Published on February 2012 – Read the updated version of this idea here:Â The Welcome
This is a routine that has been a part of my class from the very beginning. I am always looking for ways to let my students lead class and encourage students to use Spanish at the same time. One activity I have found does both… “La Bienvenida.”
This is a short welcome led by one student a day. I give my students a little outline of what they should say but encourage them to modify it or add anything extra. Students like watching each other speak in front of the class. It is good repetition and one of my favorite routines because it lets me watch the class use the language and interact with each other. Plus, everytime I have been observed, that is one thing that is always mentioned afterwards. Administrators love how student-focused it is!
It goes like this…
¡Hola y bienvenidos a la clase de Espanol! Â
Me llamo ____________ y soy de ___________. Me gusta ___________ y __________ .
¿Cuál es la fecha de hoy?
¿Qué hora es?
¿Qué tiempo hace afuera?
¡Hoy es un buen dÃa!
Other students in the class are free to respond to the questions in any way they would like.
Here are some variations:
Sometimes we pretend it’s opposite day and everyone answers the questions wrong.
After Spanish 1A, I use my bucket of questions and the leader draws 3 questions and it gives some surprise to the class.
For level two, we flip a euro (and they learn “heads” and “tails”) and if it’s heads then they do the bienvenida like normal. If it’s tails, then the WHOLE class leads the bienvenida from their seats and the 1 person in front of the class answers their questions. 🙂 This is pretty funny.
Also, for the upper level classes, I create questions very specific to the current unit of study. For the food unit… “What did you eat this morning?” “What is your favorite fruit?” or “What do you want to eat for lunch today?”
I create a sign up sheet for this, and have a student who is in charge of alerting the leader each day before class starts. I ask that each student do this at least 1 time each trimester. For ultra shy students, I will allow a friend to help them or let them lead it from the back of the class. (One boy left the class and yelled it from the doorway so his classmates couldn’t see him!)
After most students have done this once, I will put a card that says “la bienvenida” under a desk and have them look under their desk to see who the lucky winner is! 🙂 The next day they all look under their desk before they sit down but then I’ll have them get the dictionary out from under the desk and the one with the card in the dictionary wins.
Kara adds a little twist when they tell the time by varying the city or country using her shower curtain map and time zone clocks.
Lastly, sometimes past students come back to visit my class and I’ll have them lead my current students. Sometimes they “wow” the class and other times we get to laugh at them a little.
Let students get some time in the spotlight and run class for a little bit! Welcome to class!
Bienvenida downloads available for specific units in the Mercado.
What a great idea!
thanks! Let me know if you come up with any other fun twists for it!
Love this idea! How do you select the student for each day?
I model it for them first, ask for volunteers the first few times after that, then pass around a sign up sheet so each student does it at least once. I’m pretty flexible though because some kids are really nervous at first. Make it fun and they stay more involved!
I have been doing this for years in my French classes as well. For my students it is a homework option (check out Kara’s Real World Homework idea on this blog) so they fight to do it everyday. I have students running into my room to ask to do the “Bienvenue”. I use it as a way to practice all kinds of things such as counting, spelling, etc. This year I have tried to tailor them more for each unit. It is a way for them to review in a fun way. I love Megan’s idea to have the students answer the questions wrong…my students will have a good time with that option.
Hiya,
I know I’ve seen this before, but could you remind me how you made the newspaper, please. Looks fab!
Jane
Ah! We can’t remember. If we do, I’ll let you know. Maybe Google “create newspaper image”?
fodey.com
Awesome. I think I am going to start doing this and have one student ask the questions after we go over our bell work!
Let us know how it goes!
I started doing this in my Span I classes this year. Another variation is to have 2 students have a brief conversation with an outline or a fill-in-the-blank script. Shy kids don’t mind having to talk in front of the class as much with a buddy 🙂
Buddies always help! Thanks for sharing Jana.
I love this! I’ve done an opposite day, too. Students call it “La Mal-venida.” 🙂
Any thoughts on how to display this in class when you have more than one room and little wall space? Thanks!
Hi Karly! Mal-venida- Ja, ja! I did this Bienvenida by giving the students the paper that they kept. Here’s an updated version of this post that shows what it looked like: http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/activities/modes-skills/speaking/tbt-the-welcome-to-class/
When I was on a cart, I had no reservations about adding my Spanish touches all over the building. This shows another idea that could work: http://www.creativelanguageclass.com/planning/class-routines/beyond-bien/
I love this idea. I do this class leader routine in my Chinese class as well. Every student is up for this challenge for about 10 minutes each day, three days a week. And I prepared a Google Slide file with essential questions (
with pictures and phonetic annotations to different characters) on the screen and the leader will ask random questions to different student while throwing a prop at them. Many of my students volunteer to be the leader multiple times a year, which really made me happy.
I love hearing how it works in a Chinese class! Thanks for sharing.
@Shuan Can you please share those google slides with me? I am assuming it’s Mandarin you are teaching..xie xie in advance!
francesca_regalado@busdk12.com
This is such a great idea and I can’t wait to use it for my Spanish 1 classes next week! I’m planning on getting all the Bienvenidas you have by unit! Are the leader and/or the students answering allowed to read off the Bienvenida paper? I know for Spanish 1 at least they would probably need the paper in front of them. I was just wondering so that I can use this in the best way!