Las Fallas: KS3 Spanish Preterite Lesson

Imagine a city that spends a whole year building giant monuments, and then burns them all in one night! This complete, ready-to-teach lesson takes Year 8–9 students to Valencia’s Fallas through Lucía’s diary, and uses it to teach the preterite in context. It’s colourful, fits a one-hour lesson with 5 minutes to spare, and ends with students writing a postcard from Valencia.

What’s included
• 6-page full-colour student worksheet (A4)
• 17-slide editable PowerPoint with timers, answer slides and teacher notes on every slide
• Separate teacher answer sheet with a minute-by-minute lesson plan
• One-page vocab mat (Fallas words, the preterite, time phrases and opinions), ready for desks or homework

The lesson (55 minutes)
• Do Now (4 min): match six key Fallas words.
• Reading (14 min): El diario de Lucía, covering the mascletà, the plantà, the Ofrenda and the Cremà, with every past-tense verb highlighted. Students then answer “which day?” questions, do true or false, and find the verbs in the diary.
• Grammar (10 min): the preterite of -ar and -er/-ir verbs, plus the key irregulars fui, fue, vi and hice.
• Compare (12 min): a short text in Spanish about Bonfire Night, a Fallas vs Bonfire Night table, and comparisons with las dos and mientras que.
• Write (12 min): a postcard from Valencia in the preterite, with an opinion.
• Exit ticket (3 min).

Why teachers like it
• Students meet the preterite in a real text before they learn the rules.
• Works on its own, with no prior knowledge needed. Perfect for early March.
• The Bonfire Night link makes it relevant to UK students.
• The vocab mat supports weaker students and EAL learners in class, and doubles as a revision homework.
• The answers are in a separate file, so you can print the worksheet without them.