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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Spanish - What we have been up to at the school

It has been a while since I posted about what I am teaching in the classroom.

Primary
In the Primary classrooms we have learned two new songs.
We are learning parts of the body other than “head, shoulders knees and toes….” And clothing.

Clothing
El Burrito Enfermo by Jose Luis-Orozco– The Sick Donkey. A very cute song about a donkey that is sick, His head hurts so the doctor gives him a black hat.
His throat hurts so the doctor gives him a white scarf.
His ribs hurt so the doctor gives him a yellow jacket.
His heart hurts so the doctor gives him lemon drops
Nothing hurts so the doctor gives him apple slices.

To learn other pieces of clothing, I have big flash cards (81/2 by 11) with a piece of clothing on it and we sing a song while passing it around the circle. For example: For a shirt we sing, Pasame la camisa, pasame la camisa, pasame la camisa, pass me the shirt. We pass the card of the shirt around the circle while we sing the song and then I’ll give a command like “stand up if you have a pink shirt”…. Etc…

Parts of the body
The Sick Donkey song above goes over a few parts of the body and the kids have already done the head shoulders knees and toes song. The next thing I do is the song “Mi Tia Monica” by Jose Luis Orozco “My Aunt Monica” Aunt Monica likes to dance with her entire body: eyes, eyelashes, eyebrows, nose, head, shoulders, elbows, hands, hips, knees and feet. This is a super cute song. We have so much fun with this song! It comes from his CD called Diez Deditos.

Lower Elementary

In the lower elementary we do the same songs. In addition, they have worksheets with all of the clothing and parts of the body where they get to write the Spanish name and then we play Bingo. I did not make the bingo cards for these so I cannot upload them. The bingo cards were already made before I got to the school. I had to manually cut and paste to make exactly what I wanted and how I wanted it! But, these pictures are all in the Viva el Espanol System A, B , C Workbooks.
Lately I have taken 5 to 10 minutes of the class to ask questions and get the students response (conversational Spanish). For example: what do you wear when it is cold, what do you wear when you go to the beach, what do you wear when it is hot, what color is your favorite shirt. I will ask a question directed to the entire class and specific to a student so they get the language of when I am asking one person vs. everyone.


Upper Elementary

In upper elementary we have been working on clothing, foods, vegetables and fruits. They also have worksheets which they write the names and glue in their notebooks like lower elementary. The also play bingo to learn the vocabulary and we also have conversational Spanish. In addition the Upper Elementary has workbooks where they read and answer questions in Spanish in complete sentences. I encourage the students to do things like write their grocery lists in Spanish and write down what foods they see in Spanish on a menu at restaurants.

The Lower and Upper Elementary will have testing for the next two weeks so we will not have Spanish. I will only be seeing the Primary Classes.

7 comments:

My Boys' Teacher said...

Oh, this is uncanny. I was going to e-mail you this week about this. I used the Viva el Espanol system when I taught and was completely unable to google it (am considering picking it up to use with the boys). Now here you go and post about it...

Thank you for the link! I was just recommending this to Steph over at Montessori Free Fall, and couldn't get a link. I almost told her to ask you.

My Boys' Teacher said...

Scratch that, I meant Melissa at Chasing Cheerios. I'll pass on the info to her right now (unless you did already).

My Boys' Teacher said...

Ack!

They have totally redone that system since I used it. Plus, I remember my school buying it for maybe $300, now it's $1000. I guess I won't be buying it for at home.

Gigi said...

It IS very expensive BUT I found pieces here and there sold separately through ebay or amazon cheap. I have several workbooks that are duplicates. I can mail them to you if you would like.

I found the CD's on ebay last year for $5. Just search weekly.

There is also lots of items in the $1000 package you do not need. I'll write another post about this and what is most important if using for home.

Lily said...

Gigi,
Do you present Spanish culture classes to the children?
Do you have any ideas?
Thank you, Lily

Lily said...

Gigi,
What Spanish workbook do you use for the Upper Elementary class? I have been looking for one, and do you use a workbook for the Lower Elementary classes as well?. I also teach Spanish in a Montessori school.
Thank you very much.
Lily

Gigi said...

Lily, I do not use a workbook for Lower Elementary but I do for Upper El. For Lower El. I will have worksheets they can work on during the week. So, if I am working on numbers then they have the work on the shelf with a worksheet that corresponds with the work.
For Lower El. I do not work on writing full sentences but writing out the vocabulary and verbally responding to me in Spanish.

For upper el. I expect both writing and verbal.

Regarding Culture - I have not done this as of this year but thought about planning cultural work around the Unit studies. I use Viva El Espanol Workbooks and Viva El Espanol also has a book with lots of Cultural Ideas like Crafts.

E-mail me if you want to talk more and I would love to know how you approach teaching at your school also!