La Casa Centers- Ideas for Spanish Class

My third graders are in the middle of our Me and My Home unit, learning the rooms of the house. We started by looking at houses around the world and read The Three Little Pigs. But because I´m back in the Specials rotation this year we didn't have enough time to do the Tres Cerditos STEAM challenge - read more about that here.

Instead we moved onto to the inside of the house with rooms. I introduced the rooms of the house by telling the story of Cenicienta (Cinderella.) Cenicienta has to clean ALL the rooms of the house so it's great for lots of repetitions. This is also where I start introducing adjectives that they'll need next year - rich, intelligent, handsome, nice, mean, strong etc. It's not a focus but it helps that they've heard and seen them before when they get to fourth grade.

We also warmed up each class by playing ¿Dónde está abuela? where one person puts abuelita somewhere in the house and the other person guesses. I changed this up to different family members for a nice review of family vocabulary.

Then we moved onto centers.

Center 1 - Gapminder.com

I LOVE this center. Mostly because I love this website. It features houses from around the world. Students got a worksheet with different items in the house. They had to find the picture of the item and then write what room in the house it went in.

Get your free worksheet here!

Center 2 - Magnetic houses

I won these sets of magnetic houses three years ago at the NNELL breakfast at ACTFL. Students take turns asking each other ¿Dónde está? with the furniture and their partner answers with the room. The first time I tell them to make una casa normal. The second time they can make una casa loca with the bathtub in the living room for example.

I photocopied the back cover so if kids wanted to they could actually practice the furniture vocabulary as well as the rooms of the house. If they didn't then they just ignored the paper. Instant differentiation!

Center 3 - Reading center

Because we started with Los Tres Cerditos and Cenicienta I have students read our Tres Cerditos books and our Cenicienta Readers Theater in groups of 2-4. At the end of Cenicienta there was a survey that asks who in their family cleans the different rooms of the house.

Get your copy of Cenicienta here. 

Center 4 - Cut and paste

I put out these cute houses from Fun For Spanish Teachers. Students cut out and pasted the labels. When they were done I had a bucket of books in Spanish on houses that they could look at. Later they cut these out and put them in their notebooks.

This unit is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Students really love talking about their own homes and looking at homes around the world. What activities do you use to teach about the house? Share in the comments below!

Groceries Around the World - Food Unit for Spanish Class

I recently sat in a presentation by ACTFL Past President Jacque Van Houten on the Can Do Statements for Intercultural Competence. One of the things I really like about the new Can Do statements are the inclusion of the phrase "in my own and other cultures." It really facilitates students looking at their own culture - even realizing that they have a culture. It puts culture as global instead of "other."

I also went to a great session by Matt Coss at SCOLT on teaching authentic culture. One of my main take aways from this session was that instead of making blanket stereotypical statements like, "People eat tacos in Mexico" we should turn it into questions like "Do people in Mexico eat tacos?" From there you can ask more and more probing questions. "Where and when do people eat tacos?" "What do people put on tacos?" "Where can I find the best tacos?"

All of this great PD has been bouncing around in my brain and I'm starting to make adjustments to units I am already teaching. One of those is the my supermarket unit in kindergarten. Read that post here. It was one of my favorite units last year but there is definitely some room for improvement in terms of interculturality.

For this particular unit that means asking "Where do people buy food?"  Al restaurante, al mercado, y al supermercado. Like last year we'll make a list together of the places my students buy their food. Then we'll look at some places around the world. That fits perfectly with the Can Do statement of Investigate - In my own and other cultures I can identify where people buy food."*

We'll also read Peppa Va al Supermercado and make our lists like last year but it also means asking "What do people like to eat?" and "What food do people buy?" I made mercado, supermercado, and restaurante posters as well as ¿Qué te gusta comer? posters that include some photos from my local Mexican grocery Aguascalientes. You can get your free set here.

These are pictures I took at our local Mexican grocery store

But more than just showing WHERE people buy food, I want to show students WHAT foods people buy. This is where photographer Peter Menzel comes in with his awesome What the World Eats photos. His photo series is a treasure trove! You can click on different galleries by continent and then by country.

