Creating a gratitude map with students is simple and does not require a lengthy process. This activity can be done at any time of the year.
To begin, download the templates HERE and select the one you consider most suitable for your classes. Subsequently, facilitate a group conversation about the things your students are grateful for. Make sure to take notes, and if possible, accompany them with drawings or visuals.
Next, ask your students to draw or write in each space of the template the things they feel grateful for. Encourage them to decorate their gratitude maps with colors, markers, and other creative elements. This will make their maps more attractive and personal.
Finally, create a space for your students to share their gratitude maps. If possible, create an area in the classroom or school where you can display their gratitude maps. Remember to adapt the activity according to the age and level of your students.
As World Language educators it is hard to find a single off-the-shelf curriculum that fits the needs of each elementary program. Some programs have less frequent class sessions than others, some are required by their schools (or have the wonderful opportunity) to make strong connections with other subjects, some have more heritage speakers in the student population, and so on! It’s also important to shape a program according to the needs and interests of the community. All this is just to make it clear that I don’t offer a set “one size fits all” curriculum for this reason.
I have shifted to using more stories with my students, but I also supplement them with songs, games, crafts, picture books, holidays, celebrations, culture, cross-curricular connections, clip-chats, and other activities. I don’t teach a unit just focusing on weather, days of the week, months, the alphabet, foods, and so on. I include these topics in our daily routine when we do calendar time. The stories focus on high-frequency vocabulary and expressions as well as vocabulary related to clothing, family members, colors, numbers, and more!
These are some of the stories I use by grade level. It might seem like a lot, but the stories themselves have a lot of repetition and recycle a lot of the same vocabulary. This is also based on the frequency and length of time I see my students. I see my kindergarten students in small groups, once a week for 30 minutes and my 1st through 3rd grade students twice a week for 40 minutes each time. I mostly follow the resources in the order presented and sometimes I recycle stories and use them again the following year to refresh some of the vocabulary and high frequency words.
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?
I compiled a few jokes to use with my 5th grade students weekly. I plan to use them on Thursdays for “Jueves de ja ja ja”. I decided to re-create them to make them more elementary student-friendly. I really want to grow this list, so if you have or know of any other short and easy to understand jokes in Spanish, feel free to share them in the comments.
If the jokes are understandable, they are a wonderful teaching tool to lower the affective filter and generate a comfortable learning environment for students. I like to use them at the beginning of class. An easy way to do it is to project the joke on a screen and give students some time to look at them and to convey meaning. Then we talk about them and the words they might not understand. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Click HERE to download them all. Have an awesome “Jueves de ja ja ja.”
A few years ago I wrote a short story to use with my students to make a curricular connection with the butterfly life cycle in second grade science class. It is a twist on ” The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, which many of my students are already familiar with, and it’s also a popular title in kindergarten. This new version I created of my own story has more repetition and simple structures.
Before teaching the story you might want to pull out a map and point at the different countries mentioned in it: Colombia, México, La República Dominicana, Cuba, Argentina, and Perú. There are some traditional dishes mentioned in the story. You might want to talk about them. This will also be a great opportunity to talk about your students’ favorite food.
Pre-teach some of the vocabulary using TPR: va, tengo hambre, come, canta, duerme and dice.
Read the story to your class. Some questions you might want to consider while reading the story.
¿Dónde está la oruga? ¿Está en Colombia o Bolivia?
¿Qué come la oruga en Colombia? ¿Come pizza? ¿Come sancocho?
¿Qué hace la oruga? ¿La oruga duerme o corre?
¿La oruga es un perro ahora ? ¿La oruga es un perro o una mariposa?
¿La oruga dice “hola”? ¿La oruga dice “hola” o “adiós”?
After reading the story I like going back and talking about each picture. Talk about the colors in the different flags included in the story.
Act it out! You can have individual actors or have different groups going to different places. Print some masks, pictures of the different foods and flags of the countries included in the story.
Click HEREto download the story “La oruga va Latinoamérica.”
This story is a great follow up of the story I do during the fall called “Monarca va a Michoacán.” I also use this story to create a connection with their science curriculum, as well as to create a cultural connection with “El Día de los Muertos” celebration in Mexico. Read more on how I use “Monarca va a Michoacán” here!
