Resources for Spanish Class {Facebook Corner}

by | Jul 1, 2014 | Facebook Corner, Resources for Spanish Class

Conversaciones de maestros en nuestra página de Facebook 

Sandra says:

“This is a crazy question but I am teaching Spanish to kids on a grant and they are asking us to spend the money that is left over which is a lot of money. I want ideas of great resources that I can us or any ideas of things I should get?”

Vero :Spanish books and movies in Spanish, and any other kind of audivisualmaterial that you can get

Joe: Buy a subscription to ESL Library. It has fantastic images and labels in Spanish. This is one of the few things I’d buy even with my own money.

Sandra: Can you write the link for ESL library?

Joe: Reading A-Z has leveled readers that you download and print. They are excellent. My heritage Spanish-speakers and their families love them too.

Marisol: Check out rockalingua.com


Mary: Grab a teacher’s discovery and go to town! Puppets are also a great investment. Lakeshore Learning Store has a great selection with a variety of races, genders and even disabilities. They also have excellent play food that will last forever. Investing in cardstock and laminating can be a great way to save materials for future years. If you do any TPRS, the Hola Niñoscurriculum is great. Enjoy!

Simone: What age are the kids? Check out the picture book collections from sonrisas spanishschool. Also, the teachers discovery website/catalog. If someone will continue to teach, look at the blaine ray tprscurricular materials. If there is technology access in the school, check out Qtalkmaterials for computer and interactive white board, or they have magnet tile version for low tech/ no tech settings.

Fun for Early and Elementary Spanish Teachers:  Do you have a Ten Thousand Villages store close to you? They have very nice crafts from all over the world. I have a few things from there in my classroom. http://www.tenthousandvillages.com/wool-baby-vicuna

Janet: I use the Sonrisascurriculum for my K-5 students and they sell four story book sets that are excellent for elementary grade levels https://sonrisasspanishschool.com/

Marlo: Technology! Books! Manipulatives!

Erzsi: Buy dictionaries, a good scheme of work if you haven’t got one, laminating pouches, ink for your printer, an ipad….how much money have you got:-)?

PepaMaria: DVDs! they love them! you can get for preschool-1st and 2nd conoce los colores, conoce los numeros, conoce las letras, rosie and andy. For 3rd-6th you can get the “Spanish for kids” collection, volumes 1 and 2 are awesome, you can find them on amazon or carlexonline. Another great dvd is from “Calico Spanish” they have great songs and videos for kids. You can also get some storybooks from lakeshore learning, they have great story books to learn the alphabet and some other stories for 1st and 2nd graders. Music helps a lot too, get “Basho and friends” volume 1 and 2, he has some AWESOME music! As mentioned before, puppets are a great investment, I got mines from Amazon, manufactured by “Aurora”, those puppets are my best friends! Also, get ipads! Depending on how many students you have, try to get at least 1 per 3 students (not sure how much $$ you can spend, but this would be awesome!). Also, download some of the apps that were mentioned here before (bilingual child, busuu spanish, gus on the go… among others). ALSO, invest on a “treasure box” for kids who do a good job, this has worked like a charm in my class, I let them pick an item from the treasure box once a month if they did a good job during the whole month. You can check orientaltrading.com for some good/inexpensive prizes….

Angela: Get Linguascope….. Great website for languages…. And get de CDs and books of Patti Lozano… Enjoy!

Michelle : Send home bilingual books with text in both languages. Or pairs (for example the same Junie B or Magic Treehouse book in both Spanish and English). Spread the wealth and give kids a way to delight in their language learning at home!


Music With Sara: Rockalingua!

Visit Fun for Spanish Teachers on Facebook for more exciting conversations like this one!


