To help students remember parts of the body in Spanish, students in Ms. Geri Barnish’s Spanish I class are creating two-dimensional dolls and making outfits for them. This activity is to help students learn the Spanish words for body parts and clothing by labeling the doll.

“This is an activity to help students learn without it being a boring memorization task,” Barnish said. “I try to come up with different activities that can be fun and educational, too.”

The project started last Monday and the students have one more week until it needs to be completed. Since the project has never been done by Barnish before, she assigned it for the first time this year.

“I am a risk taker and decided to do this project,” Barnish said. “They seem to like this; I’m hoping it helps to do the labeling and coloring as a kinesthetic learning process.”   

Students need to draw and label 15 body parts in the correct places, then design 20 articles of clothing with the correct names. The doll has to be made out of paper, and fabric may be used to make the clothes. To draw details of the face and body, students are required to use markers.

“This project has helped me a lot so far, realizing that there are various names for one item of clothing in Spanish depending on what it is used for is very tricky,” sophomore Jessica Wiley said.  “now I have the knowledge handy and I can see it and apply it visually, which makes things way easier.”

When the project is completed, students will be able to keep the dolls to use for future reference and recall. The best paper dolls will be recognized in the class and possibly put on display outside the classroom.  

“I would do this again just because it’s a fun activity full of hands-on interactions,” sophomore Skylar Wiezorek said. “Instead of listening to a lecture or powerpoint, we were able to create what we wanted for our doll to help us learn best.”