Mission conjugation: NOT impossible!

We all dislike them but we all admit that, at some point in the process of acquisition, we have to see if students are using a particular tense correctly.

There are many ways to present students the idea of conjugation drills. I often try to tap into their competitive spirit, and therefore include many games into our daily "warm up" activities.

At the beginning stages of a chapter, students are still trying to commit the new vocab and new conjugations to memory. In an effort to put them on the spot and perhaps encourage them to study a bit more every night, I introduced my conjugation scrabble.

There are few rules to this game and therefore set up is easy and playing it is even easier!

In the TL, I share some of the key phrases that they will use in their game: "Palabras con amigos". This is my classroom version of the popular app "Words with friends". At some point in their lives they have actually played the original scrabble, done a crossword, or even used the app themselves. Therefore the details on how to actually play the game go smoothly.

Phrases like "my turn", "how do you spell", "who is the subject", "that is not correct" are all phrases that they must incorporate in their interactions while playing the game. The ultimate goal is for them to have some basic conversation while practicing their new conjugations.

The game went well! Students got into it! When time ran out (I set a timer to prevent it from going too long and therefore having students stop using the TL) students had to take their notes out and revise their spellings. The student who had the most words was the winner. Any spelling mistakes counted the verb as wrong. Winners enjoyed a small treat!

The next day we had a different activity and everyone seemed to have gone home and reviewed. So, in my eyes, Mission conjugation:Accomplished.

Los monstruos!

Hola everyone,

Halloween is around the corner and my current unit about clothing and reflexive verbs fits perfectly with a review of body parts as well.

This has been one of the most entertaining lessons we have had as a group and I hope their energy and enthusiasm continues as we wrap up the trimester. Never underestimate your teenage students! They LOVE "kid like" activities.

First students listened to a description I made about a particular creature that I had created. While listening, they were asked to draw the things they heard. After the listening part was over, we compared our end results. It was fun for them to see how differently each of them interpreted the same information! Let them tell you why it was different or why it was the same. If you sample one of the possible dialogues, you can break out into partners or small groups for a more intimate conversation.
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Now it was THEIR time to create! Each student had to come up with 10 original descriptions about their character. For the purpose of our lessons, they had to include reflexive verbs as well! There was lots of laughs and comparisons going on. Once the written portion was completed they had to create their visual representation.
**The sky was the limit for this part.  From digital, to hand drawn, to magazine clippings. All was fair game as long as it matched their description**

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Today, all the final products will be displayed around the room. I will have different students read different descriptions while the rest of them walk the room and have to select what illustration corresponds to what they hear. Since they are very competitive, I am sure a winner will emerge and some candy will be shared!

Happy Wednesday, and have a great Halloween week/weekend with your students.

Señora Botero-Moriarty.

**Check out these great illustrations, and be sure to follow me on facebook to see more updates to the blog**  Like me on Facebook

 

UPDATE!!
Since that original post, I have worked with smaller children who have also loved this type of activity.
Check out my store and see the younger learner version of this cool activity as well as some other cool activities related to the body theme.

⭐ Body parts - El cuerpo: Dibuja un monstruo
⭐ Body parts - El cuerpo "Yo tengo, ¿Quién tiene?"
⭐ Body parts - El cuerpo

Los verbos reflexivos y la rutina diaria

Tired of grading "boring" papers?
Trying to incorporate more technology into your daily routine? --pun intended =D
Look no further than storyboardthat.com!

Earlier this trimester I was introduced to this wonderful tool by some of my students. They were working on telling a story and were able to earn some extra credit by creating some illustrations. Since not many of us are Picasso, some used the help of this tool. Ever since, I have been using often.

It is a very user friendly app, and the free version is pretty awesome. I may be purchasing the teaching one next year since I will be implementing it more and more!

For the particular activity that I am sharing with you today, students were learning about reflexive verbs and daily routines. After creating a calendar and writing out their routine they took to the app to make their illustrations. When they presented it to the class, it was a lot more fun to hear their stories alongside their personalized renditions!

