¿Qué día es hoy? - El Calendario

Wow!!! Talk about enthusiastic foreign language students, and on a Monday! My fourth graders loved their class today, especially because they had the chance to laugh, sing, and dance. Good visuals and music are invaluable tools to the World Language teacher because they are motivating, provide repetition (music), and help students connect to the material.  

First, we reviewed the months of the year orally, and then watched an awesome cartoon by SAS Curriculum Pathways. This video is excellent especially during Hispanic Heritage Month, as it touches on popular Latin-American holidays by month (including the dates), but especially focuses on the names of the months of the year in Spanish.



Second, we reviewed our numbers in Spanish orally, making sure to enunciate each word slowly. Many of my students can and try to say their numbers quickly, but then cannot pronounce them slowly, as they do not know them as well as they originally think. We reviewed numbers 0 - 10 first. Then we practiced 0 - 31 because those numbers are utilized in the monthly calendar. Finally we practiced counting by tens from 0 - 100. Then, as I began to play this video, I observed all their heads bopping, their arms and hands being raised, and smiles coming to their faces; they instantly sang along without ever having heard this number song before!

  

Finally, as we have reviewed the days of the week over the last couple weeks and they were already familiar with the terms, we jumped right into our song and dance. From a suggestion I learned at a FLENEF session two summers ago, I tried to incorporate movement in the classroom. We watched this wonderful video below and danced the macarena (at least the first 6 moves plus a swing of the hips)!



It is days like these that my students impress me with their enthusiasm, and I am reminded how much I love my job! 

Gracias a Uds. por todos estos recursos: SAS Curriculum Pathways, Sr. Ashby, y BASHO & friends!

https://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/portal/

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Spanish-Ser-Rap-Song-962828

http://bashoandfriends.com

What a (ka)HOOT!

Kahoot is a game-based classroom response system where one can create a game-show activity with questions one personally writes, making it appropriate for any kind of discipline or content. The teacher OR the students can create the games/quizzes. As explained by Educational Consultant Glenn Weibe: 

Using a simple drag and drop tool, educators create and manage “Kahoots” in the form of quizzes, surveys or polls related to the topics they’re teaching; either asking quick questions to get feedback or opinion, or more in depth questions for formative assessment.

One of the big differences between Socrative and Kahoot! is that the questions are projected on a screen in front of students – much like the video bar trivia game. Your kids use any smart device and browser – phone, tablet, or computer – to join the Kahoot using a specific PIN number. You provide the question and possible answers.  The kids see the answers on their device and select the answer they think is correct. This is the other difference between Kahoot! and other student response systems – it’s not an app, so it’s device neutral making it perfect for BYOD schools or for classrooms with a variety of devices.

(http://historytech.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/kahoot-equals-easy-fun-gamified-assessment/) 

In my Spanish classroom, after completing a recent "What I did last summer" preterite tense project with Spanish 2 students, I created this game as a review:

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/65e36207-1e93-4812-bebf-bf01e34cb9f9 

Please see another example from my 6th grade review games I created at this link: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/ad330c83-a734-4444-889c-0d0ba5ee3eb3

Please feel free to use or adapt any of my Kahoots.

Another one I used when teaching Latin American capitals is this good one here:

South American capitals: https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/967571f4-855c-4031-96be-93a44c26cb75

You have the option to copy them, and then edit them to your taste. What a FANTASTIC activity, and I promise your students of any age will love it! Now, my goal is to try to play it with another classroom across the globe simultaneously while Skyping -- stay tuned! 

Tareas de Vocabulario - Fiesta en Familia

After seeing and hearing about Task Cards for vocabulary, my students and I tried our hand with this creative method. Our topic was "Family Celebrations," and different levels of study had different quantity or difficulty of vocabulary words. Tasks were also distinct in that some required markers and paper, and others required digital tools and apps. The students, however, were gracious for the opportunity to choose a task of their liking.

Here are some samples of what my students produced:

Haiku Deck (cards were later used for CandyLand adaptation game):

Luciano (6)


Fiesta - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

(Hayley-7) 
Interactive Book on Tiny Tap:
http://www.tinytap.it/games/gbqg/Game-4

PuppetPals video

BuddyPoke video

Kahoot game

Popplet - mindmapping, graphic organizer

Quizlet by (Ali-7)  - http://quizlet.com/49341950/familyspanish-flash-cards/

Crossword Puzzle (made with Discovery free puzzlemaker)

...and many more!  

If you would like a copy of my Task Cards (which include both digital tasks as well as pen-and-paper tasks,) you can download them for free here: 
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bw3RhX4eIalNT1pVUjN6TFVMUlU/edit?usp=docslist_api