Are you teaching colors in elementary Spanish class? One teacher shares a ton of tips, tricks, and resources to get you started.
I teach two classes during the same period this year: Heritage Speakers (13 students) and regular 8th grade Spanish (19 students). On rare occasions, we can all work together, but most of the time I have to group students by proficiency levels. It’s the only way I know how to teach two curricula in at ... Read More about How to teach multiple Spanish proficiency levels in the same class
Well this past week was a complete blur! I'm finally sitting down to share a bit more about our first two weeks - for more frequent photo updates, check out my instagram!! We've been practicing our calendar routine and learning some basic school vocabulary: We practice the days of the week, months of the year, counting to 30, the vocabulary on the calendar squares (bus, school, backpack, books, girl, boy), weather, and our preposition song once a day. I've been reading "Mon ecole" to them every day, and they repeat each page after me. I have also recorded the book so my kids can practice at home! We then review the vocabulary playing "SMACK". I choose two students to stand in front of the board with fly swatters. Then I say a word, and whoever smacks it first gets another turn. The other student passes their swatter on to another classmate. Now that they're familiar with the words, I let a third student call out the word (instead of doing it myself). Next week they'll be making their own copy of the book and taking it home to start building their own French library! We learned how to say "je m'appelle" and labelled our self portraits with colour words! They used the colour posters in the classroom to help label their clothes. We're also working our way through making our own colour books! We are doing one colour a day. We started our first social studies unit and have been talking about rules at school and rules at the park. We also talked about what happens when we don't follow rules. We brainstormed different consequences to breaking different rules around the school and at recess. Our song this week was "Bonjour, comment ca va?" We practiced it all week and then it went home in our French duotangs to practice over the weekend. We practiced saying "Comment ca va?" to a partner, and the possible answers they could give. We took turns sharing our mini conversations with the class! As we filled out the lyrics page, we talked about things that make us feel each of the possible answers from the song. Mlle Lawson replies "ca va bien!" when she has a starbucks in her hand ;) Each week I type up a page to go on the back of the song/poem page that gives parents a few QUICK activities to complete with their child at home. The entire thing could be done in less than 10 minutes, so hopefully it doesn't add stress over the weekend. Here's the one that went home this weekend: This week we also started very simple colour centres. I showed them our word wall cards for colours. I attach them with shower curtain hooks from Dollarama and then hang them on 3M hooks by the carpet. They used whiteboards to write the colour words. We use black mittens from Dollarama as our erasers! We also practiced matching our colours to the words! I gave them a visual dictionary page with the colours to help them check their work when they were done! TIP for your centres - use numbers or letters on the back of each set so you can quickly sort them! I have 3 sets of colour bang cards in different containers, and they somehow end up mixed up. You can quickly flip them over and sort them! It took me wayyyy too many years to figure this trick out!! After years of fighting to erase my whiteboard, I've now got it completely figured out. I used expensive expo whiteboard spray for a while, but once you start using that you can't go back to a regular whiteboard eraser because it leaves a film on your board. SO we have spray bottles of water and microfiber cloths from Dollarama. Once you've removed all the build up and residue from your board with the cloth and water, you probably won't need to wet the cloth at all. Life changing!! Next week we are focusing on classroom objects and continuing on with colours, calendar, weather, and our rules unit for social studies. We will be starting to talk about fall changes soon, too! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!
Are you looking for weather activities for your Spanish classes? Check out these plans and freebies for your novice middle or high school Spanish classes!
Tips for how to teach Spanish in your homeschool co-op. Plus how to pick and order a Llamitas Spanish curriculum level.
See how I taught a unit on sports in Spanish with my beginning students. Use these readings, listening activities, and games to engage students!
Teaching Spanish Remotely with Spanish for You! is easy. Guidance for teachers using Spanish for You! and helpful ideas for other teachers too!
How to make the rolled R sound in Spanish!
Tips for how to teach Spanish in your homeschool co-op. Plus how to pick and order a Llamitas Spanish curriculum level.
