El Camino
For our travel unit, we start off the semester on a pilgrimage that has been going on for thousands of years across Northern Spain, el Camino. We discussed in Spanish what items we might need to take on our 5 week journey of walking 500 miles, and then packed our backpack.
Singing the Lottery
Can you sing the number 55,283? We sang big numbers like this in Spanish! December 22 is an important day in Spain! It is when they announce the thousands of winners of the Christmas lottery and the winner of the Gordo (literally means the fat one, or big one), the biggest prize! We watched the announcing of the winning ticket numbers in class. Then students wrote down their lucky ticket number and had to sing it like they do in Spain, only not on national television! The top 3 students closest to the winning ticket number for the Gordo this year will get a pizza party with Señora :-) Check it out on December 22 on RTVE or search #elgordo on TWITTER.
It's Christmas time in Spain!
This December, we are traveling to Spain and taking a look at how their culture celebrates "La Navidad". We learned that Spain has the largest lottery in the world and that it's a Christmas tradition for Spaniards. We watched commercials for the Christmas lottery in Spain, and students read and retold the stories from those commercials.
Diamonds Field Trip
MMMM..... ¡Qué rico! We ended our year with a field trip to the pelatería, Diamonds and tried paletas and helados. So many sabores to choose from!
Gallo Pinto, Horchata Food Lab a Success!
Well we did it! Over these last 2 days students chopped, prepped, cooked, and ate our Costa Rican plato gallo pinto con huevo frito, and tried the refreshing chilled drink Horchata.. Thanks to all who brought in ingredients and made this food lab possible providing students with hands on experience in the kitchen and allowing us to practice reading a receta (or reicpe) in Spanish as well as work on our interpretive listening skills!
The Way
After learning about what the Camino is, how to prepare a backpack for it, your daily routine, and the different routes you can take, we watched the movie The Way to see some "Pergrinos" in action walking The Camino in the movie The Way.
Preparing our backpack for El Camino
Students helped our "mochilero" (backpacker) prepare for their 500 mile hike across northern Spain on the Camino. We learned what items our necessary for a hike and the importance of packing light!
Viva Cuba
This week we are starting the movie Viva Cuba. The movie gives us a glimpse as to what life is like in Cuba and takes a look at the different types of transportation in Cuba. We are journeying along with Malu and Jorgito as they travel across the island in search of Malu's father.
#maniquechallenge #Cuba
We are starting our new unit this week! We are traveling to Cuba! We checked out the Cuban group Gente de Zona and their song, "La Gozadera" (party time). The music video had scenes that were shot in Cuba and we saw tons of old cars in the video! Later this week we decided to take on the challenge! Students struck a pose, "manique" style, to our song of the week, "La Gozadera"! Check out our videos on Twitter @srastauf!
Dia de los muertos
This week we our celebrating día de los muertos! We read and interpreted articles in Spanish that described the holiday as well as listened to and interpreted songs! To wrap it all up, on Friday we had a craft day where students had the option to create a "máscara", make "papel picado", a traditional decoration for the holiday, paint their nails with "calaveras" (skulls), or make a pet portrait, "día de los muertos" style.
La semana de escalafrios
Halloween is fast approaching! For our «semana de escalafrios» (week of chills), we watched scary short films and wrote reviews in Spanish!
Our Classroom Quinceañera
Day 1 of our block week we prepared for our classroom quinceañera! Students rehearsed their waltz and surprise dances and researched what to wear, quinceañera traditions, music, and how to write a toast.
Day 2 we celebrated! Students performed their dances, presented the tiara and doll, changed the shoes from flats to heels, made their toasts, and ate cake and treats!
Day 2 we celebrated! Students performed their dances, presented the tiara and doll, changed the shoes from flats to heels, made their toasts, and ate cake and treats!
Fiesta Fatal
We're gearing up for our classroom quinceañera! Today we googled "quince" dresses and described them in Spanish! We then watched a the traditional father/daughter dance and explained why it is so special. We compared our dad's dance moves to this dad's! Oh yes, and we also read chapter 2 of Fiesta Fatal! Will Vanessa and her mom, Julieta, escape from the drug cartels?!
Gazpacho
Gapacho day was a success! Thanks to all who brought in food! Students learned how to form commands in Spanish and how to read and interpret a recipe all in the target language! We then gave our opinions of is cold soup from Spain (me encanta ❤️, me gusta 👍🏻, odio 😝).
La Tomatina
We traveled to Buñol, Spain this past week to check out the LOCO festival, La Tomatina. We went cross cultures and listened to the Hindi song, Paint it Red. We learned who, what, where, when, how, and why this festival takes place by interpreting a reading in Spanish. We made comparisons to our festivals here in Ohio and described the festival all in the target language!
Darby contra Davidson
To get geared up for our Darby Davidson game, we listened to the song Wavin' Flag and interpreted the lyrics to the song. We learned the dance to the song and performed in front of the class for our So You Think You Can Dance class competition!
100 new Spanish Words in 48 minutes!
In class we learned that cognates in Spanish our words that sound and look the same as the English word. We looked through magazines and books and each found 10 cognates in Spanish and wrote them on separate post its. We then put our post its in the hallway under the corresponding letter they started with. We walked down the hall and counted 100 new words we learned in one class period!