Using the target language for instructions (visual)

I am a big fan of posting what I say to kids visually, not just providing oral input. Not only does this provide great support for kids who learn differently, but it also creates an ongoing reference source for that input. One of my favorites "posts" are instructions for activities we are doing in class. I've created simple instructions on the back of which I've placed magnets so I can easily change them out when transitioning from one class to another. Additionally, I break down the activity into it's steps and stick those next to each instruction so my kiddos can see the correlation between instruction and step in the activity. As I introduce the activity, I go over the steps one by one ensuring my students comprehend what it is I am asking them to do. What I love about this (apart from using the target language, of course!) is that as we are doing the activity, I can refer my students to the instructions when they ask me "So, what do I do next?" or "I'm done with this".

So, as an illustration, you can see in the above picture students need to first put their name on the activity (La oruga muy hambrienta) using a pencil (note I put the material- pencil, scissors, etc- up as well, reinforcing that vocab). Then, they must cut out the pictures, thirdly glue them to the appropriate pages, and lastly, color. I've provided an example of each step for additional visual support.
The more you use this system, the better students get at it. Keeping the instructions simple enables them to more easily access the vocab, and over time they begin to know what the expectations are for instructions in class and use them independently.
We've created a great printable so you can easily do this yourself! Get it in our shop!

Get our printable here!

When they are done......

We have all been there.... the class is doing a project or an activity, and one of your students finished way ahead of the rest. So, what do you do? Traditionally, I have had extra activities for my students to do: mazes, dot to dots, coloring pages, all related in some way to the theme we are doing at the time, and in Spanish of course!! Recently, however, I found another idea which I interested in trying out...activity bags. The essence of the idea is to create an activity (such as a sorting activity) whereby the student has to take out the pieces and complete the task....so for instance, in the bag you have four word cards, chiquitito, pequeño, grande, enorme, and small manipulatives of a variety of animals (or picture cards if you don't have manipulatives) and the student has to sort the animals accordingly. You can then check to see if they have done so correctly before they put the activity away. My thought would be to also have a card for each student in their folder with each activity on it that they check off as complete a task (or you could put stickers on it).
As I said, I am going to try this out and will report back!

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!

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

One of those 'A-ha!' moments

Over the years I have been stymied by the learning process of some of my students- two of my current students have provided me with an epiphany...now I am working out how to address the issue.
What I have noticed
Like any other teacher, I have a wide mix of abilities in my classes- all kids come to Spanish, regardless of whether they are learning disabled, autistic, have speech impediments, etc. Making these kids feel successful is extremely important to me yet it is a continual challenge, particularly as they go through the grades to find those successes. As I mentioned above, two of my current students have provided some insight. Both of these girls are learning disabled...both of them have a great accent in Spanish and both are able to easily and creatively use a wide variety of phrases such as please, thank you, you're welcome, bless you, "how do you say ___ in spanish?", hello, goodbye, etc, yet when faced with a question like "How are you?" or "What color is the ___?" they struggle to come up with an answer. One moment it seems like they are extending and another moment they have great difficulties accessing class. This has puzzled me to no end. I know they both have memory retrieval issues and have challenges recalling information, yet they were using lots of phrases and words appropriately. What was the mystery I was missing?
What I suspect
I believe the solution is in fact simple- situations where only one possibility exists are learnt and recalled better than situations which are open ended and have multiple possibilities. In other words, there is only one word to express "please", but there are many answers to the question "How are you?" (my students have a choice between 12 possibilities by the end of 2nd grade). I suspect these girls' brains are able to pull up and use the vocabulary that falls into the first category- 1 word/phrase for a situation- but can not sift through a set of multiple possibilities in order to choose a specific word/phrase to use. Perhaps their brains are unable to store this information in a manner which allows them to access it later, or the process breaks down before it even gets to the part of the brain where this information is housed, or they can not pick out from what is stored the particular word/phrase they want to use. Certainly amount of usage of vocabulary plays a part- however, we use expressions of courtesy and the question 'how are you' every class, so they are used in equal parts.
Going forward
The challenge for me now is to figure out how I can present vocab for these types of kids (because I have many like this, not just these two girls) in a way which mimics the '1 word/phrase for a situation' phenomonen while at the same time integrating it into a 'multiple possibilities' framework. I shall ponder this further....

