¡Feliz Navidad! As most schools converted to completely remote teaching with the onset of the holiday season, we are now in need of more digital lessons! We are also more in need of the Christmas spirit and can’t put Christmas Spanish lessons on the backburner. So, how will you be teaching culture and holidays to your students via Zoom?
Even during in-person learning, digital tools can make learning about culture much more authentic. Check out my five favorite ideas for virtual Christmas Spanish lessons:
1. Webquest Projects
Send your students on a virtual scavenger hunt to find out how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Each student or group could be responsible for one Spanish-speaking country. They will research their specific country’s customs, including food, celebrations, religious aspects, music, and more. You can have your students create PowerPoint or Google Slides presentations, posters, brochures, or any other presentational task. I would recommend doing this about a week before Christmas break, so then the final day or two leading up until break can be used for student presentations. It is low-pressure and low-planning for you!
In the past, when I have done a Spanish Christmas webquest, I offered extra credit for groups that wanted to bring in food from their assigned country. Then, on those one or two presentation days, we had a mini Navidad party, complete with tasty treats! Be sure to check out my suggestions for using webquests and virtual scavenger hunts in Spanish class here.
2. Spanish Christmas Music
Music is a big part of the holiday season. Share Christmas songs in Spanish (villancicos) with your students. You can choose to play the tunes in the background when working on other activities or even devote an entire lesson to interpreting the lyrics.
Even novice students can read the lyrics and pick out words they know! As they read the words, they can draw symbols representing the vocabulary that they recognize. Prior to listening, you may want to pre-teach the most important vocabulary so they feel confident when listening to the song.
More advanced students can annotate the lyrics and identify meaning. Grab your FREE annotation bookmarks and posters here. As they read, they will use annotation symbols to mark up the text, including when they encounter new words, parts of the song they love, sections they don’t understand, and more. Kami.com is my favorite online annotation tool, but you can also just upload the lyrics to Google Slides and students can draw on their own slide to make markings.
Another fun activity with song lyrics is drawing a scene to represent each stanza. Assign one stanza per group of students, and have them draw a picture to represent those lyrics. You can post them around the room and have students explain their drawings in the target language.
3. Customs and Traditions
Singing carols, live nativities, midnight Mass, etc. are popular customs in Spanish-speaking countries. Show real videos of people participating in these events so students can see how Christmas is celebrated. It is one thing to read about Hispanic traditions, but it is another thing to see the tradition in action. You can find tons of videos of authentic celebrations on YouTube. Here are some suggestions:
4. Show and Tell
At the school that I teach at, students come from very diverse backgrounds. I have many students from Asian countries, particularly India. They are always eager to share about their family customs and celebrations with me. Have your students share their own customs, traditions, decorations, food, etc. in a virtual show and tell to demonstrate how they celebrate during the holiday season. You can be responsible for the “show and tell” of Spanish-speaking countries!
If you want to turn this into a more independent project, each student can prepare a presentation on their “holiday.” You’ll need to set a list of requirements, so all students answer similar questions. Then, after you present on a few Spanish-speaking countries, you’ll be able to compare apples to apples. For example, Christmas Eve traditions, food you eat, and gift giving traditions.
5. Authentic Texts
I’m happy to share with you a digital lesson for your novice or intermediate Spanish students! As we all know, Christmas is celebrated differently around the world, even within each Spanish-speaking country. With this lesson, your students will learn about six days of Christmas celebrations in Spain. With authentic texts for different levels, all of your students will find the material engaging.
- 6 Readings (Novice & Intermediate Versions)
- El sorteo de la lotería
- La Nochebuena
- La Navidad
- El Día de los Inocentes
- La nochevieja
- El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos
- Interactive Google Slides with 24 Comprehension Questions about readings
- Cultural Comparison Presentational Writing Task
For tons of other Christmas ideas, check out this ultimate guide to Christmas activities in Spanish class. There are choice boards, task cards, Three King’s Day celebrations, and more! I would love to hear your ideas for teaching about La Navidad virtually this year! Comment on this post to share your Christmas Spanish ideas.
