Here are a couple of activities I like to use with young learners to practice asking and saying their names in Spanish. Feel free to share in the Comments section any game or children’s activities you like to use that works well in the classroom or at home.
Game 1: Don’t make me smile
Players sit in a circle with one student in the middle. The players around the circle take turns saying to the one in the middle, ‘Cómo te llamas/ What’s your name’. The person in the middle answers back, says ‘Me llamo ___‘ and their name. The object of the game is for the middle person to keep a somber face and the game continues until someone gets the middle person to smile then switch places.
Game 2: Guess who
Players sit in a circle with the student in the middle blindfold. The players around the circle take turns coming up to the blindfolded player, asking, ‘Quién es/Who is it’, while trying to disguise their voice. The blindfolded player responds, trying to guess correctly if it is the actual name of the student.
Example:
Ana: walks to the person blindfolded and says ‘Quién es/Who is it‘. The person blindfolded tries to guess who the students is. If the blindfolded persons says ‘Es Ana/It’s Ana‘, Ana replies with ‘Si, se puede/Yes, could be‘ and the two switch places. If the blindfolded person guesses incorrectly, Ana says, ‘No es verdad/That’s not so’ then another player takes Ana’s place, asking the blindfolded person ‘Quién es/Who is it’ and so on.
Follow up activity:
You can follow up by asking students to draw pictures of themselves, mix the pictures and hand out to students, asking them to take turns holding up a picture, saying to the class ‘Quién es/Who is it’ while the class takes turns guessing who the person in the picture is, responding with ‘Es ____/It’s ____’.
Here are other activities, crafts and ideas that you can incorporate with young learners in
You may also ask students to make a booklet of themselves. For a free copy go to Spanish Downloads.