I just put a new link on my blog. This has games, but also sites on learning Spanish and site to learn about the Spanish speaking countries. Check it out.

This and that

Seventh grade students are studying various Spanish speaking cultures. When they finish the readings, they will write an essay comparing two of the countries to each other and to the United States. Hopefully they will be able to see how much we have in common with other places, but more important be able to find out why certain parts of the world do things the way they do.ie; eat the foods they do, or celebrate their holidays they way they do, etc.

I love to do units like this because I learn as much as the students do about these countries. I only wish I had the students for longer than seven weeks, so we could go into more detail, or study a larger variety of Spanish speaking countries.

A New Site

I have been using a word of the day site, which has been fun. It not only gives you a new word five days of the week, but it has jokes and sayings, all in Spanish. This is a fun way to learn new vocabulary. You can sign up to have words e-mailed to you, but what's even better is to go to the site. In the site they have wonderful pictures of places in Spain and other Spanish speaking countries, as well lists of words they don't mail you. If you are interested check it out at spanish word of the day.com

Things I have learned

I just bought a new book titled "Breaking out of Beginner Spanish". It is a fun book to read and while I knew quite a few of the things they talked about, I still found a great deal of information that I didn't know about, or I found out why things were the way they were. For example, I knew that when I visited Spain I had to dress much nicer than when I was at home. Women really are expected to where skirts, rather than slacks and certainly not shorts when visiting cities. However, I also learned this is true in most Spanish speaking countries, where "Skin is Sin" is the guideline for dress, even in the tropics.

This book made me want to go back to Spain, but also visit the Spanish speaking countries in this part of the world. There is such a rich history surrounding us.

Things I needed to update.

Those of you who have been looking at my blog noticed that the Culture Questions used to be a 7th grade project. However, since the 6th graders have been given laptops, I have moved the Culture questions to the sixth graders. Seventh graders are now reading in Spanish about different cultures. Their research will be on a specific topic which they will research for each of the different countries, we read about. At the end of the rotation they will be asked to create a project, which will compare what the student has found out on their topic with three of the countries we have studied and the US.

Seventh graders will also be learning vocabulary around talking about what they like to eat and what they like to do.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Help!!!!!!

This summer I vowed to get better at blogging. I thought and thought about what to write and came up empty. It occurred to me that I need to know what you would like to know more about in Spanish? So, I'm asking my students to use this blog as a way of asking me questions about culture, the language or anything else you would like to know.

In the mean time, I'm going to be looking up some interesting facts or news about our Spanish speaking neighbors.

Hopw to hear from you soon.

Bienvenido

Welcome to Beginners Spanish. For the next six weeks we will be exploring the cultures, and the language of the Spanish speaking world. Sixth graders, you will learn how to greet people, ask someones name and tell your own, tell the date and what the weather is like. You will be able to identify body parts and classroom objects as well as tell where things are. This will be done through a variety of activities and games. These will be posted on this blog as well as in the room. You will have Culture Questions. These questions will be renewed every week. They are for a grade and a chance to get a prize from the treasure chest.

Seventh graders you will review last years vocabulary and learn how to tell time.
We will be doing a great deal more with learning the culture of Spanish speaking countries. You will be exploring the traditions and history of Hispanic countries in Spanish. This will culminate in a project comparing these cultures to each other and our own.

For those of you who would like to go above and beyond the classroom activities, check out the links on my blog. I will try to add more, as I get better at "blogging"