When I begin a new school year, I know the first few weeks are super important. This is when I set the tone for my Spanish classes.
List of Spanish Lesson Plans for the First Weeks of School
Download the list of all the lesson plans and activities I am suggesting below. Everything listed is available in TpT or inside the Spanish Teachers Community.
Beginning-of-the-Year Toolbox
Before school starts, I make sure I have everything ready. I use a checklist with tools I’ll need, like a syllabus booklet, classroom rules, and posters of scenes from Latin America and Spain. I also have a student survey to get to know my kids. One of my favorite first-week lessons is about whether Google Translate is helpful or harmful. It starts great discussions and shows students how to use technology responsibly.
🧰 You can get the free beginning-of-the-year kit here.
Spanish Preliminary Lessons
Whether I’m teaching Spanish 1, 2, or 3, I like to start with preliminary lessons. These mini-lessons play a crucial role at the beginning of the school year, acting as foundational or review periods to make sure students are ready for the upcoming curriculum.
If you’re like me, you might wonder, “Why are preliminary lessons such a big deal?” Well, here’s what I’ve learned.
- In Spanish 1, students are brand new. They need to know things like classroom commands, greetings, how to say their names, and how to ask and answer “How are you?” I also introduce the alphabet, numbers, and Spanish-speaking countries. This gives students confidence and helps them feel like, “Hey, I can actually speak some Spanish!”
- In Spanish 2, I build on what we did before (or what they should have done). The first lessons focus on talking about family, school life, food, and daily routines. I also bring in the verb gustar and reflexive verbs. These early topics help students talk about themselves in more detail, which gets them excited to keep going.
- Spanish 3 goes a step further. I review commands and jump into stem-changing verbs, present progressive tense, and past tense like preterite and imperfect. These are tricky, so I don’t rush. I want students to be able to talk about vacations, childhood memories, and travel—real-life stuff that makes learning more fun.
Spanish Lessons Plans for the First Weeks
After I get through the preliminary lessons, I always reference back to what I learned with the Spanish Teacher Framework training and implement “backwards design”. This part is just as important because now I start building the learning blocks that students will use all year long.
- For Spanish 1, I focus on helping students use Spanish in real-life ways. After learning to say hello and goodbye, I teach them how to talk about their likes and dislikes using me gusta and no me gusta. These are fun because students love sharing their favorite foods, sports, and hobbies. I also make sure they can talk about the weather, the calendar, and numbers—which helps them understand class conversations and directions later on.
Another key lesson early on is teaching subject pronouns like yo and tú, and how they match with basic verbs like ser (to be). This helps students start making full sentences instead of just memorizing words. They feel proud when they can say things like, “Yo soy estudiante” or “Tú eres mi amigo.” - In Spanish 2, students are a bit more confident, so I go deeper. Right away, I review important ideas from Spanish 1 to see what they remember. Then I dive into reflexive verbs like me levanto (I get up) and me ducho (I shower). This goes great with a unit on daily routines, which students love talking about. I also teach describing people (physical traits and family members) and school life vocabulary.
I don’t skip grammar here. I focus on gender rules for nouns and adjective agreement, because that’s what helps their Spanish sound more correct. I also introduce prepositions like en, debajo de, cerca de, because they’ll use these in almost every unit from now on. - For Spanish 3, I keep the pace a little faster, but I still review important topics like commands, especially informal tú commands. These are super useful when students talk to their friends. I also make sure to review the preterite tense and slowly bring in the imperfect tense, because we’ll be comparing past events soon.
Another must-teach topic is stem-changing verbs—like jugar, querer, dormir. These can be tricky, so I use fun stories and role-plays to help them stick. By the end of the first few weeks, I want my students to feel like they can describe past vacations, daily chores, and childhood memories. These real-world themes help grammar feel less scary and more useful.
Starting the school year with the AP Spanish class
In AP Spanish, I begin the year with a unit on la familia and society. We look at articles, short videos, and even real interviews about how families work in different Spanish-speaking countries. I use topics like “La familia tradicional”, “La familia real española”, and even the idea of chosen families. These spark deep conversations and help students use advanced structures like the subjunctive or complex connectors such as aunque (even though), por lo tanto (therefore), and sin embargo (however).
It’s also important to do listening activities and practice the email reply task early on so students don’t feel overwhelmed later in the year.
These lessons help students think deeply and express their ideas clearly in Spanish. And even if you don’t teach AP, you can use those topics with upper-level students too.
Spanish Cultural Activities to start off the school year
Besides grammar and vocabulary, I always include culture. It makes class exciting. For novice students, I use cultural presentations that explains festivities in English because I want them to know about them first. For intermediate or advanced students, I use the same slides but in Spanish.
To keep track of all the festivities around the Spanish-speaking world, I use the Cultural Calendar.
If you start classes in August, it is perfect to talk about fun events like La Tomatina (the tomato fight in Spain) and Fiestas Agostinas (in El Salvador).
I also bring up Indigenous People’s Day in August and talk about leaders like Rigoberta Menchú from Guatemala. These lessons help students connect with the real people who speak Spanish and understand their stories.
For AP Spanish, I focus a lot on culture and real-world issues. I bring in topics like family structures in different Spanish-speaking countries and how Indigenous groups live today.
The first few weeks of any Spanish class are about creating strong habits, not rushing. I’ve found that when I choose real-life topics and focus on just a few key grammar points, students feel more confident and excited to keep learning. My job is to give them tools they’ll keep using, not just this year, but for years to come.
