There are 180 days of school. There are 21 Spanish-speaking countries. Can you share one fact a day about these countries, so by the end of the school year, your students have learned 180 fun, cultural daily facts? I’m here to show you that you CAN! Are you up for the challenge?
There is no right or wrong way to introduce fun country facts to your students. Below, you will find a TON of different ways to implement daily facts. You may find that switching it up is what is best for your students so nobody gets stuck in a rut. Plus, grab some freebie facts to try out with your classes.
Where to find fun facts?
You can research “fun facts about…” and share your findings. A quick Google Search will yield a ton of results.
Or, you can share daily facts from your travels and study abroad experiences. If you lived in or visited another country, you definitely have cultural experiences to share with your students. Share pictures of your trips and a brief description of what you are showing.
If you want a comprehensible set of facts for each country, check out my fun fact products here – or get bundles by South America, Central America, or all 21 Spanish-Speaking Countries. Each set comes with 10 fun facts: Flag, Geography, History, Animal, Attraction, Attraction, Food, Music, Famous Person, and a Celebration. You can get the sets in English or Spanish or a money-saving bundle.
Snag your FREEBIE version of English facts or Spanish facts. Try them out with your students and if you love using them, you can find more in my TpT store.
If you have novice level students and still want to try one fact a day, you can either provide facts in English… culture is still part of the language! Or, write really basic facts in novice language, using tons of cognates, that they can understand.
Daily Fun Fact Bellringers
My best advice for reaching the goal of one fact per day is to start a routine, and start it immediately! I suggest using these facts as a daily bellringer. Have the fact projected on your screen so students see it as they walk in the room. Make sure you have something to hold them accountable for reading and interpreting the fact. Here are 3 types of worksheets that students could complete while they read the facts. Completing the worksheet can even count as a participation grade or classwork grade to keep them motivated. After just a few weeks, your students will know what to expect and hopefully be eager to keep learning about other countries!
Maybe daily facts are too much for you?
Option 1: Elaborate on One Fact a Week
So, don’t worry. If a daily challenge is too much for you, why not try a weekly challenge? There are 36 weeks in the school year, and 21 countries. Every week, just share one fact with your students. You can introduce the fact on Monday during your bellringer, and also print it and post it around your classroom. This way, students see it more than once, hopefully they won’t forget it!
To expand upon the fact, you can elaborate on it every day. For example, during this specific week, you choose to highlight Argentina’s cuisine.
- So, on Monday, you introduce the fact with this short text about Argentina’s asado.
- On Tuesday, you show a video of a family enjoying a typical asado.
- On Wednesday, you read a few tips from a chef on how to make the perfect asado.
- Thursday’s lesson begins with an infographic on types of meat at an asado.
- Finally, on Friday, you can have students complete a cultural comparison, comparing asado to an event or custom in the USA.
Each week, you choose ONE fact, but elaborate on it each day of the week. By the end of the week, students will be experts on this cultural element.
Option 2: Daily Fact Themes
Another option is to incorporate a fun theme for each day. You can do this version for just 21 weeks (each country is highlighted once). Each week focuses on one country, but different facts are presented daily. Here are fun themes you could follow with examples for Guatemala.
- Lugares lunes: Antigua, Guatemala
- Mmm… martes: Una comida – Pepían
- Música miércoles: La marimba, el instrumento nacional
- Historia Jueves: El imperio maya
- Viva Viernes: Una celebración – EL festival folklórico nacional de Cobán
Option 3: Gallery Walk
For Option 3, you will still choose one country per week, but instead of presenting the facts to your students, you will print the facts out on paper and hang them around your room. Students will circulate like they are at a gallery to read the information about the facts. Have them complete one of the worksheets as they walk around the room. Maybe each day of the week, you give students 5-10 minutes to walk around and read. Send your students on a scavenger hunt with the worksheets or create your own scavenger hunt questions with specific questions. It is a great interpretive task and uses comprehensible input for your students! This can even serve as a great fast-finisher activity or bulletin board. Maybe not all students complete it each week, but it adds a cultural element to your classroom that wasn’t there before.
Option 4: Student Presentations
“Work smarter, not harder.” This advice from my first-year mentor really stuck with me. Do you want to share fun country facts with your students, but don’t want to do any of the work? Let your students do it for you! Assign each student or group a country. Provide them with the fact readings or let them research on their own. Let the students summarize the facts for the class or turn it into their own presentation! With this option, you can still do “One Fact per Day” or “One Country Per Week,” but your students are responsible for the content. This works great for upper level students.
Tips for Using Fun Facts
Pick out cognates. Many of the facts in my products are comprehensible for novice high through intermediate level students. Remind students to pick out cognates as a reading strategy. They will understand far more than they think they can.
Need an easy, no-prep sub plan? Choose one country and share the facts with the sub or your students. They will read the facts and complete one of the 3 worksheets. You don’t have to lift a finger!
Share videos and pictures of your experiences or from YouTube or Google. It is one thing to read about a fun fact, but to see it in action brings it to life! On my fact products, I added images or videos on each slide. If you do your own research, you can find images or videos online or even better… share pictures of your own trips!
Have you ever thought about how much your students really know about Spanish-speaking countries by the time they leave your classroom? With these daily facts, your students are sure to take away interesting information and hopefully a desire to learn more or to visit one of these countries in the future!
