HISPANIC HERITAGE MONTH, celebrated from September 15 to October 15 in the United States, is a great opportunity for teachers and families to share about FAMOUS HISPANICS who have had an influence on our culture and country. (Of course, any time of year is the right time of year to teach about these amazing people!) Below are links and resources that are particularly accessible for young learners: *SONIA SOTOMAYOR: the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice of the United States and only the third woman to hold this position, Sotomayor is an inspirational figure for us all! Sotomayor's parents were from Puerto Rico. There are a number of wonderful children's books about Sonia, here's a link to a quick search I did on Amazon-click here. This video in Spanish tells Sotomayor's biography: This Sesame Street video incorporates both English and Spanish: *ELLEN OCHOA: Astronaut and Engineer, Ellen was the first Hispanic woman in space. A video in Spanish about her life: and another in English from Nick Jr-click here. *TITO PUENTE: Mambo King, Tito Puente played with Celia Cruz and is considered one of the greats in Latin Music. Monica Brown wrote a terrific bilingual book about him, Tito Puente, Mambo King, and shares about creating the book in this video: Tito visits Sesame Street: Nick Jr created a video in English about Puente here. *CELIA CRUZ: Queen of Salsa, Celia moved to the US from Puerto Rico when she was a child. Be sure to visit my post on resources for teaching about Celia (click here), but additionally, don't miss this video of Celia on Sesame Street! CÉSAR CHAVEZ: Activist for equal rights for migrant workers. There are a number of picture books about his life, including 'Harvesting Hope' by Kathleen Krull, 'César' by Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, and 'A Picture Book of Cesar Chavez' by David A. Adler A biography of Chavez in Spanish: *Don't miss this great set of quotes by famous Hispanics! INTERESTED IN INTRODUCING MORE FAMOUS HISPANICS in Spanish class? Be sure to check out our growing set of biographies for young learners, including Sonia Sotomayor, Celia Cruz, José Feliciano, Frida Kahlo and Pablo Picasso. (just click on the names!)

A blog featuring activities and resources for teaching Spanish to kids in the elementary school.

ORGANIZING THE FLOW OF YOUR LESSON can look like many things; why not like a letter? A letter has THREE key components- the greeting, the body or message, and a closing. These three elements provide a complete whole, which feels satisfying upon reading- there are no pieces left undone, you feel you have been acknowledged, you have experienced communication in a capsule. I take this idea, or analogy, and apply it to every lesson I teach, creating a completed experience for my students each and every time we are together. Here's what it looks like broken down: *GREETING: I start every class with a greeting activity, which typically takes about 5 minutes- whether it is a simple ball roll activity or a more involved partner greeting, saying hello is just nice! It allows us to practice our interpersonal communication skills and fosters interaction between students (and myself, as I always participate in the activities). This is also sets the tone for class and primes my students for more Spanish. *MESSAGE or BODY: This is the bulk of classtime and features a variety of activities which make up the "meat" of the lesson. Activities could be: practicing vocabulary we are learning, introducing a new minibook, a song, a game, doing an activity page related to the theme, Q & A related to the theme, movement activities, etc. Depending on what we are doing and the age level, I may include 2-3 activities during this portion of the lesson. Little kiddos cannot sustain any one activity for very long (much research suggests a kiddo can sustain the same number of minutes as their age, but wow! my Kinders often can't even sustain 5 minutes for one activity!). Keeping it lively, transitioning well from one activity to the next, the body of the lesson is the time to focus on theme work, etc. Much gets done during this part! *CLOSING: Any good letter doesn't leave you hanging at the end, and neither should a lesson. This can be as simple as a good bye game or song, and may include clean up time. I use the song 'A guardar' (available on ITunes) as our clean up song (and it's authentic!) which signals it's time to go! This sets the tone for an organized exit as well, which greatly reduces noise and chaos, and brings your lesson to a tidy end. During your closing you can also give a preview of what you will be doing next time, a great way to get kids motivated for your next class! A LETTER LESSON, as I like to call it, also provides predictability for your students- they always know the general flow of your lesson, which also aids in comprehension of the target language. If they know you always start with a greeting, they are better primed to understand words like 'saludo', 'conversación', and 'dile a tu compañero ___', etc- this vocabulary information is provided in the context of your routine. LOOKING FOR SOME GREETING ACTIVITIES?: See my blog post '3 Greetings Games with a Ball' and in our shop: '20 Greeting Games for Spanish Class'. AND DON'T MISS OUR EMOTIONS BULLETIN BOARD CARDS! A great visual support for this important vocabulary! Find them in our shop here

Everybody has a yummy fruit..but Julieta's is by far the largest! 'Las Frutas' is a Level B story book with pattern sentences and illustrations with high text to picture correlation. The book is in PDF format. Construction and ideas for use of this minibook can be found at our blog: http://elmundodepepita.blogspot.com/p/about-mundo-de-pepita.html Vocabulary: tiene, fruits NUMBER OF PAGES WHEN CONSTRUCTED: 6 pages of text plus the cover Mundo de Pepita features a series of story books you can print out and distribute to your students or children. Great for teaching vocabulary and simple concepts in Spanish, each book features adorable illustrations and simple story lines..perfect for young learners! Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, and Snapchat! Visit our blog: Mundo de Pepita Sign up for our monthly email newsletter! Sign up for our Email Newsletter

THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR is fast approaching, and with it comes the daunting task of writing report cards. Comments are a great way to expand upon the grade given, communicate with parents, and highlight both strengths and weaknesses. Here are some comments that I use specifically for language learners. I've broken them down into categories, with each category showing comments in descending order of a four point scale, a 4 being 'Above and Beyond', 3 is 'Meets' or 'Right On', 2 being 'In progress', and 1 being 'Getting Started'- tweak as needed to suit your classes: SPANISH LANGUAGE LEARNING RELATED: 4 *______ readily acquires new content and frequently uses what he/she knows in creative and unique ways. *______ is always excited about learning new words and phrases, using them in new and novel ways outside of directed instruction on a regular basis. *______ frequently greets and interacts with me in Spanish outside of class. 3 *______ is able to comprehend and use class vocabulary with ease. *______ makes a great effort to use what she's learned in meaningful ways! 2 *______ sometimes struggles to recall class vocabulary, needing a prompt to express what he/she wants. *______ sometimes needs assistance to recall or process class vocabulary. I am working with him to utilize our classroom strategies which will help him improve in this area. *______ occasionally needs help to comprehend/ use class vocabulary. I am working with her to practice more actively, which will help her move vocabulary from short to long term memory. *I am encouraging _____ to take greater charge of his own learning this year- this especially is for participating in class activities that require speaking. He is very reluctant to practice verbally, which is extremely important to making forward progress. 1 *_____ struggles greatly to comprehend and use class vocabulary during activities, even with assistance. We are focusing on basic practice activities to help aid his/her memory skills. CULTURE RELATED: 4 *______ expresses an interest in cultural aspects of Spanish speaking countries on a regular basis, asking insightful and thoughtful questions that go beyond our regular curriculum. *I frequently hear ______ singing Spanish songs outside of class! *I am so excited when ______ tells me about cultural activities he/she has been doing at home! 3 *______ expresses a regular interest in our cultural themes and activities. 2 *______ does not always participate in our cultural activities in class. 1 *______ frequently does not participate in our cultural activities in class. SOCIAL SKILLS & CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR: 4 *______ is kind, thoughtful and helpful at all times. ______ regularly helps me with materials, and serves as a role model for others in the class. 3 *______ is always focused and enthusiastic during class activities. *______ is regularly engaged in our class activities, is respectful of our space and classmates, and helps out when needed. *______ is always kind and considerate in class. *I appreciate ______ willingness to help out during class. *______ regularly participates in class activities. 2 *______ sometimes needs reminders to remain focused during class activities. *A goal for ______ is to take turns and remember to raise his/her hand before speaking out of turn. We are modeling this and I am confident _____ will grow in this area over the course of the year. *A goal for _____ is to sustain focus and be on task when doing independent activities such as projects. I am seeing rapid improvement in this area and am confident within the next few weeks, ______ will be right on target. *A goal _____ has been focusing on over the last several months is raising his hand to contribute comments during class activities. Though very enthusiastic, his interruptions are a distraction for many kids. *______ focus during class activities is inconsistent; he is easily distracted by classmates which hinders his ability to pay attention and learn class content. *A goal for _____ this year is to gain confidence in speaking in front of the class and volunteering to do so. 1 *Even with frequent redirection, _______ struggles to remain focused and on task. *Even with frequent redirection, ______ struggles to follow class routines and procedures. FOLLOW UP COMMENTS FOR LATER/END OF THE YEAR: *______ has made such great progress during the course of the year, I am so proud of him/her! *______ has made great strides in respecting class routines and procedures; she is now serving as a model for others! *I have seen ______ confidence grow dramatically, which has had a tremendous effect on his ability to participate in class activities. *More focus on practice has really helped _____ to retain and recall class vocabulary. FOR THE KIDDO WHO HAS JUST MOVED INTO YOUR DISTRICT: *______ is making great strides joining a class which has had Spanish since Kindergarten. I am so proud of his/her efforts! I HOPE THESE COMMENTS HELP! SaveSave

A FRIEND OF MINE FROM COLOMBIA INTRODUCED ME to this version of the traditional game 'Gato' many years ago and I continue to love it! Perfect for my older students (3rd & 4th grade) as well as Middle

THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR is fast approaching, and with it comes the daunting task of writing report cards. Comments are a great way to expand upon the grade given, communicate with parents, and highlight both strengths and weaknesses. Here are some comments that I use specifically for language learners. I've broken them down into categories, with each category showing comments in descending order of a four point scale, a 4 being 'Above and Beyond', 3 is 'Meets' or 'Right On', 2 being 'In progress', and 1 being 'Getting Started'- tweak as needed to suit your classes: SPANISH LANGUAGE LEARNING RELATED: 4 *______ readily acquires new content and frequently uses what he/she knows in creative and unique ways. *______ is always excited about learning new words and phrases, using them in new and novel ways outside of directed instruction on a regular basis. *______ frequently greets and interacts with me in Spanish outside of class. 3 *______ is able to comprehend and use class vocabulary with ease. *______ makes a great effort to use what she's learned in meaningful ways! 2 *______ sometimes struggles to recall class vocabulary, needing a prompt to express what he/she wants. *______ sometimes needs assistance to recall or process class vocabulary. I am working with him to utilize our classroom strategies which will help him improve in this area. *______ occasionally needs help to comprehend/ use class vocabulary. I am working with her to practice more actively, which will help her move vocabulary from short to long term memory. *I am encouraging _____ to take greater charge of his own learning this year- this especially is for participating in class activities that require speaking. He is very reluctant to practice verbally, which is extremely important to making forward progress. 1 *_____ struggles greatly to comprehend and use class vocabulary during activities, even with assistance. We are focusing on basic practice activities to help aid his/her memory skills. CULTURE RELATED: 4 *______ expresses an interest in cultural aspects of Spanish speaking countries on a regular basis, asking insightful and thoughtful questions that go beyond our regular curriculum. *I frequently hear ______ singing Spanish songs outside of class! *I am so excited when ______ tells me about cultural activities he/she has been doing at home! 3 *______ expresses a regular interest in our cultural themes and activities. 2 *______ does not always participate in our cultural activities in class. 1 *______ frequently does not participate in our cultural activities in class. SOCIAL SKILLS & CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR: 4 *______ is kind, thoughtful and helpful at all times. ______ regularly helps me with materials, and serves as a role model for others in the class. 3 *______ is always focused and enthusiastic during class activities. *______ is regularly engaged in our class activities, is respectful of our space and classmates, and helps out when needed. *______ is always kind and considerate in class. *I appreciate ______ willingness to help out during class. *______ regularly participates in class activities. 2 *______ sometimes needs reminders to remain focused during class activities. *A goal for ______ is to take turns and remember to raise his/her hand before speaking out of turn. We are modeling this and I am confident _____ will grow in this area over the course of the year. *A goal for _____ is to sustain focus and be on task when doing independent activities such as projects. I am seeing rapid improvement in this area and am confident within the next few weeks, ______ will be right on target. *A goal _____ has been focusing on over the last several months is raising his hand to contribute comments during class activities. Though very enthusiastic, his interruptions are a distraction for many kids. *______ focus during class activities is inconsistent; he is easily distracted by classmates which hinders his ability to pay attention and learn class content. *A goal for _____ this year is to gain confidence in speaking in front of the class and volunteering to do so. 1 *Even with frequent redirection, _______ struggles to remain focused and on task. *Even with frequent redirection, ______ struggles to follow class routines and procedures. FOLLOW UP COMMENTS FOR LATER/END OF THE YEAR: *______ has made such great progress during the course of the year, I am so proud of him/her! *______ has made great strides in respecting class routines and procedures; she is now serving as a model for others! *I have seen ______ confidence grow dramatically, which has had a tremendous effect on his ability to participate in class activities. *More focus on practice has really helped _____ to retain and recall class vocabulary. FOR THE KIDDO WHO HAS JUST MOVED INTO YOUR DISTRICT: *______ is making great strides joining a class which has had Spanish since Kindergarten. I am so proud of his/her efforts! I HOPE THESE COMMENTS HELP! SaveSave

I'M A BIG PROPONENT OF TEACHING FROM 'I' OUTWARD in foreign language classes, meaning beginning with autobiographical information and working outward from there. When I think about novice speakers and what situations they might find themselves in in relation to native speakers, most likely they will be introducing and/or answering questions about themselves, so vocabulary and structures that help them interact is key. To that end, learning the first person singular becomes quite important, and serves a secondary purpose as well- building community in your class. There are loads of activities you can do that involve students talking about themselves, such as graphing and polling the class about how many brothers/sisters they have (or pets!), what their favorite color/fruit/animal/number/etc is, sharing likes/ dislikes/ preferences with food, and so on. All of these are very accessible activities for novices, and helps them stay in the target language rather than tasks which see students devolving into using English because the task really isn't at the right language level for them. But I digress.... OF COURSE, IF WE WANT OUR STUDENTS TO SPEAK IN THE FIRST PERSON SINGULAR, and we also teach 90% in the target language, I believe we need to model the construction. Yes, you can also translate, or go through an explanation of the 'why', but most specifically with little kids (and with all ages, in my opinion), modeling concrete sentences works very well for these types of simple autobiographical constructions. I find that one of the best ways to help me convey meaning when modeling sentences using 'yo' is to point to photos of myself WITH my family, my pets, my house, etc. My students quickly intuit that I am talking about myself, because I am in the picture! The construction(s) we are focusing on then becomes all the more comprehensible and I can ask them questions whose answers use that construction, without needing to translate. Señora: Soy yo. Yo tengo un perro. Es mi perro, Yosha. Señora: Mason, soy yo, Señora. Yo tengo un perro. ¿Cuántos perros tienes tú? Mason: dos Señora: Ah, bueno, yo tengo un perro. Tú tienes dos perros, ¿cierto? Mason: Sí. Señora: Ah, repite 'Yo tengo dos perros.' Mason: Yo tengo dos perros. Señora: ¡Qué súper! Y Lila, ¿cuántos perros tienes tú? Yo tengo un perro, y Mason tiene dos perros. ¿Y tú, Lila? ¿Cuántos perros tienes tú? and so on, coming back to kids who have already answered, sometimes asking them the question again to elicit the answer a second time (I like to keep them on their toes! :) ) and gradually adding in more questions, always modeling and pointing to the photo as I go. This example activity can be done completely in the target language with the aid of just one photo! (and my adorable Yosha :) ) So, get your camera out, co-opt your family into a photo shoot and corral the pets! Have fun! :) NEEDING MORE IDEAS for photo prompts? Here are more: *What you had for dinner last night (take a photo of you and your plate) *What you did over the weekend *Your favorite color (consider a photo of you dressed all in your favorite color :) ) *What you have in your lunch box *What your cat did last night (see photo below!) *Veggies in your garden (if you live in a rural area like me, this can turn into a hot topic!)