These mini pinatas are an easy craft to make with your kids and are perfect for your next celebration!
This week we made our mini books! Literally... I photocopied them 4/page so we had teeny tiny books! This was a selling point for my grade 1s, as they thought mini books were very exciting. The mini books followed the same pattern as the book I have read to them for the past few weeks. We practiced the vocabulary many different ways before I had them write their own book. The dot at the end of each sentence is for the colour: "Dans ma salle de classe, il y a 4 gommes roses", "Dans ma salle de classe il y a 3 crayons oranges". So... I came back from Thanksgiving weekend to find my classroom covered in mouse droppings. We had a few visitors move into our hallway of the school!!! Some of my students wrote this into their books! They thought it was quite funny! Technically, it was in our classroom... My students are REALLY excited to read their books to some of the older French Immersion students at our school!
Need a no-prep sub plan for Spanish class that even a non-Spanish-speaking sub can do? Check out these ideas from La Profe Plotts!
Looking for resources for language teachers? Find fun lessons, ideas, and activities for teaching preschool and elementary Spanish.
At the beginning of the year, you might be planning on doing a unit with greetings and farewells in Spanish. I wanted to share some games, videos, resources
Use these Spanish lesson plans to teach affirmative and negative words in Spanish such as algo, nada, alguien, nadie, también y tampoco.
Find everything you need for your preschool and kindergarten Spanish lessons right here! Printables, songs, books, flashcards and beyond!
Throwing out my grammar-based textbook transformed my Spanish classroom. I've gained confidence as a teacher, and my students have grown by leaps and bounds. We have bad days and good days, but the difference is our direct, daily contact with Spanish. There's no book curating the content for us: instead, songs, games, and stories are the meat-- not dessert. As a department of one, switching to a proficiency-based, comprehensible input-driven classroom was really hard. Though it was exciting, I felt unsure of myself and overwhelmed. I've created a series sharing my process, and hope it will help you
My children have been speaking in Spanish their whole lives, but they still have a lot to learn when it comes to grammar. Grammar, after all, is the building block of a language. Just like mathematics, it is easier to construct and express complex ideas when you have a strong foundation. My eldest son began attending a new Spanish school this year that is run by the Spanish Ministry of Education. The curriculum is fantastic and he is learning so much! A few weeks ago, he was introduced to conjugating verbs in the preterite. For example: Yo estuve en casa ayer. Ella tuvo tres galletas en la mano. While he understands this perfectly, when my son speaks in the past, he tends to use another form (not always grammatically correct!): Yo he estado en casa ayer. Ella ha tenido tres galletas en la mano. The test date was closing in, so we started to study. One of my favorite ways to study verbs is SO SIMPLE. All you need are notecards and a sharpie (paper and pencil are optional). On each of the notecards, write a subject: Yo, Tú, Él, Ella, etc. If you study Vosotros / Vosotras, include it. If you don't, leave it out. Put these notecards in one pile. On the next pile of notecards, write the infinitive of the verbs you are studying (one per card). If you'd like, you can translate them into your mother tongue or write a "hint" (i.e. stem changer, irregular, etc) on the back of the cards. If the student is new to conjugating verbs in a formal way, I like to have them practice organizing the subject cards like this: We discussed how these cards represent the subject of the sentence. They can be arranged in a logical way: The first column refers to one person, while the second column refers to more than one person. The first row is called "1st person": Yo + 1 more person = Nosotros. Tú and Vosotros is called "2nd person": Tú + 1 more person = Vosotros. The last row is "3rd person": Él + 1 more person = Ellos, etc. My son and I also had a good discussion about tú vs. usted and how Spain is the only country that uses vosotros. We don't use vos in our household, but now would be a good time to bring it up. After the student is feeling comfortable with the subjects, it's time to move on to the verbs. Shuffle the cards and line them up with the pile of subjects next to the infinitives. Use the cards to trigger sentences. I had my son write the conjugations as he was working on spelling, but I often use this technique with students to practice their oral skills "making interesting sentences". This notecard method can be used for all verb tenses and is extremely portable! You can throw a few notecards in your backpack or pocket and practice for a few minutes at a time. (If you are looking for MORE fun and unusual ways to use notecards, please read my post "6 New Ways to Use Flash Cards to Teach Spanish!" Good luck and happy conjugating!
