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Text of the page (random words):
cludes a freebie is it valentine s day already to be honest valentine s day is not my favorite holiday by far but it is one that i truly enjoy celebrating with my students in the classroom but what if you are not prepared for tomorrow not to worry here are 5 low and no prep ideas that your students will love 1 decorate the classroom or door or bulletin board cut out paper hearts large enough for students to write a word or or short phrase have students write on the hearts and decorate them students can write words that describe a good friend that describe kindness of inspiration students can write short phrases why they love their spanish class why they love school a happy thought 2 kindness letters this can be as simple as pulling out some paper and beginning to write or as involved as making a card out of construction paper decorating it and writing inside students can write about why someone is special or important to them a thank you for a kind act that someone did for them a note to another spanish student in a lower level class with advice and helpful tips a note to someone special just to make them smile students can free write in spanish or perhaps write an acrostic poem using vocabulary they know you can also print out the simple cards on cardstock from this packet for students to fill out and color for their friends family and or classmates 3 love songs or anti love songs what spanish student does not enjoy learning through songs my middle and high schoolers love practicing the imperative tense with a song called dejame by los secretos i have created activities including a lyric fill in and different activities to learn vocabulary and reinforce the imperative tense it s a hit every year you can find a fun list of songs spanish mama s blog hispanic mama s blog spanish playground blog fun for spanish teacher s blog rock a lingua s blog 4 classroom kindness word swap in this activity all students take out a sheet of paper and write their name in the center as a class we brainstorm descriptive words that can describe people and write them on the board next the students move around the room writing kind words and short phrases that describe their classmates i like to play cheesy spanish love songs in the background but you can also play more upbeat music to get the mood going after 10 15 minutes or however long it takes for students to write on all of their classmates papers students can return to their seats and see what their classmates wrote about them 5 read or listen to a story i just love the story of el amor y la locura by mario benedetti for more advanced and bilingual students there are several youtube videos but this one is nice and slow with a clear accent the story is about the beginning of time when all of the different feelings are personified and play hide and seek it s entertaining and has great vocabulary i brainstorm a list of feelings with students and hand out the story as a text so they can refer to it as they watch the video most times after discussing the story the students want to listen to it a second time 6 valentine s day themed activities i would be remiss to not mention the opportunity to review material with a valentine s day theme in my tpt store i have several themed activities for elementary students spanish valentine s day writing cards and vocabulary spanish valentine s day main idea task cards valentine s day bilingual word book spanish valentine s day mixed up sentences 7 valentine s day mini book freebie click on the photo above for your own spanish english bilingual valentine s day minibook students will love making these little books their own assembly directions are included posted by sra casado at 1 11 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest saturday january 29 2022 don t you just love it when things start falling into place our family has been working hard to incorporate more spanish in our lives in 2022 this morning we woke up to a beautiful snowfall which also meant that my little one s spanish class was on zoom today he argued and tried to convince us to allow him to skip the class but it was a short session and i was curious as to what they actually do in class and how much my son actually participates i was so pleasantly surprised that after a slow start he actively participated and even make some silly jokes in spanish he was one of few that answered questions about the cuento they read el muñeco de nieve he even sang a song about invierno i was proud of him this weekend my boys helped me test out a few of my activities for the 100 días del colegio celebration they completed a text prompt and a worksheet freddie even indulged me with a mini photo session of him playing with the celebration bracelets lunch this afternoon was in spanish my older son just came back from the grocery store speaking in spanish with his dad tonight my youngest is looking forward to reading a cuento about yet another muñeco de nieve and my older two have asked to watch an episode of casa de papel with us i m thrilled that with a little more effort my boys are beginning to feel more confident again with their spanish while if i m being completely honest it s not always easy or even always successful encouraging my sons to use their target language is so important i think it s also important for them to see that even if they take a break or even forget spanish for a while they can always come back to it again posted by sra casado at 4 28 pm no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest friday january 21 2022 my new year s resolutions as a spanish speaking teacher mom i have to admit that new year s eve is just about my least favorite holiday however i do love the clean slate a new year brings and i enjoy challenging myself to become a better version of myself through new years resolutions i will spare you the i will exercise and i will get more sleep resolutions and instead share with you my resolutions to help my boys increase their spanish proficiency this year even though we are primarily an opol household with my husband as the native spanish speaker i find that i need to step up on the target language teaching as covid has really put some roadblocks in their spanish learning we have not been to spain since summer of 2019 my older son has continued his spanish learning through alce but primarily through zoom since spring of 2020 due to covid restrictions this is not ideal my middle son tried to study with alce but since zoom school is not for him he learned zip and is no longer taking a spanish class strike that he is taking the mandatory intro to spanish in his middle school but he needs more my younger son really struggles to put his thoughts together in spanish he did not begin his immersion spanish classes last year due to covid he is enrolled this year and enjoys the classes but tells me it is only about 50 in spanish and all of the kids struggle to speak in the target language so here we go sra casado s new year resolutions with regards to spanish learning at home for the family all in all i want to encourage my boys to speak read and hear more spanish in their daily lives since we have not been able to travel or take fun classes in spanish learning and using spanish has become more of a chore we need to turn that around poco a poco 1 read more books this resolution is especially focused on the little one who still loves for