Teaching Spanish is rewarding, but it also takes a steady investment of time and energy. I hope this list of Spanish TpT stores from top teachers will make your life easier. All these teachers have shared free printables, so try the activities with your students or children at home.

Mira el Mundo JR March 2023 issue: el Zunzuncito. This is the sixth issue of our 2022/2023 School Year Spanish Magazine Subscription for Elementary School focusing on the sciences and the natural world. This issue highlights simple facts about bee hummingbirds, found only in Cuba, in Spanish. In coordination with our original magazine, Mira el Mundo, we've developed this JUNIOR version for younger kids, with simpler text & activities geared specifically for this age level. Focusing on the sciences and the natural world, this subscription allows you to connect with other content areas and motivate your learners-and is designed specifically for teaching Spanish, rather than being a resource originally geared for English speakers and just translated into Spanish. With cultural components in every issue, this resource is sure to be invaluable in your classroom! Great as a centers/station activity, or for whole class instruction! THIS SINGLE ISSUE IS PART OF OUR 2022/2023 School Year SUBSCRIPTION featuring endangered animals and habitats from the Spanish speaking world. You can purchase the full 6 MONTH SUBSCRIPTION HERE Mira el Mundo Junior 2022 This issue contains: *Magazine: 4 pages about bee hummingbirds & includes high frequency conversational phrases *Mini Poster *Activity Page reinforcing colors *Hummingbird mandala to color -Printable mini book- Ciclo de vida de un colibrí *Board Game- ¡Jugamos con dados! *Centers Activity with Nests and counting *Lesson ideas and list of authentic links for additional resources on line Mundo de Pepita features a series of mini books and activities you can print out and distribute to your students or children. Great for teaching vocabulary and simple concepts in Spanish, each book features adorable original illustrations and simple story lines..perfect for young learners! Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube! Visit our blog: Mundo de Pepita

My Kindergartners come into our school with little to no Spanish experience...or so they think! I love to give them a big confidence boost right from the beginning so we do a fun activity I call ‘¡Ya sabes español! (You already know Spanish!) where I have pictures and items of things we say in Spanish all the time: taco, piñata, quesadilla, burrito, armadillo, nachos, salsa, llama, alpaca, and so on (a lot of them are food!) and have my kiddos name them themselves. As we go, I get to point out, ‘See, you already know a lot of Spanish!’ This activity gives my students a sense of confidence and motivation, especially for those who are nervous that they don’t know anything in Spanish. It also starts to build that awareness that Spanish is all around us! A HUGE THANK YOU TO members of our Facebook group who compiled additions to the list- Beth Alders Thaemert, Susan O'Donnell Bondy (and don't miss Susan's Cognate Bingo game for older learners! Click here): guacamole, chocolate, jalapeño, mosquito, coyote, iguana, patio, cargo, sofá, pasta, tenis, taxi, jaguar, bus, cereal, béisbol, tenis, música

I HAVE BEEN WANTING to teach about the spring return of robins and swallows in my elementary Spanish classes for years, but never got myself in gear to do it. I am endlessly delighted to see the first robins arrive from the south after our very long winters here in Maine, and imagine many in Spain feel the same joy when they see swallows returning from Africa. This year I got myself together and taught a mini (very mini!) theme around the migration of these two birds who are symbols of the return of warm weather, a perfect, tangible cultural comparison for my Kindergartners. Over the course of three 30 minute classes, I introduced the migration using very simple language (oh, did I say I did the whole thing in 90% Spanish?), we colored the two birds (great practice for color words), and cut them out to create a school bulletin board. Here's how I did it, with accompanying script (teacher script in quotation marks, student responses in parenthesis- CHANGE MAINE TO YOUR STATE): PREP: I found a world map in Spanish online that I could project on my Smartboard, two photos, one of a robin and one of a swallow, picture cards of the four seasons, and my printable birds to color and cut out. You can download our printable here! *DAY 1: (have the map projected behind you on the whiteboard)"Ok, niños, vamos a hablar acerca de unos símbolos de la primavera." Hold up a picture of spring, repeating 'la primavera'. Then put down cards for the other three seasons, saying each as you do so. Click here to get our 'Seasons Activity Pack' Ask a student (in English) "Are these a set of shoes?" (student-'No') "Hmmm, what could they be?" (student-'the seasons!') "¡Sí, son las cuatro estaciones! La primavera, el verano, el otoño, el invierno. (point to each card in turn) Miren esta foto de un petirrojo- ¿hay petirrojos aquí en Maine? ¿Sí o no?" (students- '¡Sí!). "Sí, es la verdad, hay petirrojos en Maine. Hmmm, ¿hay petirrojos (point to the photo of the robin) aquí en Maine en el invierno?" (point to the winter card) (students- 'No') "No, no hay petirrojos aquí en Maine durante el invierno." "Bueno, en el otoño (point to autumn card) los petirrojos dicen '¡Adiós Maine! y vuelan, vuelan, vuelan (making flying motions with your arms) al sur." Bring the picture of the robin to the board along with the seasons cards spring and fall- stick the robin up next to your state, and the seasons cards where the Atlantic Ocean is, and repeat "En el otoño los petirrojos dicen '¡Adiós Maine! y vuelan, vuelan, vuelan al sur" making the flying motions and drawing an arrow from your state to the south. "Y, en la primavera (point to the spring card) los petirrojos vuelan, vuelan, vuelan y dicen '¡Hola Maine!'" again making flying motions and drawing an arrow from the south back to your state. Now hold up the picture of a swallow- "Esta es una golondrina- a swallow. En el otoño las golondrinas dicen '¡Adiós España-Spain' y vuelan, vuelan, vuelan a Africa." Put the picture of the swallow on the board, and draw an arrow from Spain to Africa. "Y, en la primavera, las golondrinas vuelan, vuelan, vuelan y dicen '¡Hola España!" Again, draw an arrow from Africa to Spain. I also wrote 'Hola' and 'Adiós' along each arrow to reinforce the words. At this point I had a few extra minutes before the end of class, so I reviewed our colors (we have a quick song) and then I asked kiddos "¿De qué color es el petirrojo?" and ¿De qué color es la golondrina?". *NOTE ON TIMING: I always start class with a greeting activity and a transition activity, so the lesson laid out above took about 12-15 minutes, give or take. *DAY 2: After our greeting and transition activities, I repeated the above script starting from the point where I was at the board, drawing the arrows to indicate migratory patterns as a quick review. Then, introduce the two coloring pages, identifying each and pointing to the pictures. You can review again "En la primavera el petirrojo dice '¡Hola Maine!' y la golondrina dice '¡Hola España!". Starting with the robin, indicate to the class what color to color each part. I do ONE color at a time, having everyone finish that space before we move on to the next color and part of the bird. This really helps ensure birds are colored appropriately, and since my Kinders only have early emerging literacy skills, I don't expect them to read independently. Once the robin is finished, move onto the swallow. NOTE: We ran out of time before the swallow was finished in our 30 minute period so we finished up during DAY 3 of the lesson. *DAY 3: Again, after the greeting and transition activities, I repeated the script using the pictures on the board. We then reviewed colors and finished up the swallow, again going one color at a time. After the swallow is finished being colored, instruct the class to cut out both birds, making sure to put names on the back as each is cut out. (I go around and monitor as they are cutting to be sure names get on the birds). Once all the birds were done, I collected them and created a bulletin board out in the hall! *Interested in the seasons cards shown? They are part of our 'Pepita y el oso' Activity Pack, teaching seasons in context. You can find it in our shop here! and don't miss our Backyard Birds Activity Page here!

COLOMBIA IS ONE OF MY "PAISES ADOPTADOS", one of several countries I am particularly attached to outside of my native US. I have many dear friends from Colombia, who have made the culture a treasured

PICTURE BOOKS ARE AN AMAZING WAY TO BRING LANGUAGE LEARNING AND LITERATURE together in class, but many contain text that is too challenging for the proficiency level our students are at. What happens when we find an absolutely BEAUTIFUL book, with tremendous illustrations, and even better, one that is authentic to the native culture....but the language is far too difficult? (Disclaimer: I'm a sucker for gorgeous illustrations! I collect picture books as much for the pictures as for the story-I bet a bunch of you do, too!). Below is one way to help you bridge the gap between an incomprehensible storyline and your classes: DO A PICTURE WALK: this is one of my favorite ways to incorporate picture books without having to worry AT ALL about the text. In the gen ed classroom, doing a picture walk is common practice when introducing a picture book. The method entails "walking" through the book without reading it, merely looking at the pictures, making observations about what is transpiring, and in many cases, making predictions about what will happen next. Sometimes a teacher won't show the final page(s) in order to maintain a surprise ending. We can harness this idea with a little modification in the FOREIGN LANGUAGE classroom! Here's how: *CHOOSE A PICTURE BOOK with a good set of illustrations that provide enough detail and interest for your students, and do a good job of "spelling out" the story without reading the text. The alternative could be to choose a book which has beautiful representations of the target culture, much like the one above, 'Sube y baja por los Andes' by Laurie Krebs from Barefoot Books. (Link here!). *USING THE ILLUSTRATIONS MUCH LIKE A PICTURE PROMPT, only with far more visual input to work with!, share the first illustration and have your students provide vocabulary/sentences describing what they see. Ask them questions about what is in the picture to broaden and extend the conversation (this is a great way to SPIRAL old vocabulary back into the mix!). The simple version of this method is to just keep doing this throughout the book, generating more and more vocabulary and reaction from your students. Your novices can create word lists or answer yes/no, either/or questions about the pictures, and answer Do you like? type prompts. *USE CULTURAL ILLUSTRATIONS as prompts to compare and contrast life in the target culture and the one shared by your students. What is the same/different? Make a Venn Diagram or a T chart to record answers. For example, in the above picture, the boy is wearing traditional Peruvian clothing, including a poncho/ ruana, and un chullo. With little students, you could do an easy compare and contrast activity by sharing photos gleaned from the internet or your own experience of these articles of clothing and typical coats/ winter hats in the US. *HAVE OLDER STUDENTS/ ONES WITH A HIGHER PROFICIENCY LEVEL? (yes, picture books are great with high school students, too!) Go beyond the description conversation to encourage your students to start "writing" the storyline themselves, either by sharing orally, or writing in a journal or on individual whiteboards. You can record their sentences in Google drive so they can be shared out, or so you can go back and use them in a variety of additional activities such as making sentence strips to cut up so partners can put them together and order them, make color copies of the pages and have kids match the sentence strips to the illustrations, or have them write an alternate ending. *PREDICTING IS A GREAT WAY to incorporate the future tense- before turning the page, have students predict what will happen next. When you turn the page, see if their predictions were correct! How or how not? Then continue with the storyline, predicting once again before turning the next page. *USE SOCIAL MEDIA SITES LIKE SNAPCHAT AND INSTAGRAM with your older students-have them take a photo of one page, upload it to Snapchat or Instagram and create a #booksnap (where they write a quick blurb or description of the picture) to share with the rest of the class-super fun! *SCAVENGER HUNT ACTIVITIES: If students have 1:1 devices, they can use them to take photos of items on a list you provide, either by looking through books themselves, or you can set up a “still life” with a book and other related cultural items. For example, setting up a variety of these as stations allows students to move around the room (a great way to incorporate purposeful movement!) Prompts can be as simple or as complex as you like, dependent on proficiency level. For my upper elementary kids I like to have a mix of prompts, some very easy and a few that require more thought. So, for example, ‘something blue’, ‘something red’, ‘something small’, ‘something that makes me happy’, ‘something to drink’, ‘something I really like’ etc. Or you can have specific things like 'a setting sun', 'corn', 'a person flying a kite', and so on-the sky's the limit! You can create a file in your online platform for students to ‘record’ their finds (aka their fotos). This is a great ‘evergreen’ activity, meaning you can do it multiple times, just changing out the books and/or prompts-and makes a great Centers or Choice Board Activity, too! HAVE A FAVORITE PICTURE BOOK you've been wanting to use in class? Let us know which it is in the comments! Have fun!

THIS WEEK WE HAD OPEN HOUSE AT SCHOOL, and I wanted to make it more meaningful this year...our principal had referenced parents 'learning something' as they traveled through the many classrooms in our school, which inspired me to go beyond the typical 'meet and greet' I had always done. After searching on Pinterest for far too long, I came up with the following: THREE THINGS TO DO WHEN YOU COME TO THE SPANISH ROOM: I created a printout of three things kiddos could do while visiting me: 1) Greet me with 'Hola' 2) Introduce their parents to Pepita and friends (they are such a part of our class I thought it would be fun to have parents introduced to them) 3) Do an estimation activity with a jar of Guatemalan worry dolls (which also gave practice for numbers) You can download my estimation activity for FREE here! The kids had a lot of fun, especially with the estimation jar, and it was a great opportunity to showcase how well kids comprehend Spanish- many parents witnessed me speaking and prompting kiddos with the estimation slip, demonstrating how I teach in the target language while kids completed the task. I would love to hear how you do Open House!