Let “Coloreando” Bring The Colors of Traditional Music to Your Spanish Class

by | Feb 3, 2014 | REVIEW

Coloreando is one of the newest music CD’s featuring Marta Gómez, a Colombian singer and songwriter. This music CD has 17 songs, all sung by Marta who, in my opinion, is the Colombian equivalent of Mercedes Sosa. Not only does her voice entertain children, but it’s also great  for grownups. I have been a fan of Marta ever since her time filling the streets of Cambridge, by Harvard Square, with good music. At the time she was a student at the Berklee College of Music. I have been following closely and try not to miss any of her concerts in Boston. 

I am very excited to learn about this new album for children, created to support Global Language Project, a non-profit organization that helps bring foreign languages to public school children in the New York area.

Coloreando has 17 traditional songs that any Spanish teacher from an ELE or bilingual program should have in their collection. If you are looking for truly cultural music to bring your students, this music CD is a must!

One of my favorite songs is “Un Elefante,” not only because I have good memories from having grown up singing it, but also because Marta makes it very fun. I put together this set of props that go along with the song. You can download your own elefantes, telaraña and araña here! This song can also be used as a game where you invite volunteers to jump on an imaginary spiderweb. 


Make sure to visit Global Language Project and Marta Gomez on Facebook to stay tuned about their news and exciting projects! Coloreando is available on the Global Language Project website.

The Giveaway!
I would love two lucky readers to have a chance to win a CD for their classes. Just enter below to participate! Winners will be announced on Friday, February 7th, 2014. United Stated only!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

¡Buena Suerte!
Carolina

Snacks That Teach Spanish {Review and Giveaway}

by | Nov 18, 2013 | Dick & Jane Educational Snacks, Giveaways, REVIEW

Have you ever thought of a snack that brings some excitement to your Spanish class? I just found a great one! Dick and Jane Educational Snacks are the perfect snack to share with your students. They are not only educational, but made of wholesome ingredients and are nut free, which means they’re safe to have in your classroom if you have any students with allergies to nuts.


I also have to say that the cookies are deliciosas. I ate a whole box while writing this review! This product will add a lot of fun to your classes and students get good brain food while learning new vocabulary in Spanish. Each cookie has a clear and simple picture with bilingual writing to accompany it, which helps everyone understand the vocabulary.

Each box contains some of the most common vocabulary words explored in Spanish classes. Cookies are produced in categories such us family members, greetings, weather and seasons, animals, fruits, numbers from 1 to 10, and more! So far you can find 50 words and 10 numbers, and Dick and Jane aim to expand the range of vocabulary to 360 words. The  more the merrier for us, the Spanish teachers 🙂


How to eat these yummy cookies while learning?

These yummy cookies can be used to introduce, review, or reinforce vocabulary in your classes.


Mini-Lotería

To play this game you will need to download the free call-out cards here for you to announce one vocabulary word at a time. Once you have the cards ready, distribute two or three cookies to each child in the class. They can eat a cookie only when you call that item from your call-out card. A student can win once she devours all her cookies. To make it harder, you can also tell students that they have to wait to eat until you call the names of all the vocabulary on their cookies. They can say “lotería“, and then enjoy the cookies in one yummy moment of indulgence!

Download cards HERE

Sentences

Post different sentences on the board. Distribute the cookies among the children and invite them to complete the sentences according to the vocabulary represented on their cookies. Again, they can only eat them after they complete the sentence.

Guess the word!

Cover a cookie with a napkin and have your students guess the word. You may use the call-out cards from the Lotería for this game. Students can earn a chance to eat a cookie when they guess the word.

Spell the words

What a great opportunity to review the alphabet in Spanish. Ask your students to spell each word in the cookie before eating it.




If you would like to learn more about Dick & Jane Educational Snacks, visit their website. Stay up to date with them and tuned in for more fun on their Facebook page.

The Giveway!
If you would like to have 10 boxes of these fun, yummy, and educational snacks (yes, 10 boxes!), here is an opportunity for you to win them and bring more learning to your class. Just enter below to participate. The winner will be announced on Saturday, November 23rd, 2013. United States only.

