6 Fun Spanish Activities for Your Family’s Next Game Night
If you come from a Spanish family or a duolingo family, you probably understand how important spending quality time with your family is when it comes to understanding your culture. Apart from engaging in usual family banter with your loved ones, you can also consider starting a family game night.
For the longest time, game nights have been known as the perfect way to create time for the whole family to come together and spend time doing fun activities together as they have fun together. This is the perfect opportunity for Spanish families to make it compulsory for everyone in the family to loosen up and have some Spanish fun.
Spanish game night can also be the perfect opportunity to learn more about the Spanish culture and language for families learning the language.
Whether you come from a bilingual family and want to understand more about your Spanish background, or you are a Spanish student looking to enhance your language skills through fun and games, there are a bunch of Spanish games you can play in Spanish and English. Here are some of the best Spanish games and entertainment ideas to consider adding to your game night collection.
Cook Spanish Food with All Family Members
If you love good food, you will love spending time preparing some of the best Spanish foods while getting to understand the culture and language better.
To make it even more interesting, the best guides and recommendations advise you to have all the equipment ready and choose a day of the week where everyone is required to help prepare the meal. You can choose a Spanish dish online and follow the recipe as you learn interesting Spanish terms for different ingredients.
Use this opportunity to see how many words your family can remember without looking up and add new words to your vocabulary. To up the stakes, you can create a rule where your family is only allowed to converse in Spanish during this activity.
La Pirinola for the Whole Family
La Pirinola or toma todo is a traditional Spanish game played with a six-sided wooden top with instructions on each side, also commonly referred to as perinola in some Spanish speaking countries. This is a hands-on learning game meant to engage the players as it introduces them to the Spanish language.
The instructions on the side include:
- Toma uno – Take one (token from the pile).
- Toma dos – Take two (tokens from the pile).
- Toma todo – Take it all (the whole pile).
- Pon uno – Put one (in the pile).
- Pon dos – Put two (in the pile).
- Todos ponen – Everyone puts a token in the pile.
Players take turns spinning the pirinola where they have to read simple phrases with ponen, toma or pon verbs in them. The idea of this game is to foster repetition and focus on the language while delivering a cultural component to the game, making it the perfect choice for a family looking to enhance their Spanish language skills.
La Pirinola can be played by two or more players, with each player requiring ten tokens to start. When playing with kids, the tokens can be candy or any other small object. To start, each player has to wager in a token. The person playing spins the pirinola and waits for the top to fall. They have to follow the instructions on the top side facing up.
The winner of the game is the person who collects the most tokens from the other players.
Creating Ofrendas
An Ofrenda is a traditional Spanish altar common in most homes set up in memory of loved ones who have passed.
In the traditional Spanish culture, ofrendas should be decorated and colorful. Creating ofrendas in your home can be a fun activity to help your family understand more about how the Spanish culture honors the dead and is also a great way to know family history.
The ofrenda need to be filled with gifts meant to please the visiting spirit guests. It should be adorned with sugar skulls, orange marigolds, papel picado banners, and candles. You can also leave an offering of food on the altar. The most ideal choices include hot chocolate, fruit, water, and pan de Muerto.
It is also a good idea to place special items that belonged to the deceased on the altar. This can be anything from a musical instrument they played to a hat they loved. The ofrenda is perfect for celebrating your Spanish ancestors.
Playing Loteria During Evening Game-Time
Loteria is the Spanish word for lottery, which is a game of chance similar to bingo in English. However, in this Spanish game, players use a deck of cards or images in the place of numbered ping-pong balls. Every image has a name and comes with a number, even though the number is ignored most of the time.
Every player needs to have a table, which is a 4×4 grid with pictures that have a corresponding number and name.
Spanish communities have been playing Loteria for many generations as a way of learning different words for different images. It is a fun activity for the whole family. The winner of each round needs to match all their images with those of the dealer.
Mexico Dice Game for a Family Game Night
Mexico dice game is an elimination game that can be played by the whole family and with any number of players, even though three or more is always more ideal.
To play the game, you need two dice. The players need to agree on a number of turns before they start playing with the goals of the game being to be the last man standing. Players are eliminated every time they exhaust their turns.
This is a simple game and is a form of fun family gambling. There are numerous variations of the game. To play the game, you and your family roll the dice. Whoever gets the highest numbers goes first. To win a round, you need to get the highest number on the dice.
To make the game more interesting, along with the family members, you can bet on different home related activities to be done later.
Frío o Caliente: Fun for Kids and Parents
If you are looking for a versatile Spanish game ideal for the whole family, Frío o Caliente is the game for you. The beauty of this game is that it can be played anywhere with as many people as possible or just a few. This game follows the same rules as those used in the English game Hot or Cold.
It gives your family the opportunity to learn Spanish phrases, making it perfect for reviewing your Spanish vocabulary. To play the game, you need to pick someone from the group to find something. The person will need to leave the room for the others to hide an item in the room.
The person playing can return to the room while the others call out the following phrases to guide their search quest:
- Caliente, caliente – You are closed.
- ¡Te quemas! (You are burning) – You are very close.
- Tibio, tibio (lukewarm) – You are at a middle distance.
- Frío, frío – You are farther away.
- Te estás congelando (You are freezing) – You are very far away.
To make the game more exciting, you can set a time to beat when finding the hidden item to win the game. Once the person finds the item or time lapses, the next one leaves the room for another round of the game.
As a Closure
The above listed are some of the most interesting Spanish games suitable for the whole family. The best game should be able to teach you more about the Spanish language and culture, while at the same time ensuring you have the most fun as a family.
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- 6 Fun Spanish Activities for Your Family’s Next Game Night - July 29, 2021
