There is a special kind of dread that comes with writing sub plans. You are already not feeling well, or dealing with your own sick child, and now you have to explain your whole lesson to a stranger who has never met your learners. For Spanish teachers, it gets harder still, because the odds that your substitute speaks Spanish are slim.

So the lesson often gets watered down. A movie, a coloring page, a worksheet that has nothing to do with the unit. The day is survived, but the learning stalls, and you come back to a class that has drifted off track.

It does not have to go that way. With the right setup, your learners can have a genuine Spanish lesson whether or not the adult in the room speaks a word of it.

Let the curriculum do the planning

The reason this works is simple. Calico Spanish delivers the language through videos, games, comics, and songs, so the comprehensible input does not depend on the person at the front of the room. A substitute’s job is to help facilitate the class as you deem fit in your sub plan. It is to press play, hand out the right pages, and keep the room running. Your kids get the Spanish straight from the curriculum, exactly as they would on a normal day.

That means no lost momentum and no busywork. Just a slightly different version of the lesson you would have taught anyway.

Your five-minute Spanish sub plans

Here are four things you can leave for any substitute, in any combination:

1. A link to the Games and Videos page. This is the heart of the plan. Your learners watch the unit videos and play the games independently, all in Spanish. Write one or two simple directions for the sub, like “students work through the Unit 3 videos and games,” and you are set. Click here to see the Games & Videos page. 
2. A word search from the current unit. Print a class set for quiet, focused vocabulary practice. It keeps hands busy and eyes on Spanish words, and it needs zero explanation.
3. Copies of the Calico comic. Leave printed comics for your level. Kids read the story, follow the pictures, and answer a few comprehension questions you write on the board or a handout. Reading familiar characters keeps them connected to the unit.
4. A song and its activity sheet. Pick a unit song and pair it with its activity page. Learners listen, sing along, and complete the sheet. It is engaging, it is repetition, and it sounds like a normal Calico day.

Pick one for a short class or stack two or three for a full period. Every option keeps your learners in the target language without asking the sub to produce any of it.

Build a “Spanish sub plan folder” now

The best time to set this up is before you need it. At the start of the year, put together a grab-and-go folder with printed word searches, a few comic copies, an activity sheet or two, and a simple one-page note with the Games and Videos link and basic directions. Tuck it somewhere your front office or a neighboring teacher can find it.

Then, on the morning you wake up sick, you do not have to think. You send one text: “Spanish sub folder is on my desk.” Done.

Homeschooling? This works for you too

The same idea covers the days your normal routine gets interrupted. If a co-op leader is out, or a grandparent is stepping in, or you simply need a hands-off day, the setup is identical. Press play on the videos and games, hand over a comic, and your learners keep going without you having to lead.

For schools: purchase your own School-to-Home Access

An individual sub folder is a great start, but if you are a curriculum coordinator, or the only Spanish teacher in the building, you do not want to be the one point of failure every time you are out. School-to-Home Access is an add-on to a teacher’s Stories subscription that gives your school one password-protected page with the entire video and audio library — Video Stories, Music Videos, Dialogue Videos, Songs and Stories audio, and Storybook Videos — available anytime.

It is priced per year and scales with your school’s size: $149 for up to 100 families, $399 for up to 500, $729 for up to 1,000, and a custom quote beyond that.

Try this: Because it is one password anyone can use, it works just as well for a substitute as it does for a family at home. Hand the sub your School-to-Home password and point them to the unit your class is on. They press play, and your learners hear Spanish exactly as they would on a normal day.

Spanish sub plans for a longer leave

A sub folder covers one day. It does not cover six weeks. If you are heading into a maternity leave, a medical leave, or any absence that stretches across units, the question changes: how do you make sure Spanish keeps happening for a whole grading period, not just an afternoon?

Calico’s curriculum already gives you the answer. Every unit comes with step-by-step lesson plans built for exactly this situation — someone with no Spanish background can pick them up and teach them, in order, without you writing out weeks of plans yourself.

Try this: Before your leave starts, hand your long-term substitute or covering colleague the unit sequence your classes will move through, in order, along with the lesson plans for those units. They follow the steps, and your learners keep moving through the curriculum the same way they would with you in the room.

You do not have to choose between taking the leave you need and pausing your learners’ Spanish. The lesson plans do the teaching; you just hand over the sequence.

Bonus tip: If you know who your long-term sub is going to be, send them the link our free Calico Spanish training videos on YouTube! 

Ready before the first surprise day

A great sub plan is one you build once and reuse all year. Calico gives you the pieces to do exactly that, so a sick day never has to mean a wasted Spanish class.

Start your free trial  and put your emergency Spanish sub plan together while things are calm.