Basic Signs for Spanish 1 Classroom Walls

Cheap, colorful, and useful. What more could I ask?

Hi everyone! I just uploaded a file containing all my basic Spanish 1+ printable signs for walls or bulletin boards to my TPT store. If you're new/just starting out and have nothing to decorate your room with, here's an inexpensive way to get some color on the walls as well as have useful vocab and phrases all around the room that pertain to Spanish 1 (and beyond.)

I'm offering the download for $1, so please let any financially challenged first-year Spanish teachers you know to run and get 'em. :)

These are my simple text-only Spanish signs that you can print on colored paper, tape together if desired (see the examples in the photo above where I taped together the months of the year as well as the Telling Time signs,) and then laminate to hang on your walls or bulletin boards.

I use and refer to these basic signs in all levels, and they are a must-have in my classroom.

List of signs included

(all are in Spanish, and all can be modified to suit your needs):

1. Days of the Week
2. Months of the Year
3. What time is it? + the possible answers
4. What time is...? + the possible answers
5. Subject Pronouns
6. Question Words
7. Signs With Teacher's Name and Subject (you can modify these if your last name isn't Waltman :-))
8. A "Costa Rica" sign and an "España" sign - these are the "countries" groups in my class, but modify to suit your needs
9. "Objectives" signs for Spanish 1 and 2, to post on your whiteboard above your list of objectives for the day

I realize this is something for the BEGINNING of the year, not the end, but hey...just trying to get you guys ready for Fall...really, really early. :)

And don't forget to follow me on TPT to get notified when I upload new goodies. :-)

Updated and Expanded Spanish 1A 2017 Lessons Now Available for $5 each on TPT!

I should have named these "2018" updates because it took me well into 2018 to actually finish level 1.

Hi everyone! Well, I've been busy at work on my Teachers Pay Teachers store uploading my new, updated, expanded 2017 Spanish 1A lesson plans. I mean, it's only 2 years later, right?!? I wanted to publish these last year but I was (and still am) in the process of transitioning all my lesson plan books to Amazon rather than getting them printed myself, selling and shipping them out of my house, and that has been a huge project. I'm still not completely done with the transition. :(

Also, life just got a little CRAZY last year, but we won't get into that. I'm glad it's 2019.

What's New in the 2017/2018 Version?

The skits are still the same ones, but I modified/updated/standardized all the quizzes and tests to be more like the format I do in level 3. You know, after I learned so much about what I REALLY wanted a lesson to look like. The quizzes now follow exactly the same vocab as the vocab list from the lesson before, and include the grammar from that lesson as well. The tests are in exactly the same format and take all the same info from the quizzes, so you are literally reviewing for the test every single day.

These updates and expansions also include daily "Preguntas del día" conversation prompts (like my level 3 stuff) so that I could get my ones very accustomed to asking and answering basic questions in Spanish, from Lesson 1 - on. The Lesson 1 question (idea and vocab taken from the First Day skit) is, "¿Tú tocas la guitarra?" with the answer stems "Sí, toco la guitarra _______ (how?)" or "No, no toco la guitarra. Yo toco ____________ (instrument)." In class, I explain exactly what all that means, brainstorm possible ways to finish each of those answers, model asking and answering, put them in their groups of 3 or 4, and go! It's pretty fun to watch level 1s go to town talking to each other about whether they play the guitar or not. Ha.

I included lots of translation activities in case you'd like to supplement the lesson with some independent "quiet" work (yes, please!) so you can take a breather in class. I know some teachers don't like to use translations as practice, but I'm a huge fan of them, especially for loud, rowdy, unfocused classes. I simply circulate around the room helping people as they work, and I gather a lot of good information on who knows how much Spanish I've taught. Your choice if you want to allow use of online dictionaries as they work and/or partner them up to work on it together. (It's laborious to really sit there looking up every word in a story, so I do often allow the dictionary use because they will tend to go ahead and try to translate what they can without looking things up, but a dictionary keeps things moving along for people who get stuck occasionally. Just a side note.)

I also streamlined and beefed up all the readings (to make sure there WAS one for every lesson, an expanded version of the skit usually,) and moved the reading activity to being the first one right after the warm-up quiz. In my classes they are more focused on reading at that point in the class, plus, if they were absent the class before and missed the previous skit, this is a way of seeing those vocab words in context in the story and hopefully getting a start on acquiring at least most of them.

My 2017 vocab list has all the grammar topics more clearly and consistently defined and listed, plus I created homework assignments for each one. Those are all included in these lessons, and you can either assign them as homework or use them as worksheets in class. I still use the grammar resources I listed in this post, but I did make a few of my own grammar worksheets for level 1 that are included in these new updates as well.

What else???? That's all I can think of for now...you can also follow me on TPT to get notified as I continue uploading throughout this month and over the summer. I hope to have all of 1A up for sale and at least a start on 1B by Fall. There will also be an ebook and print Spanish 1A 2017 version for sale on Amazon soon.

Shoutout to Julia Sullivan who was asking me a few years ago if I were ever going to update my 2009 Spanish 1 lessons, to whom I replied, "No, because it's way too much work." :)