7 Spanish Stem-Changing Verb Activities

As a new teacher (OK, still) I wished someone would walk me through their lesson plans for an entire concept. Today I’m showing you the Spanish stem-changing verb activities I use. You could apply this same model to any concept. Let’s go!

DISCOVERY PHASE

At this point in the year my students know how to conjugate regular verbs. To introduce stem-changing verbs, I give them short paragraphs with the verbs bolded and ask them to figure out how these verbs are conjugated. They work on their own for a few minutes and then I partner them up. I circulate and confirm when people are on the right path or point them in the right direction. Finally, we go through the verb charts as a class and I ask the students how to conjugate the verbs.

Some students thrive in this activity and see the pattern to stem-changing verbs. Others feel frustrated by this activity. For those students, I always immediately follow up with structured notes. You can download this Spanish stem-changing verb activity by clicking the “Download” button above.

NOTES

This is an important step for a few reasons. It helps students who struggled with the discovery phase and it provides students with a reference sheet to use in the future. Notes moves pretty quickly since many students will understand the extra step to stem-changing verbs after the discovery phase. You can see my stem-changer notes and get your own copy here.

4 CORNERS

I provide students several examples of the language in context. This Four Corners activity is an easy way to provide input and movement. I formed questions with common stem-changing verbs. Students move to an area of the room to answer the questions. Depending on their answers, I may ask follow-up questions.

CONJUGATION PRACTICE

Movement is important to me so I often hang practice cards around the room and have students move around the room to answer the questions and practice conjugations. I keep it simple and use index cards with the answers on the back so students can flip the card over to immediately see if they were correct or not. Often students will call me over to a card if they’re confused (or find an error. It happens!).

READ A STORY

Next up, students will work with a partner to read a story that uses several stem-changers in context. I’ve used a few different stories over the years but this is my current one. There are different versions, full text, circle the correct verb, and fill in the blank. In use the version that best suits my students’ proficiency. I always have extension activities for stories so I follow up with those.  For more ideas of how to stretch a story and get more from it, check out this post.

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PERSONAL QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

We’ll spend time focusing on asking and answering questions at this point. I ask students to write full-sentences and will provide scaffolds on the board as needed. We always do a few together to build their confidence.

If Students Are Struggling With Conjugations

This game is a favorite of my classes, no matter the topic. It’s basically the classic game of Battleship but with a grammar twist. The genius is that it makes conjugating not boring! You’d be surprised how heated the games can get!

The key is that if students conjugate the verb incorrectly, their partner doesn’t have to tell them if it’s a hit or miss. This ensures that students focus on conjugating and listen to the conjugations!

I warn them that if I hear things like “Yo Querer” then they’ll just have to write out all the conjugations and not get to play the game. I’ve only had to do that once in 10 years of using this game!

You can get your own set of 4 games (print & digital version) plus a board with no verbs that you can customize here.

PUEDO IR AL BAÑO

For stem-changing verbs I always use the Señor Wooly story, “Puedo ir al baño”. We do a few days with the story and discuss it before moving on.

SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT OR…

At this point students are usually ready for a summative assessment. If they are still feeling shaky, I do another story or spend another day working with personal questions and opinions.

THROUGHOUT THE UNIT

I sprinkle in other stem-changing verb activities like Gimkit, Quizizz, structured sentence practice (Yo/poder/jugar/ ?? ), lots of questions tailored to student interests (usually during the daily warm up), and yes, even text book activities (GASP) I feel are valuable.

There you have it! There’s a walk through of my Spanish stem-changing verb activities. If you’re looking to save even more time, you can get my student notes handout and presentation here.