Learning Spanish while boogying
Hello, My friends, This is Nico again,
I hope you all had a great weekend! I had a lovely time with my siblings, my parents and my adorable grandma.
Saturday night, we had a lot of fun watching mum cook and dance at the same time. To be honest, and keep it a secret, our mum is not the best cook in the world but she is really fun to be with while she’s cooking.
While she was cooking, dancing and singing a Spanish song, she turned around to look at us and said: “Who can tell me what: ‘Te quiero’ means?” Sofi jumped up faster than a cat and said “It means I love you”, to which my mum responded “Yes, very good! One point for Sofi!” Then she asked again, “Now who knows what ‘Sola’ means?” This time I jumped up faster than a tiger and said “Alone!” My mum was very surprised and while dancing she pointing at me saying “That’s correct, you are now equal “. She added, “Now, whoever wins the next question will be my assistant to bake the Sunday cookies”. Looking at Neni and Nat she said, “Neni and Nat pair up with Sofi or Nico to make this a team game”. After hearing this, Neni immediately jumped on my lap to be in my team, while Nat started saying “Sofi, Sofi let’s be on the same team”.
Once the teams were formed, Mum asked “what does 'Puedo' mean?’ for a few seconds a total silence invaded the kitchen, as no one knew what that word meant... Then, little Neni, who can never stay quiet, started yelling at me “come on Nico! ‘ Puedo’, ‘Puedo’, what does it mean….come on Nicooooo this must mean something!” She was driving all of us crazy acting more like a parrot than my little sister. Thankfully mum gave us a new word. “Musica”, she shouted, and the four of us said at the same time “MUSIC!” This brought our scores again to equal points.
Mum stared at all of us and said with a very mum naughty smile “What about ‘Terremoto’ “. After hearing this, we all went crazy “terrree terre , terre whaat?!” we all mumbled. Mum just started to laugh while singing and dancing the words “Terremoto, Terremoto.” Surprisingly Nat, who hardly talks shouted “I got it! I got it!” He said, “Terremoto, MOTO - that’s a motorcycle” ..Mum laughed and said: “Yes that would have been correct if I had asked for moto which means motorcycle. But, I asked for terremoto.“ She added, “Terremoto means earthquake - but I’m afraid we will have to continue the game another day as dinner is ready”.
After dinner, we wanted to continue the game but mum was talking with dad while cleaning the dishes. Eager to keep playing, I came up with a game to play with my siblings to finish the tied match – I wouldn’t have been able to sleep without establishing the winner!
To change our tied point, I came up with this idea of a new game, which I will explain below. But not before I tell you who won the game, which sadly was not Neni and myself, but Sofi and Nat. These two were the winners and were so happy to be the ones who will bake the Sunday cookies with mum.
However, this made little Neni very upset, so she forced me to study the song almost by heart! She wanted us to repeat the game the next day and tell mum to make the cookies also on Monday!
I will explain my new game to all of you, which I have called “Learning Spanish while boogying”
Who can play this game: All the members of your family who don’t know Spanish
PREPARING THE GAME:
1. Make two teams
2. Choose a Spanish song for kids that has a rhythm that you like, for example: “El baile de la ranita” “La gallina turuleca”, “La vaca Lola”, “Pinpon es un muneco”, “ Los pollitos dicen pio pio ” and “Payasito Saltarin”
3. Ask your mum to find the lyrics of the song on the internet
4. Once you have the lyrics, choose 20 words, and give each team 10 words to find out the meaning of those words in English
5. Once both teams have found the meanings, write down all 20 words with their meaning on two pieces of paper, one for each team
For example:
* “casa” = home
* “corazón” = heart
6. Then cut up 20 small pieces of papers to write a word on each of these, some you will write the English word and some the Spanish word
7. On the first 10 pieces of papers write the first 10 words in English
8. On the other 10 pieces of paper write the remaining words in Spanish
9. Fold up each piece of paper making it very small so that the word written inside remains hidden
10. Place all of these little pieces of paper in the middle of the table
11. Get a separate sheet of paper to write down the points of each team. Divide the paper into two columns: Team A and Team B
How to play
The game consists of two phases:
Phase one
1. Each team has 15 minutes to memorize as many words as they can from the list of the 20 Spanish words, together with their English translation
2. Once the time is up, each member of both teams will choose a piece of paper
3. At turns, each will read the word written on the paper and give the translation in the opposite language. So, if you choose a word in Spanish you will have to say its meaning in English and vice versa
4. If you guess the word, add 1 point for your team in the correct column and if not, add 0 point
5. Then, it will be the other team’s turn and they will have to do the same
6. Repeat these steps until all the pieces of paper are opened. Remember to write down the points obtained in each turn
7. Each team will have a maximum of 30 seconds to give the correct answer. It is advised to discuss the answer with the members of your team before giving the final answer to the opposite team
8. Once all the papers have been guessed, the winners of the first phase will be announced
Second phase
1. Fold back all the little pieces of papers and put them back in the middle of the table
2. The winning team of the first phase goes first
3. You will have 60 seconds to pick and guess as many words as you can without alternating turns
4. Meanwhile, the other team will look at the list of words with their translations to check if the opposite team is giving the correct meanings
5. Count how many words you can say correctly, write down your points on the paper and fold back all the words your team got wrong. Keep the words you guessed right open and close to you while putting the folded papers back in the middle of the table
6. Then it will be the turn of the other team to pick and guess as many words as they can without alternating turns
7. Once again count the right answers and mark the score on the correct column on the result sheet, then fold back and place back in the middle all the wrong answers
8. Keep playing until there are no more folded pieces of paper. The winning team of the second phase will be the one who guessed the most words correctly.
The final winners will be the team who received the most points from both phases.
THE WINNERS PRIZE
As the winners, your team will be able to sit down and enjoy a two-minute dance performance from the other team, prepared especially for you. And guess what song they will have to perform? You are correct! The same song you choose to play the game
Leave a comment