When you learn Spanish verbs, the learning tasks are more than a grammatical rule to follow. Learning how to use Spanish verbs in sentences is a fundamental language skill. Any new learner to Spanish needs to know how to conjugate verbs in specific ways.
Of course, the grammatical rules of Spanish guide you to use these verb conjugation in different patterns. Whether you use Spanish conjugation tables or charts, you can use those tools to practice verb usage. However, as you learn Spanish verbs and add more vocabulary, you want to use various techniques to help you along the way.
How to Learn
Spanish Verbs
Using
Cootie Catchers
Learn Spanish Verbs as Essential Language Skill
Including young learners need to practice Spanish conjugation effectively. Why is learning Spanish verbs essential to language development?
Imagine talking and communicating without knowing how to express what you need to do. That is, the lack of knowing verbs can potentially increase language delays. So, young children learn to associate actions with verbs as little as two years old.
Toddlers and preschoolers begin to develop language skills by using proper sentence structure with verbs. As adults, we know these action words are verbs. But, for young learners, these words connect what they are doing at the moment.
Toddlers and preschoolers begin to develop language skills by using proper sentence structure with verbs. Click To Tweet
As a result, children at two years old can acquire as much as 40 verbs or more. Since verb usage properly is crucial for language development, monitor the use of verbs during family activities.
Materials to Create the Cootie Catcher
- Cootie catcher instructions
- Construction paper or plain notebook paper
- Markers, color pencils, or crayons
- Ruler
- Safety Scissors
- Tape
Instructions for the Cootie Catcher
- Begin with a square piece of paper.
- If you start with a regular 8.5 x 11 notebook paper, fold the paper the following way:
- Take one corner of the paper and move it to the opposite side of the corner.
- Fold along the crease as to make a triangle.
- Cut the extra piece at the bottom of the triangle. Set aside or recycle the scrap.
- Unfold the triangle. Now, you have a square piece of paper.
Creating the Cootie Catcher
- Use the fold of the triangle to create other creases along the square piece of paper.
- Begin with the unfolded piece of paper.
- Take one corner of the paper and fold it in toward the center of the paper.
- Continue with the other three corners of the paper.
- At this point, you should have four inward folded tabs.
- Next, flip the paper with the flaps facing down.
- Then, take one of the corners of the paper and fold in; use it the same way as before.
- Continue with the other three corners until you have a smaller version of the square.
- Make sure to go over the creases with a ruler.
- Gently, unfold the inner section by placing your thumbs and index fingers underneath the triangular flaps.
- Open the cootie catcher along each side.
- In this way, you should see the inner flaps.
- Next, continue to open the inner flaps to see the inside of each flap.
Learn Spanish Verbs with Cootie Catcher Activity
Young learners want to interact with the world around them as much as you want them to grasp it. Allow those essential times of fun and play using simple activities at home or school.
Whether you teach Spanish verbs as a teacher or parent, cootie catchers generate the interest in children to learn Spanish verbs. One of the teaching strategies is to use the Spanish verbs table that you can find in the Language section.
Once you print the verbs you want, apply them for the activity. Then create three separate cootie catchers according to the Instructions for the Cootie Catcher. Each cootie catcher represents the (-ar), (-er), and (- ir) Spanish regular verbs.
Notice that each color purple, yellow, and green can represent the different types of verbs. Choose the color you prefer for each verb tense. After that, use the Spanish conjugation tables to write the Spanish pronouns on the inner flaps of each cootie catcher.
Next, write the stem-stem-changing ending for each verb tense. For instance, for a regular (-ar) verb, you can begin writing yo, tú, él/ella, nosotros/as, vosotros/as, ustedes, and usted.
Then, on the inside flap, write down (-o), (-as), (-a), (-amos), (-áis), and (-an) according to each respective subject-verb agreement. If you need help associating each pronoun to verb, use the Spanish verb conjugation charts. Find the Spanish verb tables in the Language section.
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