07 November 2013

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.