How Do You Teach Past Participles in Spanish?

 3 Minute Read

Spanish Past Participles

Often as teachers, we think learning Past Participles is easy in Spanish!

I think textbooks agree, because I have several, and there’s barely more than a page of content that explains Past Participles - and very little practice activities.


This led me to creating my own resources. 

It’s a 4 day mini-unit (45 minute periods) that sets students up for successfully learning the Present Perfect or Past Perfect tense.


Here’s a quick summary of how I teach Past Participles in 4 days:

  1. Students take notes on Regular Spanish Past Participles

Notes on participios pasados en españolNotes for students on past participles in Spanish

  1. They will practice with activities such as a Crossword, Game Board group activity, Beat the Clock conjugation game, & an exit ticket. 

Spanish Past Participles Activities Beat the Clock Conjugation practice

  1. I love using Google Forms for fast grading that gives me instant data!

Using Google Forms to collect data for Spanish class

  1. Students take notes on Irregular Spanish Past Participles, and how Past Participles are used as adjectives.

    1. Bellringer Warm-Up Activity: Students review common errors from the Exit Ticket

    2. The students will practice the Irregular Spanish Past Participles with a Crossword & Game Board in small groups.

Spanish past participles crosswords with answer keys; Regular and Irregular verbs includedSpanish past participles games; game board with answer sheets

  1. They’ll complete an Exit Ticket, specifically with Irregular Past Participle examples.

  

  1. “Do Now” Warm-Up Activity: Students will review common mistakes from the Exit Ticket

    1. Students will practice Regular and Irregular Past Participles with activities such as a Beat the Clock conjugation race, Crossword, and Matamoscas game, that can be played digitally or it can be printed.

                      Spanish past participles matamoscas game; flyswatter game

  1. Students answer the Past Participles used as adjectives examples on the slide as their Warm-Up Activity.

    1. Students make sentences in Spanish from a fun hands-on activity called Sentence Scramble. They can work in small teams to unscramble all 10 sentences in which the Past Particles are used as adjectives. 

                Spanish past participles sentence scramble cut and put in order activity

  1. Then if time allows, they can play the third game board, and take the final printable or digital Exit Ticket as a comprehension check.

  1. After this, students have a good foundation to learn the Present Perfect Tense conjugations in Spanish OR the Past Perfect Tense in Spanish! 

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