A clever mistake

Today in one of my first grade classes we were reviewing the names of some farm animals that we had learnt in kindergarten. We came to 'sheep' and in the picture I was showing was also a lamb. One of my students said, "Well, that must be lambo, which would be a boy, and if it was a girl it would be lamba." I asked him to explain his statement, whereupon he said 'O's are for boys and 'a's are for girls....my students have lots of experience with gender endings, starting with 'niño' and 'niña' in kindergarten. Though the o's and a's won't forever suffice (wait for mapa and mano and problema and so on!) the concept is well accepted with my students and as in this case, is well understood, even if the words he made up are incorrect. So smart!

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!

Arpilleras, Part 1

Every March my first graders learn about Peruvian arpilleras- I like how concrete an example they are of cultural perspective. Though I do not go into the origins of the arpilleras (orginally from Chile, made to preserve and record life in rural areas as a political statement), they are so powerful visually in their representations of ordinary life that I think they convey a lot of information all on their own.
One of my standards is to have my kids participate in cultural activities- often this takes the form of authentic games and songs. I have had to modify the making of arpilleras to make them more accessible and practical for my classroom. Part one is the creation of the background.Using construction paper and a collage technique, kids made scenes inspired by the arpilleras I have and pictures I showed them of rural life in the Andes Mountains of Perú. In addition, I cut out tree shapes from fabric which kids used to make trees and shrubs. We brainstormed ideas before we started- what did we see in the arpilleras I showed them- houses, mountains, trees, gardens, streams, fruits, grass, etc. I specifically told them not to include people and animals, as that will be Part 2. Stay tuned!

¡Feliz cumpleaños Pepita!

Yes, we celebrate Pepita's (our puppet friend) birthday! It's an authentic, real reason to use birthday greetings and vocabulary while at the same time having fun and using our imagination. One of the activities we do is make birthday cards for her. We brainstorm possibilities for greetings, messages, and leavetakings that can be used in the cards prior to starting on the cards themselves. The key for me is to get the students to use vocabulary they know (we do a lot of activities with greetings, leavetakings, etc as well as common expressions for writing letters and notecards). Here are some examples from my second grade classes:

This little girl added a speech bubble saying 'gracias' for the mouse who is receiving the gift. Love the good manners and creativity! (I do correct spelling but hadn't gotten to this one prior to taking the picture).
This is the inside of a card. The message is simple, basic, and yet effective and meaningful!

I use word banks for my second graders when they are doing writing activities. Each child gets a word bank to work with. As students become accustomed to using word banks they develop dictionary skills and the ability to access resources at their disposal, instead of constantly relying on me. As well, it ensures good spelling habits and reinforces literacy skills.

We are always trying to bring the real world into our foreign language classroom- writing cards and having celebrations are great ways to do so!

Jícama con limón

Here's a simple yet yummy treat to share with your kiddos- a common snack in México.

You need:
1 small-medium jícama (the bigger they are, the more fibrous they are)
Juice of one lime
cayenne pepper (optional- and boy, does it go a long way!)

Remove the skin of the jícama and slice in julienne strips
Add juice of the lime and mix.
Sprinkle with cayenne pepper (be stingy! :))

Serve in little cups. This is enough for one class, maybe two if they are small. I find that it's better if I hold the cayenne off and let each kid choose whether he/she wants it. It should really by piquin peppers but I can't get those around here. At any rate, most kids have never tasted a jícama so it's a great snack that has some novelty but won't turn off the vast majority of your students.

Enjoy!

Literacy support

Yesterday, during an activity with one of my Kindergarten classes, a student who had been asked to identify what animal I was holding up (a picture of a cat), thought for a moment then looked up at one of my bulletin boards where I had posted pictures of family vocabulary along with large labels for each word and said 'un gato'.
I am a strong advocate for presenting all vocabulary in written form along with the oral language. Even the youngest students will begin to build a visual memory of those words, and connections are built in the brain between the written and spoken language. This student already has literacy skills- she is already reading at an early emergent level. Regardless of whether a student has a set of literacy skills or not, however, the written word is an important piece of scaffolding and providing support for our students. In addition, students are encouraged to transfer the skills they have learned with the gen ed teacher to the Spanish classroom- another connection.

