Another fabulous Spanish Class Today

Today's lesson had to do with where things are located :-)

I started out by saying my prepared sentences aloud in a conversational manner, then I directed the students' attention not only to the items about which I was speaking, but also to the notecards with the new vocabulary words for the week. :-)

I think the students loved it!


Javamom

Spanish practice through music

While trying to find a Spanish song to use in my Spanish classes this week, I found a site called Actualidades: a learning blog, that has a fantastic collection of music/songs to listen to. The site owner has gone to a lot of effort and also posted activity sheets that go along with each song (there are almost 50 in the collection!), including a vocab list that you can present before you play the song. They are not translated into English, for the most part, so you are forewarned that you will have to do this part yourself.

These have excellent sound quality, as well, and I'm looking forward to giving some of these a try.


Enjoy!

Javamom



Preview for any topics you personally might want to avoid with younger ages (i.e. love or dating relationships).

Study Helps

I wanted to post another example of one of the tools I use with students for practicing new phrases or vocabulary. It is equally useful when I am tutoring one on one, or for students to practice with on their own. I have several versions that I have for my "box of tools." I have a larger version for my "word wall" that I keep posted during certain class lessons. The ideal thing is for these words and phrases to have already been introduced ahead of time (a la Charlotte Mason method) and used in comprehensible stories. This is simply a "puzzle" of sorts for practice and for the beginnings of building writing and speaking confidence in the students.

If interested, Visual Link Spanish offers pretty much this same learning method on their software web site, the first 11 lessons are free! Once you get on their list, you receive notice for special offers on their products.

¡Chao!

Señora Javamom

Christmas Carols in Spanish

Some of my students from my Spanish classes (along with their parents) have joined me in gathering presents to deliver to needy families this weekend. We will be helping my friend Señora Smith. As we deliver goodies, we will get to do some caroling in Spanish as we go. I thought I'd include a link here on the blog for any who'd like recommendations for a big list of Christmas carols in Spanish.


¡Feliz Navidad!


Señora Javamom

Spanish Word Wall and Charts

While communicating or telling stories in Spanish with my classes, it is helpful to have posters and charts that I can point to on the wall. When I taught summer school sessions at a private school, this was what my wall looked like. Winston Grammar was created at this school, so you see the English grammar charts on the bulletin board to the right. I mimicked these charts with my self-created charts in Spanish.

This is how I "translated" my word wall to my hs co-op classroom, where I had to carry everything, literally every resource, in and out for different-aged classes and different classrooms. I am also able to use this at home. These are the same mini-posters from the whiteboard above (where I posted them with magnets...but my whiteboard in co-op was not magnetized, so I had to get creative).


I've added this large presentation board to my home class, since I don't really have room for a large white board. I am able to fold this up and put it behind the couch after my Wednesday home classes are over. The mini-charts can be removed or moved around, since I have sticky-backed Velcro tabs on each mini-poster. These visuals are a big help. Another idea would be to include pictures when possible.


I hope that some of you will find this helpful!


Con cariño,


Señora Javamom

Spanish language fun

This is a "Mini-story" that I pre-wrote as a skeleton story, but it became more impromptu as we went along in my Spanish class a couple of weeks ago. I asked for a volunteer, whom I named "Guillermo." Leave me a comment if you have any questions, and feel free to use this as an example for your own Spanish homeschool class or other classroom setting.

This dialogue worked because we had just begun learning greetings and telling age, using the verb "tener" (to have or to be x years old), and any extra words used in context that had not yet been introduced were posted on my "word wall" for easy reference, without stopping during the story.

It went like this:

Profesora: "Hay un chico que se llama Guillermo." (I pointed to Guillermo and said)

"Éste es mi amigo, Guillermo. Clase, diga 'hola' a Guillermo ... "

Clase: "¡Hola!"

¿Cómo estás, Guillermo? ¿Bien? ¿no? Estás mal?

Guillermo: "Si, Estoy muy mal."

la clase dice...."Oh, no!"

Profe: "Soy tu profesora y estoy bastante bien. Clase, ¿quién está mal, Guillermo o la profesora?

Sí, Guillermo está mal. Pobre cito. Pobre Guillermo."

clase: "Ohhhhhh, pobre Guillermo."

Profe: "Guillermo, ¿cuántos años tienes?"

G: "Tengo veinticinco años."

P: "¿Es verdad, Guillermo??? Clase, ¿tiene Guillermo veinticinco años or tiene quince años?"

Clase: "¡Tiene quince años!"

P: "Clase, ¡es obvio! Yo creo que Guillermo tiene quince años.
¿Es correcto, Guillermo? Sí...yo creo que sí. Claro." (as I nod, "yes.")

G: "Sí, es correcto. Yo tengo quince años."

P: "Clase, Guillermo tiene un problema. Tiene un problema con tus animales."

P: "Guillermo, ¿hay animales en tu casa?"

G: "Do sisters count? "

P: "Guillermo, en español, por favor. No pregunto '¿hay hermanas?' pero '¿Hay animales en tu casa?' ¿Entiendes?"

