Spanish Activity – Write The Room
Write the room is a great Spanish reading game that engages kids in a variety of ways. It engages kids visually and kinesthetically as they are actively moving around and searching for printed words.
Table of Contents
Why Write the Room?
I build this game for my daughter all the time because it is always engaging and you can easily change it based on your child’s Spanish language needs at the time!
For example, if they’re working on letter matching, you can have your child search for uppercase/lowercase letters. If they’re working on building Spanish vocabulary, you can have them search for common words or vocabulary words from a theme. If they’re building Spanish reading fluency, they can search for Spanish phrases or Spanish sentences to practice reading.
The game can also be constantly modified to include thematic words, seasonal words, or high frequency words – whatever your child needs!
Movement games are a great way to keep your child engaged in Spanish reading and they offer a lot of potential for repeated practice. Here are some of the other movement games that we play all the time to build my daughter’s Spanish reading skills:
Fun Labeling Activities To Practice Spanish Reading With Kids
Get The Spanish Write the Room Freebie!
The PDF file that I’ve built has 4 different sets of vocabulary cards and 4 different recording sheets that you can use to get you started! There are sets for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter.
Once you have played the game a few times and see how it works, you can easily build this with common paper and pencil and modify it to fit your child’s Spanish learning goals.
The file that I built also includes blank cards that you can use to write in whatever letter/word/phrase your child is working on!
Subscribe here to get the free PDF that I built!
How To Play “Write the Room”
Materials
Recording page
Word cards
Tape
Pencil
Clipboard
Directions
Take index cards or something similar and write the letters/words/phrases that you want your child to search for. We’ve been working on seasonal words, so I cut out the Summer seasonal words that I want my daughter to practice.
At this point we usually set a boundary for where I’ll place the cards – usually in the living room. I then take the cards and tape them all around the room.
Sometimes I “hide” the cards, which doesn’t mean covering them up. For example, I put them in harder to find places like, the side of the couch, which might not be visible when you first walk into the room.
This adds an element of ‘hunting’ for the word cards and makes it more challenging! As an extra challenge, we’ll sometimes add a stopwatch and see how fast she can find all of the word cards.
Once the cards are taped we put the recording page on a clipboard for my daughter. The recording page usually has photos that match the word that my daughter is searching for.
For example, if one of the words she needs to find is “la pelota”, her recording page will have a picture of a little beach ball where she will write the word once she finds it.
My daughter then goes into the living room and searches for all of her words. When she finds a word, she sounds it out or reads it and then writes that word on her recording page next to the matching image.
When the game is all said and done, my daughter will have practiced reading and writing 10 Spanish words/phrases. And the best part is that she can’t wait to play it again!
Spanish Vocabulary Words Included
Spring Seasonal Write the Room
In this section of the free PDF file that you’ll get, I include these words on pre-made cards and recording sheets:
los pajaros (the bird)
la lluvia (the rain)
las flores (the flowers)
el arcoíris (the rainbow)
el sol (the sun)
el nido (the nest)
el paraguas (the umbrella)
el conejo (the rabbit)
la mariposa (the butterfly)
el árbol (the tree)
There are also blank spring cards included so that you can build your own vocabulary cards or phrase cards. One way that we have done this is with phrases that match the pictures on the recording sheet.
So for example, instead of my daughter searching for the word “el conejo”, I’ll make my own phrase/sentence, “el conejo salta”. When she finds the phrase card, she writes that phrase on the recording sheet next to the picture of the bunny.
This is a way to help her expand her reading ability and still enjoy the searching element of the write the room game.
Summer Seasonal Write the Room
In this section of the free PDF file that you’ll get, I include these words on pre-made cards and recording sheets:
la pelota (the ball)
la camiseta (the shirt)
el traje de baño (the bathing suit)
las sandalias (the sandals)
bloqueador solar (sunscreen)
la picina (the pool)
la paleta (the popsicle)
el sandía (the watermelon)
los shorts (the shorts)
las gafas de sol (the sunglasses)
There are also blank summer cards included so that you can build your own vocabulary cards or phrase cards.
These vocabulary cards and recording sheets pair really nicely with my weather guide and Spanish weather resources. To get more free stuff and to read more about it, check out this article here:
Spanish Weather Words And Activities For kids
Fall Seasonal Write the Room
In this section of the free PDF file that you’ll get, I include these words on pre-made cards and recording sheets:
la manzana (the apple)
la calabaza (the pumpkin)
la bellota (the acorn)
la ardilla (the squirrel)
la hoja (the leaf)
el viento (the wind)
el maíz (the corn)
el rastrillo (the rake)
el espantapájaros (the scarecrow)
el suéter (the sweater)
There are also blank fall cards included so that you can build your own vocabulary cards or phrase cards.
Winter Seasonal Write the Room
In this section of the free PDF file that you’ll get, I include these words on pre-made cards and recording sheets:
la gorra (the hat)
los mitones (the mittens)
el chocolate caliente (the hot chocolate)
el muñeco de nieve (the snowman)
la nieve (the snow)
el trineo (the sled)
el ciervo (the deer)
el patín (the skate)
las galletas (the cookies)
el zorro (the fox)
There are also blank winter cards included so that you can build your own vocabulary cards or phrase cards.
Extensions
Of course, one of the best ways to get better at reading in Spanish is to read books in Spanish! If you’re working on beginning reading strategies I recommend checking out these two Spanish book resources:
Reading To Improve: Beginning Graphic Novels
What I Used To Teach My Daughter To Read In Spanish
Here are some other great Spanish reading activities and games that you can do with your child that don’t involve actual books in Spanish.
Top 10 Best Spanish Alphabet Games
Try it out and let me know how it goes! Tag me on instagram @becomingbilingual_spn so I can see how you use them.
Happy Learning!
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I love this idea! My children and I are learning Spanish!
Thanks! It’s great that you’re learning Spanish with your children – there are so many benefits to being bilingual 🙂