An idea basket

My fourth graders are practicing creating full sentences using a simple formula... a noun, an adjective, a verb, then another noun. To help keep the creative juices flowing, I use an idea basket full of pictures of vocabulary words they know. I call up a student to pick a noun out of the basket, we put it on the board, and the fun begins!! I have found kids struggle to pull vocabulary items 'out of the air'- with the idea basket your class runs more efficiently and all kids participate. What's really great too is that you often get rather silly sentences, which increases the motivation factor. Sample a few of our recent sentences:

La lima sincera come una banana.
Un taco atlético agarra al gato.
Un gato amable ve una casa.

Qué divertido!

Call and Response

I love call and response activities.... they engage all students, serve to call attention to a particular action, and can be a great help with classroom management. One of my favorites ways to use call and response is to get my classes' attention. The way it works is this:
I say 'Nachos', and my students respond with 'Salsa'. We practiced and modeled what this looks like and sounds like... the expectation being that when they say 'salsa', they stop what they are doing and place their attention on me. My students love it and I easily get their attention when it is needed. Any pairing of related vocabulary works.... '¡Lima!' '¡Perú!, '¡Buenos! '¡Días!, '¡Frida!' ¡Kahlo!'... the possibilities are endless, and as you can see, it is a wonderful way to incorporate culture into your routine.

Getting Ready to Go Back to School

Time is certainly counting down, and many of us are already getting back into school mode. As I look forward to those first few weeks, a few things stand out. Here is my checklist for organizing my classroom:
-Obtain class lists and make seating charts. I teach all of my classes in circle, and with only 30 minutes for class time, I do not want to waste time waiting for kids to figure out where to sit, or have issues arise due to arguing over where to sit and with whom. Having 'Spanish spots' as I call them, makes coming and getting right to class a whole lot easier.
-Label and stuff folders for each class. All of my students have a folder, from K to 4th grade. Getting these folders ready to go before school starts helps me stay organized. Inside of each folder are packets of Spanish related activities (grade specific) students can do if they finish class projects or activities. As well, I put in word banks each grade will use during the course of the school year.
-Create name cards which can be used in a variety of activities. I use these a lot, whether for picking a child to have a turn during a game or greeting, for choosing partners, for charts and more.
-Create assessment class charts. I begin mini assessments right from the beginning, whether it be for participation or discrete point assessments, or routine assessments like those I use during our greeting activities. Having these charts ready to go beforehand makes my beginning a lot less hectic.

These four steps are only the beginning, but they address the nuts and bolts of organizing and managing a large number of students. With these things set and ready to go, I can turn my attention to welcoming my students!

Fun and tasty!

Trying to keep yourself and your students cool during the hot summer? Here's a fun and yummy treat using horchata:

http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/how-to-make-horchata-pops/

Check it out!

Take advantage of summer!

Summer is a great time to get some professional reading done... check out Multilingual Mania, a great resource for articles on language acquisition, program advocacy, trends in language education and more!

http://multilingualmania.com/

Sándwiches

I am always looking for new ways to use 'me gusta' and it's variants in authentic communicative ways. This year my Second Graders discovered a set of plastic sandwich ingredients manipulatives lurking in one of my bins which I had completely forgotten about, and boy did they want to play with them! So, out they came, each child putting together a sándwich we could comment on. This was a great way to practice three simple constructions 'me gusta', 'me gusta mucho' and 'no me gusta' in a genuine activity. As a take off on this, my students made paper sandwiches, as you can see in the photo, and each of us marked the chart as to how we felt about the sandwich they had created. We had such fun and they had the opportunity to take home their creation and share it with their family. Qué rico!

Back!!!!

I am back from almost a year away from my blog.....life became very busy, hectic, full.....fill in your adjective! I let this blog go, knowing at some point I would return. So, back in the saddle as it were. Over the last year, I have developed new themes for some of my classes, tried new activities, and brought back some old favorites. See my next post for a fun activity I just did with my Second Graders!