Teach ser vs estar with this fun Spanish selfie project! This is a great alternative to ser vs estar worksheets or quizzes!
Why did I ditch teaching grammar in heritage Spanish class? Grammar-heavy instruction has not proved to be beneficial for my heritage students
Teaching is hard. Finding awesome free Spanish resources shouldn't be! Check out this post for a ton of fun freebies for Spanish class.
Are you looking for ways to connect with your students and build community during the first week of class? Do you want to get to know your students, but also set the expectation of “Spanish only” from the start? Here are 5 games that accomplish both of those objectives! 1. ¡Corre, corre! Students form a ... Read More about 5 icebreaker activities for the first week of Spanish
Digital learning has definitely taking the educational world by storm, and it's not going away anytime soon. I think that through all of this, educators and leaders will be able to see that technology in the classroom is crucial, but that doesn't help us in this moment, does it? As teachers around the country are trying to scramble in order to teach students remotely, I wanted to take a minute and show you that you can use what you already have. Just a disclaimer, this lesson incorporates Google Classroom. When I started teaching my students online two weeks ago due to school closures, I was extremely anxious about two things: 1. How am I going to make sure that my students continue learning at the same level that they were in my classroom? 2. How am I going to have the time to suddenly create all of these digital lessons? The only answer that I had for the first question was to continue "teaching" like I was in my classroom. This is what my students were used to, and I wanted to keep things as "normal" as possible for them. When I teach social studies and science, for example, I use PowerPoint lessons and guided notes. I continued this strategy, but I modified it a bit for the digital classroom. Here are the steps that I follow: 1. I break my PowerPoint lessons into about 10 or so slides a day. We were given the guidelines to assign about half the workload that we would in a normal class period. To do this, I open my PowerPoint lesson in Google Slides. 2. Then, I go to "File" and "Save as Google Slides" 3. I then delete the slides that I am not using that day. 4. My lesson is locked for editing so the background images, fonts, and clipart does not move. This makes it easy to use with Google Slides because it locks it from editing when assigning it to students and protects the terms of use of the author and clipart used. 5. I use "online voice recorder" to record myself teaching through some of the slides. To do this, you have to: Record whatever you want to say for that slide The file saves to your computer Drag the saved file to your Google Drive Make sure that you make the file "sharable" (otherwise the kids won't have access) In Google Slides, go to "Insert Audio" and voila! Kids can click on the speaker to hear your voice! Whenever I insert audio on a slide, I always add the yellow speaker note so that kids don't miss it! 6. A lot of the slides on my PowerPoint lessons have discussion questions built in to them, so on these slides, I add a text box for students to respond. 7. The PowerPoint Lessons that I create and sell in my store also have built in videos and interactive links. This makes using them with Google Slides SO SIMPLE because all of these links easily transfer over. On this slide, students simply click on the picture and then watch the video. You can even add a text box below this picture and ask students to respond to a question about the video. 8. Once the lesson is complete, I assign it in Google Classroom. If your lesson is interactive and students had to respond, then you must choose "make a copy for each student" when assigning the lesson so that students into their lesson instead of the original. I always assign my lessons using this method because it keeps kids accountable and I know whether they have or have not completed the assignment. 9. In class, I also have my students take notes using a study guide, and I am currently in the process of making my study guides digital and adding them to the units that I have available in my store. 10. Please remember that it is against copyright terms of use to share any items that you purchase from TpT with other teachers. This method should only be used to modify a lesson for your students through Google Classroom. I hope that I was able to relieve a little stress and make learning come alive for your students! If you are in need of any PowerPoint lessons, I have following units available: Social Studies: Civil War and Reconstruction Westward Expansion Turn of the Century The Suffrage Movement World War 1 Roaring Twenties and Great Depression World War 2 The Cold War The Civil Rights Movement September 11th Attacks Science: Animal and Plant Classification Animal and Plant Cells Harmful and Helpful Microorganisms Heredity Physical and Chemical Changes Electricity and Magnetism Earth Science 5th Grade Math: PowerPoint Lessons for All Concepts Available Happy Teaching!