For a different level class learning the classroom vocabulary along with location words, I was able to use this tool to create my own custom made scenarios! I made a few and posted them around the room. Students were able to walk the classroom and jot down some different descriptions about the items they saw in each picture! Works wonders for vocab activities.

As you can see, the sky is the limit with this app!!!
Are you interested in trying it? I would love to hear how you used it in YOUR classroom!
Share your ideas in the comments and enjoy creating some incredible art!

Feliz martes,

Andrea

Emotions, descriptions and exit tickets

Exit tickets

After a long maternity leave and a wonderful summer, I am back at school and excited for a new school year at a new school! For a few months now I really wanted to try and incorporate exit tickets in my classroom so reviewing emotions, adjectives and gender and number agreement was the perfect way to use them.

My current level 2 students have had different instructors at level 1. Therefore I wanted to see how much review we needed to do in order to get us all on the same page with regards to the topics mentioned above.

Students were asked to answer the following questions:
1. ¿Cómo te llamas? What is your name
2. ¿Cómo eres? How are you? -- Describe yourself
3. ¿Cómo estás? How are you? -- How are you feeling

Three quick answers and LOTS of information easily gathered with this custom made "friends".  Now that the students have been introduced to this assessment tool, I know I will be using them more often.

**Also, after gathering the information I needed, these were displayed on the door for them to see other people´s answers and drawings!**

How do you use exit tickets?

Mi cara, by 3rd grade

In the 3rd grade students were learning the different parts of their face. We learned a song that will help us remember terms like face, eyes, nose, mouth and a class favorite: popcorn!

After students mastered the song and terms it was time to do a fun project. Inspired by the art of Picasso, students received a template of a face and different options to create unique faces. We worked on reviewing our colors, numbers and the parts of the face while creating our funny faces. Once finished, students presented their masterpieces to the classroom. We all had a fun time sharing how silly our faces looked.

Have your children sign the song to you or show you their funny face! We had a great time!!!!

**Recreate this activity by visiting patchimals.com**

6th grade Molas

In class, I enjoy linking different topics together. I aim to show my students that everything that we learn relates together and that you cannot simply forget a topic because the test is done!

In December, I introduced them to the Panamanian Molas. Molas are a textile art that is traditional of the Kunas, an indigenous group residing in Panama and Colombia. In their language, Mola means clothing or blouse. Their complete outfit includes the blouse and a skirt, a red or yellow scarf, a gold ring in their nose as well as earrings.

Molas are handmade and unique and are made creating different layers to the final product. We took this technique and started our project.

First students were asked to select an animal of their choice. They learned how to make carbon copies of the printed animals. They traced them and colored them. The second layer involved the background. Traditionally this involves some sort of symmetry and eclectic patterns. Each student traced and colored a background.

Once our inspiration was complete, the third layer asked students to incorporate the topic of verbs with their artwork. The idea was to find verbs that we could use in writting a biography about our animals. They produced wonderful stories and incredible art.

Below please find their final products. I am very proud of their hard work.

Minute to win it

This week my fifth graders were wrapping up the topic of numbers from 21-30. Numbers can be a dry topic, so I brought a couple games to help us practice and prepare for our upcoming quiz. 

Students divided themselves into groups. Then each group came up, wore the "fancy" glasses and competed against the clock to say aloud the numbers their teammates were wearing. It was great to see their competitive spirits and I was impressed by how prepared they were.

After round one, I overheard some students spelling the numbers other teams were using. I was so excited to see this, that I ditched my next game and we did a second round of our minute to win it. However, this time, students had to spell the numbers!!! What a fantastic performance.

Later, while speaking with their teacher, Ms. Bogner, I found out that the student's spelling list for the week included a lot of E I combination words. After finding this out, there was no doubt that practicing their Spanish numbers was also including the E I patter of their English spelling! I love when multiple subjects collide.

Take a look at how cute they all looked wearing the glasses