G: "Sí, tengo animales en mi casa."

P: "¿Cuántos (and I point to the question words on my 'word wall') animales hay en tu casa?"

G: "¡Hay dos animales!"

P: "Clase, hay dos hermanas o dos animales en la casa de Guillermo?"

Clase: "¡Hay dos animales!"

P: "Correcto, clase. Hay dos animales.
Guillermo, ¿Qué tipo de animales hay en tu casa?"

G: ??

(Profe writes 'tipo' on the whiteboard and defines it as "type" or "kind")

Profe: (clarifying) "Hay elefantes en tu casa?"

G: "¡Sí!"

P: "Clase, tiene Guillermo gatos en su casa, o tiene elefantes en su casa?"

Clase: "Tiene elefantes en su casa."

P: "Es correcto, clase. Es un problema, ¿no? Guillermo tiene elefantes en su casa."

P: "Guillermo, ¿Cuántos elefantes hay?"

G: "Dos elefantes."

P: "Tú tienes dos elefantes. Dos gigantes elefantes y es un problema, ¿no?"

G and clase: "¡Sí!"

P: "Y ¿Cómo se llaman los dos elefantes?"

G: "Un elefante se llama Diego Alejandro Juan Pablo Gutierrez Juarez." (and I changed the name slightly to protect the innocent, LOL!)

P: "¡Qué bueno! Y ¿Cómo se llama el otro elefante?"

G: "El otro elefante se llama 'Paco.'"

P: "¿Solamente se llama 'Paco?' Hahahaha! Guillermo, ¡Tú eres muy divertido!
Gracias, Guillermo. Tengo que irme. Hasta luego. ¡Chao, clase!"

Clase: "¡Chao!"


And that is an example of TPR Storytelling. I didn't "circle" as much as some teachers who use this method do. Also, I decided to save going into the real problem of having two elephants as pets for another day. It's not the perfect story, but this is the first year I have really had class time to execute these silly but effective interactive stories. This one went off really well! You would have thought that I prepped this student with a script beforehand, but I did not! I literally penciled in the age of "25" and that is exactly the age the student chose to respond! Crazy!


Looking forward to more adventures like this one,

Javamom

Spanish Magazine Special

I really like this magazine and love to keep them on hand for my kids and other students. These might work with younger, serious students but mainly I'd say about 12 or 13 and up. I will incorporate time for these in my classes this upcoming schoolyear as part of the "big four" important components of learning a foreign language. There is a glossary in the margins of vocab and phrases used in the context of the magazine articles.

Think Spanish magazine is usually $45.95 per year, but with this special is only $29.95

This brief offer is good through tomorrow night.

I've also been reading a thin version of Sports Illustrated in Spanish for my own reading. Not that I love sports all that much, but to give me broader vocabulary and usage, which is helpful for my kids or students who are into sports. The editions I've seen so far have all been very clean magazines!


Chao for now!

Señora Javamom

Crayola Crayon Name Chart

Very simple site with the names of Crayola Crayons in English, Spanish, and French.

Very cool!

Javamom

Spanish Literature links

Here is a thorough site for Spanish Language Literature and Spanish Authors Web Directory
which includes a history of Spanish Literature.

This link is of Latin American Literature links

Una poema de Pablo Neruda

Pablo Neruda

El mar

NECESITO del mar porque me enseña:
no sé si aprendo música o conciencia:
no sé si es ola sola o ser profundo
o sólo ronca voz o deslumbrante
suposición de peces y navios.
El hecho es que hasta cuando estoy dormido
de algún modo magnético circulo
en la universidad del oleaje.
No son sólo las conchas trituradas
como si algún planeta tembloroso
participara paulatina muerte,
no, del fragmento reconstruyo el día,
de una racha de sal la estalactita
y de una cucharada el dios inmenso.

Lo que antes me enseñó lo guardo! Es aire,
incesante viento, agua y arena.

Parece poco para el hombre joven
que aquí llegó a vivir con sus incendios,
y sin embargo el pulso que subía
y bajaba a su abismo,
el frío del azul que crepitaba,
el desmoronamiento de la estrella,
el tierno desplegarse de la ola
despilfarrando nieve con la espuma,
el poder quieto, allí, determinado
como un trono de piedra en lo profundo,
substituyó el recinto en que crecían
tristeza terca, amontonando olvido,
y cambió bruscamente mi existencia:
di mi adhesión al puro movimiento.

El Día de los Muertos

El Día de Muertos is celebrated in Hispanic countries, instead of Halloween.

The news story is in Spanish (because I have AOL Latino). Here's a neat slide show of the day in Mexico. Slides 11-13 include cake or sugar skulls, so skip these if you show it to your children. The flower displays are beautiful, as this day is a celebration of the lives of loved ones who have passed away.

