¿Cómo es la escuela?

IN a recent unit, Spanish 1 students talked about their classes and school. We learned how some things school-related may be different in Hispanic countries--uniforms, hours, extracurricular activities. For this unit's project, students made a Glogster (an on-line poster) about their school day and classes. Some used clipart; others actually took pictures in their various classrooms. Students then narrated a short introduction to each of their classes. Here is a couple of examples of the finished projects (by Beatriz and María). Look and listen:

Mis amigos

Spanish 1 students have been busy learning how to describe things (and people). As a culminating project or this unit, they introduced and described their friends by means of a website called fotobabble. This site lets you upload a picture and then record yourself talking about it. Here is an example by Cecilia.

El Día de los muertos

Last week many Hispanic countries celebrated El Día de los Muertos, a day to honor the memories of deceased family and friends. Spanish 1 students learned that one of the principle decorations for this holiday is skulls, which to the indigenous population symbolize life, rather than death. To hlep us celebrate, we decorated paper skulls. Here are some of our creations (thanks to Alejandra, Mariana, and ???.)

El tiempo y las estaciones

Spanish 1 students have been very busy the past couple of weeks. We have been studying the weather and the seasons, as well as learning how to talk about the activities we like to do. We have done a couple of different projects for this unit. The first was an audition tape for a job as a meteorologist in an Hispanic country. I will hopefully post the video of the finalists next week. The other project was to make a children's book about the weather and the seasons. While many students with excellent drawing skills opted to do their book by hand, a few others opted to go the digital route and made narrated pop-up books using a website called Zooburst. Here is an example (by Nacho). Read. listen, and enjoy. (Also, the books are in 3-D; click on the little back tab in the bottom center of the page to rotate the book and look around at what might be on the other side of the page.)

¿Qué hay de nuevo?

It has been a few weeks since we last posted. However, that does not mean we have not been busy. In that time we have learned all the counties and capitals of the Hispanic world. (We can even sing them for you if you wish.) We have also learned how to describe our classroom and the names for most items found in a typical classroom. I believe it was Nacho who set a new record for the Hungry Bug vocabulary game for this chapter. I don't remember exactly what his point total was, but it was one that will definitely be hard to beat. We have also learned how to count in Spanish (0 - 1.000.000+) and most recently, to tell time in Spanish. Coming up soon: days, months, seasons, and the weather.

It's voki time!

The start of another year. Once again time for beginning students to learn some basic phrases of introduction:

Hi!
What's your name?
How are you?
Where are you from?

These are some of the phrases we are currently working with. Just to show you that we can now introduce ourselves in Spanish, we created vokis, or talking avatars. As you can see, some of the avatars look like us, others not so much. But in all cases, it is really our voices you hear speaking Spanish. (Okay, maybe Pablo's is not his real voice.) ¡Muy bien!

Mi Casa

It's been a while since I have posted student work and I apologize for that. It doesn't mean that we haven't been learning and doing things--we certainly have. One of our recent Spanish 1 projects involved doing an MTV Cribs-style video of our homes. Students had fun videotaping and editing. We did have some minor technological glitches with this project--let's just say that now we know why it takes so long to make a feature-length movie. Here is an example of our project, by Alberto.

¡Qué delicioso!

Semester exam time means cooking time in Spanish 1. After a unit in which they learned the vocabulary for many food items, how to talk about the foods they like and dislike, and how meal customs in Hispanic countries are both similar and different from theirs, they got the opportunity to cook and eat a full course Hispanic meal. Sixth hour students (pictured below) made chilied pork, rice, refried beans, tortillas, tropical fruit salad, churros, and piña coladas (non-alcoholic, of course).

Piñatas 2

Progress has been made since we came back from Christmas vacation. Piñatas are now partially decorated. Check them out to the left and below.



Claudia and Victoria working on the cupcake.



Rafael and Felipe putting some shine on the star.












Javier and Alberto decorating the jalapeño.

Mi horario

Our most recent project in 2nd hour Spanish 1 was an on-line poster about our school day. Students used a website called Glogster and the finished product is called a glog. This is a great way to make a poster and go green since there is no tagboard or paper involved. Here are some examples of our posters. Press the arrows to listen to students talk about each of their classes. (It make take a minute for the posters to load, so please be patient. If they don't seem to be loading, try clicking on the red G.)

Por Amalia:


Por Felipe:


Por Lucia: