A review to share with you, and a giveaway (read on to learn more about the giveaway!)
Music with Sara is at it again. Sara´s sweet voice and her music album called “Canciones en Español“ is all you need in order to welcome la primavera into your classroom. It’s a collection of 15 songs that will add richness and wonder to any Spanish class.
My favorite song on this album is called “La Llorona,” a traditional song from Mexico. Sara did a beautiful job keeping this song simple for young children, still preserving the richness of the Mexican music – not an easy feat but oh so important for the use of music in teaching and learning. Another fantastic song is “Mi Cuerpo.” Her version is very lively and catchy and gets everyone up and dancing in class. My students’ favorite is “Patito Patito” which is short and fun – plus there is a nice video that goes along with the song
Sara also created a video for the song “Te Quiero Mamá” that has some awesome animation.
“Canciones en Español” is a music collection that will bring a lot of fun to your classes while you celebrate and welcome the arrival of spring. To learn more about Sara and her music, please visit her website www.musicwithsara.com
The Giveaway
I am so happy to share this opportunity with you! Two lucky readers will to get this awesome music from Sara to play at home or in their classrooms.
Would you like this set of songs for your own classes? Just enter below for a chance to win. You have until March 30th, 2013!
I have been using these mini-libros with my students and they love them! I used them at the end of the units for them to keep as “pictonaries.”
The Giveaway
I am so happy to share with you that 5 lucky readers will get to have this complete set. This set is currently available in the TpT store. Click HERE to learn more about these mini-books.
Would you like this set for your class? Just enter below for your chance to win. You have until Friday, March 1st at 6PM Eastern time.
In preparation for this game you will need felt, pictures of soccer balls, pictures of famous soccer players from different Spanish-speaking countries, and a glue gun to put the felt pieces together.
Once the game is all put together, get ready to play it with students. The idea is to simulate a soccer game in class. Divide the class into two groups and assign a fútbol player to each time. Before playing the game introduce each famous player, and use this opportunity to show their countries of origin on a map and also the names of their teams.
The rules of the game are very simple. Each group will get set on the side of the “field” (cancha) that corresponds to their players. Invite one volunteer from each group to come to the middle. You can use flash cards or a bag filled with objects to represent vocabulary that you have previously explored in class. Show a card or object and ask a question related to it. For example: “¿Qué es? or ¿De qué color es la vaca?”
Whoever answers first will mark a “gol” for his//her team. Invite the class to shout together “¡goooooool!“. If they both answer at the same time or the game ends in a tie (empate), then they will have to go into overtime, referred to as “penaltis,” which in the case of this game means they will get a another turn. To keep track of their scores, I place pictures of a soccer ball on their side of the field each time they get a goal.
I love teaching this unit in my classes. I especially love teaching names of fruits that are endemic to Latin America, mostly from Colombia, the country where I am from.
In preparation for this activity you will need to create a monster prop, similar to the one in the picture below, which is very simple to make – with no sewing involved. I used felt fabric of different colors, glue, staples and wiggly eyes. Make sure to put a space in the mouth so the children can feed the monster. The monster I made is big, and my students enjoy its visit to class. I use a hanger to carry it from classroom to classroom. You will also need plastic fruits or pictures of different fruits, depending on the ones you would like to introduce.
Once the monsters and fruits are ready I like to introduce them using Total Physical Response (TPR). I often use American Sign Language (ASL) because I don’t think it makes sense to spend time creating my own gestures when I can use the beautiful ASL that children may already be familiar with or encounter later in life. Plus, ASL is a language in and of itself, so my use of it just provides another advantage for my children and their multilingual brains! My favorite resource on the Internet is Signing Savvy. On this site, you just have to type a word, and then you get a video showing the corresponding sign.
I use a magic box or bag and introduce the name of each fruit with the sign. I review each fruit by asking the children to show me the sign while saying the name in Spanish. Then we go over each fruit and describe it by colors and sizes. I will also ask my students questions like “¿te gusta comer manzana?” and then have them respond back to me by saying “sí, me gusta”, “no, no me gusta”, or “me encanta.”Since my students are young and many don’t have experience in the language, I ask questions in a way that models the answers so they feel confident about it: Me: ¿Qué es? Es una manzana. ¿Qué es? Student: Es una manzana.
After students have learned the vocabulary, I use other activities to complement and assess the topic. Here are some examples:
Place a fruit into a bag or box. Ask a student to follow commands: Encuentra la manzana, pásale la manzana a Peter.
Give a fruit (picture or plastic) to every student. You need to have a flash card or picture of each fruit. Ask “¿dónde está la manzana?” The student who has the fruit must answer “¡Aquí está la manzana!” (Don’t forget to model the question and the answer).
Check for TPR gestures for each fruit showing the sign you taught for each fruit.
Ask students to draw pictures of the fruit you name. Erasable white boards are great for this activity!
Charades: A student makes a TPR gesture and the rest of the class has to guess it.
This is where the monster you made comes alive. Tell the story while feeding the monster.
El monstruo se come un banano.El monstruo se come una piña.El monstruo se come una pera.(Do the same for each fruit you have decided to include in your unit)¡El monstruo se engordó! Ask questions after telling the story:¿El monstruo come piña o pan?
¿Qué come el monstruo? ¿Te gusta comer piña? ¿El monstruo se engordó o se durmió? ¿Qué le pasó al monstruo?
Act it out!
Play with the story before you let students act the story out. Pick some students to retell the story.
You will need a narrator, and to make it more fun and interactive, you can give a play microphone to the narrator. Choose other students to put the fruits inside the monster’s mouth. They should say the word aloud and make the appropriate TPR gesture.
Have you ever wondered what to do with an empty box of baby wipes or Clorox? Here is a simple and easy idea that my younger students love!
Find different pieces of fabric of various colors. Tie them all together, and put them inside the box. Next have your students guess the color that might be next. First, I have my students guess what could be inside the box, then I tell them that the box is filled with different colors. I simply ask “¿qué color es?” I then take some guesses, and finally I invite one of the students to pull one colored piece of fabric out of the box while we count “uno, dos, tres.”
This idea is very simple, but its a good way to reuse before recycling, and the children in my Pre-K and K classes love guessing the colors. I hope yours do too!
¡Hola! I am Carolina, a Colombian elementary Spanish teacher based in Boston, MA. Fun for Spanish Teachers is the result of my passion for teaching Spanish to children and my desire to inspire collaboration and creativity in a vibrant teaching and learning community. It’s the perfect stop if you are looking for songs, games, teaching tips, stories, and fun for your classes.
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