Instagram--ing about LA FAMILIA! (oh, and a POPPLET too!)

Thank you to Srta. Barragan for this awesome activity idea! It works best with students who have their own personal device and who have an Instagram account. As we were talking about family members during our class, students shared pictures of their family members, while also writing a descriptive sentence in the target language. Then, classmates were asked to comment. The activity went very well, except that not everyone had a personal device or account. Those students (without a personal device or account) participated in a "dummy" forum on our school's Learning Management System, and it also worked well.

I would give suggestions to students before they begin the activity with regards to commenting. One word comments are not appropriate. I suggested they ask questions, or state a specific thing they like/dislike about the image. 

Here is the original idea on Srta. Barragan's post: http://senoritabarragan.com/2012/04/23/instagram/

Here are some examples of our posts:

As part of another activity to work with La Familia themes, use the Popplet Lite app to exhibit relationships between family members, instead of designing the "traditional family tree." 

Here are two student examples:

http://get-puppet.com/v/dUwFqhiv4Fg?autoplay=true

http://get-puppet.com/v/d51_lnOsuUw?autoplay=true

How's the weather up there?

It is September, and it is the time I usually teach the students about how to talk about the weather, en español. This time of year in Florida is always interesting because the weather is still very warm and we typically get a lot of thunderstorms. Unfortunately, when the weather is bad, the students do not get to play outside at recess; therefore, they are quite interested to know when the rain will "go away."

This time, I created a beautiful Haiku Deck presentation to capture my student's interest, and also to help orally teach the words of a song I used to use from the Realidades program.

Here are a couple links to use and/or share:

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/realidades/hiphop/level1/L1_PE2_lyrics.mp3

http://www.phschool.com/atschool/realidades/hiphop/level1/pdfs/L1_PE2_lyrics_text.pdf



El Tiempo - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

Un video de SAS Curriculum Pathways:


More ideas:
Use the "Weather +" and "Google Earth" apps to investigate the weather and location of Latin American countries. Utilize information found to create "El Pronostico de Tiempo" of certain country capital cities around the world.

Me presento...

Fifth graders practiced their listening and speaking skills with the following assignment/discussion post on Schoology:

Por favor, mira el video primero. Segundo, contesta las preguntas de "Papa Caliente" por escribir y hablar.

Watch the video first please. Second, answer the "Hot Potato" questions by writing them and speaking them. 

1.  Watch the video. Here is what he is saying:

Hola ¿qué tal? Mi nombre es José, ¡mucho gusto! Soy estudiante de literatura en esta universidad. Soy de Colombia. Esta es mi amiga Alejandra. Ella es de Perú. ¿Qué van a hacer esta noche? Quizás podríamos ir al cine o algo parecido. Nos vemos más tarde. ¡Gusto en conocerlos!

http://www.laits.utexas.edu/spe/vid/beg08ex.html

2.  Answer the "Hot Potato" questions by recording yourself. 

To complete this assignment, you will need to audio/video record yourself, using the Schoology app. Within the assignment on the app, click on the "+" icon, then write your answer. Second, click on "attach," then click on "video," and then record your video. Click "Save" to submit. If you have a problem or if you need technology, please see Mrs. Siracusa for help on Wednesday or Thursday after school in her classroom. 

¿Cómo te llamas?

¿Cómo estás?

¿Cuántos años tienes?

¿De dónde eres?