Learning activity resources

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Purchases include a license to reproduce the resource for all of your students for as long as you are teaching.  Not transferable after use.  Respect copyright law.
After purchase you will be immediately directed to a page where you can download your file. If this doesn’t work as expected, or if the link expires before you get a chance to use it, please contact me to receive a new download link. I keep a permanent record of all purchases and always honor past sales.

Trip Itineraries

Whether you’re supplementing a travel or country-specific unit or adding context to a comprehensible reader (or just looking for some rockstar sub plans!), the Musicuentos Trip Itinerary is a fantastic fit. Your learners will select places they want to visit in 4 cities, based on authentic travel reviews from TripAdvisor!

Currently available: Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico.

Coming soon: Spain, Puerto Rico, Nicaragua.

Visit the itinerary page.

2015 Performance Assessment Rubric

For an extensive explanation of my rubric update and important credits to all the great minds that made it happen, see this post. Download the rubric PDF here or contact me for a .docx file for you to edit.
Credits: Thanks to Amy Lenord, Colleen Lee-Hayes, Bethanie Carlson-Drew, Martina Bex; wording from ACTFL performance descriptors, Can Do statements, and proficiency guidelines; the old Jefferson County (KY) performance assessment rubric; and the Ohio rubrics; thanks to Natalia Delaat, Thomas Sauer, Sarah Bolaños, and Jacob Shively for extensive feedback; thanks to Melanie Stilson for the push I needed to get working on this project. Thanks to Camp Musicuentos participants for all their suggestions.

Reference handouts

Three pages including 1) summary of present tense, 2) summary of sudden past (preterite), 3) summary of descriptive past (imperfect) with list of common uses.
Before using this, please read my blog post “How I use verb charts.”

  • Complete verb pack – $5.95

Eight pages including 1) summary of present tense, 2) summary of sudden past (preterite) including irregulars; 3) summary of descriptive past (imperfect) including irregulars and uses; 4) Future and Conditional tenses with irregular stems used for both; 5) Commands, informal and formal, negative and positive, with notes about pronoun usage, and irregulars; 6) Crazy verb switch (subjunctive), with how to form both present and past, and summary of uses with examples in Spanish (yes! the whole subjunctive tense on ONE PAGE!); 7) “HappenING” verbs (the progressive), with irregulars; 8) “-ado/-ido” words (uses of the participio), with irregulars, and descriptions and examples in Spanish of all four uses of the past participle.
This resource is meant as a tool to aid students with measurable proficiency in refining their accuracy.  It is ideal for AP and IB courses, advanced grammar courses, and literature and other courses requiring a lot of writing.  Again, before using, please read “How I use verb charts.”
The price includes a license for you to reproduce the file for as many students as you teach for as long as you teach.  One license per teacher; not transferable after use.  Respect copyright law.
Eight beautifully visualized charts for just a little more than a peppermint mocha. Get immediate access and buy now:

This is a great resource and very useful!
–Cynthia

Activity resources

A handout to help students practice interpersonal, informal writing as if they were on Twitter.  See the blog post about how I use it here.

A battleship-type game designed to get students practicing (not “learning”) accurate pairings of es and está.  I hope to use the same format to develop more battleship games – if your students like it as much as mine did!  See the blog post with more instructions here.

  • Improvicuentos (FREE & paid)

A mad-lib style activity that has learners fill in the blanks to create a new comprehensible-input-rich story with each twist. My novice level Improvicuentos include past tense verbs but don’t ask learners to conjugate them.
Download the Improvicuento Un evento en mi vida (FREE).
Purchase my other Improvicuentos individually or in a bundle. Titles include En la playa, En el restaurante, Las cartas en el correo, Un regalo para el cumpleaños, and Listo para el partido.

  • Embedded Listening

For a description of how to do your own embedded listening activities, or what this is about, see this post.
My Embedded Listening resources are only available on my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

Authentic resource guides

  • Cajas de cartón: a reader’s guide to the short story by Francisco Jiménez – $6.95

Cajas short 2To purchase the guide for the full book also called Cajas de cartón by Francisco Jiménez, please visit the ebooks section of the site.  If you’re looking for the reader’s guide with vocabulary-boosting, proficiency-based activities for the short story only (chapter 9 of the memoir), you’re in the right place.  Your purchase includes a license to reproduce the file for your students for as long as you teach.  Respect copyright law and do not distribute outside this intended use.
Details: digital file includes 2-page introduction, 2 pages of vocabulary with activities, 2 pages of 31 comprehension questions with activities, and 2-page glossary.

To buy the electronic guide for $6.95, simply click here: 




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