- need lists of English word used in Minecraft introductions, translated into Spanish
- script in Spanish for an introduction to Minecraft - could be used by the Spanish teacher or by students
- cultural - town, fiesta, agriculture, monuments, museum, art
Activities for learning Spanish using Minecraft
Where ever possible, students speak Spanish while working on these activities. The Spanish language Minecraft tutorials are a good resource of Minecraft-specific vocabulary.
Mi Casa Ideal[]
Students make "Mi Casa Ideal". They will make their own houses and label things in them - building materials, structures, contents, furniture.
SUBJECT:
Spanish 1-2
GROUP SIZE:
Large Group
TIME:
4 x 45 minutes
TYPE OF ACTIVITY:
Student Activity
TEACHING STRATEGY: Guided Discovery
CONCEPTS: Vocabulary application
ACADEMIC SKILLS: Word recognition
Learning outcomes
- learn everyday items in a house and be able to memorize their vocab by living with it everyday
- use Spanish to work on Mi Casa - discussion, problem-solving, vocabulary for working together
- learn and use Minecraft-specific Spanish vocabulary
- learn and use Spanish terminology for computers and information technology
Minecraft
- in creative mode
- use any material they want to build a house
- use signs as well to label their items in their houses
- know how to put blocks down
- labels - put them down and the typing comes up automatically
Preparation
- Spanish Area - create a big landscape in an area of the map. We then took fences and divided up 64 areas in the big area with a 7x7 block area. Each of these areas is then specified with a sign of a name of a student. So each student is given that amount of space to build their own ideal house (limits size of houses, focus directed on vocabulary-related objects). They can build up or down however they choose.
- sample video of how the students will work on their projects
- Spanish word lists for Minecraft furniture
- Spanish word lists for building houses in Minecraft
Activity
- review Spanish vocabulary for houses, furniture, building materials
- review Minecraft skills, view tutorials and wiki in Spanish
- build houses and label contents - each student completes their own house, but work in small groups in Spanish
- make lists of new Spanish words - needed, discovered
- visit houses of other students, get ideas for improvements
- update your house - make additions, modifications
- in Spanish, describe your house and the building process
Assessment
- labels at least [number] items in the house
- uses additional labels / vocabulary words for extra credit
- participates in Spanish discussion during building
- describes completed house using appropriate vocabulary words
Vocabulary lists
Tutorials
Additional resources, development
- advanced Minecraft skills - set up the Spanish Area, build examples of houses using variety of building techniques
- activity tutorials - specific to class resources - server, map, transportation
- Spanish 4 students with Minecraft skills and/or related Spanish vocabulary available to work with Spanish students
Learn more...
- Minecraft Wiki - Spanish
- tutorials in Spanish
- Minecraft Spanish language forums
- Spanish dictionaries
- Spanish online magazines - houses, interior design