March updates from Spanish class!

We are finishing up our study of clothing and reviewed colors and numbers. Upper Elementary students have been working hard to say the prices of different clothing items in complete sentences in Spanish. Next, we will be moving on to a unit about healthy food!

During Read Across America Day and the classes that followed, Grades 3-5 read Eric  Carle's classic book The Very Hungry Caterpillar/La oruga muy hambrienta as a lead-in to our unit on food. Students did a phenomenal job taking turns reading aloud. We've done some practice centered around the proper pronunciation of vowels, beginning "h" words, and the letter "j" in Spanish, and students really showed off their ability to pronounce both familiar and unfamiliar words in Spanish. Students will be learning to describe their likes and dislikes and will practice giving the prices of different food items as well, evaluating if the items are "caro" (expensive) or "barato" (cheap). 

¡Hasta pronto!

Señorita Cox

Updates from Spanish class!

Here's our most recent update from the Tuckahoe Times:
In Spanish, we have finished up months, days, seasons and weather and are working on clothing. While lower grades are just beginning their study of clothing, upper grades will be learning how to describe the color of clothing and will review the numbers in the context of asking and answering about the different prices of clothing.

¡Hasta pronto!
Señorita Cox

¡Feliz año Nuevo!

Welcome back to School!
In case you missed the most recent issue of the Tuckahoe Times, here's an update.

¡Feliz año Nuevo! Happy New Year from Señora Garcia, Señora Rivera, and Señorita Cox. We hope that you all had a restful break! All families should have received our newsletter, which each teacher sent home with students before the break. In Spanish, we are continuing our study of the days of the week, months of the year, seasons, and weather, as well as clothing choices based on these. Among other things, students at lower levels will be learning how to say the month of their birthday, while older students will be asked to give their own birthdays and report about others’. Advanced students with previous experience in Spanish will be presented with challenges such as describing their schedules on different days of the week, and answering questions about the calendar and different holidays. We are looking forward to helping your students build on their knowledge of Spanish in 2016! 

Below are some great videos from Rockalingua that we have watched in class. Make sure you sign in to be able to access the full videos and all of the features! On the right hand side of each video, you'll see links to online games (click on the the pink videogame controller  icon) that your students are welcome to play at home! If you need the sign-in information, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Las cuatro estaciones
El otoño
¿Que tiempo hace hoy? 
U La La (Ropa, Lugares, Tiempo)


Also, a reminder of a few videos that I shared previously:
Los días de la semana
Los meses del ano

¡Hasta pronto!

Señorita Cox

Newsletter

It's hard to believe that winter break is almost here! I will be sending home updates and resources in the form of our Spanish class newsletter this week. For regular updates about what we are up to in Spanish, please also check out the Tuckahoe Times!

What we are working on

Here was our latest Tuckahoe Times update, just in case you missed it!:

In Spanish, we are focusing on Mexico’s culture and the holiday El día de los muertos. In the weeks that follow, we will be studying the days of the week, months of the year, seasons, and weather. Among other things, students at lower levels will be learning how to say the month of their birthday, while older students will be asked to give their own birthdays and report about others’. Advanced students with more background in Spanish may be challenged to even describe their schedules on different days of the week, answer questions about the calendar and different holidays in Spanish, or recommend clothing choices based on the weather.

We will try to post pictures and quick updates on twitter from time to time as well!
Please follow @senoritacox for updates specific to my classes, and @TuckahoeFLES for tweets from our department as a whole.

Happy Halloween!

¡Feliz día de brujas! Happy Halloween!

I'm dressed as Frida Kahlo, a famous artist from Mexico. 

To learn more about her, I recommend one of the following children's books!

Frida by Jonah Winter

Viva Frida by Yuyi Morales

Me, Frida by Amy Novesky

Have a wonderful and safe Halloween!

Resources!

One of our favorite resources is Rockalingua, which students can access at home to review videos, check out picture dictionaries, and play games related to what we are working on in class.

Please contact me if you need the login information!

Welcome to the 2015-2016 school year!

¡Bienvenidos! Welcome! 

I hope you all are as excited as I am about the new school year.

This year, I will be working with the following classes:

Mr. Gadzinski's 5th grade class

Ms. Weisz's 5th grade class

Ms. Lindeman's 4th grade class

Ms. Coffman's 3rd grade class

Ms. DiNardo's 3rd grade class

Ms. Antognoli's 2nd grade class

Mr. Brent's 1st grade class

Ms. Sackett's 1st grade class

Ms. Campbell's kindergarten class

Ms. Morgan's kindergarten class

For updates on what the upper grades are working on, please go to my other blog:

tuckahoespanishk2.blogspot.com. 

Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns!

<3, 

Señorita Cox

Animales

Find any good animal videos in Spanish? Post them in the comments!

More Spanish Games

Here's a fun site to help practice the numbers from 1-100.
http://www.spanishspanish.com/numbers/numbers_practice100.html

Here you can access flashcards, as well as games (Memory/Concentration and Matching!) to practice the numbers 1-100.
http://www.quia.com/jg/2676418.html

Matching the numbers 1-100 with images
http://www.quia.com/mc/2430757.html

Practice spelling the numbers 0-30 with hangman
http://www.quia.com/hm/86075.html

Practice the numbers 0-100 with hangman
http://www.quia.com/hm/167218.html
*note: for some numbers, the "guess the answer" feature (where you type in the answer to guess) isn't working properly. If you are certain that you have spelling a word correctly, but it did not accept your answer, try selecting the letters individually instead.

