La Casa Craftivity - Practicing Rooms & Furniture

 It's nearing the end of the year when kids are in out due to field trips, field day, and make-up testing and I need something that is fun and crafty and doesn't require a Chromebook (because they're sick of being on them and also because they'll be collected soon.) My 7th graders are making alebrijes that go nicely as an end to our pet unit (click here for that post) and 8th graders are making these cool house foldables. 

Students color, cut, and then glue their furtniture into their rooms. Then they label the items. Finally, they will write a description of the room on the floor

. I anticipate that some students will only have time and/or interest to make one room which is totally fine with me. Not everyone loves crafty things. These students will pivot to a reading assignment from Español con Randy. 

Here is the video I used to learn how to make the foldable itself.

And here are links to the furniture. 

Furniture Set 1

Furniture Set 2 - Scroll down to the individual furnture -  I also recommend printing at 80% rather than 100 so that the furniture fits in the house foldable.

What kinds of activities do you do to finish the school year? Share in the comments below! And check back later for pics of student work!

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Spanish Class Mascot - Engaging Students & Creating Classroom Community

I attended a session on Creating Class Lore at the beginning of the year and it was just what I needed for my too cool for school 8th graders. 

Getting started - First up, we co-created a character in class. I gave them the choice of a capybara or a llama because those were two animals from the target culture that I had stuffies for. Then we named it, decided how old it was, and what it liked to eat and what sports it played. Somehow both classes picked a capybara and named it Juan so Juan became the 8th grade mascot. 

The second day I pulled out my stuffed capybara and held it during class. The kids got excited and several asked if they could pet Juan. I told students that Juan was sad because he was lonely. He didn't have any friends or family. Then I handed out cardstock with black and white capybaras and told them to decorate them however they wanted and then name and describe their capybara. This took two class periods.