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!

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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!

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.

¡Torta!

I devised this card game, modeled after 'Torta' (a game from Spain) and Slapjack. My fourth graders are working on the constructions 'me gusta', 'me gusta mucho', 'no me gusta' and 'me encanta' with various activities such as skiing, playing basketball, reading, etc- 12 total. I found a bunch of picture depictions for each activity and made enough copies to make about 84 cards (thereby each activity is represented several times).
To play I divided the class into two teams and split the deck in half. (I prearranged the cards so there would be lots of matches). A member from each team comes up and they both turn over a card at the same time, like in Slapjack. If the cards are the same, the first kid to slap the cards and call out 'Torta' is the winner, but not until he or she has made a sentence with the activity and one of the constructions (like 'Me gusta patinar'). That team then gets all the cards that have been turned over. If the cards are not the same, the next two players come up to turn a card, and so on. At the end of class, I tally how many cards each team has and a point goes to the team with the most cards. I keep a running scoreboard so we can track over time how the teams are doing.

End of the year

Here we are, counting down the days until summer vacation! As the kids get anstier, and my patience wanes, I wind down my theme work and look to activities which review learnt vocabulary. Often this includes games of all kinds. One I particularly like is 'Reloj', a card game from Spain. This works best in smaller classes or groups.
To play:
You will need several decks of cards (I use 5 decks for a class of 12)- remove the queens and the jokers.

To play:
-all cards are dealt evenly to players. Cards are kept face down.
-going clockwise, first player turns over top card, places it in center of table and says ‘reloj’. next player turns over his/her card and says ‘uno’. next player does the same, saying ‘dos’- play continues in this manner counting up to ‘rey’ (12). when players get to ‘rey’, counting starts again at ‘reloj’.
-as cards are played into the middle of the table, should a player turn over a card which holds the same value as the number he/she calls out, player must take all of the cards in the center. (So if player says 'dos' and turns over a 2, player takes all of the cards in the middle) No cards are taken when ‘reloj’ is said since it does not represent a number.
-play continues until one player goes out.

cards are counted in this order:
reloj
uno
dos
tres
cuatro
cinco
seis
siete
ocho
nueve
sota (10)
caballo (jack)
rey (king)

Disfrutalo!

Categorizing by color

When introducing a new thematic set of vocabulary, I plan activities which tap into previously learnt vocab. At my level, this includes numbers, size vocab, and colors. One activity which I particularly like is categorizing by color. This can be done with any set of items and is a great review of color words. Long ago I made a 'color mat'- a big poster with a space for each color on it (labeled, of course).
My First Graders have just started the theme 'Ranitas'. Using a collection of small frogs and the color mat, I held up each frog and asked "What color is this frog?". I call on a student to answer- this student then gets to place the frog on the appropriate color. I have gathered over the years enough frogs for everyone to have a turn, with multiple frogs of some colors and some colors having no frogs at all. Once all of the frogs are placed on the color mat, then I ask "How many frogs are red? (blue, yellow, etc)" Colors and numbers have now been practiced with a novel item (frogs) which keeps the interest and motivation high.
Tip: since many items are more than one color (a frog could be both yellow and black), I instruct the class to identify the color that it is the most of. This makes it easier to place the item on the color mat.

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!

An easy piñata

I love bringing piñatas into class, but frankly, I just can't afford to buy piñatas for all of my classes- it isn't in my budget. So, I go the less expensive route- I make paper bag piñatas. Besides, in a twenty minute class, there is no way (unless there is a very lucky hit) that we can break a piñata in that time. Sometimes we barely get the paper bag broken before I have to return my kiddos to their gen ed classrooms.
Paper bag piñatas are easy to make:
-buy a gift bag at your local store (Walmart sells them for a dollar)
-decorate with streamers, pictures, stickers, whatever
-stuff with candy

Tip: Instead of just putting a bunch of candy in the bag, use snack bags to create one for each student. I put their names on the bags and make sure each bag has the same amount of candy. When the piñata is broken, there are no hogs and no kiddos with nothing. (Thanks to Stephanie, one of our 2nd grade teachers for this idea!)

Play a little fiesta music (Dále, dále, dále) and you are good to go! ¡Viva la piñata!

¡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!

Rompecabezas

You know those classes where one or two kiddos finish early on a project or activity? "I'm done." can be the dreaded statement, especially for the traveling teacher who doesn't have a load of other items to turn to. One simple solution is to give the student or students a puzzle to do. But, I want to keep it light- I can't be carrying around puzzle boxes in my bag. So, I make my own puzzles using pages from calendars- here's how I do it:
-I choose a picture from one of the many Spanish-themed calendars I haved collected
-I glue the picture to stiff paper, making sure the paper creates a border so students can tell which are the edge pieces
-On the back, I divide the future puzzle into squares with a pencil and ruler. For younger students, you will need fewer and bigger pieces, and for older students you can make more, smaller pieces.
-In each square I write a letter (the same letter). When the puzzle is cut up I will know to which puzzle the pieces belong. If you have mutliple puzzles, the pieces can get mixed up and this helps to resort them.
-I laminate the puzzle.
-I cut the puzzle up along the lines I have drawn on the back.
-I put the pieces in a ziploc baggie labeled with the name of the puzzle and the letter I used on the back.
-The puzzle is ready to go!

When we are doing a project, I throw 5-6 puzzles into my bag- they are lightweight and easy to carry around- and hand one out when a kiddo says, "Señora, I'm done. What can I do now?"

¡Diviértete!

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!

Chocolate Caliente

Ummmm! It's that time of year to get making chocolate caliente. I often make it for my students right before Christmas vacation- they're squirrelly and lessons are going, going, gone! For a class of 18 I use:
1 gallon of milk
2-4 barras of chocolate (Abuelita brand is great or Goya or whatever you have available)
2 cinnamon sticks
1 vanilla bean
1 package of paper coffee cups

Pour milk into a large pot and add the cinnamon sticks, and the vanilla bean. I usually scrape the sticks together a few times before adding and I score the bean lengthwise. Warm the milk without scalding over medium heat. When the milk is warm, add the chocolate bars, continue warming until chocolate has melted, stirring occasionally. When it is ready, pour into a large pitcher and use a molinillo to stir it up. ¡Bate, bate, chocolate!

Serve in the cups. ¡Que delicioso!

*Note: It usually takes about 20-25 minutes for the milk to warm up. I need to do so prior to class as my classes are only 20 minutes long. I suppose if you put the heat up higher it would go more quickly.

Great website!

Check out:
www.elhuevodechocolate.com

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