Deb Abshier, you’re amazing!
This idea comes from Deb, via Diana Painter at Friday’s TPRS gathering, via Michele Whaley’s blog post since I once again mixed up dates and didn’t attend…this is now the fifth time that this has happened to me since Ellis was born!! Ahh!!
Anyway, this is another great P.A.T. type activity that can be used when you and your students need a break from learning new terms and just want to play around with language that you already have.
Attached is a two-page set of dominoes (the first two pages are in Spanish and the second two pages are in English so that they can be understood and edited by other language teachers…email me (martinaebex@gmail.com) if you want an editable version–I can only attach PDFs to this post). Cut out the domino pieces and laminate them so that they can be re-used easily, then give the set to a pair of students to play. In order to lay down a new piece, students must be able to create a sentence that includes the words in any of the boxes that are touching: they could place “ellos” next to “al béisbol” if they come up with a sentence like “ellos juegan al béisbol en el parque”. They could lay down a new piece on the center line of another piece (like in the real game, when you have a double piece (with two of the same number) and you can lay another piece perpendicular to it in the middle…like in this picture) by piecing together all three terms, like “Yo tengo que ir al baño / ahora“. You should have students record the sentences that they created so that you have a record of their awesomeness…and for accountability. They could also choose one of the sentences and use it as the first sentence of a Free Write.
I made the sets by writing sentences and splitting them into four parts: subject/verb/detail/detail. If you make any sets of your own, please share! I’d love to have several different sets laminated that my students can work with.
Thank you so much, Martina! This explained a lot to me. Now, if we can only get Diana’s page as well, all will be clear!
Ya, I’ve never actually played the game with these pieces since I just read about it on your blog and made them up yesterday, but it seems that it would work. And since students can create any sentence that uses the terms, the subject/verb don’t even necessarily have to match because the student could add in an additional subject to match that verb. For example, if your words were “dog” and “eat”, you could say “My brothers eat and the dog watches”. Can’t wait to get to try out all these new activities from Deb when I get back to school…in two weeks 🙁
Helpful information. Fortunate me I discovered your website by accident, and I am shocked why this accident didn’t took place in advance! I bookmarked it.
Hooray for fortunate accidents, however tardy they may be. Hope that it proves a useful bookmark 🙂
I did this and the kids LOVED it!! Favorite cards were ones that had things like “princesa” “monstruo” “vampiro” and “Betty White” 🙂 Yay for Deb’s awesome idea!
HAHA! I love Betty White’s new show!! Awesome.