There is no better way to learn Spanish than by doing - en espaol. Here the doing is preparing, and then drinking. Students will learn and remember the fruit and the steps needed to make a refreshing fruit smoothie or a licuado. Bringing simple smoothies, or licuados, into your class will delight students with a traditional Latin American snack and useful Spanish while making them.
Fruit Smoothies in Latin America: Licuados
Latin Americans have always used their abundant and mouth-watering native fruit in desserts, snacks, and smoothies, licuados. Licuado stands serve heavenly combinations like mango-banana-vanilla or pineapple-papaya. A summer stroll in the evening isn't complete without sharing a licuado with a friend or family member.
Learning with Licuados
Experiential learning is most effective for acquiring a language naturally. Students see, touch, hear, and taste the ingredients and the final product. Making licuados is ideal for presenting or reviewing fruit and kitchen vocabulary and verbs too.
- Fruit vocabulary:la fruta, las fresas/the strawberries, las bananas, el jugo de naranja/orange juice, la limonada, el hielo/the ice
- Kitchen vocabulary:la licuadora/the blender, el vaso/the glass, el cuchillo/the knife
- Verbs: preparar/to prepare, cortar/to cut, poner/to put, prender/ to turn on, apagar/to turn off
Presenting Licuados to Learn Spanish
The teacher needs to present and model the preparation of a licuado in Spanish first. The teacher should demonstrate and narrate the preparation in Spanish that is appropriate for the learners using as many real life materials as possible. See Teaching Spanish the Effective Way.
Most beginning students need practice with the basic I or Yo sentences, but more advanced students can use a different subject pronoun. Students even further along can use the practice with sentences using the future and past tenses, or even the subjunctive and conditional modes.
The simple logical narration should go something like:
Yo preparo un licuado. I'm preparing a smoothie.
Yo pelo una banana. I'm pealing a banana.
Yo corto una banana con un cuchillo. I'm cutting a banana with a knife.
Yo corto unas fresas. I cut some strawberries.
Yo pongo la banana y las fresas en la licuadora. I put the banana and the strawberries in the blender.
Yo pongo una taza de hielo en la licuadora. I put a cup of ice in the blender.
Yo pongo una taza de jugo en la licuadora. I put a cup of juice in the blender.
Yo pongo la tapa en la licuadora. I'm put the top on the blender.
Yo prendo la licuadora. I turn the blender on
Yo apago la licuadora. I turn the blender off.
Yo pongo el licuado en un vaso. I put some smoothie into a class.
Yo bebo el licuado. I drink the smoothie
After students have done a variety of reading and speaking, or even writing activities with the narrative, they're ready to make smoothies.
Making a Game-plan for Spanish Speaking Smoothies
Like any classroom undertaking, making smoothies requires careful planning, organization and good orchestration.
When? Designate a class period, or at least twenty five minutes
Who?: the entire Spanish class and the teacher
Who brings what?: Ask for volunteers to bring in the basic ingredients
- Blender(s)
- Paper cups & napkins
- Strawberries
- Bananas
- Sugar
- Orange juice or lemonade
- Ice
How?: Ask for some ingredients at the beginning of class and set up in front of the class. Demonstrate making a smoothie while narrating the process in Spanish. The teacher can lead a question and answer session in Spanish or lead other speaking activities about making the smoothie.
If there is more than one blender, the teacher can make smoothie making centers.
Conversational Activities
There are so many conversational opportunities once the smoothies are done:
- Which smoothie are you drinking?
- Do you like the smoothie?
- Who is making the smoothie?
- Which smoothie do you prefer, strawberry or banana?
Writing Activities
After the smoothies are finished and the final clean-up is done, students will be ready to do a writing activity appropriate to their age and Spanish proficiency.
- Label outline illustrations of the ingredients and materials
- List of the ingredients and the materials
- Label a cartoon of the preparation
- List of actions/verbs
- Summarize
- Substitute wacky ingredients
- Draw the ingredients
- Draw & write a cartoon depiction
Preparing, drinking, and then discussing the preparation of licuados is optimal for practical use of Spanish in class. Students will get a great taste of Latin American culture with the multi-sensory experience that making licuados provides.
Catherine Fortin - Teaching Experience I'm a career Spanish, ESL, and English teacher now teaching homeschool groups, groups, and individuals. I spend my ...
