Word Banks

Word banks are a great way to organize vocabulary for students, collecting the necessary words and phrases around a particular theme or activity. Sometimes a word bank consists of vocabulary around a cultural theme, such as this one for a unit my first graders are doing on Venezuela.


We have just begun this one, adding important cultural info to a large map of Venezuela on the wall in my classroom- Salto Ángel, bolívares, chocolate, cacao....more to follow. For the little ones, this is a great visual as well as an organizer and reinforcer of what they are learning.

Guia Infantil

This is a really neat website designed for families in Spanish-speaking country, encompassing cultural topics relating to children, recipes, advice for parents, etc. The link below is for the page for tongue twisters; from there it is easy to search for other themes such as poesía, chistes, cuentos y más.

http://www.guiainfantil.com/servicios/trabalenguas.htm

Arpilleras, Part 3

And so, the people and animals are made. Though the kids will eventually get to take them home, first I safety pin them to a large arpillera background I made several years ago. When it's full, it's really a sight!
This is the kind of project to call the local newspaper about...great PR for your program!

Arpilleras, Part 2

The backgrounds finished, it is time to make little people and animals to populate it. I found head beads in Oriental Trading Company several years ago and they work really well for this part of the project. (You will need to go to their website; the head beads never show up in their catalog) I make the bodies out of pipe cleaners, put the head on the bodies, and use sheep wool and alpaca fur for the hair. I would have the kids make the bodies, but it would take too much time and frankly, many of them don't have the fine motor to be able to do it without loads of assistance. Needless to say, it is a lot of prep for me, but well worth it.


We use pieces of fabric to dress the people and half a pipe cleaner for the belt.
The animals are wrapped with yarn to give them some 'fur' - super easy and super cute!

Play Money

Play money is a great way to practice a whole host of skills- counting, making change, buying and selling- as well as allowing you to add a cultural element to your activities. If you have a color printer you are all set to print out sets of play money.
For my first grade classes, I printed out small copies of Venezuela's Bolívar Fuerte from Google Images, cut them out and put each set in a small ziploc baggie. Each set contained 2 each of the 2, 5, 10, and 1 of the 20 bolívar denominations. I started with just these lower denominations because my first graders can count up to 30, so didn't want denominations that were too high for them to count to.
Our introduction was quite simple- "Show me 5 bolívares" , "Show me 10 bolívares", etc. Each kid had to hold up the correct amount. It becomes more difficult as you give an amount where they have to combine bills to make the correct amount ("Show me 7 bolívares"- 5 +2) Tip: make sure your students understand this concept- talk with the gen ed teachers if you are not sure. Different schools approach addition and money in math class at different times in the curriculum and in different grades. My first graders have experience with working with money, but maybe other schools don't start that skill until second grade. It makes sense to do these activities with students who understand these concepts- you can move a lot faster and in more depth.
Once my students have experience with the various bills, we set up a store with different fruits and vegetables that one could buy in Venezuela. This was a great opportunity to review old vocab and introduce a few new ones. I created prices for products and kids took turns being the vender- first I ask for fruits/ veggies, then the kiddos get a turn. You can take this in a lot of directions- from very simple to more complex depending on the level of your students. I keep the activity simple- 'Two apples, please', etc. Older students could do a lot more with the same type of activity.
Have fun!