Bell-Ringer Activities for Spanish Class

How do you start your Spanish classes? This year we have a new school-wide initiative to do bell-ringers, or do-nows, or schema activators or warm-ups… there are so many names for them! Research shows that if you have an academic routine to start each class, it increases time on task and readiness for new learning! If having students self-start each class, while you take attendance, check homework and help the new kid sound good to you, bell-ringer activities for Spanish class are for you!

Here is my list of Bell-Ringer Activities for Spanish Class!

Open-ended task card: write for 3 minutes
Open-ended task card: speak to your partner for 3 minutes
Open-ended task card: record your answer
ILS: listen to a prompt and record your response
Daily Culture slides
Quizlet Live
Blooket game
Post 3 questions on the board: students write their answers on the back of their homework
Quiz your next door neighbor on vocab
Quiz your next door neighbor on grammar
Write 3 vocab words on the board. Ask students to write a memory trick for each on the back of their homework
Write 3 sentences on the board that have errors. Ask students to fix the errors when they re-write the sentences.
Write 3 vocab words on the board. Ask students to write 3 original sentences with those words.
Write 3 vocab words on the board. Ask students to use them all in one sentence!
Write 3 transition words on the board. Ask students to create original sentences with those words.
Write a fun saying or slang expression on the board. Ask students to add something before or after to illustrate a situation where it would be used.
Ask students to switch homework with another student. Correct their paper.
Put a verb on the board. Ask questions about it like: which tenses are irregular?
Put a verb on the board. Ask students to conjugate it in 3 tenses, or in 3 different forms.
Put a triangle on the board. Write the name of a tense at the top point and a Spanish verb in the center. Ask students to write the endings on another point and the meaning in English on the other point.
Write 3 Spanish sentences on the board. Ask students to translate them.
Write 3 Spanish sentences on the board. Ask students to change each one, but KEEP the part you underlined. (Ej: Yo como la cena a las 6. If you underline “la cena”, students could change it like this: Ella come la cena a las 6, or Yo como la cena a las 7.
Write a scrambled sentence on the board. Ask students to unscramble it.
Set a timer. Ask students to try to memorize a certain section of their vocab list for 2 minutes.
Ask students to review notes from the previous class. Write 2 True or False questions about them to ask a neighbor.
Put a picture on the board (even better if it’s from a Spanish-speaking country!). Ask students to describe it or write a story about it.
Boom Cards! So fun!
Did you have your students set a goal for the marking period? Have them re-read what they said and write you a note about their progress. I have free goal setting activities in my Free Resource Library!
Is it almost test time? Ask students to organize their notebooks. Recycle things they don’t need and keep notes and vocab lists!
Put a category on the board: like… things you see in a hotel. Give students 2 minutes to write as many things as they can think of!