Preparing for a whirlwind trip

Amidst my week of various Spanish classes, I am preparing the family for a whirlwind trip to my high school Alma Mater for its 25th Class reunion. Whew and oh-my-goodness! To which my Calvinist friends would be quick to say, "But there is *no* goodness in you!" with a huge grin. Snicker, snicker. Yes. I know.

BUT it is really hard to believe that my 25th high school class reunion has arrived! I truly hope some of my best hs friends are going to make it! Some I have not seen since 1982. Others I have not seen since 1987. I'd love to hug their necks and catch up with them. So please forgive me for the walk down memory lane, which could come across as blatant bragging. It was simply a very full but also a tremendously fun year. I will try to find my old yearbook and post scans from it. I recently found one of my Prom pictures, even. THAT should be enlightening!


In my Senior Year in High School I was:

Spanish Club President, studying my fourth year of Spanish. The exchange student at our school that year became my sister-from-Mexico City. My best friend in this town was a Puerto Rican national. Spanish students (myself included) competed at state and I came home with three medals for sight-reading, poetry memorization, and prose reading in Spanish. (two gold, one bronze)

Student ex-officio member of the city's Library Board (the monthly meetings were so exciting, let me tell you!) This incredible old library with its original creeking, wooden floors, must be the atmosphere that prepared me for my interest in vintage book repair and conservation that I just began studying in 2001 or 2002.

Very involved with music: voted Best all-around musician (I think there must have been a shortage of musicians in our little town!). I played a couple of instruments in the band during marching season and concert season. We competed at state level and our wind symphony got a 1. I was in music theory and music appreciation all year, as well. Learning to play the bassoon really is one of my favorite accomplishments! I was able to carry it into my college years, until I got too busy there to keep it up.

Vocally, I gained a lot of confidence in our music group by my senior year and did a couple of solos, but the most fun we had was traveling and competing as a group and singing at Silver Dollar City in Branson and World's of Fun in Kansas City! Our group's versatility was amazing to me. That same year, we also competed at state level sight-reading, singing girls trios and a Capella madrigals. Woo and also hoo! We got a lot of 1's, I remember.

I was also a Thespian...or is it "once a Thespian, always a Thespian?" Whatever the case, I have long since lost my official card. So while I might still be an official member, I am not the card-carrying kind. Heh heh. Offers of recruitment to our church drama team were just made to me in the last week...does that count?? I must still be official, somewhere. It is probably the one avenue I am pursuing the least of all I was doing then.

I loved writing and art history and music appreciation. I studied Psychology and Social Work with the goal of pursuing it in college.

I "lettered" in many of the above things (except maybe the library board membership, LOL). That was important to some of us, since sports were so important at our school, and other venues (in which I was more involved ;) competed with that high school status hierarchy scale, or so it seemed. It turned out to be a VERY good year, anyway.

And now I return along with other friends and school mates, to see how well we have all aged :-0.

'Tis funny that I am still heavily involved with Spanish, though teaching now, not just learning (which always happens, since I'm not with native speakers every day like I was back in high school).
I still love music and am co-teaching the Junior High performance Ensemble class, of which our youngest son is a big part (Hey, he also loves improv!)

My most recent CD purchase reflects two of my then and now interests: Gloria Estefan's "Noventa Millas," and album of 'música Cubana tradicional.'

We are regulars to the symphony and all my kids play several stringed instruments, along with their father who also builds stringed instruments. He has a "luthiers" club that meets once a week, where he is now teaching some of his friends and Real Chile Men (t) the craft. The man writes me poetry and music. Does it get much better than that, I ask you??

As for old library books: I now restore and conserve them!

I still love writing, so I blog when I am able. Still appreciate Art History but have added photography to my list of joys, with two official Art gallery showings under my belt; one in Yucatan, Mexico, and one here closer to home. I did pursue Psychology in college but burned out on it 3.5 years into it. I DO use it *and* counseling, now that we have three (almost four) teens (and their plethora of friends). The Lord wastes nothing. The more common way to say this is: The Lord is sovereign.

See, I still love the things I used to love, and the Lord blessed me to bring me full circle and make those things a big part of my adult life. I had a decent long and simple singing career which I've partially set aside for now, since our teens are beginning to do a similar thing with their (I should say "God's") own Folksy - Indie twist to it! I just love watching them.

The one thing I do much better as an adult than I ever did in school is reading and book clubs. I was not a reader in school by most standards b/c of various reading issues from early childhood.
I could put up with non-fiction somewhat, but that is pretty much it. Finding C. S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer in college, then reading all these years (more than 15) of Home schooling helped me make up for that weakness and the loss of time not having read the classics, historical fiction or biographies.

But I'll close my story here. I do look forward to seeing old friends. I hope many of them return. I'll have my camera ready.

Our 7-ish hour road trip should be an adventure. There are some neat historic things to see in this town to show the family, not to mention the three houses in which my family lived while we were there from my fifth to my twelfth grade years. There is a lot to pack into a very short weekend.

Pray for safe travels for all, and I'll see some of you next week!

Boomer Sooner!

And

Go, Cowboys!

Javamom