How to study Spanish Tips

• Learning a new language is a lot like babysitting a small child or raising a puppy:  it needs regular attention.  I recommend 15 minutes of study a night.

• Vocabulary tips are first.  Then there are grammar/verb conjugation tips.  See the "links" area for more study help!

Vocabulary tips

• Idea:  Have a parent/guardian/friend call out the English words from your vocabulary notes and see if you can say them in Spanish.

FLASHCARDS: video tutorial

1.  Study 5 – 10 words at a time with this method .

2.  Each word will go on a separate card:  Spanish on the front and English on the back.

3.  Say the Spanish  word aloud as you write it on the front of the card.

4.  Say the English word aloud as you write it on the back of the card. (Or:  say the Spanish word aloud again as you draw a picture of the word.)

5.  Hold the card with the Spanish word facing you, say the word, flip the card over, look at the English/picture, say the English.  Do that a total of 3 times.

6.  To quiz yourself:  hold up the Spanish side and see if you can guess its meaning.  If you get it right, put it in one pile.  If you get it wrong, put it in the other pile.  Go through your stack.

7.  The cards in the “wrong” pile are the ones you need to study.

3 TIMES EACH METHOD: video tutorial

1.  Study 5 – 10 words at a time with this method.

2.  Fold a sheet of notebook paper in half.

a.  The Spanish words will go on the left side, and the English words will go on the right side.

3.  Say the Spanish word as you write it.

4.  Go to the right side and say the English word as you write it.

5.  Repeat the process two more times.

6.  To quiz yourself:  Cover the Spanish words and guess their meaning.  Put a star next to any you forgot.

Then cover the English words and guess their meaning.  Put a star next to any you forgot.

7.  Review the words you forgot.

MEMORY GAME: video tutorial

1.  Study 5 – 10 words at a time with this method.

2.  You need two cards for each word.

3.  Say the Spanish word aloud as you write it on one card.

4.  Say the English word aloud as you write it on the other card.

5.  Look at the pair of words and say them three times each Spanish to English,etcetera.

6.  Do the same for the rest of the pairs of words.

7.  Flip all the cards over face down and mix them up.

8.  Spread them out in a grid on your desk.

9.  Flip one card up and look at it.

10.  Flip a second card up and look at it.

11.  If the cards match, then you may take them out of the grid and set them aside.

12.  If the cards do not match, flip them back over and try again.

13.  Keep going until you have made all the matches.

Ball Bounce: video tutorial

Mountain Climbers:  video tutorial

Quizlet:  video tutorial

SIMPLE SAMPLE SENTENCES

1.  Study 5 – 10 words at a time with this method.

2.  Pick a word that you need to study.

3.  Create an extremely simple sentence in Spanish using that word.

4.  The new vocabulary word you are studying should be the only new word.  You should not have to look up any other words.

5.  Underline the new word that you just used.

6.   You are welcome to bring these to me for me to check over.

VERBS:

CHARTS:

In class students learned to "chart" their verbs similar to the chart that is on page 84 of the Spanish 1 textbook.

Here is a sample:

hablar = to speak

yo hablo                                 nosotros / nosotras  hablamos

tú hablas                                vosotros / vosotras habláis

usted habla                            ustedes hablan

él habla                                    ellos hablan

ella habla                                ellas hablan

FLOWERS:

Students learned to draw flowers to help them memorize the verb endings' patterns.  The "stem" of the flower holds the "stem" of the verb.  The verb "ending" goes in the center of the daisy.  Each of the six petals holds a particular verb ending.  Other artistic patterns may be used.

PATTY CAKE / TAE-BO BOXING VERBS

This is something you just have to experience in class or with me before or after school.

You can “patty cake” or “box” the verb forms to practice the conjugations.

If someone will teach me how to make a YouTube Video, I’ll do it and post it to share.

ROLLING THE DICE:

Each side of a die is a number.  Roll the die.

If you roll a 1, form the verb you are studying in the "yo" form.

If you roll a 2, form the verb you are studying in the "tú" form.

If you roll a 3, form the verb you are studying in the "usted / él / ella" form.

If you roll a 4, form the verb you are studying in the "nosotros / nosotras" form.

If you roll a 5, form the verb you are studying in the "vosotros / vosotras" form.

If you roll a 6, form the verb you are studying in the "ustedes / ellos / ellas" form.