekend Chat.
Weekend Chat – a weekly routine for Monday in Spanish class
Weekend Chat is what it sounds like, chatting in Spanish about your weekend.
I had heard about Weekend Chat for years at conferences but never seemed to find time to do it. I am not sure why I felt the need to rush into the week full force. In my own department, I needed to make it a priority to spend a few minutes casually chatting in Spanish about what the students are thinking about.
What do you want to talk about and think about on Monday? – Your weekend!
Do I want to make the class interesting and relevant? – YES!
So, it is worth spending some time talking about what we did over our weekend (or break). **You can find all of my ready to Weekend Chat resources here. + Get the weekend chat bundle for all of my weekend chat variations together.
Why do Weekend Chat
Not only does Weekend Chat build a positive classroom community, weekly routines actually save you time planning. Once you have a few options of how to talk about your weekend in your back pocket, there is a chunk of every Monday all planned out for you. Teacher parents can use all the no prep, ready to go activities they can get.
Now Mondays in Spanish 2 and above all start with some variation of a weekend talk. I typically add in Spanish 1 second semester as well. Weekend Chat is a great way to casually and naturally bring in the past tense. Go to this post to learn more about using these activities for Differentiation in Spanish Class.
For easy planning, I usually decide on one variation that all classes will do on a day. But, you can always let them pick from a couple of options as the year goes on and they know their choices. I would not suggest boring students to tears by having everyone go around and say one sentence about their weekend in the past tense every Monday. Here are my favorite variations on a weekend talk.
Routines for every day of the week in Spanish Class
- Monday – Weekend Chat
- Tuesday – martes del mapa
- Wednesday – Música miércoles
- Thursday – Jaja jueves
- Friday – Baile viernes! Dance in Spanish class
- Learn more about Spanish Class Routines
Ways to Mix Up Weekend Chat
Tell students what you did (& embellish it)
This is the easiest way to ease into a weekend chat. It also provides the input necessary for students to be able to regurgitate what they did as well. Starting in level one you can spend a few minutes using a couple of pictures from your weekend to describe what you did.
To keep this fresh, I love the idea Jon Cowart shared in the iFLT/ NTPRS / CI Teaching FB Group, to tell students crazy stories about your weekend in Spanish and let them decide what is true. If you want to mix it up, even more, you could tell about the real or made up adventures of your pet, child, or a famous celebrity. For lower levels, you could also type up and project what you did, reading as you go to provide visual input as well.
Weekend Talk Question Cards
First, this is my newest way to mix up regular weekend chat or chatting after a break. I have multiple versions of these Question Cards that can be used in different ways each week. Mi Verano set is perfect to talk about the summer back to school. ¿Fuiste…? only uses one verb, perfect to start introducing past tense in Spanish 1or 2. Also, General weekend chat question cards would be great to use variations all year long for upper-level Spanish. Here are a few ways to mix up question cards. See the below options, plus this Question Card Blog post for even more ideas for question cards.
Partners/Small Groups Weekend Chat
Using the small question cards (weekend chat or ¿Fuiste…?), print enough sets for each partner or small group. Students take turns asking and answering the questions about their weekend. Laminate these cards to use over & over.
Also, a bonus variation to follow up. Have students share what their friends did over the weekend, instead of talking about themselves. Andrea Brown shares a helpful handout to give students in this post. Sharing about a friend is a good way to get in other forms instead of just I.
Walk and Talk Weekend Chat
Students Sign Under the Cards Weekend Chat
2 Truths & a Lie Weekend Chat
I used to use this icebreaker as a camp counselor all the time. I did not think about using it in the language class until it was in a SOMOS unit plan. Now I always keep these 1/4 sheet 2 Truths & a Lie forms ready to go for a no prep weekend talk activity.
Students grab a sheet on their way in and write two things they did and one they did not without telling anyone what they are writing. They place them in a basket once done and the teacher reads them one by one. By having the teacher read them out loud you can fix any errors (without ever letting them know) and make sure what is heard is correct. In my class I first have students guess who wrote it, and then guess which is the lie.
You could just do a couple and save the others for brain breaks, or we have spent almost an entire class period with this activity. The first day back from Spring Break one year, I had one level two group that kept going with this for the whole class. They thought they were being tricky and “wasting class,” but really we were all talking in Spanish in the past tense. #teacherwin
Find Someone Who Weekend Chat
If you have a class that just needs to move on Monday morning, find someone who people hunt is for you. I have found that these are especially great for the first day back from breaks when students have a ton of energy. On the first day of upper-level Spanish for multiple years, we did Find Someone Who about mi verano.