Numbers 1-100 Spelling Quiz
http://www.quia.com/quiz/1996082.html


Enjoy!

Cartoon Making Site

For students interested in a challenge this week and over Spring Break, here's a cool site that you can use to make your very own cartoon in Spanish. It's free and doesn't require registration, which is a huge plus!

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

Happy cartoon making!

Spanish Games

Here are some links to Spanish Games on Quia that students can use to practice some of the vocabulary we are learning in class. I can't personally recommend all of the games in the Quia site, but all of the games below are ones that I have tested out myself. :)

1. Hangman to practice spelling the seasons in Spanish

http://www.quia.com/hm/145997.html

2. Columns to practice matching weather and seasons vocabulary to their English translations.
http://www.quia.com/cm/31450.html?AP_rand=651848793
You can play this game more than once, since some of the vocabulary terms will change. There's also a link (right below the directions) that takes you to a list of vocabulary terms for this activity if you would like to review before beginning the game. There is one term that we have not learned in class:  Está lloviznando/Llovizna which means "It's drizzing."

3. Concentration or Matching to practice the weather and seasons.
http://www.quia.com/jg/923887.html

4. Battleship to practice the weather in Spanish.
http://www.quia.com/ba/530861.html
There are a few unfamiliar words that you will need to know:
afuera= outside, hay relámpagos= There is lightning

5. For a challenge, try this version of weather and seasons hangman. 

http://www.quia.com/hm/126142.html
There are a few words that you will need to know: 

truena= thunder, está humedo= it's rainy/damp, abre la ventana=open the window (it's hot!), and relampaguea=It is lightning. 

Also, if you want to guess the entire word or phrase, make sure that you include a period at the end if it is a complete sentence. 

Enjoy! :)

Rockalingua!

We've been using a lot of videos from Rockalingua in class in order to help us learn new vocabulary. Some of our favorites are

U La La

Las cuatro estaciones

and 

this version of the weather song (versión fácil), which is only available on the Rockalingua site.

http://rockalingua.com/videos/weather-easy-version-k-2

Students can log in in order to access the full-length versions of the videos, as well as the other games and resources available on the Rockalingua site.

Enjoy! :)

Los Reyes Magos: Three King’s Day in the Spanish-speaking World

Student’s learned a little bit about Three Kings’ Day, celebrated in most Spanish-speaking countries (as well as other Catholic countries) on January 6^th. At then end of the presentation, students constructed triangular prisms with the Reyes Magos (Melchor, Gaspar, and Baltazar). Students will be bringing these home before break. :)

¿Cuál es tu color favorito?

Students learned how to say what their favorite color is in Spanish, and decorated holiday lights.

Numbers in Spanish

We're starting to learn numbers in Spanish, working towards the goal of everyone being able to ask and answer the question "How old are you?" and "When is your birthday?" in Spanish.

Students who have taken Spanish before and already know the numbers by heart will be doing some slightly different tasks to keep them challenged.

Here's a great introductory video that teaches the numbers to 30.

And here is a fast, but fun video that counts to 50 in a song!

Do you have a favorite youtube video with the numbers in Spanish? Check out what's available and post your favorite link below.

Alphabet Song!

We've been learning the letters of the alphabet in Spanish, and working a little bit on pronunciation (especially of vowels).

Here's the video we've been watching. In Chrome, you can click the "settings" button on the bottom right of the black screen around the video, and change the speed to 0.5 to hear it more slowly.

Día de los muertos

In class, we have started talking about Día de los muertos, or Day of the Dead, as we learn about Mexican culture. This coming week we will be reading the book Pablo Remembers by George Anacona, which does a great job of telling the story of Day of the Dead through the perspective of a young boy in Mexico and includes lots of great Spanish vocabulary as it describes his family's preparation for the festival. Some key vocabulary words that students will be learning include: 

Calavera de azúcar, Pan de muerto, Papel Picado, Ofrenda, Flores, Fotos, Velas

Here are some great events going on in DC to celebrate Día de los muertos on November 1st and 2nd. 

1. Don't miss the Mexican Cultural Institute's annual Day of the Dead Altar on Saturday, November 1st! This well-known community event is a quintessentially Mexican tradition and one of our most colorful displays of the year. This year's Day of the Dead Altar is dedicated to the life and work of Latin American literary giant Gabriel García Márquez.

Born in Colombia on March 6, 1927, writer, journalist, and humanist Gabriel García Márquez died on April 17, 2014 in Mexico City, where he lived for most of the last 50 years. The Nobel-laureate, who epitomized the magical realistic writing movement, wrote some of his best-known works in Mexico, including One Hundred Years of Solitude.

The opening event will take place on Saturday, November 1st from 12 to 4 pm and will remain open to visitors and school groups until November 7th during regular hours.

More information about the Mexican Cultural Institute of DC here. 

2. Celebrations, Demonstrations and hands-on activities begin at 10:30 am on Saturday, November 1st at the National Museum of the American Indian in DC. Events include demonstrations of barriletes gigantes (Guatemalan Kites), papel picado making demonstrations, and a book signing by author Sandra Cisneros on Sunday. More info about the celebration at the National Museum of the American Indian here.