us to read to him we have so many beautiful picture books in spanish but at the end of the day we often turn to old favorites in english i propose working with my husband and son to create spanish book night at least 3 times per week 2 more songs tv movies my older boys have begun to find expressing themselves more and more difficult as they have gotten older and the majority of their friends only speak english we began watching casa de papel together as a family first with subtitles in english then with subtitles in spanish and their confidence has soared we need to continue this and add in spanish music during family meal times or once per month spanish movies to practice even more 3 play more games what our non disciplined family has found to be extremely helpful over the years is to have established routines when it comes to using spanish we know that we always play with playmobil in spanish we know that bathtime is always in spanish etc i think it would be fun to have certain games that we only play in spanish 3 speak spanish at dinner table again with the routines we began doing this in december but we need to continue it s been a bit of a challenge to 1 remember and 2 reinforce when we do remember but we will get there sometimes we may find it difficult to find topics of conversation in another post i will talk about some games that we play to facilitate conversation here is a favorite 4 get my boys involved in helping with my tpt store before covid hit my boys would help here and there with my teachers pay teachers store it was fun for them to try out the activities and useful for me now that two of them are teenagers how did that happen they are able to help with other aspects of the store such as product creation and business strategy i m hoping if they can find that spanish is useful and so many people are interested in learning spanish they will be inspired to learn even more for me 1 read more books in spanish i feel like my days are so full as it is but i want to make a concerted effort to read more this year and especially to read more in spanish my son is reading en el tiempo de las mariposas by julia alvarez and reading and discussing it with him will be my first read 2 read newspaper articles in preparation for the ap test this year my older son will be reading a newspaper article per week and discussing it with his dad i would like to participate in this as well 3 organize my reference files digital and hard copy i am not looking forward to this one but over the years i have created bought and otherwise accumulated so many wonderful resources to teach and learn spanish however they are in so many different books folders boxes notebooks computers files external hard drives i don t even know what i have anymore does this happen to anyone else i probably won t finish this project this year but i do want to begin dedicating time to learning what i have and simplifying my spanish materials to my favorites i know that this is a very ambitious list and it s quite possible that we may not be able to do it all however it doesn t hurt to try right i can t wait to give it a go see what works and what doesn t and improve the family s spanish in the meantime what are your 2022 new years resolutions for you and your family with regards to the target language posted by sra casado at 7 15 am 1 comment email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest wednesday december 15 2021 a quick round up of activities to celebrate navidad with spanish students it s the most wonderful time of the year right before winter break and your students are restless thinking of vacation and christmas here are some fun and engaging ways to keep students learning spanish language and culture 1 decorate the room or just the classroom door how to spanish speaking countries decorate for navidad have your students discuss or write about this using authentic spanish vocabulary then go crazy decorating the classroom 2 listen to and sing christmas carols all of my students from the littlest to the adults absolutely love using music as a tool to learn spanish not only does it make for a fun class but listening to and singing villancicos can improve your students spanish skills in a big way a quick youtube or spotify search will find playlists galore to use as background music if you would like to take it to the next level creating a lyric fill in sheet and extension activities will reinforce this new vocabulary 3 write a letter to the reyes magos have your students been good what is on their wishlist have your students write a letter to their favorite wise man with a list of what they would like to receive what a great way for them to learn meaningful vocabulary here are some adorable examples of letters to the reyes magos here are some other examples 4 play games and activities there are so many games that you can play with students that have a navidad theme no prep games include 20 questions and hangman however by far my students favorite activites are loteria similar to bingo madlibs and escape rooms bingo is a great group activity that helps students recognize and practice identifying vocabulary here are two versions of the game digital and printable another activity that works in small or larger groups is fill in stories similar to madlibs students work together to complete a story using vocabulary they know at the end of the class students can share their silly stories and vote on the best one a more involved activity that was a big hit with my virtual students last year during covid were digital escape rooms with a navidad theme i created a spanish navidad and a mexican navidad escape room in 2 different versions each in english for more of a cultural learning and in spanish to reinforce vocabulary as well next year i hope to create a classroom version where students can work together in person to solve the riddles posted by sra casado at 8 42 am no comments email this blogthis share to x share to facebook share to pinterest sunday november 21 2021 using scrambled sentences to improve confidence with spanish reading and fluency we all have had to sacrifice and pivot during covid one of the sacrifices that my family has had to make has been not traveling we have not been to spain in over two years the lack of immersion has affected my boys level of spanish in a significant way especially for my 6 year old who pre covid did not have any formal education in spanish as things are slowly getting back to normal for us we enrolled our boys in spanish classes for the school year however they like many of their classmates have seen their spanish skills drop over the last couple of years last week my youngest son was quarantined at home for 10 days due to being a close contact for someone who tested positive for covid we were sent a couple of school packets home and had a few zoom classes throughout the week but there was a lot of down time for sure i decided to take out some thanksgiving themed spanish worksheets they had scrambled sentences where he had to cut out the words and form a coherent sentence with them the worksheets had 2 different levels the simpler level asked the student to copy the sentence that was written and the higher level simply provided the words and the student had to create their own sentence do you know that my son was able to do the higher level and asked for more he had such a great time cutting and pasting figuring out how to form a coherent sentence often looki...