Welcome to 2020! This year I have decided that I won’t make a list of resolutions for the New Year, only because I find myself writing the same list over and over again each year and not being able to follow through. I also generally add things that should be a habit in my life such as eating healthy, exercising more, reading more books instead of spending so much time on social media and so on! I did decide that I want to learn how to play ukelele and will tell you more about it at the end of 2020. Are you setting any goals for this year?
This holiday season I got to spend a few weeks in Colombia with my parents, and I am now feeling recharged with new ideas to bring to my classroom (even though I miss my parents).
I wrote my lesson plans my last day before going on break because I knew I was going to forget a lot of what I was doing in my classes.
Many children hit a kind of reset button during the break so as a general rule, I find it very helpful to treat the first few days after the holidays as I’d done on the first days of school in August. I think it is a good idea to review your classroom rules and procedures as well as continue building relationships with students and creating community before diving into teaching Spanish. This means that I will spend my first days revising our classroom rules and routines: discussing, modeling, and practicing rules. We practice how to walk in a line, enter the classroom, and find a place on the rug to get ready for class. We model it, talk about it, and keep reinforcing it for the rest of the school year. For me this also means that part of my class will take place in English the first few days back after the break. It will pay off nicely during the rest of the school year!
I use this opportunity to revisit the use of the chime with my students. We review that the chime sound means to stop, look, and listen. I also revisit some of our call & response chants, hand signals, and brain & breathing breaks.
Download these cards to introduce your students to “para, mira y escucha.”
I am always grateful for the teachers who come to this blog to read my posts. I share them with a lot of love and really hope I can save busy teachers out there just a little bit of time (time is such a precious commodity for teachers!). This blog was started as a way to connect with other teachers because for a while I was the only Spanish teacher in one of the schools where I taught. Having this blog made me feel connected and part of a larger community. Thank you for stopping by to read my blog!
This is one of the most relaxing activities I have used with my fifth graders. We are close to the break so they really enjoyed learning about Año Viejos. I gave them a little introduction about this tradition and its meaning (see post from previous years). We also watch a video of a girl making an Año Viejo in Colombia, and this leads to a small discussion about the materials needed to make an Año Viejo. Although the girl in the video doesn’t use firecrackers, most people put them in their Años Viejos.
We watched a video of the actual tradition. In the video we saw the excitement on the streets of people counting down. And we could hear the fire crackers and the sounds of a radio station playing the national anthem, a song which is always played on December 31st at midnight:.
After reading the story each student decorated a paper Año Viejo, which you can also find in my store. I also gave each student a small magnet to stick it on the back of the Año Viejo.They placed their Años Viejos on the magnetic board I have in my classroom while I played a video of a Christmas fireplace I found on YouTube.
I also played the traditional Año Viejo song while the students where coloring their Años Viejos.
Last but not least, I placed the Año Viejos on one of the bulletin boards in my room. I used as a title for the bulletin board the name of the song “Yo no olvido el Año Viejo”. Click HERE to download the letters.
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I teach at an Episcopal school that acknowledges and accepts religious differences and I am so grateful that the school provides space for students to share those differences. But because it is Episcopal, around this time of the year all the Christmas decorations fill the walls and the rehearsals of songs for the seasons start too. This is something that also happens in Spanish class since during the last week of December we take a moment to gather around a big Christmas tree to sing villancicos.
This year I have a new student who is Jewish, and I appreciate that when we started singing Christmas songs he shared with me that he practices a different religion. I told him that it was his choice to stay in the group or find a “safe” space in the room when he needed it. His choice has been to stay in the group. Thinking about him, I went to my school library to find some books, but all the titles were in English. I chose asimple picture book that I could still connect with Spanish. He was surprised to see the book in my classroom and even more when I taught the song“Ocho Kandelikas”.
Finding stories that are short and comprehensible is not an easy task, even more when looking for elementary or beginning levels. These are some of the stories that I have written and successfully used with my students.
This story goes well with the Monarch butterfly migration. In this story, Monarca is finding her way to Michoacán. On her way there, she asks a few animals for directions to Michoacán, until she finally finds a kind caterpillar that guides her there.
La Noche de las Velitas is a unique Colombian celebration that happens every year on December 7th. Felipe is getting ready for this celebration, but suddenly he realizes that he doesn’t have any candles for the celebration. He is worried and visits different supermarkets. He finally finds some candles at his last stop. He goes home and celebrates the ‘Night of the Little Candles’ with his family and friends.
This story works wonders to introduce the Three Kings Celebration in Puerto Rico. Daniel needs a box to put some grass for the Three Kings’ camels. He is looking for his box. Daniel even asks his dog, but there was no way for him to tell Daniel where the box was!
This is another fun story with a lot of repetition. Abuelita takes the time to make a big doll called “Año Viejo”. In some countries in Latin America, años viejos are burned on the last day of the year at midnight to get rid of the bad things that happen during the year. Burning the año viejo represents a kind of closure and cleaning for some people. In this story the año viejo becomes alive and runs away from a grandfather, a baker, and a parrot. What will happen at the end?