Each country has the groceries for a week image but then even more - where they bought the food, their kitchens, tables set for dinner, etc. I plan on showing these different images and we can compare and contrast where we buy our own food. This site is seriously amazing! You can also get his book What the World Eats on Amazon here.

I printed a few pictures and made a bulletin board. The white cards are our food vocabulary that students can look for in the photos. I've already seen and heard some very interested students in the hallway!

Like last year at the end of the unit, if there's time, we will play el mercado. Students will write their own grocery lists and go shopping for those items. This activity was one of their favorites last year. One kid told me he was, "so excited I can't sleep!" and it fits perfectly with the Interact Can Do, "I can act appropriately when  grocery shopping."* You can get worksheets, food cards, extension activities, and grocery role play activity set here. 

So those are my updates to my food unit. How do you teach food in your classroom? Have you used How the World Eats with your students? Share in the comments below!

*Both of these are pulled from the ACTFL Can Do statements and simplified for kindergarten. 

Calendar Time in the Elementary Spanish Classroom Part Two

In a previous post I wrote about setting up a calendar area. Once you've got your calendar area set up then you can start putting it to good use.

Decide when and how long you will do calendar time. 

A lot of this will be based on how much time you have. My classes are only 25 min and our full calendar routine can take up to 7-10 minutes.

During a unit where one of the elements is part of calendar time then we take the time and do it every class or every other class. When it is not part of our unit of study then we do it only once a month (so that students don't forget the different elements.)

If you have 50-60 minute classes then you might consider doing calendar time every class period.

Decide what your routine will look and sound like.

I love teaching with music. I introduce the following songs one at a time as we build up our calendar routine. Once the students have learned the song I stop showing the video and we sing a cappella.

We go over the days of the week using this song from Basho and Friends. We dance the macarena as we sing. Then we do Hoy es... Mañana será... Ayer fue...

I use Calico Spanish's song Meses del Año to practice the months. Then we talk about what month it is and count up to the date.



We don't sing a seasons song during our calendar time but I did use these videos from Calico Spanish and Basho and Friends to introduce the vocabulary. Once they knew it, I just ask students what season we are in.





We sing this song from Super Simple Spanish to practice the weather. Then students talk with a partner about what the weather is that day. After a few seconds I look it up on my phone (I'm in a windowless room!) I call on a few students, and then we move the area on our weather chart to the weather of the day. Most days we also guess the weather in Mexico and another Spanish speaking country (usually in the southern hemisphere so students start to understand that the seasons are opposite there.)



Then we dress the weather bear. Like with the seasons we don't sing the song once students know the vocabulary but Calico Spanish has a great one to introduce clothing. I like it because it also has the seasons. I usually give students an either/or choice and they tell me what I should put on the bear.

You can get your copy of the weather bear and his clothes in my Teachers Pay Teachers store here. In addition to using it during calendar time you can also print them out as paper dolls. Or laminate and put magnets on them and have students play with it on cookie sheets.

Keep your students engaged and accountable.

My goal for the last part of this year is to implement calendar pages with students. My students already love calendar time but this will help those students whose attentions wander and get in some writing practice. My plan is to put them in sheet protectors so they can be used over and over. The first graders will use the simpler one below and I have another one with months and seasons for 2nd graders. You can get your copy here - it's included in my Weather Bear Activity Pack!  For an assessment I'm thinking I'll make smaller paper copies and have students fill them out and turn them in every once in awhile to track students' progress.

So that's my calendar time. It's a work in progress and after I finish my second grade benchmark testing I will probably make more changes based on what my kiddos need spiraled more. How do you do calendar time? What are your favorite songs or routines to use during calendar time? Share in the comments below!

Calendar Time in the Elementary Spanish Classroom Part One

Calendar time is a natural thing to do in the elementary World Language classroom. Students are used to doing it in their regular classroom and it's an opportunity to introduce and practice content - math, science, and even geography. I got the chance to observe some of the regular classroom teachers and even some Dual Language Immersion teachers to see how they do calendar and I've copied what I liked, adjusted what I needed to, and now my kiddos love calendar time. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Set up your calendar area.