Mundo de Pepita makes great printables for teaching Spanish to children! I recently discovered their work and they agreed to let me share it on Spanish Playground. They have also generously provided a free printable mini book for my readers. Download the free mini book Buenos días using the

GRAPHIC ORGANIZERS ARE A FANTASTIC TOOL FOR THE WORLD LANGUAGE CLASSROOM, most especially for novice level students of ANY AGE who do not have lots of language at their disposal, but can certainly participate in simple categorizing activities, such as filling out a Venn Diagram, either as a class or individually. And, they allow you to STAY IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE, a double win! I AM PARTICULARLY FOND OF THE VENN DIAGRAM, as it allows for some higher order thinking involved in the process, especially for little learners who are still learning how to categorize items and concepts. Most students have had experience with Venn diagrams, as well as other graphic organizers, so you can leverage this knowledge to help stay in the target language-ie, you don't have to go into a big explanation as to how they function. FOR MY LITTLE LEARNERS, I BORROW TWO HULA HOOPS from our PHYS ED teacher, which allow me to use not just pictures, but objects as well which otherwise couldn't be put in a pocket organizer or on the board/large sheet of paper. This does mean you have do the Venn Diagram on the floor, but I teach in circle so we are already there! For Middle & High school, you could put the hula hoops on a table so all can see. BECAUSE VENN DIAGRAMS ARE ALL ABOUT COMPARISONS, looking for similarities as well differences, it lends itself really well to cultural comparisons, but there are SO MANY OTHER possibilities! Here are some ideas to spark some more for you: Compare and contrast: *two stories and their elements *two animals *two foods (similar or completely different- I do a comparison of Mexican chocolate caliente and US hot chocolate with my first graders each year; you can also see my post on comparing an authentic taco to a US one here) *two games *how a holiday is celebrated in the target language country and the US *two meals; for example, what's for breakfast in a target language country and in the US *typical pets *weather *animals of two different countries *what the first day of school looks like in two places *houses *two habitats *tooth traditions You definitely want to choose two things to compare that have some similarities-I really try to highlight things that we have in common, not just things that are different; I think this is key to children gaining a better appreciation for, and understanding of, other cultures and peoples. HOW TO CONDUCT THE LESSON: Start by introducing the three categories, the center one being ____ AND _____, or 'the two of them', whatever works best for your classes. I then start pulling items out of a bag or basket one at a time and asking the same question 'Is this from ___, ____, or the two of them?' (for ex). I call on kids to give me one of the headers- in the photo above, kids would tell me 'in Maine, in México, or in Maine and México. NOTE: for my little learners, I usually use the name of our state (Maine) instead of the US; it's way more familiar to them and easier for them as a concept-yup, 5 year olds have NO idea of geography, distance, what a state or country even is etc lol! Once all the items have been placed accordingly, we do a quick debrief, commenting on what is in the center-for ex, 'Ahhh, there are lots of things in the middle, lots of things in Maine and México' (for novice learners my goal is to keep the input comprehensible since I am doing it all in the target language, so I am not looking for grand conclusions. With a higher level of proficiency, you can go into more in depth debriefing. ) Here's a quick video of one of my Kindergarten classes comparing two picnics, one our mini book Julieta y Mateo hacen un picnic, and the other a Peppa Pig episode. You can see how simple the activity is, yet completely comprehensible and accessible to these novice low students. How have you used graphic organizers in your classes? Please share in the comments!

Celebrate International Save the Bears Day (February 21) with these printable glasses of a spectacled bear (also known as the Andean Bear, among other names)! This endangered species from South America is the only bear inhabiting the continent, and is part of a campaign to help raise awareness of their plight. ,#pontelosanteojosporlavida is a social media campaign aimed at spreading the word about conservation efforts by taking a photo and posting it to social media of you 'wearing' glasses-so here are some ready made ones perfect for little learners! What a fun way to bring conservation and endangered species to your classroom, homeschool, or home! Just print, put together, and wear! Also great for a theme on animals of South America! El oso de anteojos is featured in our January edition of our non fiction magazine, Mira el Mundo. You can find the subscription here: Mira el Mundo 4 Month Subscription Jan-Apr 2018 You can also find the individual issue here: January 2018 : el Oso de anteojos PRINTING NOTE: For best results, TpT recommends you print from a fully updated computer, and print from Adobe Acrobat. Included: *Information about the campaign *Printable template and instructions on how to put glasses together And for a fun activity pack check out: Pepita y los pingüinos de Chile Minibook & Activity Pack Mundo de Pepita features a series of mini books and activities you can print out and distribute to your students or children. Great for teaching vocabulary and simple concepts in Spanish, each book features adorable original illustrations and simple story lines..perfect for young learners! Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Periscope, Instagram and Snapchat! Visit our blog: Mundo de Pepita

BUILD A FUN SCHOOL TO HOME CONNECTION WITH THESE MINI GREETING NECKLACES in Spanish, French, German & Russian! I created these while brainstorming ways to spread intentional acts of kindness (my #1 goal this year) at school, and most specifically something I could do on the first day with my Kindergartners. Originally I was just going to give each of them a bead as they left my room, but I realized that they will be transitioning to another Specials class (Music or Phys Ed) and many do not have pockets to tuck things into. Since the first word we learn in my Spanish classes is ¡Hola! , it occurred to me to make little necklaces - nothing to put in a pocket, and serves as a visual reminder as they head home of what we learned... and of course, they are a little present from me on the first day, a day that can be a tough one for littles! YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THESE FREE BY CLICKING HERE! Please tell me in the comments how they work for you! :) And don't mis our Spanish Theme Pack 'Buenos días', perfect for teaching greetings to little learners! Click here to grab it! PLUS, DON'T MISS ALL OUR FUN RESOURCES for teaching languages to children in our shop! Click here to see them all-Spanish, French, Russian, German & ESL!

I AM FREQUENTLY ASKED ABOUT RESEARCH AND INFORMATION RELATED TO EARLY LANGUAGE LEARNING AND PROGRAMS, as many of us find the need to advocate for our programs and educate parents, districts and communities about the advantages for children to study a second language in preschool and elementary school, and for children to be bilingual, as well inform them on realistic expectations for their child in an #earlylang program. I thought it would be helpful to gather these together in one blog post-please let me know any I've missed and I will add them! *NNELL: The National Network for Early Language Learning is our national advocate here in the US, with many resources for teachers and families on their website. Becoming a member means you also gain access to their journal and resources and you are able to connect with other teachers across the country. *Lead With Languages is an advocacy initiative from ACTFL, working to educate on the importance of language learning. The link provided connects you to their rationale for early language learning; they have links for all levels so be sure to explore their site! *ACTFL: The American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages has this advocacy page explaining the research behind language instruction *Edutopia produced this video on the benefits of language learning for children, could be a great link for parents! *This article from the Early Childhood Education Journal highlights the benefits of studying a foreign language on language arts & math instruction *Ñandutí is a website dedicated to preK-8 language instruction and has several articles related to advocacy *'Beyond the Bridge of Understanding, the Benefits of Second Language Learning' by Martha G. Abbott is an excellent article written for the American Educator. *The European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe has a section dedicated to early language learning. You can find an additional series of links here. *Multicultural Kids Blog has collected many resources to help parents advocate for their children being bilingual/ learning another language and being culturally connected. Here is a great set of links for the role of being bilingual. *The State of French Education in Canada- on pages 7-8 of this report you will find the results of a research study conducted to determine whether there is interference from a second language being learnt on the first language... psst.... nope! *Invest in FLES: this is a great article arguing the need for FLES programs in the US. *Heidi Stock, founder of Whistlefritz, did a ton of research and compiled her findings together in this fantastic post on the benefits of being bilingual. *Advice for homeschool families on bringing a second language to their lives, lots of great info! *For infographics and other visual resources, I've created a section on my Pinterest board entitled ''Benefits of Learning a Language and Being Bilingual' which you can visit by clicking here. STAGES IN SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION I also find that it can be helpful when talking with families & admin to give them a better perspective on second language acquisition and what should be realistically expected from an #earlylang program. Here are some links to that end: *Stages of Language Acquisition- this outlines the five stages of language acquisition with fantastic prompts for each stage-I have used this basic concept for most of my teaching career to guide me in how I plan my lessons and flow throughout my program. *Geared for ELL, this article from Colorín Colorado is applicable to all languages and is very informative. *The Language Instinct by Stephen Pinker is one of my all time favorite books, a terrific read for those who are interested in how the brain learns language. *Ohio Department of Education does a FANTASTIC job of breaking down hours of instruction and expected proficiency level, including for FLES programs (meeting a minimum of 90 minutes a week). An excellent resource for educating parents! *A breakdown of contact hours for a student to reach various proficiency levels by language-the Ohio document is more applicable to us, as this is based on specific language training, not your average public school setting, but still informative in my humble opinion as an additional resource. *ACTFL Proficiency Standards Interpreted for Elementary-these are descriptors for Novice Low, Mid & High interpreted through the lens of elementary world language teaching, based on my observations & experiences over the course of 25+ years-can be very helpful in articulating to families what to expect at each level. ADVOCATING FOR YOUR PROGRAM Here are some tips on keeping your program front and center with families, admin and your community! Again, please let me know what I've missed and I will add them! :)

I am a huge fan of kids using manners, so incorporating activities and situations where they are necessary to use is important to me. But, as we all know, sometimes it's challenging to create authentic situations for vocab usage, rather than artificial ones. Here are a few ways I provide those opportunities: *At the beginning of each class I choose a helper (secretario/secretaria) for that day. That kiddo gets to choose a stuffie to hold, all with names, from a basket I have in my classroom. Of course, in order to get the chosen stuffie, the kiddo has to ask for it using 'por favor' and then has to say 'gracias' once he or she gets it. In the older grades, two kiddos go to the basket, one making the choice and the other giving the stuffie to him/her. This second person of course needs to say 'de nada' once the other has said 'gracias'. This stuffie is the biggest perk of being the helper! *I give out birthday pencils for each birthday- I have a range of colors, so the birthday boy/girl needs to request which color they would like along with 'por favor' and 'gracias'. *During our greeting activities in Third Grade, I offer a selection of props kiddos can use (fake mustaches, different types of phones, loads of masks, puppets, etc). Kiddos need to ask for the prop of their choice using their manners. *Classroom requests (may I go to the bathroom, may I get a drink, etc) need to be accompanied by 'por favor'. *A number of activities/projects we do offer choice- choice of color of paper for a book cover, choice of art materials for crafts, choice of manipulatives for imaginative play, etc- all asked for politely! *Any replaying of a song, video, game, etc needs to be asked for using manners. *If a child sneezes and I say 'Salud', the kiddo needs to respond with 'gracias'. And of course, I model this vocabulary as well! I am very conscientious about using please, thank you, and you're welcome all through class, every class. Ahhhhh....so nice to be polite!

AUTHENTIC RESOURCES ARE AN IMPORTANT PART OF OUR RESOURCES TOOLKIT, providing #ownvoices in terms of language, content, and illustration/image. However, we also know that often it can be challenging to find authentic resources which are at the proficiency level of our students, most especially NOVICE LEARNERS. Couple that with finding ones that are also at the developmental level of our early language learners and whew! Not an easy feat! HOWEVER, I also think we can adjust our lessons to be more in line with the proficiency level, making materials more accessible simply by changing what we ask our students to do with them. Here are a few examples of how I use INFOGRAPHICS and SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS with my elementary students: *EXTRACT ONE PIECE OF INFORMATION* This is a key component of my planning when using infographics and other posts. Sometimes, as teachers, we see all the great info on an infographic and try to integrate much of it into a lesson or activity-consider instead just focusing on ONE piece of info that can be gleaned from the visual. So, for example, I use a series of infographics, tweets, and Instagram posts to have my 4th graders fill in a map of where jaguars live. Each visual is about one country, which kids have to identify in order to color in their map, eventually having a series of countries colored in. Before handing out the visuals, remind students to look for text markers such as bold text, titles, hashtags, and/or labels on photos/images. This helps them key into where they can find the info they are looking for, as opposed to becoming lost in the sea of text. (I learned this reading strategy from my sister, who's also a teacher!). This is a skill kids are learning in their general ed classes in upper elementary, so well suited for this age group (as opposed to lower elementary students). For this mapping activity, every kid receives one image to start with, and then they pass the image to a classmate, repeating until all images have been seen by each individual student. Ultimately, with this particular activity (maps & jaguars), my goals are twofold: revisit and reinforce country names & map locations, and develop by exploring & discovering (rather than me telling) the distribution of jaguars in the Americas. There is the added benefit of seeing kids looking at other parts of the image/infographic once they've colored in the appropriate country! Another, similar activity extracting one piece of information is to notate data points, such as numbers or percentages, creating a table or graph in the process. Many infographics show statistics or data points which can be using to gain a fuller picture of a content-area topic. Again, this act of "copying" information from the resource to a graphic organizer or activity page allows students to interact with the text themselves in an accessible fashion. With the advent of 1:1 devices in my school, this has become so much easier to do as a lesson! In the activity shown above, I found infographics for the most biodiverse countries in our hemisphere, posted them as an activity in Seesaw so they could see them, and had students fill out the table, counting numbers of bird, mammal, reptile, plant, and fish species in these countries. My goal is to have kids gain an appreciation of the biodiversity within these countries (including Ecuador, Colombia, México, Perú and Venezuela, along with the Amazon Rainforest more generally). For comparison, I also included a visual with the biodiversity of our state of Maine. Again, revisiting and reinforcing country names is part of spiraling this all through my gradespan, as well as the category words 'mamífero, planta, etc'. You could teach/practice big numbers with this as well! And, with both of these activities, they are embedded in lessons about biodiversity, the environment, & connections with the peoples who inhabit the same territories. Here's another example, from my Mis Mascotas Theme Pack , that utilizes graphics related to what pets can eat-kids use these to mark 'yes' or 'no' on their activity page. This doesn't require them to know the vocabulary for all the food words, although this does provide spiraling opportunities in a new context! Again, I post these on Seesaw so kids can see them all at the same time (before the advent of 1:1 devices, I printed these out and used them in a centers activity). The goal of this activity is for kids to learn more about responsible pet care as part of our Pets theme :) Don't be afraid to cut apart those authentic resources, either! In this example, I printed out one copy of the infographic on stiff paper and cut out the chile peppers, and one copy as a 'self check' after they've followed the instructions (which I video tape and have on an Ipad). The task is to put the cut out chiles in order based on spiciness, simple but fun (and for upper elementary a good review of math facts in the form of ordering bigger numbers). You can circulate to the group/partners to ask them questions in the target language, such as do you like spicy food? what was a surprise? etc Find this infographic here and don't miss our Olivia hace salsa Theme Pack! Social Media posts are another fantastic resource to bring authentic voices and images to your classes. Both the text and the photos/pictures can be a source for language learning & practice-in the example below, I've written out bunches of cards with target vocabulary on them; Instagram & Twitter posts are laid out on tables around the room and cards are distributed to students. Like a scavenger hunt, kids have to find a post or picture that matches the vocabulary card they have and place the card on it/next to it. Linking to the images, in particular, fosters consideration of the meaning of the word on the card. You can also have some of the posts be in English, but the cards are still in the target language which again encourages kids to think about the meaning of the word (you can see an example in the photo related to a Nativelandnet Instagram post in English which mentions 'grandma'-the card says 'abuela'). I really like having some of the cards be words kids really need to search for in the text, as well as words which represent bigger ideas & concepts we are working on in our ABAR (anti bias, anti racist) work. Don't miss our ImillaSkate Mini Theme Pack with cards and links to a video for this exact type of activity! For young (and older!) students who may not be reading yet, CATEGORIZING is an accessible activity that can be done in lots of different ways-using our Preferences Bulletin Board Cards, for example (French version here & Spanish version here) or diagrams like Venn (grab our Graphic Organizers for all Languages here). In the photo below, you can see I've printed out a bunch of 'Batidos' (Shakes) with various ingredients-kids can then sort them into whether they like each one or not. This is a great centers activity or with a partner. These images (and many others) can be found on my Pinterest board by clicking here. On the same Pinterest board I also have some smoothies that do not have a label-which provides an excellent opportunity for kids to add them! Younger kids can use our printable play food, or you can provide written cards without pictures for older kids. (Play food in Spanish, French, Russian, German, English) Focusing in on "simpler" ways to use infographics and other visuals can make these much for accessible for our novice learners, while at the same time giving them opportunities to interact with these resources in authentic contexts. Did you know? I regularly include links to infographics and other visuals in my Mira el Mundo and Mira el Mundo Jr Magazine issues! All back issues, along with current ones, still available in our shop :)

