Material escolar / School supplies

Students learn about school supplies vocabulary. We play several games in order to learn the new words:

1. Silent game

2. Quizlet game (Material escolar nivel I)

3. Quizlet game (Material escolar nivel II)

La escuela / School locations

Students learn about the school locations. Flashcards and a power point with real pictures of the school are shown. Then, we learn the new vocabulary playing games:

1. Silent game:

2. Quizlet game: Once the students get familiarized with the vocabulary, we go to the computer lab, so they can practice the vocabulary individually.

100 board

Póster de los colores / Color poster

Calavera para Día de los muertos

Here you have another calavera. I think I will show it to my students next Día de las muertos! =)

Check it out: Rosaleen Gallagher, a blogger shares this calavera picture and she explains how to do face paint yourself. She is an artist!

Fonética del español / Spanish phonetics

Fonética: Los sonidos del Español: This is a great tool to teach our students how to pronounce the Spanish phonemes. I use it exclusively with higher grades and mainly for my personal reference. Sometimes, it´s hard to explain to our students how to pronounce some specific phonemes like:

 /θ/ ----- decir
 /ʧ/ ----chico
/ʎ/-------Castillo
/ɲ/--------Señorita
/x/--------jugar

However, this tool provides you with videos, images and other resources that makes it easier.

Class Dojo and Portfolio

As you know, my students and I use Linguafolio / Portfolio to reflect about the learning. I found Class Dojo a great tool for this purpose too. When the grading period ends, I print the reports from the Website. The reports look like this:

Then, students need to work on their classroom portfolio. They need to choose three activities that they are proud of and these samples need to show their knowledge about the language. My students are giving examples to understand what quality work means. After working on it individually, I put the in pairs and they show their choices to another classmate to make sure that they have done a clever choice. 

After that, I staple the samples of work and grade them. In the report, on the right corner, I write the grade from the Portfolio and the average grade for this particular grading period that includes the data from Class Dojo, my notes and the samples of work. Then, I have conferences with my students and they are provided with advices about how to improve. We write the observations in the report and both sign the paper. For that, we use a promising pen (it´s a magic pen that make promises). 

I keep the report for future reference and for parents conference. 

Class dojo

ClassDojo is a tool that helps teachers boost classroom engagement and improve student behavior quickly and easily, with just one click! It also lets teachers communicate behavior data with parents and students. Best of all, it’s completely free!

Behavior management finally made positive

• Award feedback points for specific behaviors, learning habits, and accomplishments in class

• Everything is logged in realtime - with just one click.

See engagement in minutes

• All of the avatars, behaviors, virtual badges, and other engaging visuals are pre-loaded for you so you can hit the ground running 

• Everything else is also instantly and easily customizable for your classroom! 

Get beautiful, hassle-free behavior reports - with no data entry

• Track behavior and skill trends - with just one click! No after-school data entry, and without diverting attention from your class

• Gain valuable insights that might otherwise go unnoticed

Let students track their own progress

• Let students reflect on their in-class performance with their own accounts

• Build positive learning habits that last a lifetime

Send reports to parents with one click

• Share student progress with parents regularly

• Get parents informed and on your side quickly and easily

Track points with your smartphone, tablet, or iPod Touch

• Award points on the go, wherever you are: in a class, at home, on a field trip or anywhere else!

• No more lugging clipboards around, taking time or being tied to your computer.

Student Introduction to ClassDojo - YouTube

Check it our this handout! and this article!

Since I use Class dojo, my students behave much better, they are motivated and on task. Each class have their own file so I can check what class is doing better as well as those aspects that they need to improve as a class and individually too.

My positive stickers are:

- Be prepared ( When they bring their supplies)

- Participation ( When they participate actively)

- Citizenship ( Being a good citizen implies helping other students and being respectful to the teacher to the other students). My students get citizenship stickers when they allow others learn by participating, being quiet and respectful or by helping other classmates.

- Content (Students get content stickers when they show that they speak Spanish).

- Performance ( My classes involves a lot of speaking activities and language performance, so when they do a great job, they are rewarded).

-Being quiet in line: Sometimes students need to wait for their home teacher, so I have stickers for this time. It´s a amazing how well they behave now!

My negative stickers are:

- Unprepared ( Students do not bring their supplies). One of my goal as a teacher is to make them responsible for their own learning. This s a great starter even with lower grades!

- Disrespectful ( Students get this sticker when they misbehave by stopping me from teaching or other students from learning).

- Off task ( Students are not on task)

- Talking in line.

This my routine with Class Dojo:

First of all, we take attendance and students can see how many points they have. Those that have more points become my helpers by passing the folders, leading the activities, etc. My whole point is to show the rest of the classroom that this is the behavior and attitude I expect from them.

Obviously,  the rest of the class participate actively too. For instance, if Amaya is one of the top of the class, she can choose who is going to lead the next activity, do the calendar activity and so on. In my opinion, we need to make our students be an active part in our teaching because it´s not about us, it´s about THEM! 