I wanted a no-prep option that could be used on any Monday of the year to talk about the weekend in general, so I made a Find Someone Who – Weekend Talk. I printed off enough for all classes and had them ready to go as my emergency Monday plans. +Plus now I have a find someone who great for novice Spanish 1 & 2 just using the verb ir.
There is a version with the verb forms provided that I will use with lower levels, and one without for upper levels. With the possible extensions, including writing about classmates, it could easily fill an entire class period if needed. It would also be great if a chunk of kids will go gone so you do not want to move ahead on your unit or novel, but want something engaging and worthwhile for the rest to do. Learn more about find someone who in this blog post.
Speed Dating Weekend Chat
To give students the chance to interview many others, you could set up two lines or an inside/outside circle for speed dating. This is less intimidating than talking in front of the whole class and allows students to practice asking and answering a few times, rotating every couple of minutes with music. You could use my question cards to help support this. Also, Andrea Brown shares a helpful handout and instructions in this post.
Digital Weekend Chat Variations
Over the past couple of years, we have had to get a little more creative with our Weekend Chat with a big push to digital. I created Weekend Chat 2 – Distance Learning – All Digital Slides during lockdown as a way to mix up chatting with my virtual classes each week. Weekend Chat 2022, is a newer version.
**Weekend Chat 2023 is the newest Google slides version with 45 slides to mix up every week, including a way to add movement!
Weekend Chat Class Starter slides
Class starter slides are projected on the board or screen as students enter. For example, Weekend Chat 2 includes 15 Weekend Chat class starter slides. These slides would be great to post as the first activity on a Monday and include a variety of activities depending on the day. Each slide could be added to your Google Slideshow of the day Monday.
Weekend Chat discussion slides
In Weekend Chat 2 the second 15 slides are general questions to click through and discuss or have students write down answers. You could pick a few to focus on and discuss each week. For distance learning, you could go through the slides together or maybe have students answer the questions using Flipgrid and respond to each other. I have also posted discussion slides on Google Classroom for students to be able to click through and chat together without using any paper.
In the newest Weekend Chat 2023 there are 15 chat slides that are meant to use like my old camp game “Get off the bus.” A question is posted & students go to each side of the room depending if they answer yes or no. Once on that side students could chat in Spanish about that topic.
Weekend Chat Move Your People
I first saw the “move your people” from my friend and former student teacher Profe Sierra at one of our local teacher meet ups. Basically, you have a Google slide that has a few different things students might have done & “people” or just the names of each student in the class as moveable objects. Similar to the idea of writing your name under a card, students drag their name under the thing that they did. Weekend Chat 21 includes a template for move your people.
Holiday Break Digital Weekend Chat Slides – Whole Class Period
- Reading – Instruct students to read through the reading slides of I form preterite statments & highlight everything plan to do or did over break. (reading input of 1st person)
- Speaking – Have students chat in Spanish using the speaking questions.
- Writing – Let students know which of the writing prompts listed you want them to type about. This could be writing about their own break, or what they learned about their classmates.
Weekend Chat for post Holiday breaks
Finally, I have had great success with tailored weekend chat activities right after a long break. Use specific questions related to that event. It is the perfect full class activity for the day after a long break. Here are a few ready to go examples of Find Someone Whos to use before or after Winter Break
NEW! Weekend Chat to talk about the upcoming Weekend on Friday
Additionally, beyond just preterite on Monday, practice the future each Friday talking about plans for the upcoming weekend.
- You could do a Find Someone Who to talk about your upcoming weekend using the Ir + a future. Get The future Find Someone Who here
- Or, use this Editable Google Slideshow for future Weekend Talk. It has tons of ideas you can pull out any Friday as a class filler or as a good portion of your Friday plans. Get the future Weekend Talk Slides here
Weekend Talk Ideas are all linked together
- Weekend Chat 2022 – Google Slides
- Original Weekend Chat Slides + Find Someone Who – no prep!
- Weekend Talk Question Cards & ¿Fuiste…? question cards– no prep!
- Weekend Chat 2 – digital slides with class starters & discussion slides – no prep!
- Weekend Chat 21 digital slides with move your people – no prep!
- The future Find Someone Who– no prep!
- future Weekend Talk Slides– no prep!
- + Get the weekend chat bundle for all of my weekend chat variations all together.
- 1st Day After Winter Break for Spanish
- Spring Break Chat in Spanish Class
- 1st Day of Spanish 2, 3, 4 Plans (without a syllabus)
- How to Movie Talk in Spanish class
Prefer to learn by Video? Watch this Weekend Chat Youtube Video
Plus sign up for a free Weekend Chat Masterclass April 21, 2023 as a part of Practicl & Comprehensible Conference
Weekend Chat was originally posted 8.14.17 by Allison Wienhold on Mis Clases Locas – most recently updated 3.14.23
