One of the questions I hear most often from teachers is:
“How do I teach culture in a way that feels natural, engaging, and not overwhelming?”
That’s exactly why I wanted to share how I taught La Maleta with my own students, because they are truly loving this story. It has been such a joyful, meaningful way to bring culture, movement, and language together without overplanning or stress.
Here’s exactly what I did using the resources from Aventuras in Learning and how this story easily stretched across multiple days.
1. Start with the Cultural Background
Before winter break, I began by reading the Background Information included in Aventuras. I explained the New Year’s tradition of la maleta in a simple, comprehensible way, keeping the focus on meaning rather than details.
Then, we read short sentences together and acted out the scenes. This helped preload both vocabulary and understanding before jumping into the full story. This step set the stage and gave students confidence, they already knew what was happening before we even “read” the story.
2. Play With the Vocabulary
Before reading, we played with the key words using movement-based games. For each word, we added a gesture to help anchor meaning.
Some student favorites:
- Simon Says
- Follow the Leader
- Charades
These games made the vocabulary stick without worksheets and prepared students to understand the story naturally.
Read the Story With a Real Suitcase
This is where the magic really happened.
I brought a real suitcase to class and assigned students different characters. As I read, the student with that character came to the front and acted out what I read. The story instantly came alive. Students were focused, laughing, and completely engaged, because they were inside the story, not just listening to it.
Pack the Suitcase… and Run!
After reading the story, we packed the suitcase following the events in the text, and yes, we ran with it!
To extend the activity, we also did a simple project where students created their own paper suitcases. They decorated them and added drawings of what they would pack, connecting the story language to their own ideas.
Then we brought everything together:
- Students took turns running with a real suitcase
- Others ran alongside with their paper suitcases
- All while naturally repeating the language from the story
This activity added movement, creativity, and joy, and it gave students another meaningful way to interact with the language, without it feeling like extra work.
5. Use Extension Activities to Check Understanding
After reading, we used the extension activities from Aventuras to check for comprehension.
This wasn’t about memorizing words, it was about making sure students understood the meaning of the story. These activities gave me clear insight into what students had truly acquired.
6. Make Personal Connections
Once students understood the story, we connected it to their own lives. We played a moment game to make connections and we talked about:
- New Year’s traditions in their families
- Where they travel or would like to travel
These conversations turned a cultural story into something personal and meaningful, which is where real acquisition happens.
7. Continue After the Break
I started the story before the break, and when we came back this Tuesday, I will:
- Show the video related to the tradition
- Assigned the story individually from Aventuras in Learning, so students could process the language at their own pace
This made returning from break feel calm, familiar, and purposeful.
Assigning the story individually through the Aventuras platform gave students time to:
- Revisit the language
- Listen and read multiple times
- Build confidence independently
- More input
This is what allows one story to stretch across several days, without extra planning.
Ready to Teach La Maleta?
If you don’t have Aventuras in Learning yet, you can still bring this experience to your classroom.
The La Maleta story and the paper suitcase project are available for purchase separately, so you can use them on their own or as an entry point into teaching with stories.
Whether you use it as a stand-alone cultural lesson or as part of a larger storytelling approach, La Maleta is an engaging, low-prep way to start meaningful conversations about culture, movement, and language, especially at the beginning of the year.
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