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Lesson plan: «Antón Pirulero»

Children play «Antón Pirulero» miming jobs with their hands, stay alert so they can switch jobs in time, and win back their forfeits with kind, silly challenges.

Ages
Ages 4–6
Time
30 minutes
Areas
Attention and self-control · The natural and social world · Getting along and feelings

Opening

  1. Show the job cards and ask: «¿Quién hace esto? ¿Cómo se mueven sus manos?» (“Who does this? How do their hands move?”). Mime each job together.
  2. Each child picks a job and practices it with their hands. Give everyone a clothespin and explain that it’s their «prenda» (“forfeit”): whoever gets distracted puts it in the basket and, at the end, wins it back with a silly challenge.
  3. Watch the video once, together, to hear the whole song. Then turn the screen off.

Main activity

  1. Sit in a circle and sing the song slowly, keeping the beat with pats on your legs. Pause so the group fills in «que atienda a su juego» (“should pay attention to their own game”).
  2. Start the game: while everyone sings, each child does their job and you lead with your own. At any moment, copy the job of someone in the circle: that child has to notice and switch right away to your job.
  3. Whoever misses it puts their clothespin in the basket and keeps playing: nobody is out.
  4. Start slowly and go a little faster each round. After a few rounds, hand the leader’s role to a child.
  5. Swap the jobs for imaginary instruments: drum, guitar, trumpet, piano… Let the group suggest others.

Closing

  1. Give the forfeits back: each child whose clothespin is in the basket picks one of two kind, silly challenges (three frog hops, a meow, singing their own name) and can do it together with a friend. If they don’t like a challenge, swap it for another.
  2. Talk about it: “Which job did you do? What other jobs do you know? How did you notice you were being copied?”
  3. Have children draw the job they chose, or one they see in their community, and ask each child to tell about it.

Materials

  • Picture cards of jobs: cooking, sweeping, sewing, playing the piano, painting
  • One clothespin per child: their forfeit
  • A basket to keep the forfeits in
  • Paper and crayons

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What to observe

  • Notices when their job is copied and switches to the leader’s job.
  • Keeps doing their own job while singing, without copying the others.
  • Suggests a job or an instrument and mimes it with their hands.
  • Hands over their forfeit, keeps playing and does a challenge to win it back.

Adaptations

  • With 3-year-olds, play without forfeits: everyone copies the leader’s job and they all switch together when you say «¡cambio!» (“switch!”).
  • For children who don’t speak yet or who use AAC, use the song’s pictogram sheet and let them choose their job by pointing to a card.
  • For children who need to move less, every job and every challenge works sitting down, with the hands.
  • If the group speaks other languages, ask what a job is called at home and have the group mime it while saying that word.

For families

Ask families to play Antón Pirulero at home, each person with their own job, and to win forfeits back with silly challenges.

If you teach Spanish as a new language

  • Teach the key words with gestures (TPR): «juego» (game), «prenda» (forfeit), «cocinar» (to cook), «barrer» (to sweep), «coser» (to sew).
  • Model one line at a time and let students echo it: the repeated «Antón, Antón» and «cada cual, cada cual» (“each one, each one”) give everyone an early success.
  • Mime a job and ask «¿Qué hago?» (“What am I doing?”); accept one-word answers like «¡Barrer!» or «¡Cocinar!».

ACTFL World-Readiness Standards: Communication (interpretive and interpersonal), Cultures (a traditional game is a cultural practice; the song, a cultural product) and Comparisons (Spanish sounds and words next to your students’ languages).

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