Fun with Geography and Flags

January is geography month- at least, for my first graders it is! We start by learning the names of the Spanish-speaking countries in South America and where they are on the map. I made a large map out of bulletin board paper, laminated it, and stuck velcro on it so I can do TPR activities with the map. For example, I printed out the flags for each country, put the other half of the velcro on the back, and have the kids put them on the correct countries.

First, I call a kiddo up and give him/her a flag and tell him to put it on ________. This continues until all of the flags have been attached to the map. This simple activity works on recognizing where the different countries are and helps the kids learn the names of the countries. Once the kids have a working knowledge of where the various countries are, we then work on recognizing which flag belongs with which country. This is a great opportunity to practice colors while you are working on geography. Instead of handing a flag to a kiddo, I would now say "Find Venezuela's flag and put it on the map." We then move to individual maps which the kiddos will eventually take home.
Flags are just one possibility- during my frog unit, we place various frog pictures I found on the internet on the countries where they live. You could do famous places (Machu Picchu, Angel Falls, etc), capitals, pictures of people in traditional dress, currency...the possibilities are limitless.

Villancicos

I am in love with Kumquat's 'Villancicos' cd. by Constanza Basaluzzo. Published and recorded in Argentina, each and every Christmas carol is just divine. Not to mention I adore the accent...
In class we have a great time singing and humming along with some of my favorites, including 'Navidad'. For older students you can copy the lyrics and highlight the chorus so they can follow along.
I bought this cd from Scholastic a couple of years ago- you can get it on Amazon.

Que chulito!

I just found the most adorable site for kiddos in Spanish:

http://us.gusanito.com/esp/

Enjoy!

Great website!

Check out:
www.elhuevodechocolate.com

Super resources for sayings, proverbs, songs, poems, tongue twisters, word plays, etc.

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!

Punto a punto

I love to take regular old activities and use them in my class. So many things can be easily modified for the FL classroom. Dot to dots are a great example. Easy to find (look in the kids section at most bookstores, ask a fellow gen ed teacher, go online on google images and do a search) they come in a variety of levels, from the simple 1-10 to the more difficult, and on loads of themes, from animals to outer space to just about anything! Here are two ways I use them:
*The very simple- for practicing counting, I give my kinders a simple 1-10 or 1-20 dot to dot. As a group, we connect the dots- kids are not allowed to connect the next dot until we have all said the next number. Usually I will say "What's the next number?", they will respond, then I direct them to making the connecting line and so on to the end. Then I will ask what the picture is. Obviously I choose a dot to dot that makes something they know how to say in Spanish. They can then color the picture.
*A trickier technique- I choose a dot to dot but white-out the numbers. (Make sure you have an original to look at when doing this). I rewrite the numbers, but put them out of order. Then, prepare a set of number cards, putting them in the order in which they will appear to correctly finish the dot to dot. These will be used during the lesson for those kiddos who are having a brain block on a particular number. During the lesson, inform the class that they will need to listen to you very carefully to be able to connect the dots correctly. If they simply go in numerical order, they will mess it up. Then start by having them put their pencil on the first number and telling which number to connect it to. They draw the line, then you give the next connecting number and so on until the end. Since this requires your students to know the numbers out of order, I often hold up the number cards I prepared to help them along, especially with higher or more difficult ones. Remember, even if you are showing them the answer, they are still using their listening skills as they listen to you and they are not translating as they go if you show them the cards. At the end, ask what the picture is and let them color. In a twenty minute class, there is usually only a few minutes left for them to color so often they take it home to color there.

Have fun!

First Day of School

I play a cute greeting game with my kiddos during the first few classes of school called 'Pum!' (Pop!), based on a game from Responsive Classroom. It is played like this:
Kids sit in a circle.
Kids count off, one at a time- the first kid in the circle says 'uno', the next kid says 'dos', the next says 'tres'. The next says '¡Hola!', jumping up like a piece of popcorn popping. The rest of the class then greets the kid who jumped up, saying '¡Hola ______!'. This kiddo stays standing and the countoff continues, always having the kids who are sitting do the counting. Keep going around until there is only one kiddo left- this kid will need to count to 'tres' before popping up so the class can greet him/her.

This greeting game is quick and fun. It is great for you and the class to learn each other's names. Remember: you should model how to 'pop up' before you do this game. Otherwise, there will always be one or two who will be overly exuberant! :) You don't want anyone to accidently hurt another by being out of control.

Have fun!