Spanish: Pirámide

Hello everyone, Claudia here,

I would like to share a fun vocabulary activity I have used for a while in my classes. First you need to prepare a list of vocab words you have been working on with your students and set them up in two pyramids. Before you show the words to your students you need to have them sit with a partner, facing each other and making sure that one of them has his/her back towards the board or screen and the other one is facing the screen. Once everybody is positioned correctly, you put up the words in the pyramid on the screen (or board if you don't have a computer and screen). The students facing the screen then describe each word to his/her partner using only Spanish and the partner has to guess what the word is. When they are done they switch places, they normally like seeing what words they missed so you can leave the first pyramid up while they rearrange and then you show the other pyramid for the second round of guessing.

I find that my students really enjoy this game after they have tried it a few times. You need to make sure you walk around the groups and help them if you see they are stuck, for example, you can help them by saying that the word is a verb, or that it is similar to another word, etc. It also helps if they have the list of all the vocabulary words from the chapter or unit in front of them, like the ones at the end of the chapters in some books.

You can choose to give them certain amount of time for each round or have them switch as soon as one of the groups has finished guessing all the words from the first pyramid. Also, if you want to make the game more challenging, you can have them start at the bottom of the pyramids and work their way up to the top. It all depends on the level of your class and what you see more fit for them.

This is an example of one of my pyramids from a past class, you should try it out and let me know what you think!