When you need a go-to class activity that is fun and useful, let your students draw. Drawing can be a powerful tool for reflection. Let’s think about the benefits of drawing in Spanish class:
It’s simple to set up and requires little to no-prep.
Every student is participating! It’s hard to do nothing if you’ve been asked to draw.
Students demonstrate their understanding of the text, class discussion or video.
It’s fun! Most kids like to draw!
You can keep the drawings. Hang them in the classroom or post them on the board for discussion.
Small student whiteboards are good to have on hand but if you don’t have any, plain paper will always work.
Printable comic strip templates work great too. You can download a free set of ours at at our TpT store by clicking the image below. Keep a set of crayons or washable markers on hand to make the drawings more fun.
Free Comic Strip Templates
Here are my favorite Spanish class activities which are easily adapted to other languages and subjects:
Scene Drawing. Hand out student whiteboards or use plain paper. Students draw a scene from the book or text you are reading. When finished, have them discuss with a friend.
Game Drawing. Using small white boards, line up students in pairs. Have one line of students with their back to the board at the front of the class. Project or hold up a word and tell the students that can see it to draw it for their partners. Tell the partners to guess what it is. They can ask yes and no questions too. This is great for speaking practice!
Cartoon Strip Drawing. Hand out a simple cartoon template. Tell students to make a comic strip of a scene in a movie they just saw or from a book you are reading in class. Tell them to use speech bubbles. Once finished, have them pass their comic to another group. That group can then write down what is happening (present tense) or what happened (past tense) in the comic. All of our Cuéntame un Cuento lesson plans include two unique comic strip templates to retell the story they wrote.
Drawing for assessments. Use drawing on a quiz to show reading or vocabulary comprehension. I like to add a small Extra Credit question that includes drawing. I make it easy since my goal is to lower tension and add a little fun to the quiz. Here is a picture of one I recently included on a quiz about Kristy Placido’s TPRS book on Frida Kahlo. In this question, students had draw Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera (they had already seen some photos of them together) and show their physical differences. They turned out to be super fun!
Class Artists! In this activity, assign one or two students to be the artists for the activity. Then, ask and answer questions to the rest of the class to make up a crazy story that targets vocabulary or structures you want to cover. The artist students draw the ideas from the rest of the class. Follow up with students doing a retell by writing the complete story on their own paper or on the board.
We have some FREE Comic Strip templates in our Teachers Pay Teachers Store. Get them here and try them out in class!
These are just a few ways to add a little art to Spanish class! You may also like our previous blog post about our Day of the Dead drawing and craft activities. ¡Celebra el Día de Los Muertos!
Happy drawing!