This is the biggest packet I have created!! I have put my heart and soul into this packet and if you teach Spanish to young elementary stude...
Are you looking for ways to connect with your students and build community during the first week of class? Do you want to get to know your students, but also set the expectation of “Spanish only” from the start? Here are 5 games that accomplish both of those objectives! 1. ¡Corre, corre! Students form a ... Read More about 5 icebreaker activities for the first week of Spanish
OUR WORLD LANGUAGE CLASSROOM is magical place where we create a learning space for our students dedicated to the culture and language we teach. We can take advantage of this opportunity to provide linguistic support and foster motivation and interest! Here are some tips that have worked for me- let us know what you do, too! *TIP 1: Make your visual supports content and context rich. Go beyond word lists or labels to putting language in context... around my room I have recreated several of our minibooks utilizing the vocabulary in chunks and sentences drawn from the stories. By providing language in context you give your students more than single words; you give them the supports to put those words into functional phrases they can use to express themselves more communicatively. The picture below is part of our minibook 'Julieta y Mateo hacen un picnic', a simple storyline to learn fruits in context. *TIP 2: Foster early literacy skills by having lots of print on display- and reference it often. Related to the above, providing as much print in the target language not only creates an environment full of Spanish (or the language you teach!), but it also provides visuals your students can refer to over and over again as they build their sight vocabulary. Encourage your students to look at and utilize your word walls, allowing them to familiarize themselves as to where they can find vocabulary they need, which also fosters independence and responsibility in learning. *TIP 3: Consider utilizing a circle as your teaching space rather than desks/tables and chairs. I have always taught at circle, it's such an early elementary school tradition and I love it! A circle allows for all of you, students and teacher, to be together in a cozy community where materials can be passed and shared easily and greeting and partner activities are pulled together quickly.. Use clipboards or folders as writing surfaces (or, if there are tables/desks they can return to those for writing activities when those are being done). MINITIP: If teaching in a circle, it is a good choice to have a seating chart; students quickly find their seats and you don't have to deal with bickering or kiddos with hurt feelings because someone didn't want to sit next to them. *TIP 4: Create areas of imaginative play where students can interact with the language while having fun. I am a huge proponent of imaginative play and try to provide as many opportunities for my students to engage with the language in this manner. Set up a small magnet or felt board with pictures that provide a context that fast finishers can go to for play with the language or create a storytelling basket with manipulatives with the same purpose in mind. See our post on creating thematic story baskets here! *TIP 5: Make your space kid-friendly. At first glance, this tip doesn't seem to foster language acquisition...until you consider that stuffies, toys, play food, etc motivate students to use language. Little kids love to have stuffies "talk", manipulate play food, and use all manner of toys. Tap into this by incorporating lots of these items in your classes and have them at the ready in baskets or bins around your room. *TIP 6: Place useful classroom phrases and requests strategically near what they are referencing. If you want your students to learn how to say, 'May I get a kleenex?', have the phrase posted right over the kleenex box. Connect the phrase with the item/objective at hand, forming a visual link between the words and the purpose. *TIP 7: Establish key phrases for routines and procedures in the target language and post them for regular reference with students. From the beginning of the school year, have a set of concise, direct phrases you use for classroom management; use them consistently and refer to them on a regular basis. Whether they are key words for good audience behavior or instruction cards detailing each step of an activity, this language in chunks will enable you to stay in the target language rather than break into English. *TIP 8: Don't have a classroom? Use your school's hallways to create 'language centers' kids can see and interact with. Not having a classroom doesn't need to stop you from displaying language throughout the school (provided you have permission or space to use the hallways). Create bulletin boards or spaces where kids can not only view but interact with language, such as putting up a piece of chart paper with a question like '¿Cómo estás? or ¿Cuál foto te gusta más?, etc. Here's a picture of a Pinterest-inspired board I created. You can see my entire post on how I made it here. LOOKING FOR PRINTABLE BULLETIN BOARD sets rather than making them yourself? Head over to our shop for great resources such as some seen in this post! Click here! SaveSave
It's definitely challenging; here are some tips about teaching on a cart.
