Spanish Gender Article Practice: Free Download and Lesson

Help your youngest Spanish learners practice Spanish gender articles with this simple, quick and FREE download!

I’ve also created a sample lesson to use alongside the activity. I’ts easy to follow and perfect for K-3 Spanish teachers or parents (even if you don’t know Spanish) to use with your kids at home.

Have your little ones work on animal vocabulary, then choose the correct Spanish gender article with this simple cut and paste activity.

At Home Spanish Gender Article Lesson:

1. Cut

Start by having your little one cut out the animal pictures and words. It’s your choice if you would like them to color the animals now or at the end of the lesson.

The animal vocabulary used in the activity is gato (cat), rana (frog), elefante (elephant), tortuga (turtle), vaca (cow), and oso (bear).

2. Practice

Later, you can play I Spy with your little ones. But for now, you’ll want to review using the same sentence stem, veo (I see) and the gender article el/la (the), that you’ll use in the game.

• Veo el gato.
• Veo la rana.
• Veo el elefante.
• Veo la tortuga.
• Veo la vaca.
• Veo el oso.

If your little ones are are younger or have little to no Spanish, you can simplify. Have them repeat after you saying only the Spanish gender article and the vocabulary word. El gato. La rana. El elefante. La tortuga. La vaca. El oso.

Do this quickly. You’ll want to get to the game anyway!

3. Play!

Next, hide the picture cutouts around the room. You’ll want them to be in plain sight and face up. Now you’re ready to play a variation of I Spy. In Spanish it’s Veo, Veo (I see, I see).

Have your child walk around the room, searching for the six animal pictures. When they see one, they say:

Child: Veo, Veo (I see, I see)

Adult: Que ves? (What do you see?)

Child: El gato (The cat, or whatever animal it happens to be).

Repeat until all the animals are found.

Just a quick note: Though not technically wrong, linguistically, it makes more sense to say un gato (a cat) or una tortuga (a turtle) instead of el gato (the cat) or la tortuga (the turtle), but the point of this lesson is to practice the el and la gender articles.

This article over at Spanish Playground has a great explanation of Veo, veo as well as other variations you can use depending on the language level of your child.

4. Glue and Paste

Lastly, have your child glue and paste the word and matching picture in the boxes. And finally, they’ll need to circle the correct Spanish gender article.

Remember, the correct answers are: el gato, la rana, la tortuga, el elefante, la vaca, el oso.

If they didn’t color earlier, have them color the animals now.

Variations:

Play Memory

Before gluing and pasting, place the cards face up on a table. While your child’s eyes are closed, take one card away. Your child must tell you which card is missing, using the gender article. El oso.

If your child has already glued his or her picture cards, no worries! You can cover the “missing” animal with a small object instead.

To increase the level of difficulty, have your child repeat the string of missing animals in order (and using the correct gender article). For example: If in the first round, you took away the cat. They say el gato. Then in the second round you take away the bear. They say el gato y el oso. In the third round you take away the elephant. They say el gato, el oso, y el elefante. And so on until there are no more animals left.

For more extensive practice and/or center work check out these Spanish gender article puzzles.