PRE SCHOOL AND EARLY ELEMENTARY KIDS love to play and act out songs and poems, and what better way to do that than with props they can manipulate? I love to incorporate authentic traditional songs and poems from Spanish speaking countries- it's a great way to bring culture to the classroom while at the same time fostering language acquisition in context. ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS is 'Los Pollitos Dicen', and my students love it, too! Once they are familiar with the lyrics, I break out our 'gallina', 'pollito', 'trigo' and 'maiz' props so my students can act out the song while we are singing. I put the 'trigo' and 'maiz' on the rug in the center of the circle, and hand out 'la gallina' and four 'pollito' stick puppets to students who form a smaller circle around the 'trigo' and 'maiz'. As the song plays, the kids who are chicks flap their wings, say 'pío, pío', mime being hungry and cold. The 'gallina' hunts for food, picks up and pretends to hand the 'trigo' and 'maiz' to the chicks, and puts her 'wings' out to have the chicks snuggle in, who then mime going to sleep. It's incredibly cute, and kids have a blast! Here is a link to a great version to this song on Youtube: ONCE THE SONG IS OVER, I choose a new group of kids to come up and use the props, giving us another opportunity to sing the song! (Of course, we play until everyone has had a turn!) ANOTHER FAVORITE OF MINE IS 'UN ELEFANTE SE BALANCEABA', perfect for practicing numbers and getting your kiddos up and moving! Have your students sit in a circle and choose one student to be the first elefante-hand him/her the elefante with '1'. Have this student walk around the circle as you play the song (see the link below from YouTube)- pause the song right as the second elefante is being called onto the spider web and have the kiddo stop, too. Choose a second student to join the first and hand him/her the next elefante (I like to choose names out of a hat or basket). Continue in this fashion until the song is finished. Each time a new student joins the line, you can ask the class ¿Cuántos elefantes ahorita? to add more numbers practice. GET OUR PRINTABLE SONG PROPS IN OUR SHOP! The pack includes props for 'Los Pollitos Dicen', 'Un elefante se balanceaba' and 'Caballito Blanco', perfect for little learners! Click here to get them now!

Making paper marigolds is a wonderful way to bring a hands on activity to your classroom during El Día de los Muertos, something your students will surely remember! Over the years, I have found being prepared ahead of time, and going step by step, using kid friendly instructions, makes all the difference, especially when class only lasts a short time (in my case, I have kiddos for 30 minute classes). Here is what it looks like in my room: The Prep: I usually do this project with my Second Graders and since my classes are short, I like to have some steps done ahead of time to be sure we can get the flowers done in one shot. First, I cut green pipe cleaners in half. I also create name tags, put their names on them, punch a hole in each one, and attach a pipe cleaner to each one. Next, I take four sheets of tissue paper (I buy it already cut into squares) and make the first fold- folding the square in half. In class: Since I have three colors of tissue paper, I call each kiddo up and have them choose which they would like (using manners vocab of course!) I also give them their stem at this time. Once every kiddo has their tissue paper and stem, we begin the construction process. Here are two scripts, one in English (for those who aren't teaching Spanish) and one in Spanish, great for those shooting for 90%. Projects like this one really lend themselves to using the target language, as long as you go step by step. Note the Spanish is much simpler and more direct than the English, making it perfect for novice learners. Don't forget to demonstrate each step as you give the instructions. And see my video step by step in Spanish on Youtube (please forgive any errors!): -"Holding the rectangle like a taco, open part up, fold the rectangle in half. Now we have a square." -"Okis, tenemos un taco. Vamos a doblarlo por la mitad, así' -"Now we are going to make a pizza slice. Put your scissors in the hand you cut with, and hold the square at the bottom, folded point." (I usually go around to every kiddo to be sure they are holding the right point. Otherwise, there is always at least one flower that ends up being cut in the wrong place and when unfolded, is no longer able to become a flower.) -"Vamos a hacer una porción (trozo, rebanada) de pizza." -"Now we are going to cut from one corner to the other in a curve. This will make our pizza slice shape." (I demonstrate before they cut so they can see how it should go. I then walk around and monitor the cutting to be sure they are cutting between the right corners.) -"Corta el papel de una esquina a la otra así." -"Now we are going to cut the fringe to make the petals. We are going to cut straight down, not the whole way, along the crust of the pizza slice." (Again, I demonstrate) -"Ahorita, vamos a hacer los pétalos, cortando así." -"Now we are going to put the scissors down because we won't need them anymore. Gently unfold the pizza back into the taco shape." (The key word here is gently! I demonstrate this) -"Guardar las tijeras. Con cuidado, desdoblar las hojas de papel (las capas) así." -"Now we will unfold the taco into a tortilla. Let's do this gently." (Some kiddos have difficulty with this step, so I go around and help) -"Desdoblarlas una vez más." -'Now we will need to insert the stem. Take one sheet at a time and poke the stem through the middle. If we do all four sheets at once, we will increase the chance of ripping the paper, so let's go with just one sheet at a time." (Again, I help with this as necessary) -"Vamos a pasar el tallo por el centro de cada una de las hojas de papel (las capas), una a la vez, así." -'Now that all four sheets are on the stem, we need to fold over the top of the stem so the paper stays on the stem." (I demonstrate and help as necessary) -"Hacerle un doblez al tallo en la punta, así." -"Right now we have a parasol, but we need a fluffy flower. We are going to scrunch each sheet of paper toward the middle to make it a poofy flower. Be gentle and don't pull the sheets off the stem :) (Again, I go around and help. There is always at least one that comes off the stem lol. Usually it is an easy fix to put it back on the stem. If it is completely ruined, I always have a few in reserve.) -"Vamos a arrugar las hojas de papel (las capas) para realizar la maravilla, una hoja a la vez, así." -"Now look at your flower and smile :)" -"¡Y ya!" I like to use the flowers to decorate my door and give them back after El Día de los Muertos is over. They make quite an impression! Have fun and enjoy making your own! (And let me know if you use different vocabulary- I love learning new things!) And check out our printable Spanish minibook and theme pack perfect for integrating El Día de los Muertos in your classroom. You can purchase it in our shop here.

BASTILLE DAY IS JULY 14TH and as part of my effort to learn more about the culture of French speaking countries, I decided to do a little searching on some fun resources for kids related to this holiday. This also connects to one of my goals for the upcoming school year-integrate more world culture, not just culture from the Spanish speaking world, in my elementary Spanish classes as a way to support my students who are heritage speakers of languages other than Spanish. Though we don't have a huge population of these learners in my district, we do have a fair number, and my room has been the primary place where they can share and talk about this heritage... but I want to bump it up some more! But I digress.... here are some fun links and resources I've found for Bastille Day, celebrated in FRANCE: *PRINTABLE PAPER CITY: PARIS: Seriously adorable set of printable aspects of the city of Paris, a great way for little kids to engage in imaginative play. These could be used as a back drop for a fun skit, a mock tour, or as a prop to learn highlights of the city. You can download them here. *ADORABLE PARIS SIGHTS PRINTABLE CROWN: I am in LOVE with this crown! The illustrations are gorgeous, and what fun for littles to wear in class or at home! Download for free by clicking here. There are also cute printable invitations. *CUTE VIDEO ABOUT PARIS: This is a lovely animated video about Paris in French. *PLAY PÉTANQUE: Every year the language school I used to be Board Chair of organizes a fun game of pétanque as part of their Bastille Day celebration. Here is a video showing the rules: *CELEBRATE FRENCH CUISINE WITH OUR PRINTABLE CRêPE PROPS: Featuring both sweet and savory toppings, these printable props are a fun way to practice vocabulary and culture at the same time! You can grab them by clicking here. *INFOGRAPHICS & MORE!: For cute infographics, images and maps of Paris, head over to our Pinterest Board here! Be sure to follow the board as I add new pins regularly :) AND DON'T MISS OUR MINI BOOK & THEME PACK, FLEUR VA EN FRANCE! Click here to grab it! What would you add? Please let me know in the comments!

PRE SCHOOL AND EARLY ELEMENTARY KIDS love to play and act out songs and poems, and what better way to do that than with props they can manipulate? I love to incorporate authentic traditional songs and poems from Spanish speaking countries- it's a great way to bring culture to the classroom while at the same time fostering language acquisition in context. ONE OF MY FAVORITE SONGS is 'Los Pollitos Dicen', and my students love it, too! Once they are familiar with the lyrics, I break out our 'gallina', 'pollito', 'trigo' and 'maiz' props so my students can act out the song while we are singing. I put the 'trigo' and 'maiz' on the rug in the center of the circle, and hand out 'la gallina' and four 'pollito' stick puppets to students who form a smaller circle around the 'trigo' and 'maiz'. As the song plays, the kids who are chicks flap their wings, say 'pío, pío', mime being hungry and cold. The 'gallina' hunts for food, picks up and pretends to hand the 'trigo' and 'maiz' to the chicks, and puts her 'wings' out to have the chicks snuggle in, who then mime going to sleep. It's incredibly cute, and kids have a blast! Here is a link to a great version to this song on Youtube: ONCE THE SONG IS OVER, I choose a new group of kids to come up and use the props, giving us another opportunity to sing the song! (Of course, we play until everyone has had a turn!) ANOTHER FAVORITE OF MINE IS 'UN ELEFANTE SE BALANCEABA', perfect for practicing numbers and getting your kiddos up and moving! Have your students sit in a circle and choose one student to be the first elefante-hand him/her the elefante with '1'. Have this student walk around the circle as you play the song (see the link below from YouTube)- pause the song right as the second elefante is being called onto the spider web and have the kiddo stop, too. Choose a second student to join the first and hand him/her the next elefante (I like to choose names out of a hat or basket). Continue in this fashion until the song is finished. Each time a new student joins the line, you can ask the class ¿Cuántos elefantes ahorita? to add more numbers practice. GET OUR PRINTABLE SONG PROPS IN OUR SHOP! The pack includes props for 'Los Pollitos Dicen', 'Un elefante se balanceaba' and 'Caballito Blanco', perfect for little learners! Click here to get them now!

AS THE END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR APPROACHES, and my elementary Spanish students are getting a bit squirrelly, I like to incorporate authentic games in class, whether that be going outside or playing games in the classroom. Many years ago I was introduced to RELOJ, a card game from Spain that is perfect for most levels of students, from upper elementary to high school. (I wish I could remember the teacher's name! It was during a presentation here in Maine about 15 years ago, if my memory is jogged I will give her credit) The object of the game is to go out first, to get rid of all your cards. Students can play in small groups, or as a whole class, which is how I do it with my 4th graders when introducing the game. Once they are familiar with it, I break them into groups of 4-5 to play. PREPARATION I purchased several decks of cards at the Dollar Store; I particularly like the oversized ones as they are easier to see and manipulate for my students. Remove the jokers and queens- Spanish decks do not have queens, and the jokers are not used in this game. TO PLAY Shuffle all the cards- if you are playing with the whole class, combine 4-5 decks, shuffling as best you can. Deal out the deck(s), just as you would when playing War; all cards are dealt out face down. Students cannot look at their cards, they keep them in front of them in a pile. When playing with the entire class, I usually only deal out 8-10 cards per student, especially while they are still learning how to play. Going clockwise, first student flips over the top card on his/her pile, puts it in the middle (discard pile) and says 'Reloj' (this card has no penalty for saying it- you will see what I mean!) Next student flips over top card and says 'Uno', next student does the same saying 'Dos', and so on "around the clock" until you get to 'rey' whereupon you start again with 'reloj'. NOTE: a ten is called 'caballo', the jack is 'sota', and of course the king is 'rey'. If a student flips over a card and says the same number as is the card he/she flips, he must take the entire discard pile! And since in order to win, you must go out, grabbing the discard pile is not what you want! You can see now why having 'Reloj' be the penalty free card is great- since there is no corresponding card, it's like a safety card. Game continues until one player goes out. *I usually write the numerals and their corresponding names on the board for my 3rd & 4th graders as an additional support. For older students, this might not be necessary. Have fun! Looking for more TRADITIONAL GAMES? Check out our 5 GAME BOARDS HERE! AND, TO HELP YOUR STUDENTS STAY IN THE TARGET LANGUAGE while playing, check out our Games Vocabulary Posters! You can find them here.