Hurray - vocabulary activities that aren't boring! These whole class vocabulary activities are great for elementary learners through fifth grade and beyond. #vocabulary #thirdgrade #fourthgrade #fifthgrade
Are you working on your clothing unit? Check out these clothing activities for Spanish class!
Teach children Spanish animal names effortlessly with our top-notch resources. From common species to unique ones, we've got you covered. Get started now with our comprehensive guide!
Two Points: This is MY method, and not necessarily right for you, your teaching or care philosophy, your set-up, or your students. Curriculum participation by my students is VOLUNTARY. I invite them to participate, but if they choose not to, then that is fine. I usually offer them a choice of a few of the activities and let them decide where we start and where we go. An engaged child learns, a dis-engaged child rebels. The 3-year rotating curriculum is theme based. Some times we stick to the plan, but usually I observe what they are interested in learning about, what they are asking questions about, and suggest up to three different themes they can choose from for us to study. I make my own 3-year rotating curriculum for many reasons: Packaged curriculum is often only one year. Since I teach for 3 years, this would be redundant. Most packaged curriculum focuses on skills my students master early. My 2s count to 20, know 11 colors, know most of their phonics, uppercase and lowercase letters, 10 shapes and some of their numbers and I still have 3 years of curriculum to teach them. They often are worksheet intensive. My students usually are cognitively advanced from their fine motor skills. I have 4 year olds that still can't write well. If I had relied on worksheets for the last 2 years, there is no way they would have the skill sets they have. Worksheets are also not considered Developmentally Appropriate Practice [DAP] for children under the age of 8. We use them here for writing practice starting at age 4. [Yes, worksheet-intensive public schools are not using DAP for kindy through 3rd grade!] They can be expensive. If you are purchasing worksheets, why would you spend even $1 a week/$52 a year when you can purchase a 400 page Scholastic preschool workbook from Sam's Club for $8 that covers probably more material, is most likely aligned with the public school expectations, and is colorful. Colored copies are NOT affordable to make from packaged curriculum. Most [ALL!] preschool learning should be interactive. Pinterest is a better source for ideas. My students change every time I do a theme. I have to be able to tweak it to the interests and capabilities of those currently in my care. Plus, I'll find more interesting activities on Pinterest, have an idea for a new game, etc. It's a constant evolution to keep my curriculum relevant to our current group, situation and resources. However, curriculum planning and creation is very time consuming. Even with older curriculum I spend several hours going over it prior to teaching - updating, creating new materials, purchasing and setting new classroom decorations. While I have had my 3 year curriculum, this year I found myself wanting a more specific schedule to focus on specific skill sets for this particular group of children. Most of these skills can be incorporated into our themed curriculum, or they take 5 minute sessions to pop into our day. I have two groups, the younger preschoolers are 2-3 years old and the older ones are 4-5 years old, all at the same developmental and skill set level within their group. This makes it easier, as I can tailor everything to just 2 groups. If I were to have additional levels of children, then it would be tailored to each level. Children here are taught at their developmental level, not age. Asychronastic development is normal, so I may be teaching a child at various levels depending upon the subject matter. For the younger preschoolers, I came up with this structure. For the older pre-k students, I came up with this one. For instance, both of them have Measurement & Comparison on Friday for Reasoning. However, for the younger students, this would be a more/less, longer/shorter, big/little, etc. activity, while the older students would be measuring with rulers, yardsticks, tape measures, measuring cups, unit blocks, foot steps or themed units, and graphing the measurements to compare. Same skill set, differentiated at vastly different levels. Even this needs conditional tweaking. All the pre-k's know how to spell their last names now, so that is no longer a relevant skill activity for music and will be changed out. In another post I'll get into the curriculum components and the importance of each. For