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There’s never a bad time of the year for a good game. Whether it’s November, May, or that wild week before a break — a well-chosen game can transform your classroom energy and boost your students’ confidence to use Spanish.

In this re-release of one of the most-loved episodes of Growing With Proficiency, the Podcast, I sit down with Christina Margiore, a high-school Spanish teacher from Long Island (you might know her as @supersenora), to talk about how she uses games to lower the affective filter and get students speaking — authentically, joyfully, and without fear.

Christina shares four classroom-tested games that help students forget their nerves and start communicating:

🎯 Taboo with a twist — students describe in Spanish, no acting, no English, building real circumlocution skills.

💬 Heads Up! — small-group chaos that gets every student talking at once (and loving it).

🕵️‍♀️ Guess Who – ¿Quién es quién? — the childhood favorite reborn for practicing questions, adjectives, and cultural knowledge.

✍️ Collaborative Story Writing — creative writing meets competition, perfect for transitions or Fridays.

🌟 Big Takeaways

• Games are not just fillers — they can be powerful tools for output and confidence.
• When students play, they can naturally produce language, take risks, and forget they’re using target language.
• You don’t need dozens of new games — just master a few that work, and repeat them with variations.
• Building fun and community in class keeps students motivated all year long.

💌 Bonus Freebie: Grab the Language Booster Tool Christina and I created to help your students keep using Spanish outside the classroom → Download here

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