¡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.

Practicing Names

A cute traditional rhyme for practicing "Me llamo ____" :

A E I O U
Arbolito de Perú
Yo me llamo _____;
¿cómo te llamas tú?

I like to play a game with this rhyme once the students have learned it. The students sit in a circle. The students recite the first two lines, I say the third and fourth, rolling a ball to a student who then answers the question. We then start again, the student now saying the third and fourth lines and rolling the ball to another student. The game continues until everyone has had a turn. For a silly twist, you can write out the students' names on cards, shuffle them and pass them out, making sure students get a name other than their own. Or you can write names of famous people or cartoon characters. Finding ways to practice the construction 'My name is ___' and 'What's your name?' in an interesting manner can be difficult, but this game works well, is fun, and of course, the rhyme is authentic so a cultural element is tapped as well.

A great quote!

While searching for quotes on language and language learning to decorate my classroom door, I came across this one:

"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart."
- Nelson Mandela

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

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!

Language Journal

I found this language journal while looking for something else. I have not had the opportunity to fully explore the site, but thought it might be of interest to some.

http://www.languagemagazine.com/internetedition/frame.html

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.