¡A jugar! Need a fast way to assemble a game or lesson? Want to help students learn basic Spanish shapes? This free set of juegos de mesa download is designed to be as flexible as possible so that teachers, homeschoolers, and even study groups can adapt them to meet their own needs.

Spanish Vocabulary (Optional)

This can be omitted, but the download includes a page with the following Spanish shapes, which can be used as game pieces, if desired: círculo, cuadrado, estrella, óvalo, octágono, rombo, triángulo.

What’s Included

You’ll find six black-and-white pages. The first five pages are game boards of various levels of difficulty, and the last page is a page of shapes, with Spanish translations, that can be optionally used as game pieces. The shapes are designed to fit the specific game boards. There are no directions, again to provide maximum adaptability.

Ideas for Use

The tableros de los juegos de mesa are specifically designed to be easy on the eyes, not too busy, and adaptable for any age group. The simplest boards can be used with students of all ages but are best for young learners who still struggle with counting or correctly moving game pieces. The most complicated boards work best with older students who need longer game play and/or who like a challenge.

Numbers Dice

You can use regular game dice, or you can download the free Spanish numbers dice on this page, which include 1-30 as both numerals and Spanish words.

Either way, there are many fun ways to play! One simple idea involves asking students to translate the numbers from Spanish-to-English or English-to-Spanish. Or, to make the game especially fun, students can be asked to count backwards in the target language from the number they roll as they move their game piece. So, roll a six and count backwards seis, cinco, cuatro, tres, dos, uno.

Students can count “by” their rolled number, meaning count in a pattern. Roll a two and count dos, cuatro, seis, ocho, diez, etc. Or, they might enjoy something like listing or translating the number of vocabulary words that they roll. For example, roll a four, and before the student can move, the student has to list or translate four Spanish vocabulary words, perhaps from recent lessons or as a review toward the end of a grading period, year, etc. This would work really well with verb conjugations, as well.

Learning Shapes

With the attached vocabulary page, students can be asked to learn limited shape vocabulary while simultaneously learning or reviewing Spanish numbers. For example, students can be asked to identify the names of the number of shapes they roll. If they roll a two, they have to name two shapes correctly in Spanish before they can move two spaces.

Coloring / Colors

For young students (or, really, students of any age), the game can be played with colors. Students who enjoy coloring and art can decorate the boards. If decorated in a pattern, the boards can lead to fun color games. Just write a colors index in the native language, and the student has to translate the color in order to move to that color on the board. The reverse also works.

Or You Might . . .

There are so many possibilities! If you use sheet protectors on the tableros de juegos de mesa or laminate them, you can reuse them over and over again while adapting them for nearly any lesson.

For example, use dry-erase markers, which work on sheet protectors, too, to add verbs to the board(s). After that, you can create many variations, such as conjugate the full infinitive, translate the infinitive, use the verb in any sentence, etc. You can also do the same with the boards and the free pronoun dice on this page. Or, add vocabulary, and students have to translate the word they are about to land on before they can move.

Another idea is to ask students to roll a number and, before they can move, make a sentence with that many words in the target language. Or, add our free pronoun or verb dice to what they roll. The combination then tells students what they have to create. As an example, roll a six with the verb «ser». Then the student has to create a six-word sentence with the verb «ser». Or, roll a three with the pronoun dice landing on «nosotras». Then the student has to make an three-word sentence with «nosotras» before moving three spaces.

What will you create today? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below!

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