Have a calendar area that all students can see. Consider what you want to go over. I have the calendar with months on the side so students can access them when they need to. There is also a weather chart, a seasons poster, numbers to practice the temperature and a weather bear that we dress based on the weather.

I also have other language students need - Sentence starters above from Miss Maestra on TpT, a ¿Cómo estás? poster, hands with right and left, and even some adjectives we often use in class. I also have a growing group of stuffed animals that we greet with Hola and Adios every day in kindergarten (It's amazing how much better they know their animals this year doing this!)

I got my calendar set from the local Teacher Parent Store but here is a link to it on Amazon. Here is another cute one as well.

The weather bear is magnetic and I wasn't sure how I would move it from the white board to the bulletin board but my student teacher had the great idea of using command strips on a cookie sheet. Her clothes are kept in a bucket on the bookshelf and we can easily dress her based on the weather.

My seasons poster came from my Scholastic Let's Find Out subscription. I highly recommend Let's Find Out for any Spanish FLES classroom. I've gotten so many good resources from it! If you need seasons cards/posters you can get them in my TpT store.  Also included are weather cards, clothing cards, student calendar pages, and a weather bear to dress.

Other ideas -

1. Clocks to practice time. You could have multiple clocks to show what time it is in other countries. 2. Multiple weather charts to show the weather around the world. (We usually talk about other places but only post Lexington on our chart.)
3. Shapes or colors on the days of the calendar that make a pattern. The teacher turns over the day  but before she dose students must predict the next part of the pattern.
4. Number of days in school. Deconstruct the numbers by 100, 10s and 1s.
5. Number of the day. For younger students you could use a 10 frame. Or you can have one more, one less, 10 more, 10 less.

A calendar bulletin board in an immersion kindergarten classroom

So that's my calendar area. What does yours look like? What elements do you have? In my next post I'll talk about how I introduce the vocabulary and what our actual routine looks and sounds like.

March Madness with Animals and their Habitats ¡en español!

I recently saw Mundo de Pepita's blog on how she did March Madness with a Twist. Instead of basketball or even music (like a lot of high school Spanish teachers do) she had her students decide their favorite Latin American animals. It's a genius idea for this age group and I can't wait to try it especially because my second graders are getting ready to start a unit on where animals live. This will be a perfect way to grab their interest.

I'll start the unit with my new Animal Habitat Posters with sentence frames. I plan on projecting on the board to introduce the new vocabulary. Then I'll put them up on a bulletin board and print them for students to use in a writing center. Get your set here!

Once I've introduced the habitats and where animals live, we will start with the bracket. As I started to decide which animals I should use and looking for authentic resources for class I came across the Madrid Zoo's page on their different animals. They are absolutely perfect for my novice mid learners.

There are beautiful photos and icons for type of animal, what they eat, habitat (YAY!) and what continent they live on. There's also a section for their status in terms of conservation. Lots of accessible language that we can talk about in class.

I picked 8 animals that had easy enough names and lived in the right habitats and came up with my own Marzo Manía bracket. I made 8.5x11 posters for each animal and then a sheet with the bracket that I will either project and/or hand out to students to keep track of which of our animals is winning.

Get a FREE copy of the posters and bracket sheet HERE!

Do you do March Madness with animals, music, or something else in your classroom? Share in the comments below or on Twitter using the hashtag #earlylang!

Dancing in Spanish Class - Rueda de Casino

Two years ago I posted about how I connect with the target culture through rueda de casino. I get to practice my Spanish, stay in shape, meet new people, and learn about Cuban culture. See that post here.

Now I want to talk about how you can incorporate dance and specifically rueda de casino (salsa square dancing or Simon Says for dance) into your classroom.

For high school: Try something like Mis Clases Locas does with Baile Viernes. If you aren't comfortable teaching the salsa steps yourself there are plenty of videos and websites that you can pull up. I've compiled a list here. And here is a powerpoint that you can adapt to introduce the dance. Students could learn a step a week, working up to a list of calls.

Or you can devote more class time to it either as part of class or a special event. I recently taught rueda at KY's Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica Convention. Here was my 25 min lesson plan. (You could also facilitate and pull up videos for students to follow.)

