Mexico

-Students discussed the importance of music in our lives, and what kind of music they like.
-We listened to a popular type of music heard in Mexico, called Mariachi.
-We discussed the different instruments found in Mariachi bands, and learned the name of two important ones: la vihuela (small guitar) and el guitarron (large guitar).
-Students listened to a mariachi song called “El Rey” and talked about whether they thought it was happy or sad.
-In partners, students worked on translating the lyrics to the song to see what it was really about.
-Students have no homework.

-I did not make it to class today as I was stuck in traffic.
-Nikki gave the students sentences to translate from English to Spanish.
-Students should have a copy of the reading on “Comida Mexicana”. Homework is to read over this sheet. We will discuss it in class on Friday (see attachment).

Students defined following words we learned last week in our taste test:
* delicioso
* rico
* bueno
* salado
* dulce
* líquido
* hojaldrado
* duro
* blando
* espeso
* interesante

We talked about the characteristics of Mexican food (which they had researched for homework). Introduced concept of aguas frescas, drinks typically made in Mexico featuring fresh fruits and vegetables, sometimes (often) sweetened with honey or sugar. Students were split into new groups and had a recipe and ingredients to make a different type of agua fresca. Students cleaned up and tasted their drinks.

Tarea: invent recipe for a salsa. Students chose what type of salsa they are going to make. One group chose tomato, another pineapple, mango, and peach. Using their key ingredient, students need to write out a list of ingredients for their recipe and the steps to make it. We are going to be making salsas next week.

Students defined following cooking verbs:
¿Qué quiere decir?

1.Cocinar ________________
2.mezclar ________________
3.calentar ________________
4.añadir ________________
5.hornear ________________
6.abrir ǂ cerrar ________________
7.tapar ________________
8.batir ________________
9.poner ________________
10.prender ǂ apagar ________________

In groups, students read the attached text about Latin American Cuisine and answered questions on second page. Anything they didn't finish in the given time is homework.

Most recipes are written using commands (cook over low heat, put in the oven, add flour). I presented conjugation for usted commands in Spanish:
Step 1: conjugate the infinitive verb to yo conjugation
Step 2: drop the o ending
Step 3: add -e for ar verbs or -a for er/ir verbs

ej. cocine, mezcle, añada, ponga

Tarea: students need to rewrite their two final recipes (medialunas and dulce de leche) in their own words using the verbs above. They will need to simplify their recipe as much as possible so that everyone in class understands the steps.

Students completed attached do now activity reviewing some of the information we've learned about Mexico.

Students completed attached worksheet about the Day of the Dead, answering Verdadero/Falso statements and matching up vocabulary words with pictures of important things related to the Day of the Dead.

Played Lotería game as a big group.

Tarea: Research city Cuzco and write 5 sentences in Spanish about it. For example, Cuzco es grande (o pequeño). Tiene muchos museos. Use verbs es (is) y tiene (it has).