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Three Easter Themed Videos for Elementary Spanish Class Plus Tips to Use Them in Class

EASTER IS SUCH AN EXCITING TIME FOR LITTLE LEARNERS, as they look forward to Easter egg hunts and baskets full of chocolate. Here are three videos with an Easter theme you can use in class as a source of loads of question and answer directed activities, allowing for practice and reinforcement of previously learnt vocabulary, and an opportunity to add to their word banks, while at the same time keeping their attention span on language learning and practice, even during this exciting time of year:


PEPPA PIG IS, OF COURSE, a perennial favorite, as is PocoyĆ³. Both are cute, very illustrative in terms of action, and kids readily relate to the story. 



ZOU IS AN ADORABLE ZEBRA, from Disney I believe. The videos are not quite as concrete as Peppa Pig and PocoyĆ³, with greater reliance on the spoken word to tell the story, which can be challenging for some kids. However, if you have a fair number of heritage speakers in your classroom, this is a great choice! Zou y el conejo de Pascua

SINCE SOME OF THE SPANISH IS challenging for my students, especially my Kinders & 1sts, I do not have an expectation to watch these videos and have them understand everything. However, as I mentioned above, they are great to use as picture and prediction prompts in a Q & A format. I use a lot of YES/NO and EITHER/OR questions when incorporating videos, which serve as supports for my kiddos and allow us to stay in the target language. Other questions I use over and over again are ¿CuĆ”ntos? and ¿De quĆ© color es ___?- these two alone are enormous workhorses! How many eggs are there? Now how many are there? and now? and now? What color is that egg? What color is that egg? And what color is that egg? What color egg does PocoyĆ³ have? What color egg does Elly have?..... you get the drift! The repetition provides tons of practice, is very comprehensible, and also allows us to add in those "small but powerful" words like 'y', 'muy', 'un poquito', 'tambiĆ©n', etc, that are learned better in context rather than in a directed lesson.

Three Easter Videos for Spanish Class Elementary Spanish for Kids

IN THE EPISODE WITH PEPPA PIG, for example, you can start with what color the house is. Is the house big or small? Is is sunny or rainy? How many friends are there? Is it Grandpa or Grandma? Are they looking for cheese or eggs? Are the plants little or big? What color are the plants? and so on. I usually stop a video every 10 seconds or so, depending on the action, to ask questions and elicit responses. In order to head off the 'don't stop the video' comments, I have established the routine that, time permitting, we will watch the video a second time without me stopping. I can certainly understand why they want to watch all the way through without pause, so I try to provide that-and since we have already been talking about the video the first time through, they frequently call out words and phrases in Spanish as we are watching it a second time!

WHAT VIDEOS DO YOU LOVE to use in class? Share in the comments! :)

And don't miss our theme pack Olivia y los postres de Pascua, featuring Easter treats from Spain!

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMk0RMH8MFmOB_yJMuvVMH7xBx_qfLl8oqOQXbA

A Simple Tip for Explaining Traditional Foods in the Target Language (without translating!)

TRADITIONAL FOOD IS A GREAT WAY TO INCORPORATE CULTURE in our foreign language classrooms, but the more unfamiliar they are, the trickier they can be to explain without translating... well, actually not! Here's a SIMPLE TIP for explaining foods without resorting to using English in class (and therefore maintaining your 90% in the target language goal!):

How to Explain traditional foods in world language class without translating

WHAT YOU NEED:
*a photo(s) of the traditional food
*a map
*the main ingredients, either as photos or plastic food or a mix of both (or, the real ingredients!! even better!)

TO INTRODUCE THE FOOD, show a photo of the dish and name it. Then, point to your map to identify where it comes from (I love to have velcro on the back so we can stick pictures up on a large map!) and then show the main ingredients that make up the food. It's that SIMPLE!

A quick tip to talk about traditional foods in language class without translating

BY NAMING THE INGREDIENTS, you provide a mental impression of what the finished dish is comprised of, which, even for little kiddos, is usually enough for them to get the overall idea of the food without having to go into more detail. Remember, this tip is just for identifying a food! So, for example, if you are naming typical dishes of a variety of countries (or just talking about one country and identifying traditional dishes, this tip is perfect to allow you to stay in the target language :) )

FOR PHOTOS OF TRADITIONAL FOODS FROM SPANISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES, visit my Pinterest board 'Recetas del mundo hispanohablante' here! And be sure not to miss our Kak'ik Guatemala Turkey Soup Printable Props!