I LIKE TO START FORMALLY TEACHING THE SPANISH ALPHABET TO MY ELEMENTARY STUDENTS WITH THE VOWELS-I find that, along with certain consonants, the vowels are the most difficult for my students to grasp, especially 'a', 'e' and 'i' so sufficient practice and exposure is essential to them internalizing the sight-sound phonetic connection. I wait until Third Grade to directly teach the alphabet (see my rationale at the bottom), but my students are exposed to, and interact with, print and early literacy skills in Spanish from the beginning of Kindergarten onward. Here is a simple movement activity I do when introducing the vowels to help my students match the sound of each vowel with it's written letter. *PREPARE A LIST OF FAMILIAR VOCABULARY, each word of which is comprised of only one vowel. The list I work off of is below :) Place each of the five vowels around the room, like you would place images for playing Four Corners. Say a word from your list and instruct students to head over to the vowel that's in the word. So, if you say 'mamá', students will move over to the 'a'. Once students have moved to the correct vowel, say another word and have them move to that vowel. Continue in this manner, mixing up the vowels out of order after the first few rounds so they need to play close attention. This is a great activity to review vowels also (and you can add in consonants, especially those tricky ones!) when you have 5 minutes at the end of class that suddenly appear unexpectedly! MY LIST: A: mamá, papá, casa, banana, manzana, naranja, salsa, mal, va, mar E: bebé, nene, tres, sé, me, sed, ve, es, pez I: gris, sí, bici, kiwi, picnic, rin rin, mi O: ocho, dos, rojo, flojo, yo, lobo, loco, globo U: cucú, tutú, glu glu, un, tú, muuuu *YOU CAN FOLLOW UP THIS ACTIVITY WITH MINI WHITEBOARDS, saying a word out loud and having students write the vowel they hear on the whiteboard, again using the same list. AND DON'T MISS THIS VIDEO OF US LEADING UP TO THE VOWELS ACTIVITY! I introduce the vowels with actions and key words...click here to view it on Youtube. PLUS, DON'T MISS OUR ALPHABET ACTIVITY PACK, with letter posters, mini books of each letter, word wall cards, and more! You can find it here. REGARDING WAITING UNTIL THIRD GRADE to formally teach the alphabet- over the years I have found that up until this point the majority of my students in class do not have secure early literacy skills and may lack foundational understanding of the concept of sight-sound matching (looking at a written letter and telling what sound it makes). I have made the conscious decision to wait until these concepts are more secure for most of my students before introducing formal conversations about the Spanish alphabet and phonetics. This helps them access our activities much better, and at a more confident level. As I stated above however, my students are exposed to, and interact with, Spanish in print right from the beginning of Kindergarten, through the mini books we read, the print I have all around my room, simple reading and writing/labeling/copying activities we do, and so on. These activities prime my students for being ready to look at the alphabet more closely at the start of Third Grade, and then applying that knowledge going forward in the course of subsequent class activities (more mini books, more writing and reading activities, entrance slips, and so on). Each teacher needs to find what is most appropriate for their students; some start earlier, some later, it all depends on what works best for the program you teach in :)

Greeting games

LAST SUMMER I WROTE OUT MY INTERPRETATION OF THE ACTFL NOVICE LEVELS WITH AN ELEMENTARY PERSPECTIVE, which has really helped me view my students and their interactions in class more clearly. (Read them here) However, this has also prompted me to get more serious about my desire to change how I assess and grade my students, which is to say, along proficiency lines rather than discrete assessments at any one point in time. In some ways, I am already doing this, having identified what my expectations are for each grade level, but I am looking to take it further to define it as a proficiency level for each grade level. But, this brings with it significant challenges-for ex, my kiddos, over the course of their five years with me, mostly fall in Novice Low and Novice Mid for the bulk of our time together, with movement into Novice High for a portion. This means assigning Novice Low for 2-3 grades levels, which honestly doesn't help me if I am trying to identify whether a kiddo is 'On grade level' or not. Contemplating this nugget brought into focus the fact that even within each of these sub-categories (Low, Mid, High) there are gradations-not all Novice Low looks the same, especially if you are looking at a kiddo over the course of a couple of years. A Kindergartner in September is a different Novice Low than a First Grader in June, after having two years of class. So.... TO DELVE INTO THIS MORE, I DECIDED TO TRACK STUDENT UTTERANCES & INTERACTIONS so I could get a clearer sense of what is actually happening. To that end, last November, I started writing down verbatim what my students are saying, and roughly placing them on a continuum from Novice Low to Novice High. I continued this process all the way to June, using a closet door in my room and sticky notes. What became readily apparent was what I suspected- lots of gradation, but patterns began to emerge within those gradations where I have been able to lump utterances together. So, for example, within what I am terming Novice Low, there are these: "Green and blue!" "It's verde and azul." "Verde y azul." These are all in answer to the question "¿De qué color es ____?". Note the progression from English, to a mixed bilingual sentence, to a completely target language response that would be a typical response from anyone, even a native speaker, when answering this question (I say this because, as we all know, it is common to answer questions of this kind without using a full sentence-What color is the ___? Green and blue.) OK, SO NOW WHAT? As the year progressed and I had more and more utterances documented, I began thinking about what to term these sub-sub categories, and/or how I could present them visually. My internal metaphor for learning another language has always been to liken the process to climbing a mountain, with dips and plateaus, switchbacks and cliffs...you get the idea. I began playing around with a representation inspired by this metaphor that would be readily understood by a 5 year old, and came up with the below concept for Novice Low (for the PDF version of this click here): AS YOU CAN SEE, I'VE USED THREE SIMPLE WALKING PATHS, a sidewalk, the lawn, and an easy nature trail to visualize the progression, with the sidewalk being of the shortest duration, the lawn being a little longer, and the nature trail being the longest of the three, reflecting what I observe in my classes-kids move pretty quickly from the "sidewalk" to the "lawn", and from the "lawn" to the "nature trail" where they spend a fair amount of time. Imagine sharing this with your early elementary students-or your middle or high school students for that matter! The "sidewalk" is an easy walk, no special clothing or equipment needed. The "lawn" needs sneakers or flip flops, and might house some things to take into consideration, like flowers, bugs, or small stones. An "easy nature trail" requires sneakers and probably some bug spray, and perhaps a granola bar along with a water bottle since it could be a bit of a walk. It's highly evident the progression of "difficulty" from one to the next, which I think is also appealing to kids AND has the benefit of showing said progress over time, which a designation of just 'Novice Low' cannot do. OK, ONTO NOVICE MID... I find this one a little harder to break down, in large part because I see kids mixing and matching utterances, with a lot of fluidity and gray area. I've decided, at least for the moment, to only have two sub-sub levels here (this is definitely a work in progress!) that flow back and forth-so, envision less precise categories, and kids' utterances moving back and forth along the progression as they integrate new content and fall back before moving ahead again. (The PDF version is here) CONTINUING THE TRAIL METAPHOR, I have two trails, one termed 'Nature Trail' which has a few rocks but otherwise smooth- one would need sturdy sneakers to successfully navigate the terrain. At the other end, 'Nature Trail with Hill' with more rocks, a slight incline and more trees, with one needing to pay more careful attention to the terrain and any obstacles, as well as put in a bit more energy to climb the hill. As a continuum of "difficulty, as kids gain more content, they are able to integrate this in more varied ways, such as stringing together vocabulary, adding modifiers as desired, and personalizing some of the practiced phrases they are learning, which takes on the aspect of original expression. Kids still rely on well learnt words, chunks and phrases and I still see a lot of English interference, both in terms of word order, etc and using the L1 to fill in the gaps for what they still don't know but want to express. Language is still rudimentary in nature, and sticks closely to the familiar topics from class, which makes sense given they still have a very small vocabulary set, though it is growing :) I WANT TO ADD, THERE IS SOOOO much more to these charts-my goal is to continue to flesh out my observations and ideas over the course of this summer, getting them out of my head and onto virtual 'paper' :) CAVEAT: All of the above is based on my experience with my resources and my method of teaching, which is 90-100% in Spanish, and incorporates a lot of conversational back and forth, encouragement and support of spontaneous interaction, and lots of scaffolding, all of which may affect what I see in my kiddos and may not be what your students output looks like- because of this, I would LOVE to hear your thoughts and experiences-please share in the comments below! PSST: I am working on a kid-friendly printable of these so they can track their progress for those of you who incorporate this in class-should be finalized soon!

FOOD IS ONE OF THOSE TOPICS IN WORLD LANGUAGE CLASSES that gives a lot of bang for the buck.. we all like to talk about food, and there are so many ways to make it part of our lessons. Since I am a huge advocate of hands on learning, I use both plastic and paper play food whenever I am doing activities related to food- not only do they give little hands something to engage in, but it also provides visual support for my students. And this applies to all age groups, not just the littles- when I was teaching Russian to adults, I frequently incorporated manipulatives to support learning. Here are some ideas for using play food in your class: *CATEGORIZE ACCORDING TO PREFERENCE: This is a simple way to practice expressions of preference, even if your students don't know the words for all the food items. For my younger students, I make up ziploc baggies or an envelope with approximately 10 foods in them along with a set of cards indicating 'I like', 'I really like', 'I don't like', and 'I don't know' (for those foods they've never tried) and divide the class into pairs. Each pair gets a baggie and takes turns categorizing the foods based on their preferences. After a few minutes, I have them leave the foods in a pile, and they move to the next set (each baggie has different foods in it) so they can categorize again. I encourage them to say how they feel about each food in Spanish as they place it under a preference card-this is the focus of the activity, using the preference phrases themselves. For older kids, you could have them add reasons why they like or don't like a particular food- It's too spicy, It's sweet, It's gross, etc. This makes for a great (and simple!) Interpersonal Activity, particularly for novice speakers! *MY FAVORITE MEAL: Use paper plates to provide the starting prop, and have kids "fill" their plate with their favorite meal- could be breakfast, lunch or dinner! You could also title this: A MEAL I REALLY LIKE, since sometimes kids have a hard time deciding between multiple favorites. Kids can then turn and talk with the person on their left, then switch and turn and talk with the person on their right. I love activities where kids share with one another, it builds community by providing opportunities to learn about each other! *PLAY RESTAURANT OR MARKET: Play food lends itself really well to activities involving restaurant or market vocabulary and provide a hands on component to the action. Students can "order" food which is then delivered to them (put the play food on a plate!), or the play food can be displayed as part of a market stand where students can "buy" what they need to make a dish or to get items on a shopping list. This is a fun way to integrate imaginary play for little kids, and manners expressions such as 'please', 'thank you' and 'you're welcome'. *"ILLUSTRATE A RECIPE": Provide students with an authentic recipe and a basket or bin of printable food. Have them read the recipe and line up the ingredients below the recipe. This is a great center/ station activity! ALTERNATIVE: Have multiple sets of play food available, pair students up and have one student tell his/her partner which foods are needed for a particular recipe or dish. This is an easy way to add CULTURE to your classes! *PLAY 20 QUESTIONS: Have student go out into the hall and choose a food from a basket or bag. Upon re-entering the classroom, the rest of the class tries to guess the mystery food by asking a series of questions that can be answered with yes/no. Is it a fruit? Is it round? Is it an orange? etc. Once guessed, or the 20 questions are spent and the food revealed, choose another student and play again! *PLAY 'I'M GOING ON A PICNIC AND I'M BRINGING...': I love this old favorite, but I find it is easier for students to engage in when we have the food visuals in front of them. It helps with recall, and provides some structure and limits to what they can choose from. I put out a bunch of play food that they know the names of and as one is named by a student, they put it in front of them so we can all reference it. This also helps keep the game moving, as the task focuses on remembering the Spanish vocabulary, rather than what someone said on down the circle. *WHAT'S MISSING?: One of my favorite games with the littles is this one- place 4-5 foods in front of you, on the board or in a pocket chart. Have kids close their eyes, and take a food away. Have them open their eyes again and identify the missing food. After a few rounds, take away two foods, then three, etc. The funniest is when you take them all away! :) *CATEGORIZE INTO...: There are so many ways students can categorize food- healthy vs unhealthy foods, groups based on the food pyramid, meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner), foods they've tried vs foods they haven't, types of food (fruits, veggies, drinks, desserts, etc), and so on. Provide a graphic organizer for students to use as a template, placing food in categories they write at the top (or have the categories pre-written), ideal for novice speakers! When focusing on the category headers, this also means you can use foods that students still haven't learnt yet since the key language being used is the set of headers, rather than the individual words, meaning you can extend the activity beyond the food vocabulary set you've identified as core. *LUNCH TALK... an every more popular activity for class, lunch talk is a great way to incorporate authentic communication in a personalized format. The essence of lunch talk is taking the opportunity to talk with your students about what they have for lunch (or what they ate), which also allows for practice of high frequency phrases such as 'I have/I don't have', 'I like/don't like (and all the other variants), I eat (along with expressions of frequency), etc. The tricky part of lunch talk, most especially for novice speakers, is their limited vocabularies, yet quite unlimited set of possibilities in terms of what they might be having for lunch. One way to support your students is, instead of expecting verbal output of what they have, have them SHOW you using PLAY FOOD! This then allows you, as the teacher, to facilitate interaction and reaction (oh, I like that too!, Mmm, yummy! I eat ___ that every day, too, etc) in the target language. You can then scaffold and support students in using some of the phrases mentioned above, and you can encourage more general words, like 'sandwich' (instead of peanut butter & jelly sandwich) or 'soup' (instead of chicken noodle soup) to keep it accessible for the Novice proficiency level. Don't miss our Sandwich Printable Props Pack for this activity! NEED PLAY FOOD FOR YOUR CLASS? Look no further! We have an ever growing set of play food in Spanish, as well as the same set unlabeled, as well as sets in German, French, Russian, and English! Visit our shop and grab it now- click here!

CELIA CRUZ, QUEEN OF SALSA was, and is, an inspiration to all! Her music makes you want to dance and her vivacious personality was infectious. There are a number of resources available that are perfect for little learners, making her a great addition to your Spanish class. I want to say a special thank you to Salema Jenkins for inspiring this post and sharing the idea of making Celia part of Black History Month! While I definitely recommend incorporating Afro-latinx throughout the year, we can also take advantage of the spotlight in February to further highlight the many influential people that connect with this month. *ME LLAMO CELIA My name is Celia: This is a wonderful, bilingual children's book about Celia's life. The illustrations are delightful and kids can easily connect to the storyline. *CELIA CRUZ QUEEN OF SALSA- Another biography of Celia, this is one I haven't read yet, but is on my list! The excerpts on Amazon show a wonderfully written storyline telling about Celia's life, with beautiful illustrations. *PEPITA LEE SOBRE CELIA CRUZ MINIBOOK & ACTIVITY PACK: This printable minibook features salient facts about Celia's life in simple Spanish, while the activity pack includes activities to incorporate salsa music and dancing to class- great to introduce Celia and Cuba to your class! You can find it here *ZUN ZUN BA BA E: Here is Celia on Sesame Street singing the traditional song, Zun Zun Ba Ba E- kids love this! *GUANTAMERA: I LOVE this version of Guantamera, sung by Celia, as well as the video- just beautiful! *YO VIVIRÉ- This song brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it! Though for elementary students, the lyrics are probably too much to learn, it is a great song to play for Freeze Dance or while they are doing folder activities. Other great songs are La vida es un Carnaval and Rie y Llora. Also perfect for Baile Viernes! *HERE ARE A FEW MORE BOOKS to build your library! Find them at your local independent bookstore. Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Lil' Libros board book, Celia, is adorable (as are all their books!) and part of the popular series, Who was ...? comes Who was Celia Cruz? by Pam Pollack, perfect for upper elementary and middle school: and this beautiful picture book ¡Azúcar! by Ivar da Coll ENJOYED THIS POST? Check out our post on bringing Frida Kahlo into the elementary classroom, too! Click here to read it!

