Last week we used some of our key vocabulary to create our first class story. Yippee! With student input, it had some very interesting elements! ¿Pizza de chocolate con menta? In the process, students heard MANY repetitions of the structure quiere comer (s/he wants to eat) and should be well on their way to acquiring this and several other key vocabulary items. Here are some we practiced:
vive - s/he lives
en - in, on, at
por - along, through
grande - large, big
pequeño(a) - small, little
está - s/he is (when speaking of emotion, conditon, location)
estoy - I am (when speaking of emotion, conditon, location)
After the story was created, there was a homework assignment that required students to draw a scene from the story, as they understood it, and to write a simple caption using the language we've learned. I'm not interested in students making up a sentence in English and then translating it. Use what we know!
I wrote up our story, adding a few more details. We read and translated the story as a class. Thursday night students wrote out a translation of the story. Friday, students read/translated to a partner. The weekend homework assignment was to read/translate the story to an adult at home (looking at the Spanish, but translating to English), getting a signature and a comment from the adult.
Today, Monday, we added some new language.
Animal #4: el pájaro - bird
Dicho #4: ¿Cómo estás? (informal) ¿Cómo está usted? (formal) Both ask How are you?
We practiced a bit with a response to these questions. One very typical response is:
Estoy bien, gracias. ¿Y tú?(informal) or ¿Y usted?(formal) I am well, thanks. And you?
Another typical response is Muy bien, gracias. Followed by "and you" as noted above.
Remember, unlike popular English, in Spanish you can't get away with answering Good, rather than Well!
We added a few more actionable words to our vocabulary:
va - s/he goes, is going
vuela - s/he flies
canta - s/he sings
grita - s/he shouts, yells
Be sure to encourage your parents/guardians to attend Back-to-School Night this Thursday!!! I want to meet them! Have them arrive at 5:30 for the chili cook-off!
vive - s/he lives
en - in, on, at
por - along, through
grande - large, big
pequeño(a) - small, little
está - s/he is (when speaking of emotion, conditon, location)
estoy - I am (when speaking of emotion, conditon, location)
After the story was created, there was a homework assignment that required students to draw a scene from the story, as they understood it, and to write a simple caption using the language we've learned. I'm not interested in students making up a sentence in English and then translating it. Use what we know!
I wrote up our story, adding a few more details. We read and translated the story as a class. Thursday night students wrote out a translation of the story. Friday, students read/translated to a partner. The weekend homework assignment was to read/translate the story to an adult at home (looking at the Spanish, but translating to English), getting a signature and a comment from the adult.
Today, Monday, we added some new language.
Animal #4: el pájaro - bird
Dicho #4: ¿Cómo estás? (informal) ¿Cómo está usted? (formal) Both ask How are you?
We practiced a bit with a response to these questions. One very typical response is:
Estoy bien, gracias. ¿Y tú?(informal) or ¿Y usted?(formal) I am well, thanks. And you?
Another typical response is Muy bien, gracias. Followed by "and you" as noted above.
Remember, unlike popular English, in Spanish you can't get away with answering Good, rather than Well!
We added a few more actionable words to our vocabulary:
va - s/he goes, is going
vuela - s/he flies
canta - s/he sings
grita - s/he shouts, yells
Be sure to encourage your parents/guardians to attend Back-to-School Night this Thursday!!! I want to meet them! Have them arrive at 5:30 for the chili cook-off!