I'd love to hear what foods/dishes you talk about in class-share in the comments below! :)


https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipMk0RMH8MFmOB_yJMuvVMH7xBx_qfLl8oqOQXbA

March Madness with a Twist-How I Made Brackets with Animals for my Elementary Spanish Classes

HELLO MARCH and HELLO MARCH MADNESS! It is exciting to see teachers engaging in music brackets in their foreign language classes and to hear how much kids are enjoying them! A few years ago I tried it out, with great music suggestions from a Twitter colleague, but I just couldn't manage it in my 30 minute classes-clearly operator error! As this March came ever closer, I wracked my brain to find a way to participate that I could pull off..... and then I came across this really cool project out of Arizona State University (March Mammal Madness) and realized THIS I could do-especially since my Third Graders had done research on endangered animals in South America in December, so this became the perfect followup.

March Madness Brackets with Animals for FLES Spanish and French

I SIMPLIFIED THE BRACKETS FOR MY CLASSES since we only meet twice a week and have other theme activities to do... I chose 8 animals from South America, including the ones we had focused on back in December, and created the bracket. Since I have 4 third grade classes, each class will vote on each part of the bracket before an animal is advanced-this was a challenge for me last year-keeping four sets of votes on music as we progressed. Again, operator error I am sure! I've used white poster board for the brackets this year and as we vote, I put tally marks right on the brackets (oh, a little math, too!!! sneaky!)...I copied smaller pictures of each animal to place along the bracket as the vote moves forward. (The animals on the board this year are: el lobo de crin (aguarĆ” guazĆŗ), el guanaco, el puma, la guacamaya roja, el zorro chilote, el oso andino, el pingĆ¼ino de penacho, y el jaguar)

March Madness Animal Brackets for FLES Spanish and French

SINCE I KNOW MY STUDENTS will want to also make commentary about the animal they are voting on at any time, I also put up some phrases they can use in the course of the conversation, and as we really get into it I anticipate others will come up as well that I can add to the board. I am really excited, and so are my students- I will let you know how it goes...and which animal is the winner! UPDATE: el pingĆ¼ino de penacho was the runaway winner last year! I did find I had to stay on top of organizing the brackets, and keeping track of which classes had voted each time as it's hard for me to keep everything in my head-this helps too because you can't move on until all classes have voted! (I just kept a checklist next to the board :) )

Here is a video of me introducing the activity and our first round of votes:


Interested in doing something similar? I have a bunch of animal photos saved on my Pinterest board here. :)

2019 UPDATE: This activity was SOOOO successful last year, and actually led into my 3rd grade classes fundraising to adopt two animals through World Wildlife Fund, which they were so proud of! They begged me to do this again, to which of course I said ¡SĆ­!. This year the animals are:
la javelina, el oso perezoso, el flamenco, la cigĆ¼eƱa blanca, el lobo mexicano, el mono, la tortuga de GalĆ”pagos, y el armadillo. Little factoids are shared all through the voting, which is also a great way to add in some content. :)

2020 UPDATE: Continuing to build on the excitement and success of previous years, these are the animals I've chosen for this year (some are repeats of the first year); I chose them specifically for two reasons, 1) all of them can be symbolically adopted from World Wildlife Fund and 2) all but the monarch butterfly and jaguar are relatively unknown to students, so that the "investigation" portion of the lesson is filled with new content info for my students. (I have found that if they are very familiar with an animal, they rely on their previously learnt knowledge rather than using the fact pages & infographics in Spanish to glean info). The animals: la mariposa monarca, el ocelote, el zorro chilote, el aguarĆ” guazĆŗ, el capibara, el coatimundi, el pangolĆ­n, y el jaguar. Last year, my 4th graders made animal trading cards based on the facts they learned, including diet, description and where they live-they LOVED doing this, so of course we will be doing this again!

Interested in having your kids make animal trading cards but don't have the time to make them yourself? Grab ours here-they can be used for ANY LANGUAGE :)

Animal fact trading cards for world language class

And, for non fiction resources about animals & habitats in Spanish speaking countries, don't miss our printable MAGAZINES, Mira el Mundo and Mira el Mundo, Jr! Geared for elementary & middle school, they are also great for highschool FVR-find subscriptions & individual issues in our shop by clicking here.

Non fiction Magazine in Spanish for Kids


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