IT'S OUR FIFTH AND FINAL DAY OF SUMMER CAMP ACTIVITIES, and we hope you have found some great ideas, both on our blog and on Fun for Spanish Teachers! Be sure to visit Carolina's final post by clicking here! And, don't miss our activity below- a take on the traditional game 'I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing.... I ALWAYS HAD FUN WHEN I WAS A KID PLAYING the picnic game... I confess, I have a decent memory, so even when I was one of the last kids to have a turn, I could often remember what everyone else had put in the basket- but even when I could, it was still always a challenge (I LOVE challenges!). When playing with my students in Spanish class, I make a few modifications to make the task a little easier, primarily as a scaffold for vocabulary recall, which can be tricky for some kiddos. BEFORE STARTING TO PLAY, I PUT OUT A SET OF FOOD IMAGES that represent vocabulary my students already know- these serve to jog the memory and help those kiddos who have a harder time coming up with a word without assistance. They also serve to corral the possibilities to those shown/ provided, which helps to move the game along.... no 'Señora, how do you say ____?' which can bog down forward movement, and the unfamiliar word is harder for the rest of the crew to remember since it is...well, unfamiliar. By scaffolding the game, everyone has a lot more fun! And, you can encourage kids to add adjectives or quantities to what they say, so instead of... 'I'm making a picnic and I'm bringing a donut', a kiddo could say 'I'm making a picnic and I'm bringing a huge, chocolate donut.' :) Have fun! And don't miss our other posts for summer camp activities! *Make worry dolls with a clothespin *Make agua fresca *Mount a puppet play (with FREE downloadable script) *Make a paper arpillera

WITH THE ADVENT OF REMOTE TEACHING, TRYING OUT NEW TEACHING TECHNIQUES has been the norm. Couple that with a greater need to differentiate instruction in my upper elementary Spanish classes, I find myself experimenting with CHOICE BOARDS this year. I HAVE TO CONFESS, THIS HAS NOT BEEN WITHOUT ITS PROBLEMS; however, like centers with my lower elementary students, the positives are, so far, outweighing the negatives. Here is a run down of how I am setting them up, along with pitfalls I have been problem solving as I go: -DIFFERENTIATION: one of the key elements (and why I started trying them out in the first place) of the boards I have been creating has been activities at a variety of PROFICIENCY LEVELS. I have done this because I have finally realized one of the hurdles to whole group instruction with my upper elementary classes-a wide gap in proficiency-from students brand new to the district (and to Spanish), students who’ve been with me all along but who, for a myriad of reasons, have made slow progress, all the way to my heritage learners. This gap is far wider than at the primary levels, and creates its own challenges. Making sure to have activities at different proficiency levels means ALL my students can be successful. -VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE: though Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences has received much criticism, I still use his outline as a guide when creating a set of activities-being sure to include a range of speaking, music, listening, crafting, math or geography, drawing, writing, etc; this in turn hits the modes of communication we are used to incorporating, but in more contexts. See below for a listing of activities that I have generated. -VIDEOS TO DELIVER INSTRUCTIONS: one of the things I have been most happy about how I’ve set up the boards is in creating videos for each activity with the instructions & expectations right in the video. So, for ex, if I have 12 activities on a board, I create 12 accompanying videos which I then house in one file in our online platform (in our case, Seesaw, but you could also do this in Google Classroom or in a Wakelet, etc). This frees me up to circulate around the room rather than give direct instruction on each activity, and provides independence for my students. (Of course, I have to keep reminding my students to watch the videos rather than ask me what to do, but that’s another matter altogether lol) This means that I create a Seesaw Drawing file, put the choice board visual on the first page with a video introduction, then make a page for each activity, with a video and any other information that is needed (for ex, there might be a link to go to a particular website or actual Seesaw activity). In this example, I would therefore have the intro page and 12 additional pages. -ACCOUNTABILITY: How to ensure kids have done an activity? If it’s a Seesaw activity that they have to do, that’s easy, they just submit. But with other types of activities, that’s not possible-so, I create a “record my work” Activity file in Seesaw for kids to upload photos of completed activities, adding pages as necessary. At first, I had kids just add pages to the intro file, but found out you can only have a total of 20 pages in a Seesaw activity, so had to nix that. And, if you have them upload photos randomly to their journal, you need to track them to ensure all are done-if you have a ‘one stop’ location to house all the photos it is easier to find and review them all at once. For those who use Google Classroom and Slides, a similar file can be created! -THE NAME ‘CHOICE BOARD’: so, here’s a fail. Apparently, some kids seem to think that if you name something a ‘choice board’, that means they can choose NOT to do any of the activities. Ugh. Thanks to a comment by Jen Kennedy, Señora Speedy, who noted she changed hers from ‘choice board’, I took this suggestion and now call mine ‘Activity Boards’. While there is still choice, the subtle change in title makes a big difference. I will add, I have also run into the random kid who doesn’t like any, or most, of the activities on the board. This, while extremely hard for me to stomach, especially after putting in hours of time in creating a board & it’s accompanying activities, has prompted me to create ONE additional activity based on a students particular interests with the agreement that they still have to do the remaining requirements of the board. This compromise feels good to me-after all, while the board has choice inherent within it (on many levels), I also do not want to employ a ‘compliance’ dynamic in my classes. -HAVE TO ACTIVITIES: Because my choice boards have, up to this point, been geared for multiple proficiency levels, I have not tried ‘have to’ activities within the board, other than introduction activities that prime students for the rest of the board. ACTIVITIES BASED ON PROFICIENCY LEVEL (geared for upper elementary): NOVICE LOW: -word work such as matching word to picture -color by number such as those in my 15 Activity Pages for Upper Elementary -word searches -Memory games -listen to a series of songs & indicate how you feel about them on a recording sheet by checking your preference -interactive notebook pages -label photos or images -list items -nature journaling with labeled items on drawing -Venn diagrams with answers recorded as drawings or one word answers -Measuring activities related to a cultural topic such as animals in Canaima National Park, Venezuela -Scavenger hunt such as my free one with colors NOVICE MID: -word searches where the words are presented as pictures in the word bank instead of written words -record your preferences in a platform based on a series of questions (such as Do you like __?) -crossword puzzles -nature journaling with phrases & simple descriptions -interactive notebook pages -Venn diagrams -story graphic organizers in which student writes/draws a part of a story in each section in order to ‘re-tell’ it -categorize items based on reading the words -Seek & find-give a listing (either written or recorded) of items to find & circle in an image (you can do the same with a video-have them screen shot the items they are looking for) -follow along as instructions are given to create a craft such as the Cattleya orchid craft in my Pepita va a Colombia Theme Pack or the Copihue flower in my Pepita va a Chile Theme Pack -Read and Draw -Listen and Draw -Create a word cloud NOVICE HIGH: -Venn diagrams based on comprehending the basic gist of two short videos, songs, readings, etc (for ex, use simple infographics to complete a Venn about two animals) -Info pages-create a non fiction info page or trading card (you could provide infographics, videos, screen shots, tweets, Instagram posts, etc as resources) My non fiction magazine Mira el Mundo has lots of these! -Listen to a simply story and re-tell it using a graphic organizer such as a story re-tell organizer -Write a concrete or diamante poem -Listen to a familiar song & fill in the blanks on an activity page -Record yourself describing a series of images such as my story cards -Listen & Draw/ Read & Draw with prompts geared for this proficiency level -Doodle pages- draw, then tell about what you’ve drawn HERITAGE LEARNERS: -Write a review (or record a review) about a story or book -Word work to develop expanded vocabulary (such as synonyms, antonyms, more specific vocabulary around a topic, etc) -Write a poem -Use an authentic resource to learn something new of students choice (or your choice) -Read two stories, legends, or folktales and create a Venn diagram comparing the two -Create an advocacy poster -Listen to a song (for this age group) and create an album cover based on what the song is about -Watch a cooking video and create a simple recipe card to go with it -Read a series of memes, then make your own I am sure you have thought of a ton more, this is just a sampling of activities that have worked so far for me, many of which are included in a variety of my theme packs & other resources. I would love to hear your experiences with choice boards-please feel free to comment below! NAME ACTIVITY BOARD I decided to create a Our names are important Activity Board that would serve for older students (but could certainly be done with younger ones as well), with the idea of using it as an extension to activities done in the past in order to build on them and return in spiral fashion to the idea of names as part of our identity. These are all ‘have to do’ activities (except for the choice in which read aloud to listen to). Here is what I include: *Create your own name tag (grab ours here!), writing/drawing your name in such as way as to not just spell your name but also tell everyone else something about you-could be your favorite color, could be each letter drawn as something you like, etc. I drew my name inspired by an activity Melisa Hayes shared on Twitter last year, with students using objects that tell a story about themselves to spell out their names. You can see it by clicking here. Yes, foxes (and wolves) are my favorite animal(s) :) *Listen to a picture book read aloud about the importance of names. I use René has two last names/ René tiene dos apellidos by René Colato Laínez and Teach Us Your Name by Huda Essa . Students choose one of these two to listen to; I find that books read by the author themselves are particularly powerful, especially connected to social justice and identity themes, as they often share personal stories related to the book they have written, above and beyond the book itself. After searching literally for hours, these were the two I settled on, partly because they were the very few read aloud by the author, but as importantly serve as meaningful representation. Below you will find a list of additional titles that are also great to read, but do not have read alouds by the author available. (REMINDER: there are tons of read aloud videos on Youtube, but very, very few are sanctioned by the author and/or publisher. I only share sanctioned read alouds w my students) *My name, my identity Challenge: I found this awesome video made by a little girl, Shreestha, who shares the story of her name. I include a link to this video along with the question/prompt: What my name means to me. The first time I did this slide, the prompts were What is story of my name, What is the history and origin of my name, and What my name means to me. Unfortunately, I discovered many of my students know little about how they got their name, and although I tried to encourage them to go home and ask, not all did or are not in a position to have a family member be able to tell them more about their name. ALSO, I’ve come to learn that for transgender and/or non binary folx, asking to share the story of their name can be emotionally harmful. So, I eliminated two and kept the third. Another great video that can be included is My Name My Identity. And this one from Nick Jr which The Woke Spanish Teacher shared on Twitter-love it so much! (I included her Instagram link, be sure to follow her-she is an incredible inspiration & teacher!) *Jamboard Sticky Note Board: The last component of the board features a slide on Jamboard with the prompt Why are our names important? I like having a place where kids can see each other’s answers and *hopefully* reflect on them on their own as well as having a chance for us to talk about this in the larger group. NOTE: I do this activity board in a mix of English & Spanish (and any other language a kiddo wants to include), rather than as a 90 or 100% in the TL activity. The power of the videos/stories is something I want my students to experience to the fullest extent possible, so their inclusion is purposeful. All of the places where students are writing/recording their answers can be in any/all/some/one of the languages they know. Don't miss my FREE Names Scavenger Hunt activity here! And here's a great infographic about why it's so important to pronounce names correctly! Click here Additional picture books about names: *Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow & Colombian illustrator Luisa Uribe (love, love, love this one-I read it my primary students) For an activity page I created connected to this book, click here :) And the FRENCH version is here *Alma and how she got her name written/ illustrated by Juana Martinez Neal *The Name Jar written/illustrated by Yangsook Choi *Always Anjali written by Sheetal Sheth and illustrated by Jessica Blank *My name is Yoon written by Helen Recorvits and illustrated by Gabi Swaitkowska *My name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada (a chapter book) *Three Names of Me by Mary Cummings *My name is Jorge on both sides of the river by Jane Medina, illustrated by Fabricio Vanden Broeck *My name is Sangoel by Karen Lynn Williams & Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Catherine Stock *My Name by Supriya Keller & illustrated by Sandy’s Prabhat Click here to download for free

THE WEATHER IS WARMING UP and all of us would love to be outside...here are some traditional, authentic games you can play in short bursts of time (so many of us have short class periods) with the whole class and little prep and minimal rules to explain. *GATO Y RATÓN: This tag style game most likely comes in many variations; this one is from Puerto Rico. Children stand in a circle, holding hands. One student is inside the circle (el ratón) while a second student is outside (el gato). The object of the game is for the gato to catch the ratón, while the circle tries to keep the ratón safe by attempting to keep the gato from entering the circle. Once the gato enters the circle, the ratón may exit to try and escape, whereupon the gato chases him. I have altered the ending slightly from the original game, putting a time limit on the chase so more kiddos can have a turn. Here is a video of preschoolers playing 'Gato y Ratón' so you can visualize it: *¡UNO, DOS, TRES CALABAZA!: Much like 'Red Light, Green Light' one kiddo stands at a distance with his/her back to the group. He/she calls out 'Uno, dos, tres,'- while doing so, the rest of the kids quickly and quietly try to run up and tag him/her. (I allow speed walking, no running). The caller can say the numbers slowly or quickly, but when he shouts '¡Calabaza!' everyone must freeze. He/she turns around and anyone still moving has to go back to the starting line. Game continues until someone tags the caller. That person now is the caller, and the game starts again. *BETO, BETO DÍME EL ALFABETO: This is a fun jumprope chant which has the added benefit of reviewing the alphabet! The object is to try and jumprope all the way through the alphabet. Kiddos can have their own jumpropes or you can have two kiddos swing the rope and one jumps in the middle. Borrow jumpropes from the gym teacher so everyone can participate at the same time. Simply chant the alphabet from your 'go' signal! *A LA VÍBORA DE LA MAR: Similar to London Bridges, two kiddos form an arch, one being 'melón' and the other 'sandía'. The rest of the class forms a line and weaves their way through the arch while the song is sung (I usually only sing the first verse with kiddos to keep the game moving). At the last 'tras' the arch comes down and whomever is captured must choose either 'melón' o 'sandía'. Whichever they choose, that child then forms an arch behind the original kiddo with that fruit (so, now you have TWO arches). The game starts again, with the line now 'snaking' through the first arch and then the second, until another kiddo is captured, who then again picks a fruit and forms yet another arch and so on until you end the game or everyone has been captured. Click here for a link on Youtube for the tune. TIP: Since the line may snake through the arch(es) multiple times before you get to 'tras', use cones or other markers to delineate a path for the line to take. Also, I use a plastic cantaloupe and watermelon to remind kiddos of the vocabulary, placing them next to the two original arch holders. *A LA RUEDA DE SAN MIGUEL: This circle game is fun to play with littles! Kids form a circle all facing inward, holding hands, with one kiddo in the center. As you sing the song, the kids walk around in a circle until the last stanza, where the kid in the center fills in a name of a classmate. That kiddo turns around, still holding hands with those on either side, but facing outside. The game continues until everyone is facing outward. Depending on how many students you have, I recommend having two kids' names called at a time, rather than just one, to make the game move a little more quickly. With 18-20 kids in a Kinder class, I find mine get a little tired after so many rounds. Here's the tune on Youtube!