¡Buena suerte!
Carolina

My Classroom: Make Over – Home Edition

by | Sep 18, 2013 | classroom decoration

I used to be a traveling teacher, visiting classrooms all over the school, carrying heavy bags with everything I needed for class. After a few years of traveling, my school decided that I needed a room to settle and put a stop my itinerant ways 🙂 I was so excited, but I forgot that to keep a classroom efficient and effective also takes time and energy. Somehow, it doesn’t just happen magically!!

I decided to call this post “My Classroom: Make Over – Home Edition” because in the end, my classroom is the place where I spend most of my waking hours during the school year, maybe even more than my own tiny house.

This picture shows how everything looked when I first moved my stuff in:


First, I felt challenged to decide what theme I wanted in my classroom, and I finally decided that it was better to keep it simple for my sanity and my student’s clarity of thought. I find it overwhelming when teachers put so many decorations in the room that cause children to get distracted – staring at colorful eye candy but not paying attention to the teacher or classmates. This is especially true for me, since I’m basically a big distractable kid, and I get attracted to whatever is around me in my environment. When there’s too much, my head spins! So, I focused on what I needed to make a safe space for learning a foreign language with minimal distraction but still enough color and cultural elements.

This is what my room looks like now:

Flags that represent Spanish speaking countries.

A place to keep binders and folders for students’ work.

Family photos to share with my students.




A place with pictures of important personalities and books about Spanish speaking countries.


A little peace “garden”

Classroom materials with labels

Art from different places in the world

A homemade puppet theater for my younger students


Useful phrases in Spanish

Monsters mimicking conversations about the calendar in Spanish.

Reminders in Spanish.


Maintaining one’s classroom is a work in progress. I am sure I will rearrange it a few times before I optimize every single space for my students.

Happy teaching!
Carolina

Sonrisas: A Spanish Curriculum that Integrates Music, Art, Games, and Culture

by | Jul 26, 2013 | REVIEW

Sonrisas is a Spanish-language curriculum designed for early and elementary classrooms. It takes a holistic approach, integrating music, art, games and culture. Teaching about culture can sometimes be complicated, especially if you are talking about “the Hispanic culture,” which is very diverse and should be referred to as various cultures. It is also a hard task to incorporate culture into your curriculum if you are not familiar with the culture you are trying to teach or don’t want to fall into teaching stereotypes of those different cultures into your class. Sonrisas Spanish Curriculum will help you be more effective bringing culture into your lessons.


What is included?
Sonrisas Spanish Curriculum includes well designed plans that go along with songs, art, activities, and games. I strongly value the cultural piece that this curriculum highlights. 

If you are new to teaching this curriculum will take you through the different methodologies for teaching foreign languages and key terms that are used in this field. It will help you establish routines in your classes. If you are an experienced teacher, you will value all these reminders. 

This is a very rich curriculum that will allow you to challenge your students according to their level, without adding too much pressure or competitiveness that can provoke fear of failure in class. This curriculum includes lessons for up to two years and every lesson includes:
1. Overview
2. Ideas for circle time
3. Suggested books for story time
4. Simple and easy art activity
5. Lesson procedures with list of materials needed. Each lesson is divided into two days, but this is not a strict rule since this program gives you a lot of room to adapt it for your own creativity.
6. Home report which will invite parents to become active and engaged in their child’s learning process. This will also make your program more visible in your school community, very important with tight school budgets and debates about curricular priorities! 
7. Assessment Rubrics
8. Scope of sequence 

The curriculum will save you a lot of energy and time. The layout is very simple and easy to understand, and the content follows the ACTFL standards for foreign language learning which are listed as “the 5 C’s” of communication, communities, cultures, comparisons and connections.

Sonrisas Spanish Curriculum has provided samples on their website where you can see for yourself that the program is simple and easy to follow:
To learn more about Sonrisas Spanish School Curriculum visit their website, and to get their updates and teaching tips, just like their Facebook page.

Happy teaching!
Carolina