This is one of my favorite stories, not because I wrote it, but because it brings back so many fond memories of growing up in a neighborhood in the south of Cali, Colombia. As I wrote Corre, Año Viejo, Corre, I could clearly picture all the children in my neighborhood gathering around the Año Viejo. I wanted to capture that rich cultural tradition in a short story, but with a touch of humor to make it fun for elementary students and something teachers can easily share in their world language classrooms.
The Año Viejo is a New Year’s Eve tradition celebrated in Colombia and other Latin American countries. This custom involves burning a life-sized doll, traditionally filled with fireworks, gunpowder, or straw. The Año Viejo symbolizes the end of a cycle, leaving behind the negative and setting new goals, almost like pressing a reset button. It can also be a way to express political opinions, depending on who the doll represents. There are also smaller versions of the “Año Viejo.” Burning the doll is a family tradition and a community event shared among neighbors, streets, or neighborhoods. Regardless of the doll’s size, this celebration is always accompanied by the song ¡El Año Nuevo!, blending joy with nostalgia. But most importantly, it symbolizes a new beginning.
The Story in the Book
As the year comes to a close, a grandmother decides to make an Año Viejo doll to say goodbye to the old year. She carefully crafts each detail, but suddenly, the doll comes to life and starts running! What will happen to Año Viejo? Can he escape?
Corre, Año Viejo, Corre isn’t just a playful story—it’s also a great way to teach kids about New Year’s celebrations in Latin America. Students will learn about the tradition of creating an Año Viejo figure, which symbolizes letting go of the past year. It’s a fun way to teach cultural traditions in Spanish class!
Where to Find Corre, Año Viejo, Corre
You can find Corre, Año Viejo, Corre on Amazon, CPLI Books, or in my online store as part of a special bundle. This bundle includes the story and an Año Viejo character, giving you everything you need to bring this engaging cultural tradition into your world language classroom. It combines a captivating story with hands-on activities and language practice, making it the perfect addition to your teaching resources.
What’s Included in the Corre, Año Viejo, Corre Bundle:
Reading Comprehension Activities: Check for understanding with fun questions and activities that help build reading skills.
Crafts and Extension Activities: Students can create their own Año Viejo puppets, write goodbye notes to the past year, and even design their own versions of the character.
Language Learning: Reinforce vocabulary with simple Spanish phrases related to New Year’s celebrations and cultural traditions.
This bundle is an excellent tool for teachers who want to make learning Spanish fun and meaningful, while also introducing important cultural lessons. Perfect for elementary school world language teachers looking for engaging, culturally rich content!
As world language teachers, October provides an excellent opportunity to explore Día de Muertos, Halloween, or both with your students. If these topics aren’t permitted in your school, consider focusing on the migration of monarch butterfliesinstead.
While these celebrations share some similarities, their cultural roots and significance are quite distinct.
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, a time when people believed that the boundary between the living and the dead was blurred. It evolved over centuries, incorporating various customs and traditions. Today, Halloween is often centered around spooky themes, trick-or-treating, and playful scares, with a focus on costumes, candy, and fun.Read more here!
Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), on the other hand, is a deeply meaningful celebration in Mexican culture that honors loved ones who have passed away. Rooted in ancient indigenous traditions, it merges elements of Aztec rituals with Catholic influences. Families create altars, share stories, and offer favorite foods to remember and celebrate the lives of those no longer with us. This celebration is a beautiful way to teach respect for other traditions. Read more here!
This is a fantastic opportunity to explore the similarities and differences between these two celebrations. I’ve created a Venn diagram that you can use in your classes. While I’m not an expert on these topics, I encourage you to take some time to familiarize yourself with these celebrations before sharing them with your students, no matter the level or grade you’re teaching. We do better when we know better! Feel free to add your own visuals to the slides.
Click here to get your copy on Google Slides.You’ll notice that the images are stacked on the left side. Just move them to where they correspond on the diagram. When using the presentation in class, make sure to select the full-screen setting; if you enter presentation mode, the images won’t appear. After discussing the content with your students, you can switch to presentation mode and review it again. This Venn diagram is perfect for novice students starting in 2nd grade. Some of these conversations might take place in the students’ L1 or the common language for clarity.
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Nibi is Water is a beautiful picture book written and illustrated by Joanne Robertson and translated intoAnishinaabeKwe by Shirley Williams and Isadore Toulouse. This book was written for babies and toddlers and is a wonderful resource for preschool and kindergarten world language classes too. By bringing this book to your classes, you are not only sharing the powerful message of protecting water and what nibi (water in AnishinaabeKwe) means for the Ojibwe but also to use it as a tool to provide authentic language input for your students. And the most important thing! Buy the book if you can to support the author. It’s also great when you can add it to your own classroom or school library.