I'M GOING TO CONFESS, I am really bad about providing activities for my elementary Spanish kids to practice answering the question '¿Cómo te llamas?' and stating their names... think about it- kids know each others names, so introducing themselves over and over again doesn't make much sense- it's simply not authentic communication! But, I know that being able to answer the question ¿Cómo te llamas? or ¿Cuál es tu nombre? is a typical expectation, and I feel like I'm missing the boat. However, there are some activities that I do, and should do more of!, to provide more practice in answering these questions (NOTE: I teach my students 'Yo soy ____' as opposed to 'Me llamo' because I incorporate this phrase into so many other themes). Here are some good authentically communicative activities that I do- please share yours in the comments! *BRING IN YOUR STUFFIE DAY!: Invite your students to bring in a stuffie to class (you may want to provide guidelines around size of said stuffie, and be sure to let gen ed teachers know ahead of time so they know stuffies will be appearing)... you students become the "voices" of their stuffies, introducing them, or having mini conversations with '¿Cómo te llamas?' or ¿Qué es tu nombre?' or you could, as the teacher, ask the questions of the stuffies as a quick greeting activity. However done, the stuffies' names are generally unknown to everyone else in the class, so it becomes an authentic communication for them to "talk" and share their names. You could have more than one Bring in Your Stuffie Day in the year, with each time a different stuffie coming to school. *NAME THAT STUFFIE!: If, like me, you have a grand collection of stuffies already in your classroom, you can pass them out to students who can then name them and, like above, be their "voices" to introduce themselves or answer questions about their name. If you don't have stuffies, use stick puppets, dolls, little animal counters, Lego figures...anything they can name will do! *VOTE ON A NAME!: In some of the minibooks we read in class, there are additional characters or animals without names- turn naming the character into a vote! My students love to brainstorm names and then vote on them as a class; I typically keep the brainstorming to 4-5 names, then we vote. Once names are given, we have fun incorporating them into other activities and stories. Since I have multiple classes for each grade, if there are multiple characters to name I have each class name just one character, then I share with the other classes all the names chosen, which they also love. *MAKE AN INTERACTIVE BOARD IN THE HALLWAY: If you've got space to put up a piece of chart paper, why not put a picture of a stuffie or animal with the header question ¿Cómo te llamas? for kids to answer when they enter in the morning or at recess time? Provide a pencil on a string (expect it to disappear so monitor it!) and see what your students come up with! Tell your students they have to start with either 'Me llamo __' or 'Yo soy ____' to practice those structures and then sit back and enjoy their creativity!

WE KNOW THAT LISTENING COMPREHENSION is extremely important in the foreign language classroom, yet we (or at least, I) struggle to resist the temptation to get kiddos speaking as quickly as possible. Speaking activities are easier to measure, parents routinely ask 'Well, what can my kid SAY?', and kids themselves rarely understand how vital this skill is and how much they need to 'PRACTICE THEIR LISTENING EARS' as I call it in my classroom. Though by NO means exhaustive, I've tried to compile a list of listening comprehension activities that are just right for little learners, and require little to no speaking on their part. I've done this intentionally- Stephen Krashen strongly recommends a period of listening only, and though we can't always adhere to that, I've attempted a list of activities which require little speaking vocabulary on my students' part, but give lots of listening practice! Here goes: 1- BINGO: We all know, and we all love it. Can't go wrong with with Bingo! 2- ACT IT OUT: TPR has limitless possibilities (more of these to come)- whether students act out an animal, action, object or what have you, it's a simple task to name something and have them bring out their inner actor! 3- DRAW A ___: For your little artists, this is a fun and easy activity- give them paper or white boards, name an object/item and have them draw it. Beware- little little learners have limited drawing capabilities- you make think a frog is easy to draw, but no way! Be sure your list matches the abilities of your students to (vaguely) represent the vocabulary. EXTEND THIS ACTIVITY by saying phrases, word chunks and/or sentences instead of single words. 4- FREEZE DANCE: Got a few minutes at the end of class? Pump up the tunes and play Freeze Dance! I use two commands only- ¡Alto! and ¡Baila!- keeping it real simple! This is also a great way to sneak in some culture with authentic music. 5- COLOR BY NUMBER: Are your kiddos practicing colors vocabulary? Take the answer key off any color by number activity page and tell them the instructions orally, one color at a time. 6- MATAMOSCAS- Another popular game we are very familiar with! Separate the class into two teams, put two pictures on the board (this works best with a smart board so you can project the pictures, but if you don't have one, put the pictures up a little higher and put 2 x's where they will swat), call up two kids, say the vocab word- first to swat the picture is the winner of that round. 7- MAKE A CRAFT: Choose a simple craft kiddos can do and give them the instructions verbally, step by step. I do each step one at a time and wait for all kiddos to finish before going on to the next step- many kiddos find following multi step instructions challenging even in their native language. See my instructions on how to make tissue paper flowers here! 8- POINT TO THE ____: Make up a picture page with the vocabulary you are practicing (so, a page with pictures of different fruit on it), then say a word, and have kiddos point to the word. Or, give them a small manipulative (or dare I say, a skittle or starburst- talk about motivation!) to move about the page. If you want to throw some speaking in on their part, after you have covered the vocab several times, call on students and have them say a word- they like to see me playing along, too! 9- 4 CORNERS: A great activity to get kids moving! Put pictures of vocabulary in 4 corners of the room, say a word and have kids move to the corner housing the representative picture. See my post here for more detailed information. 10- FRÍO O CALIENTE: A favorite from our childhood, kids will immediately recognize how to play. Decide on a vocabulary word from your classroom, or set up a series of objects/pictures that kids can move towards and ultimately choose. Do this whole group or smaller groups depending on class management and size of space. 11- ¿SÍ O NO?: A seriously easy activity to do to check for understanding of vocabulary. Hold up an object or picture and ask 'Is it a ____, yes or no?' Kids can do a thumbs up or thumbs down to indicate their answer. 12- SIGUE LA SECUENCIA: This requires class sets of objects or pictures, so does require some prep on your part. I find it easiest with colors because you can cut up construction paper into squares or strips or use unifix cubes or legos for the activity. Everyone gets a class set of multiples of the vocab (so, with colors- 4-5 squares of each color)- name a pattern (red, yellow, orange, red, yellow, orange) and have the students arrange the colors in that order in front of them. Need help with patterns?- remember math class: ABABAB, ABCABC, AABBAABB, ABBAABBA and so on. 13- TWO OF A KIND: I have no idea if there is a name out there for this game, so gave it this one! I use it a lot as a greeting game at the beginning of class. Choose a group of vocabulary items and make a double set so the items can be paired up. So, if you have 18 kids in your class, you need 9 items, two of each item. Separate the class into two equal groups (if you have an odd #, you join one group) and give each kid one picture/item/object and instruct them to keep it secret. Now, call out a vocabulary word- the two kids who have the item come to the center and greet one another. Continue until all matches have been made. Pom poms to reinforce colors or magnetic numbers are great for this or you can check out our free Hearts Matching Game in our shop! 14- GUESS WHO I AM!: Nothing like a bit of mystery to get kids interested! Choose a set of vocabulary that your kids are familiar with and make a picture sheet with the vocab which you can hand out. Review the vocabulary- then, describe one of the words/verbs using simple descriptions your students can understand. Kids listen and point to the vocabulary picture on their sheet. For example- Es enorme. Es gris. Trompetea. (un elefante) 15- TPR COMMANDS ACTIVITIES: I alluded to these earlier- the possibilities are practically endless with activities in which you instruct kiddos to do SOMETHING- put the hat on the bear, grab the apple, touch your nose, put the cat in the living room, put the cat behind/in front of the sofa, hold up the picture of a key, color the chair orange, put the ears on Mr. Potato Head, and so on. With early elementary, choosing actions which multiple kiddos can do at once helps with classroom behavior; they have very little patience for waiting more than a minute or so to have a turn- being 18th to get a turn is like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole- it's just plain frustrating lol 16- LISTEN FOR IT!: Choose a song which has a repetitive word(s) in it that kiddos can listen for- instruct them to raise their hand anytime they hear the key word(s). Several traditional villancicos are great for this (Campana sobre campana, Navidad, Los peces en el río, etc). 17- LISTEN FOR IT! PART 2: Choose a video with key vocab in it that you are practicing and create a picture sheet with those words represented. While kiddos are watching the video (I suggest a short one for the littles), have them circle or x the words they hear. TIP: Pause the video after a word is said so kids have the time to look on their paper and mark it. If the action keeps going, they will either get stressed out or forget to mark their paper because they are engaged in watching. 18- CROSS THE LINE IF: This is a popular movement activity, great for all levels. Have all kiddos stand on one side of the room, put down a piece of tape, long rope, string or ribbon and instruct them to cross the line if: if they like grapes, if they have a sister, if their cat is black, if they like to skateboard, if they had pizza for dinner last night....so many possibilities! TIP: Little kiddos need a bit of support to figure out they go back and forth across the line, dependent on the prompt, especially if some of their classmates aren't crossing. Be sure to demonstrate and model! 19- DOT TO DOT: Take this traditional counting activity and give it a twist! Erase all the numbers on the original and rewrite them, out of order, next to the dots. Be sure you make note of the order they need to be connected in. Hand out a page to each student and call out each successive number that needs to be connected. Since if they connect the dots in numerical order, the picture will not come out, they need to listen carefully to know what comes next! 20- SHOW ME _____ TIGERS!: Well, it could be anything, but I have a set of small zoo animal counters that are perfect for this activity! Use what ever you have as a counter- buttons, shells, bingo chips, dried beans, pom poms- the item doesn't matter; it is a vehicle towards counting practice. Call out a number and have students place that many of the item in front of them- easy as that! 21- POM POM COLOR ACTIVITY: A few weeks ago I posted a fun pom pom color activity that is fast paced and involves multiple kiddos at a time- here's the link! Many of these are old favorites, I am sure, but I hope you have found some new or refreshed ideas! Have some great listening fun!

Making paper marigolds is a wonderful way to bring a hands on activity to your classroom during El Día de los Muertos, something your students will surely remember! Over the years, I have found being prepared ahead of time, and going step by step, using kid friendly instructions, makes all the difference, especially when class only lasts a short time (in my case, I have kiddos for 30 minute classes). Here is what it looks like in my room: The Prep: I usually do this project with my Second Graders and since my classes are short, I like to have some steps done ahead of time to be sure we can get the flowers done in one shot. First, I cut green pipe cleaners in half. I also create name tags, put their names on them, punch a hole in each one, and attach a pipe cleaner to each one. Next, I take four sheets of tissue paper (I buy it already cut into squares) and make the first fold- folding the square in half. In class: Since I have three colors of tissue paper, I call each kiddo up and have them choose which they would like (using manners vocab of course!) I also give them their stem at this time. Once every kiddo has their tissue paper and stem, we begin the construction process. Here are two scripts, one in English (for those who aren't teaching Spanish) and one in Spanish, great for those shooting for 90%. Projects like this one really lend themselves to using the target language, as long as you go step by step. Note the Spanish is much simpler and more direct than the English, making it perfect for novice learners. Don't forget to demonstrate each step as you give the instructions. -"Holding the rectangle like a taco, open part up, fold the rectangle in half. Now we have a square." -"Okis, tenemos un taco. Vamos a doblarlo por la mitad, así' -"Now we are going to make a pizza slice. Put your scissors in the hand you cut with, and hold the square at the bottom, folded point." (I usually go around to every kiddo to be sure they are holding the right point. Otherwise, there is always at least one flower that ends up being cut in the wrong place and when unfolded, is no longer able to become a flower.) -"Vamos a hacer una porción (trozo, rebanada) de pizza." -"Now we are going to cut from one corner to the other in a curve. This will make our pizza slice shape." (I demonstrate before they cut so they can see how it should go. I then walk around and monitor the cutting to be sure they are cutting between the right corners.) -"Corta el papel de una esquina a la otra así." -"Now we are going to cut the fringe to make the petals. We are going to cut straight down, not the whole way, along the crust of the pizza slice." (Again, I demonstrate) -"Ahorita, vamos a hacer los pétalos, cortando así." -"Now we are going to put the scissors down because we won't need them anymore. Gently unfold the pizza back into the taco shape." (The key word here is gently! I demonstrate this) -"Guardar las tijeras. Con cuidado, desdoblar las hojas de papel (las capas) así." -"Now we will unfold the taco into a tortilla. Let's do this gently." (Some kiddos have difficulty with this step, so I go around and help) -"Desdoblarlas una vez más." -'Now we will need to insert the stem. Take one sheet at a time and poke the stem through the middle. If we do all four sheets at once, we will increase the chance of ripping the paper, so let's go with just one sheet at a time." (Again, I help with this as necessary) -"Vamos a pasar el tallo por el centro de cada una de las hojas de papel (las capas), una a la vez, así." -'Now that all four sheets are on the stem, we need to fold over the top of the stem so the paper stays on the stem." (I demonstrate and help as necessary) -"Hacerle un doblez al tallo en la punta, así." -"Right now we have a parasol, but we need a fluffy flower. We are going to scrunch each sheet of paper toward the middle to make it a poofy flower. Be gentle and don't pull the sheets off the stem :) (Again, I go around and help. There is always at least one that comes off the stem lol. Usually it is an easy fix to put it back on the stem. If it is completely ruined, I always have a few in reserve.) -"Vamos a arrugar las hojas de papel (las capas) para realizar la maravilla, una hoja a la vez, así." -"Now look at your flower and smile :)" -"¡Y ya!" I like to use the flowers to decorate my door and give them back after El Día de los Muertos is over. They make quite an impression! Have fun and enjoy making your own! (And let me know if you use different vocabulary- I love learning new things!) And check out our printable Spanish minibook perfect for integrating El Día de los Muertos in your classroom. You can purchase it in our shop here.

