5+minute+fillers

Five minute fillers
The recommended time allocation for MFL in primary schools is 60-75 minutes a week. This is almost impossible to achieve in one block, so it recommended to have one discrete language lessons of 20-30 minutes, with several five minute slots throughout the week. Below are some ideas for games that can be fitted into a short slot. Also see stories, songs and poems, and X-Curricular Links.

Heads Down,Thumbs Up!
Choose four volunteers and give them a flash card with the week's vocabulary on e.g. rojo, amarillo, verde, azul; conejo, gato, perro, raton. Rest of class put their heads down and thumbs up. Volunteers each choose one person in the class and pinch their thumbs. Everyone lifts their heads and those who had been pinched stand up. They then guess the person who did it by calling out one of the words that the volunteers have been given e.g. amarillo! If they are correct they swap places, if not the volunteer carries on until the next go.

Hunt the Monkey
Send one person out of the room. Hide the monkey or soft toy somewhere in the room. The person comes back in and everyone starts to chant a series of set words or phrases e.g. lunes, martes, miercoles, jueves, viernes, sábado, domingo; ¿Cómo te llamas?. The closer the volunteer gets to the monkey, the louder people get, the further away, the quieter they get.

¿Dónde esta Rosa?
This game is similar to 'Hunt the Monkey' but emphasises the use of questions and answers. A volunteer goes out of the room, and the soft toy is hidden on someone. That person then take on the identity of the soft toy e.g. name, age or address. The volunteer comes back in the room and asks the focus question to everyone. e.g. ¿Cómo te llamas? or ¿Dónde vives? or ¿Tienes hermanos?. Everyone answers honestly for themselves, apart from the person who has the soft toy who answers with their new identity e.g. Me llamo Rosa, tengo dos años.