One of the most frequently asked questions when I present a workshop is “What do you do the first few days of school?”

I like to spend that time getting to know my students! When I began the year with textbook handouts and rule sheets, all those bright, enthusiastic eyes that had come in ready to learn a little Spanish left the room a little duller! I know my students already know the rules so I just hand out the syllabus and dive right in!

In our district, Spanish 1 begins with a traditional round of “Circling with Balls” (as Ben Slavic called it) or “Card Talk” (from Tina Hargaden, I believe). I saw Ben do a demo of Circling with Balls when I was just transitioning to teaching for proficiency and it was such a cool way to get to know the kids and build a foundation of classroom language before starting our first unit!

As students enter the room, they see folded construction paper name tags in their seats. This makes seat assignment a BREEZE and gets them started working right away! Their job is to draw a picture of something they love to do. (Ben said so many draw sports balls that he called it circling with balls, I prefer calling it card talk because balls makes kids laugh).

We spend at least 5 days and often 7 or 8 using these drawings to learn about students in the class. Some things we learn are facts, some are completely made up. The foundational vocabulary we build is second to the community we build making up these stories about each student!

In Spanish 2 we go for a spin on the Spanish 1 card talk by discussing things we did over the summer. Each student can draw 1-3 things that they did and we discuss each kid one by one. It’s a great way to ease into discussing things that happened in the past!

In Spanish 3 we set goals for the school year. Each student draws 2-3 goals they have for the new year and we use the future tense to discuss all the things that we WILL do.

In Spanish 4, we do if/then statements. “If I were ____, I would ____”.

One little activity can be adapted in so many ways to make it novel and engaging at many levels. And never underestimate the power that a community builder like this has in your classroom! When students laugh with you, they listen to you!

I have 2 weeks left of summer but I’m already looking forward to meeting this new group of students… no matter how weird 2021-22 turns out to be. At this point, abnormal has become expected!