Inspired by the popular game and accommodating to our testing schedule, 6th grade reviewed some of our "old" topics like colors, vegetables and fruits.
We organized the class into 3 groups and they wore my new, awesome glasses!!!!
Our topic flashcards were distributed and the timer was set. Students then had to turn around and say the Spanish name for their teammates´ card. Once we did a couple of rounds of just vocabulary, we made the game harder: each student had to create statements with the vocabulary words they saw. The team who could get through all its players in the least amount of time won.
It was a lot of fun. It also helped students see where they needed to review more in order to be ready for the new school year.
Battleship
The first month of school can be very challenging due to the many scheduling conflicts testing brings. In order to accommodate any last minute plans, I decided to bring different games that would help students review our "old" material and get back to the swing of things.
In order to multitask, we played Battleship, o Armada in Spanish. This game required students to review their fruits, vegetables, colors, creating questions as well as descriptive sentence structure.
Students had 3 different "boats" to set up and learned the terms for "hit", "sunk", and "miss" to aid their game.
It was a lot of fun, and as usual, their competitive spirits came out. Lots of fun and now we were up to date and ready for new material to come our way!!!
One of the unique opportunities I have as a teacher started in 2013. The Peoria Chiefs had a few players who spoke very little English and they needed and English instructor. However, these young guys needed more than just a class, they needed someone who could connect with them in a personal level as well. As a baseball lover, a latina and a language enthusiast, i jumped at this opportunity and became their English instructor and have been with the team ever since. I have learned so much from all these young guys that have come through the St. Louis Cardinals system, and have become a Chiefs fan, even though my MLB heart belongs to the Dodgers. Below is a picture of the original group I had this summer. With baseball, players move up and down different teams, so each week poses different challenges and leaves you with wonderful memories. I also love the opportunity of merging groups of students. I had the Chiefs and some St. Joseph students gather for lunch and practice their English and Spanish skills. I also brought the Chiefs to Bradley University where they met with a colleague´s class and I was able to reunite with some former Bradley students! Ps: Baseball is more fun when you watch with friends!
Paper fortune tellers? Cootie catchers?
In Spanish, we call them Comecocos (coconut eaters), and 4th grade created their own in order to practice orally their interviewing skills. This project helped us put together various topics we had been working with for several months. It was a great review game as well as a great game to get us talking more in Spanish!
They asked each other questions like
1. ¿Cómo te llamas? (what is your name?)
2. ¿Cómo estás? (how are you?)
3. ¿Cuál es tu color favorito? (what is your favorite color?)
4. ¿Cuál es tu fruta favorita? (What is your favorite food?)
5. ¿Cuántos años tienes? (how old are you?)
DOWNLOAD MY COMECOCOS
HERE
In order to review the new fruits and vegetables vocabulary, 6th graders partnered up and created crossword puzzles. The goal of this activity was to sharpen our spelling skills, commit our new vocabulary to memory and get creative!The finished products were then copied and handed to other teams to see if they could complete them without the help of their binders.
Since the age of 7 I have been involved with musicals. I love to sing, I love to act, I love to dance! During college there were no opportunities, nor spare time, for me to be involved with any productions. Therefore, when I found out that St. Joseph did musicals I rushed to Mrs. Ferree! I HAD to be involved somehow! She was incredibly generous and offered me an assistant director spot. I was incredibly grateful and excited to see the students outside of the classroom. What an incredible time we had during rehearsals. Their performance was out of this world! So much talent. I cannot wait to be able to help again with the 2015 production.
My 7th and 8th grade students have been working on identifying the parts of a descriptive sentence. Spanish word order is a bit different than English and therefore lots of practice is needed. One of our practice activities was inspired by the game Boggle. While the original game only provides the players with letters, our version gave us different components to a sentence. During the time allowed, students had to come up with as many sentences as possible using those strips of papers. Following that, they had to work as a team and go over each person´s sentences and determine if they were correct (earns a point) or incorrect (no point). I enjoyed seeing how competitive they all were, and impressed by the descriptions produced.