THEY ARE THE MAIN ACTORS AND ACTRESSES OF THIS MOVIE!

At the end of the class, we have a look at the points and I reward verbally those that they have done a great job. Then, we choose those who collect the folders and everyone lines up. Then, looking at the scores, I choose the person that is going to monitor the line using my Ipad. This person is allowed to give Quiet in line or Taking in line stickers. Before implementing this, you need to train your students to make sure they know what to do.

It seems to have a lot of work, however using Class dojo, my classes go smoothly and I don´t have behavior problems anymore. If you have an Smartphone or an Ipad, you can move around the classroom while tracking points.

Los números / Numbers

Los cardinales los usamos cuando:

Contamos cosas:

• Tengo dos hermanas.
• En la clase hay veinte estudiantes.

Decimos nuestra edad:

• Tengo ocho años.
• Mi hermana tiene tres años.

Le damos nuestro número de teléfono a alguien:

• Mi número de teléfono es cuatro - ocho - uno - dos - dos - cuatro - cero. (4812240)

Hablamos de un año específico:

• Ella nació en mil novecientos setenta y cinco (1975).

Date cuenta que en Español a diferencia con Inglés nosotros no dividimos los años, en otras palabras se dice el año en forma completa. Ejemplo: Mil novecientos ochenta y dos (1982); Dos mil nueve (2009).

También cuando decimos los números telefónicos tenemos dos opciones, primero es decir número por número (dos - seis - tres- cuatro - cinco - uno - cinco; 2-6-3-4-5-1-5) o agruparlos en los primeros tres dígitos y luego dos números y los otros dos después (doscientos sesenta y tres - cuarenta y cinco - quince; 263 45 15)

(Adapted from this site)

Diálogos / Dialogues 1

1. Diálogos / Dialogues: Express social courtesies:

Elena: Hola, me llamo Elena. Encantada de conocerte.

Carlos: Hola, soy Carlos. Encantado de conocerte. 


Elena: Hi, I'm Elena. Nice to meet you.


Carlos: Hello, I am Carlos. Nice to meet you. 

2. Diálogos / Dialogues: Express social courtesies:

  

Elena: Esta es la clase numero veinte (20). Tu maestra es la Senorita Castillo.

Maestra: Hola Elena. 

Elena: Hola Senorita Castillo. Este es Carlos. Carlos, esta es tu maestra, la Senorita Castillo. 

Carlos: Hola Senorita Castillo. Mucho gusto. 

Maestra: Bienvenido, Carlos. 


(Remember if you are talking to a girl, you need to say encantadA y bienvenidA). 


Elena: Here is Room 20. This is your teacher, Senorita Castillo.

Teacher: Hello Elena. 

Elena: Hi, Senorita Castillo. This is Carlos. Carlos, this is Senorita Castillo.

Carlos. Hi Senorita Castillo. Nice to meet you. 

Teacher: Welcome, Carlos.

Aprender nuevas palabras / Learn new words

These are the steps to learn new words:

1. Look at the word / Mira la palabra.

2. Listen to the word. Escucha la palabra.

3. Listen to the word in a sentence. Escucha la palabra en una frase.

4. Say the word. Di la palabra.

5. Spell the word. Deletrea la palabra.

6. Say the word again. Di la palabra otra vez. 

7. Use the word in a sentence. Haz una frase.

Día de Acción de Gracias / Thanksgiving Day

Día de Acción de Gracias

Día de Gracias is all about sharing a special meal with family and friends, and be thankful for the beautiful things we have in our lives. Whether you grew up celebrating it or you are just learning more about this holiday, make sure that you say

"Gracias todos los dias."

There are Thanksgiving vocabulary to learn.....¿Listos?

Me gusta el pastel de manzana. - I like the apple pie.

Me encanta... - I love...

Pásame la sal. - Pass me the salt

Quiero más. - I want more.

Muchas Gracias. - Thank you

My students will work on color worksheets, puzzles and worksheets about Thanksgiving.

 

Actividades para dia de los muertos / Dia de los muertos activities

For lower grades, I have read the book titled "The day of the dead" / "El dia de los muertos" by Bob Barner and translated by Teresa Mlawer.

For higher grades, I show them a Power Point presentation and we talk about Dia de los muertos. Many pictures are shown, so students see real examples of Dia de los muertos.

¿Por qué es importante hablar Español? / Why is important to speak Spanish?

¿Por qué es importante hablar Español? Why is important to speak Spanish?

• 500 millones de personas hablan Español en el mundo

500 million people speak Spanish in the world. 

•48 millones de personas hablan Español en Estados Unidos

48 million people speak Spanish in the US.

• El español es el idioma oficial en 21 paises.

Spanish is the official language in 21 countries. 

• El español es el segundo idioma más estudiado a nivel mundial.

Spanish is the second most popular foreign language in the world. 

• El español es el tercer idioma más utilizado en internet.

Spanish is the third most used language on the Internet.