IT'S DAY 4 OF OUR COLLABORATION WITH FUN FOR SPANISH TEACHERS, highlighting activities for summer camp in Spanish...we hope you are finding some great ideas (I know I am- loving Carolina's posts!). Her post for today features a parachute-be sure to head over there and read it! Click here to read it! Today we bring you another fun traditional craft, la arpillera. I LOVE ARPILLERAS, and they are a wonderfully tangible authentic example of culture that kids love, too. Since I am not overly excited about needles and thread with little kids, making paper arpilleras is the option of choice! Provide campers with a piece of blue paper for the background, along with lots of other colors they can use to cut out shapes (houses, trees, shrubs, mountains, a sun, clouds, hills, llamas, sheep, etc) and glue in layers on the background piece to make their own arpillera. WANT TO BE SURE AND INCLUDE LANGUAGE ALONG WITH THE CULTURAL COMPONENT? Arpilleras are a perfect vehicle for talking about colors, numbers, and all the items one sees in an arpillera. Here's an example of me asking my class questions related to how many of each thing are in an arpillera to give you an idea: HAVE FUN! DON'T MISS OUR OTHER POSTS THIS WEEK! *Make Worry Dolls with Clothespins *Make Agua Fresca *Put on a Puppet Play (with FREE script download!) *Play I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing...in the target language

WITH THE ADVENT OF REMOTE TEACHING, TRYING OUT NEW TEACHING TECHNIQUES has been the norm. Couple that with a greater need to differentiate instruction in my upper elementary Spanish classes, I find myself experimenting with CHOICE BOARDS this year. I HAVE TO CONFESS, THIS HAS NOT BEEN WITHOUT ITS PROBLEMS; however, like centers with my lower elementary students, the positives are, so far, outweighing the negatives. Here is a run down of how I am setting them up, along with pitfalls I have been problem solving as I go: -DIFFERENTIATION: one of the key elements (and why I started trying them out in the first place) of the boards I have been creating has been activities at a variety of PROFICIENCY LEVELS. I have done this because I have finally realized one of the hurdles to whole group instruction with my upper elementary classes-a wide gap in proficiency-from students brand new to the district (and to Spanish), students who’ve been with me all along but who, for a myriad of reasons, have made slow progress, all the way to my heritage learners. This gap is far wider than at the primary levels, and creates its own challenges. Making sure to have activities at different proficiency levels means ALL my students can be successful. -VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE: though Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences has received much criticism, I still use his outline as a guide when creating a set of activities-being sure to include a range of speaking, music, listening, crafting, math or geography, drawing, writing, etc; this in turn hits the modes of communication we are used to incorporating, but in more contexts. See below for a listing of activities that I have generated. -VIDEOS TO DELIVER INSTRUCTIONS: one of the things I have been most happy about how I’ve set up the boards is in creating videos for each activity with the instructions & expectations right in the video. So, for ex, if I have 12 activities on a board, I create 12 accompanying videos which I then house in one file in our online platform (in our case, Seesaw, but you could also do this in Google Classroom or in a Wakelet, etc). This frees me up to circulate around the room rather than give direct instruction on each activity, and provides independence for my students. (Of course, I have to keep reminding my students to watch the videos rather than ask me what to do, but that’s another matter altogether lol) This means that I create a Seesaw Drawing file, put the choice board visual on the first page with a video introduction, then make a page for each activity, with a video and any other information that is needed (for ex, there might be a link to go to a particular website or actual Seesaw activity). In this example, I would therefore have the intro page and 12 additional pages. -ACCOUNTABILITY: How to ensure kids have done an activity? If it’s a Seesaw activity that they have to do, that’s easy, they just submit. But with other types of activities, that’s not possible-so, I create a “record my work” Activity file in Seesaw for kids to upload photos of completed activities, adding pages as necessary. At first, I had kids just add pages to the intro file, but found out you can only have a total of 20 pages in a Seesaw activity, so had to nix that. And, if you have them upload photos randomly to their journal, you need to track them to ensure all are done-if you have a ‘one stop’ location to house all the photos it is easier to find and review them all at once. For those who use Google Classroom and Slides, a similar file can be created! -THE NAME ‘CHOICE BOARD’: so, here’s a fail. Apparently, some kids seem to think that if you name something a ‘choice board’, that means they can choose NOT to do any of the activities. Ugh. Thanks to a comment by Jen Kennedy, Señora Speedy, who noted she changed hers from ‘choice board’, I took this suggestion and now call mine ‘Activity Boards’. While there is still choice, the subtle change in title makes a big difference. I will add, I have also run into the random kid who doesn’t like any, or most, of the activities on the board. This, while extremely hard for me to stomach, especially after putting in hours of time in creating a board & it’s accompanying activities, has prompted me to create ONE additional activity based on a students particular interests with the agreement that they still have to do the remaining requirements of the board. This compromise feels good to me-after all, while the board has choice inherent within it (on many levels), I also do not want to employ a ‘compliance’ dynamic in my classes. -HAVE TO ACTIVITIES: Because my choice boards have, up to this point, been geared for multiple proficiency levels, I have not tried ‘have to’ activities within the board, other than introduction activities that prime students for the rest of the board. ACTIVITIES BASED ON PROFICIENCY LEVEL (geared for upper elementary): NOVICE LOW: -word work such as matching word to picture -color by number such as those in my 15 Activity Pages for Upper Elementary -word searches -Memory games -listen to a series of songs & indicate how you feel about them on a recording sheet by checking your preference -interactive notebook pages -label photos or images -list items -nature journaling with labeled items on drawing -Venn diagrams with answers recorded as drawings or one word answers -Measuring activities related to a cultural topic such as animals in Canaima National Park, Venezuela -Scavenger hunt such as my free one with colors NOVICE MID: -word searches where the words are presented as pictures in the word bank instead of written words -record your preferences in a platform based on a series of questions (such as Do you like __?) -crossword puzzles -nature journaling with phrases & simple descriptions -interactive notebook pages -Venn diagrams -story graphic organizers in which student writes/draws a part of a story in each section in order to ‘re-tell’ it -categorize items based on reading the words -Seek & find-give a listing (either written or recorded) of items to find & circle in an image (you can do the same with a video-have them screen shot the items they are looking for) -follow along as instructions are given to create a craft such as the Cattleya orchid craft in my Pepita va a Colombia Theme Pack or the Copihue flower in my Pepita va a Chile Theme Pack -Read and Draw -Listen and Draw -Create a word cloud NOVICE HIGH: -Venn diagrams based on comprehending the basic gist of two short videos, songs, readings, etc (for ex, use simple infographics to complete a Venn about two animals) -Info pages-create a non fiction info page or trading card (you could provide infographics, videos, screen shots, tweets, Instagram posts, etc as resources) My non fiction magazine Mira el Mundo has lots of these! -Listen to a simply story and re-tell it using a graphic organizer such as a story re-tell organizer -Write a concrete or diamante poem -Listen to a familiar song & fill in the blanks on an activity page -Record yourself describing a series of images such as my story cards -Listen & Draw/ Read & Draw with prompts geared for this proficiency level -Doodle pages- draw, then tell about what you’ve drawn HERITAGE LEARNERS: -Write a review (or record a review) about a story or book -Word work to develop expanded vocabulary (such as synonyms, antonyms, more specific vocabulary around a topic, etc) -Write a poem -Use an authentic resource to learn something new of students choice (or your choice) -Read two stories, legends, or folktales and create a Venn diagram comparing the two -Create an advocacy poster -Listen to a song (for this age group) and create an album cover based on what the song is about -Watch a cooking video and create a simple recipe card to go with it -Read a series of memes, then make your own I am sure you have thought of a ton more, this is just a sampling of activities that have worked so far for me, many of which are included in a variety of my theme packs & other resources. I would love to hear your experiences with choice boards-please feel free to comment below! NAME ACTIVITY BOARD I decided to create a Our names are important Activity Board that would serve for older students (but could certainly be done with younger ones as well), with the idea of using it as an extension to activities done in the past in order to build on them and return in spiral fashion to the idea of names as part of our identity. These are all ‘have to do’ activities (except for the choice in which read aloud to listen to). Here is what I include: *Create your own name tag (grab ours here!), writing/drawing your name in such as way as to not just spell your name but also tell everyone else something about you-could be your favorite color, could be each letter drawn as something you like, etc. I drew my name inspired by an activity Melisa Hayes shared on Twitter last year, with students using objects that tell a story about themselves to spell out their names. You can see it by clicking here. Yes, foxes (and wolves) are my favorite animal(s) :) *Listen to a picture book read aloud about the importance of names. I use René has two last names/ René tiene dos apellidos by René Colato Laínez and Teach Us Your Name by Huda Essa . Students choose one of these two to listen to; I find that books read by the author themselves are particularly powerful, especially connected to social justice and identity themes, as they often share personal stories related to the book they have written, above and beyond the book itself. After searching literally for hours, these were the two I settled on, partly because they were the very few read aloud by the author, but as importantly serve as meaningful representation. Below you will find a list of additional titles that are also great to read, but do not have read alouds by the author available. (REMINDER: there are tons of read aloud videos on Youtube, but very, very few are sanctioned by the author and/or publisher. I only share sanctioned read alouds w my students) *My name, my identity Challenge: I found this awesome video made by a little girl, Shreestha, who shares the story of her name. I include a link to this video along with the question/prompt: What my name means to me. The first time I did this slide, the prompts were What is story of my name, What is the history and origin of my name, and What my name means to me. Unfortunately, I discovered many of my students know little about how they got their name, and although I tried to encourage them to go home and ask, not all did or are not in a position to have a family member be able to tell them more about their name. ALSO, I’ve come to learn that for transgender and/or non binary folx, asking to share the story of their name can be emotionally harmful. So, I eliminated two and kept the third. Another great video that can be included is My Name My Identity. And this one from Nick Jr which The Woke Spanish Teacher shared on Twitter-love it so much! (I included her Instagram link, be sure to follow her-she is an incredible inspiration & teacher!) *Jamboard Sticky Note Board: The last component of the board features a slide on Jamboard with the prompt Why are our names important? I like having a place where kids can see each other’s answers and *hopefully* reflect on them on their own as well as having a chance for us to talk about this in the larger group. NOTE: I do this activity board in a mix of English & Spanish (and any other language a kiddo wants to include), rather than as a 90 or 100% in the TL activity. The power of the videos/stories is something I want my students to experience to the fullest extent possible, so their inclusion is purposeful. All of the places where students are writing/recording their answers can be in any/all/some/one of the languages they know. Don't miss my FREE Names Scavenger Hunt activity here! And here's a great infographic about why it's so important to pronounce names correctly! Click here Additional picture books about names: *Your Name is a Song by Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow & Colombian illustrator Luisa Uribe (love, love, love this one-I read it my primary students) For an activity page I created connected to this book, click here :) And the FRENCH version is here *Alma and how she got her name written/ illustrated by Juana Martinez Neal *The Name Jar written/illustrated by Yangsook Choi *Always Anjali written by Sheetal Sheth and illustrated by Jessica Blank *My name is Yoon written by Helen Recorvits and illustrated by Gabi Swaitkowska *My name is Maria Isabel by Alma Flor Ada (a chapter book) *Three Names of Me by Mary Cummings *My name is Jorge on both sides of the river by Jane Medina, illustrated by Fabricio Vanden Broeck *My name is Sangoel by Karen Lynn Williams & Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Catherine Stock *My Name by Supriya Keller & illustrated by Sandy’s Prabhat Click here to download for free

LAST YEAR I SHARED TWO ACTIVITIES using pom pons, a counting activity and one with colors. Fall is back and my Kindergartners are knee deep in our color theme once again. Since my classes had such fun last year, I naturally brought back the pom pons again this October, but some new ideas. UPDATED ACTIVITY FOR 2016! See below! *'LISTEN & GRAB' is an easy listening activity which could work with any vocabulary set, provided you have enough manipulatives/objects/pictures to grab. Enter the pom pons, perfect for practicing color vocabulary! Having a large amount of them makes for quite an impact when you dump them all over your floor! Materials & set up: a large bin of pom pons, a set of bowls or containers, and a label for each bowl or container. As you can see in the above picture, I also put down an outdoor tablecloth- this makes for easier pickup with the pom pons and reduces the dirt and fuzz they collect if you dump them on your rug or bare floor. Dump the pom pons in the middle of the space, and place the bowls strategically around the room as "stations". Assign 3-4 kiddos to each bowl and review each color word. I started with only 4 bowls so that groups would get turns every 30 seconds or so- antsy kindergarteners do not make your life much fun lol NOW FOR THE FUN! Call out a color word and instruct kiddos whose station is labeled that color to come to the center and grab 1 pom pon of that color and put it in their bowl. So, if there are 4 kiddos at a station, there will be 4 pom pons in the bowl. Call out another color, and so on. Start predictably, going in order around then the stations, then mix it up, keeping them on their toes as they need to listen carefully to which color is being called. I love to call the same color twice in a row every now and again as they find that hilarious. Keep the pace moving to be sure kids are engaged and not sitting around- I have to remind kiddos to grab quickly, no searching endlessly for that one 'perfect' pom pon! I usually set a time limit for this activity- 10 minutes is just about right. VARIATIONS: *Once kiddos have gotten the hang of the game, after a few rounds, switch the groups, moving them to another station and start again. This keeps them listening and practicing multiple color words! *Have a tally sheet next to the bowl. Before you end the activity, have each group count (in Spanish, of course!) how many pom pons are in the bowl, write the number down, and then report out to the class. *GRAB & SORT: This is an easy and fun activity to practice reading and speaking skills with a partner. Materials & setup: empty tissue boxes stuffed with pompons (they don't have to be full), color sorting page- you can download ours for free here. Hand out a box and a sorting page to each partner group (or groups of 3-4) and instruct them to take turns pulling a pompon (without peeking!) out of the tissue box and placing it on the correct star that matches the color. As they place the pompon, they need to say the color word out loud. Kids love the surprise element and the whole class is engaged at once! You can set a time limit at the end of which kids can report out how many of each color they have, or simply count together in their groups. *PUT THOSE POMS IN YOUR CUP! NEW in 2016, spread out the pom poms (I recommend a tablecloth to corral them), hand out a plastic cup to each student, and instruct them to grab one green pom pom and put it in the cup- or two red ones, or five purple ones! Check the cups before starting another round for comprehension and have fun! Here is a short video of me giving instructions for this activity HAVE FUN WITH THOSE POMS! And, if you liked the fishy color cards shown in the first picture collage, you can get them along with our printable minibook & activity pack 'Arturo y la bota', perfect for teaching colors in context. You can get it in our store here.