festivales

Students arrived and competed the attached matching activity. They matched things from their to do list with activities. We went over this activity as a class.

The plan for class today was to review for our upcoming exam next Friday. Students had 3 minutes to look at their notes. Students were divided into teams of 2, and were given attached worksheet about festivals. Students had to write the main element about the festival and the city and town where the festival takes place. Ej. La Tomatina/elemento importante = tomates/Buñol, España. Students switched their worksheet with another group to score.

For part two of our review, students received a small white board and answered questions I proposed, getting one point for each correct answer. We started with verdadero/falso questions below:

• La Tomatina es un festival que se celebra en España.
• El festival en Viña del mar, Chile es un festival de películas.
• El festival de Cosquín es un festival de Chile.
• La corrida de toros se llama El Festival de San Silvestre.

Tarea: students are to keep reviewing information that will be on test next week, including:

• information about festivals (see attached sheet)
• information about Lucha Libre
• verb meaning and conjugation (hay, ser, estar, tener)

1. ser = to be permanent (soy, eres, es, somos, son)
2. estar = to be temporary (estoy, estás, está, estamos, están)
3. tener = to have (tengo, tienes, tiene, tenemos, tienen)

* numbers

Hi high beginner Spanish class!

I apologize that lesson plans weren't posted the two weeks before holiday break since I was in South America. Students had a substitute from Colombia and continued to learn about cultural aspects of the Spanish speaking world including information about Colombia and festivals celebrated throughout the region. I am now officially back on track in terms of posting lessons.

In class today, students answered the following question:

Escribe 2 cosas interesantes de las clases con Karina.
I asked students to share one interesting thing they learned.

We talked about typical elements of a letter:
* fecha (date)
* querido/querida (dear)
* sinceramente (sincerely)

Students wrote a letter to Karina (the substitute while I was gone before break) thanking her and sharing what they learned. Phrases used:

• Gracias por... (venir/enseñar)
• Me gustó...
• Aprendí..
• Fue interesante...
• Mi festival favorito es...

We are going to review what students learned about festivals and have a quick test next week. The test will include information about our culture unit and verbs:

• lucha libre
• festivales
• verbs and conjugations (ser/estar/hay/tener)

We spent the remainder of class starting our review as I asked questions about the above items.

Tarea: study information about festivals, lucha libre, ser/estar/hay/tener

As warm up activity, students wrote what they remembered about the dance styles they learned about last week.

¿Qué recuerdas de...?

La salsa

El tango

Ballet folklórico

Flamenco

After the warm up activity, students watched parts of four videos and had to identify which dance they saw.

Presentaciones

Students had 10 minutes to finish preparing and practicing their presentation. They started their presentation by writing 5 words on the board from their presentation that other students may not know. Before presenting their festivals, we talked about the importance of speaking clearly, loudly and using eye contact in presentations.

While students presented, other students took notes and I asked questions after each presentation. La Tomatina presented first followed by El Encierro. We ran out of time for the last presentation: Carnaval en Cadiz, so the final group will present after break.

Tarea: Students received an article about La quinceañera that they need to read and then on the back (attached) they need to answer questions comparing and contrasting La quinceañera with either the American tradition of Sweet Sixteen or Bar and Bat Mitzvah.

Sorry parents! I've gotten behind on posting lesson plans.

As the warm-up activity, students were to read over corrections I had made to their previous homework texts (comparing cultures and describing a festival in the Spanish-speaking world).

Students were given the attached handout to take notes while other groups presented about dance styles from the Spanish-speaking world. Groups who studied flamenco, tango, and ballet folklórico presented.

We talked as a group about what makes a good presentation:
* visuals
* clear information
* being interactive
* eye contact and not just reading from a sheet

I mentioned that student presentations are improving, but could continue to improve. Students should start their presentations writing up to 5 vocabulary words on the board that might be new to other students. Students should keep their presentations and clear as possible using vocabulary they already know and only looking up a few words if necessary. Students were divided into their festival groups and were given the rest of the class to divide up responsibilities to present on Tuesday. They will have a few minutes at the beginning of class to practice the presentation and then will present to the class.

Students received a map of Spain and had to label surrounding countries (España, Francia, Marruecos, Portugal).

First group presented on the style of dance they were assigned. Other groups will present on Thursday.

We listed several festivals celebrated in the Spanish-speaking world, including: Carnaval, Día de los muertos and Semana Santa. I introduced a few more: La Tomatina and El Encierro (running of the bulls). Students were divided into groups and were assigned a festival celebrated in Spain: Carnaval en Cadiz, El Encierro, o La Tomatina. Students were given an article about their festival, but could do some additional research. Each student was given a large poster on which to create a visual promotion of their festival.

Tarea: students need to be ready to present their dance on Thursday.