I highly recommend that before engaging with the book to give input to your students, you give some background information about the author. I believe this short clip is great to do so. The clip is obviously in English, but it is important for students to understand why the book was written and help the author spread the message about the connection between water and her culture. Remember that world language classes should be a space not only limited to learning about the culture of the target language you are studying and learning day to day, but to connect with the world as a richly interwoven tapestry of languages, cultures, and traditions. Our classes should be a space to nurture global citizenship!
Some suggestions for using this book:
1. After watching the video with your students, read the book to provide additional context. I added the high frequency word “puedes”. For example:
Page 1: La lluvia es agua.
Page 2: La nieve es agua.
Pages 3 & 4: En el agua puedes chapotear y remar.
Pages 5 & 6: En el agua puedes nadar. Puedes tomar el agua.
Pages 7 & 8: Puedes hacer crecer las plantas o hacer encoger un suéter.
Pages 9 & 10: Con el agua te puedes bañar y cepillar.
Pages 10 & 11: Puedes lavar los platos o bajar (descargar) el baño.
Pages 12 & 13: Puedes salpicar o tomar.
Pages 14 & 15: Puedes darle agua al perro y al gato. Puedes ver al oso en el agua.
Pages 16 & 17: Puedes dar gracias y respetar.
Pages 18 & 19: Puedes dar amor y proteger.
Page 20: Nibi es agua.
Page 21: Nibi es vida. El agua es vida.
I use painter’s tape(Amazon affiliate link) to add text to any book I want to adapt and make it comprehensible for my students. This type of tape sticks to the book without damaging it if you decide to remove the tape in the future.
2. The illustrations are just amazing! Use them to talk about the different animals and colors in the book.
3. Print some pages of the book and use them like movement cards. There are some great illustrations that go well with TPR (Total Physical Response).
Looking for ways to incorporate geography in your classes? These are some ideas that you could bring to your classes right away!
Money Basket
Over several years of teaching Spanish I have collected coins and bills from different Spanish speaking countries. Either someone brings them to me or I collect them during my own travels. I got to a point where I didn’t know what to do with them. It occurred to me that I could use them for a center in my class. I also printed some images and laminated them for students to manipulate easily and placed them with the coins in a basket. I printed and laminated maps where all the Spanish speaking countries are listed. My students really enjoy looking at the different bills and coins, comparing them to the United States bills, and locating the countries on the map.
Guess The Temperature
Create a slide with a world map and numbers on it. Choose a country, then a city and locate it on the map. If possible use Google Earth to take a quick virtual trip. Talk about the general weather and seasons. Ask your students to guess the temperature in that city. Record their answers on a paper or board. Use the Chrome extension “UV Weather” to check the temperature and find who guessed it right or came close!
Play Your Favorite Music
Create a slide with a world map and insert a video or audio to your slide. Add a flag of the country the songs belongs to. Locate the country on the map and talk about the colors on the flag. Then, make it a game! Have an object for your students to pass around. In my case I use a plush toy monster. Play the music and ask your students to pass it around. Stop the music and whoever has the object will have to answer questions. You and your class decide when to stop the game.
We have already started the countdown to the holidays and the end of the year. The days before a break are often difficult. We feel tired, that we are running out of ideas, energy, or both.
Something that works very well for me these days is planning classes in which I know my students can relax a bit. I focus on sharing a little about some of the traditions that I grew up with in Colombia and do art activities. I have to be honest, the art activities require a bit of preparation on my part because time with my students is limited but generally the result is positive and I feel like it was worth the investment in that preparation time.
In the interest of keeping this post short, I thought you might like this list of resources for the last days of the school year in 2021. This list includes resources on my blog and Teachers Pay Teachers:
Wearing yellow underwear is a unique tradition that some people in Colombia, and other places where Spanish is spoken, have on December 31st during “La Noche Vieja” on New Year’s Eve. It is believed that wearing yellow underwear will bring good luck in the new year. This tradition is known in Colombia as “Los Cucos Amarillos” or “Los Cucos de la Suerte.” “Cuco” is a word used in some places in Colombia to refer to underwear.
Through this game children will learn about this fun tradition and three simple common expressions in Spanish: ¡Qué buena suerte!, ¡Qué chévere!, ¡Qué mala suerte! You will need good luck to play the game well, of course!