instance, how counting on Friday teaches 1-to-1 correspondence and creating method processes for counting groups of objects. CLICK PICTURES TO VIEW LARGER I use this MS Word template, available for FREE on TPT, for curriculum planning. Often, the daily skill sets above are either already incorporated, or can easily be incorporated, into the theme planning. For an example of a completed curriculum unit, check out our Owls Theme. Each monthly theme is broken down into 4 sub-themes. For instance: SPACE Astronauts & Rockets The Universe Our Solar System Aliens & Robots We also have a musical component, often classical, and an art component, often a master, and Spanish vocabulary component that we incorporate. This planning form may not include all games, file folder games, manipulatives, room-set up, etc. that I utilize. For those of you trained in curriculum creation, I do NOT do a full curriculum development for each activity. With having these children usually from infant to school-age, I keep an internal evaluation of progression and plan out only weekly learning objectives. Since I am creating the activities for my personal use, I do not need to create written procedures and evaluations. My curriculum is stored currently in file folders in a large office bookcase unit. I would like to get it into boxes so that I could have EVERY theme-related item, including dress-up, room set-up, manipulatives, etc. together for an easy pull. File boxes will most likely be the easiest, but they do take up a lot of space. In each file some of the things I probably have: Completed planning sheets All the books I own for that theme Flannel board Sentence and word walls File folder games Samples of previous crafts DVDs CDs Coloring pages Mini-book(s) Build-a-[theme item] game Curriculum creation is one of my great joys. I love the research and compilation, the creativity and excitement of bringing something fun and educational to my students. Learning is rarely linear. Children take developmental leaps, sometimes in odd directions. As a teacher, it is important that I keep each one challenged without pushing or inhibiting their growth, and that takes constant evaluation and a good eye for when those leaps happen so that we can move on to a higher level of instruction. When we do an activity, I constantly question if they WANT to do another round, another activity, and I usually cut them off while they are still engaged. I want them wanting more, and they will usually ask if they can continue. One of the most important desires and abilities I can instill in them is that of self-directed learning. So as they choose to go off with their rulers after we've spent several minutes doing a measuring activity, conferring between themselves as to procedures and what to measure next, I step back and let them. They know I am here as a resource, rather than an intrusive director. It is my job to ensure that when I invite my students to learn, they glow with excitement and anticipation of a fun, interactive, playful time. The results, so far, have been astounding. A few of my complete curriculum units are available through my TPT store. Apples Dental Ice Cream Penguins Rainbows St. Patrick's Day Valentine's Follow Connie -'s board Classroom on Pinterest. Tags: preschool, child care, pre-k, curriculum, development, teaching, education, homeschooling, homeschool, home, school, preschool curriculum development, planning
Hey everyone! I've been revamping some of my old lessons lately and I decided to start with greetings and formal/informal speech, since that's something we focus a lot on at the beginning of the year. Here are three of my favorite ways to practice greetings and tú vs. usted.
A blog about resources for language teachers of preschool and elementary-aged children.
Teaching Spanish house vocabulary doesn't have to be difficult or boring! Click for tons of free resources for authentic learning!
This back to school season, you want to guard your time and focus on the things that matter most, your mental health and building relationships with your learners. For that
Let's look at how to teach the Spanish-speaking countries in your Spanish 1 lesson plans! Grab the free blank map printable & more for your students!
A round-up of the best Spanish homeschool curriculums and language courses for Pre-K and Elementary aged kids.
Are you looking for a YouTube channel to help your students learn Spanish or to use in class as authentic materials in Spanish? Or maybe you want to learn Spanish on your own time or teach it to your kids. YouTube can be overwhelming; there are thousands of channels on YouTube and sometimes it takes ... Read More about 15 Best YouTube Channels to Learn Spanish
