Feliz día de muertos

Last week saw Spanish students working on a variety of projects relating to the celebration of El Día de los Muertos, a celebration in honor of one's deceased family members or friends.  It is characterized by the cleaning and decorating of cemeteries and gravestones, overnight picnics in the cemetery on the nights of Novemeber 1 and 2, constructing ofrendas with items of interest/value to the deceased, decorations ( a lot of skulls and skeletons), and of course, food.  Here are some samples of what each level did last week:

Spanish 1:  After reading a short article about El Día de los Muertos, students decorated skull.  Here is what they looked like:

Spanish 2:  Spanish 2 students read the ghostly story El Misterio de la Calle Olmedo (Mystery on Elem Street), discussed the origins of this holiday and compared/contrasted it to Halloween, decorated losas sepulcrales (gravestones), wrote anuncios fúnebres (obituaries), tried Pan de Muertos (bread of the dead), and made typical skeletal toys.  Here is our "cementerio":

Spanish 3:  After watching a video about El Día de los Muertos, students made papel picado with traditonal designs for this holiday as well as paper flowers in the traditional golden color. They also wrote calaveritas--short, humorous poems on skulls, and drew calacas--skeletons doing typical, everyday activities, an art form made famous by José Guadalupe Posada.

Spanish 4:  Spanish 4 students made and decorated sugar skulls.  They also researched a famous dead Hispanic celebritty and constructed an ofrenda in his/her honor.  Here are some examples of their work:

First quarter winding down

I can't believe the first quarter will be done in a week! Time flies when you are having fun...and I can't believe how hard it is to find time to keep this blog up-to-date. Here is what we have been doing in Spanish during the month of October: 

 Spanish 1: We have learned to count and tell time. We have also learned the days of the week and months of the year, as well as how to tell the date. (Students can sing the days of the week and dance the Macarena while singing the months of the year--they are a very talented bunch!) We will next be discussing the weather and doing a small project for El día de muertos. 

Spanish 2:  We have continued reviewing much of what was learned in Spanish 1.  This is a group that loves to sing, so I have tried to find a lot of music that reinforces many of the things we are reviewing.  We spent a lot of time on one of their favorite topics--sports.  Their projects about their favorite sport/activity are due tomorrow so I will hopefully post some of them next time.  We are currently doing an indepth study of the Mexican holiday, El día de los muertos, and I will also post some of the projects from this unit as well.

Spanish 3:  Students finished their wanted posters (examples below) and their dating videos (which I am still editing).  We have been reviewing talking about our daily routine, and will now be working on things for El día de los muertos.

Spanish 4:  We finished our food unit, although students are still editing their video projects.  We then did a short study of Christopher Columbus, taking a critical look at whether he was a villain or a hero.  Students then wrote posts on their blogs giving their opinions on that question.  Students are now in the process of researching a famous (dead) Hispanic as part of our día de muertos activities for next week.

Spanish 3 and 4 students don't know it yet, but they will shortly be doing a small collaborative project with their wikiamigo from Pardeeville.  More on this later.

Introducing....

Spanish 3 and 4 students once again will have wikiamigos from Pardeeville. To introudce themselves to their new partners, students created the following vokis:

 We are looking forward to collaborating with our new amigos.

Any questions?

Spanish 2 students had fun using Pixton to create cartoons in which they had to ask a lot of questions using question words in español.  Here are 2 of the finished comics:


Notice that not only can you read these comics, but you can also listen to them. ¡Qué bueno!

The vokis talk!

As promised, here are the Spanish 1 Introduction vokis:




 I´m sure students will someday look back at these and laugh as they remember that this is all the Spanish they once knew. We are now moving on to school and classroom items. What´s in your mochila?

Two weeks in.....

Two weeks in and Spanish students have been extremely busy.

Spanish 1 students have mastered the Spanish alphabet--go ahead and ask them to sing it for you.   They can easily ask permission to do things, ask how to say or spell things,  introduce themselves or other people, and a few other things.  They are currently working on creating a Voki speaking avatar that will talk with their voice.  I will be posting them here next week for your viewing pleaseure.

Spanish 2 students have begun the year by reviewing what they learned last year.  They have reviewed making introductions, vocabulary related to school, and basic question words.  They are currently working on comic strips in which they must ask a variety of questions.  These will also be posted next week for everyone to see.

Spanish 3 students have been working on how to give detailed descriptions.  One simple thing they did was to make word clouds of words they would use to describe themselves.  They used a website called Tagul.  Here are a couple of examples:




Spanish 4 students have been reviewing vocabulary related to food and restaurants, and they have learned how to talk about activities they have done. In addition, both Spanish 3 and 4 students are also busy creating Vokis which they will be using to introduce themselves to Spanish students in Pardeeville. Eventually they will be collaborating on projects with their Pardeeville partner, all via the internet. I will hopefully be posting their vokis next week also. 

 As you can see, there will be a lot of work samples to post next week, so check back then. Hasta luego.

Bienvenidos.....again

Welcome back to another year of Spanish class, or for those of you just starting out, welcome to Spanish Class.  This website is where I will be posting weekly updates of what we have been doing in class as well as some examples of student work as they complete various projects.  Hope you enjoy following us and seeing what we are doing.