¡Ay, Caramba!

Wow!  I can't believe how quickly the first 2 weeks of school have passed.  Spanish classes have gotten right down to the business of....learning Spanish!  Here is what we have been up to so far:

Spanish 1:  Students can introduce themselves, say they like something, recite the Spanish alphabet (or sing it for you), ask permission to leave the room--ask them to sing the bathroom song for you :) and navigate our classroom wikipage and Google Classroom pages for handing in assignments,



Spanish 2:  The first part of the first quarter is a review.  So far we have been focusing in on asking questions--Who?, What?, Where?, When?, Why?, etc.  They are currently working on a short project with a partner to create a comic strip that involves amnesia and asking a lot of questions.  (We will be using the Pixton website to do this.)

Spanish 3:  Spanish 3 students are busy reading novels (of their choice) in Spanish.  They have chosen quite a variety, from Marley and Me to Twilight to Harry Potter to The Magic Treehouse to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, all en español.  Some of these make for quite ambitious undertakings when it's not your primary language, but kudos to the students for taking it on.  They have also posted their first blog entries (in Spanish!) and been reviewing how to describe people (going beyond the basic, short/tall, fat/thin, etc.). This week we are going to talk about Mexico's Independence Day celebrations.

Spanish 4:  Spanish 4 is also busy reading novels and writing blog posts.  Our first unit of the year deals with one of everyone's favorite topics--food!  We have listened to some food-related songs, talked about a variety of Mexican food, and are currently looking at fast food, Hispanic style.  Looking at all those food pictures can sure make your mouth water!

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.