Just like kids all over the world, when I was a child living in Spain, I spent my days playing with my Spanish neighbors. I remember riding bikes in the neighborhood with a half dozen friends and around an undeveloped neighborhood too. I remember playing the board game “Who’s Who” where you had to guess a person based on the process of elimination. It is called “¿Quién es quién?” in Spanish. I learned all about how to describe people in Spanish. I remember the countless costume parties that my neighbors had each summer weekend.
The games we played were so much fun! Most of all I remember a hopscotch type game called “Fruta, fruta, afuera.” This game is like a category game where you had to name an item from a named category with each jump to a new square. The categories included fruit, vegetables, colors, months, holidays, subjects at school, animals, hobbies, desserts, breakfast food, relatives. What a way to learn Spanish!
I will say with great confidence that these games taught me all the vocabulary of any Spanish course or app and I was having the best childhood ever! It is my desire as a parent, mentor and especially Spanish Teacher, to use games such as these to leave learners begging for more Spanish! What games did you play as a child with neighbors?