Warm-up in lines
Vamos p'arriba (walk forward in salsa rhythm) in lines
Vamos p'abajo (walk backwards in salsa rhythm) in lines
Move to circle and have Ss find a partner.
Explain closed position - Ss may choose to just stand in front of their partner or "hover" (closed position but not actually touch.)
Practice Vamos p'arriba and Vamos p'abajo without music.
Learn un tarro (leaders walk forward to next follower in the circle.)
Practice the three calls with music.
Learn dos tarros (leaders walk forward to second follower in the circle.)
Practice without and with music.
Learn tarro mentira (leaders start to walk forward to new partner but turn and come back to original partner.)
Practice without and with music.
If time also learn Un fly and mambo.

I also suggest checking out the dance studios in your area. The Salsa Center here in Lexington has come to my school to do a full day workshop with my elementary school kiddos (they still talk about it 3 years later.) And I know a high school teacher in the region who brings her Spanish classes to the studio each year as a field trip. If you're in the Central Kentucky area I highly suggest checking them out!

Social dancing casino at a party. 

For elementary school: Ok, so for this age group I have had to get a little creative. For them, switching partners is not the main focus (because I've tried it and they just don't have the spatial awareness to figure it out.)  Instead we all walk in the same direction.

Vamos p'arriba - everyone walks forward.
Vamos p'abajo - everyone walks backwards
Giráte - turn around and walk the other direction
Mambo - stop and tap each foot in the middle of the circle (see example here)
Pilón - stop and "stir the coffee" (see example here.)

This year I also want to add palmas where we clap in the middle then clap with the two people on each side and then clap to the middle again (see example here.)

This Youtube playlist also shows the different musical instruments and timing.  I like to use them to reinforce what students are learning in music class.

Because Rueda de Casino is such a community building dance and because different ruedas have their own calls, last year in fifth grade I had each class collaboratively create their own call. Then during their end of the year dance I called a rueda and when I called their calls the students in that class stepped into the circle and performed their move. We had calls named Soy Yo and Mariposa among others. It was super fun!


So there you go! That's how I incorporate rueda de casino and do some community building through dance in my classroom. If you are a teacher in KY you can join me in Danville this summer for Kentucky Center's World Languages and Arts Integration Academy where we'll be learning about Rueda de Casino, Mexican folk dance, and Appalachian Flatfooting.

The Magic of 4:1 Positive Feedback in the Classroom

Last year I was a New Teacher facilitator for the electives teachers in our district. I didn't do much except email them when the meetings were and planned some ice breakers and reflection activities. But I got to go to all the trainings with them and honestly I think I got more out of them than they did. (As a first year teacher it's hard to be presented with a ton of information when you're already so overwhelmed.)

The best take away I got? Use a 4:1 ratio for positive to negative in classroom management.

Now, I had heard that before. In my first year of teaching even, but what really made it stick was that the PBIS coach told it didn't mean for each student but the class overall.

Mind blown!

Here I was thinking I had to say 4 nice things to that kid rolling under a table before I could correct him.

Now I simply say muy bien or gracias to four students doing the right thing before I correct little Johnny for being under the table. Usually by the time I've recognized 4 students for being in their seats criss-cross and eyes o me, Little Johnny has made it back to his carpet square. Then I say thank you to him (or just smile, nod, or give a thumbs up) and we move on.

You don't even have to compliment or thank the kiddos doing the right thing but just describe what they're doing. Emily se está sentando con las piernas cruzadas. Henry tiene la boca cerrada y está listo de aprender.  It helps that in K-2 we start class with piernas cruzadas, bocas cerradas, manos dobladas, y los ojos en la maestra. That way I can refer to these expectations later without switching to English.

It has really upped the positivity in my room, my students are much more likely to be on task, and we are all staying in the target language.

Here's a link for more information - https://www.pbisworld.com/tier-1/positive-praise/
And here https://vkc.mc.vanderbilt.edu/assets/files/resources/psibehaviorspecpraise.pdf 


#HighlightReal - This has HELPED in my rowdy fifth grade classes but it has not completely solved the problem. If there was a solution then me, the other 5 Special Area teachers, the Behavior Coach, and/or their classroom teachers would have figured it out by now. Some groups of kids when together are harder than others.