Patricia va a California

Please watch the trailer ANB, LC, and AB made for the book, Patricia va a California. 

Champurrado

Sixth graders learned how to make champurrado, a chocolate-based Mexican drink similar to hot chocolate. It is a popular drink served during Las Posadas and typically served alongside tamales or churros. They were in charge of finding their own recipes, dividing up the tasks and cooking the champurrado.

Día de los Muertos

Sixth graders enjoyed learning about the traditional Mexican holiday, Día de los Muertos. They researched the meaning behind this holiday as well as investigated more about the traditions and uses of the calaveras and calacas. They also explored the drawings of José Guadalupe Posada, especially his most famous drawing of La Catrina. After students presented their projects, we celebrated Día de los Muertos by eating pan de muertos andmole. 

El Pretérito

Sixth graders began studying one of the past tenses in Spanish this week, El Pretérito. Students wanted to come up with some catchy tunes in order to help them remember the different endings once the verb is conjugated. They split into two groups and came up with a jingle. Below are a some of the photos.

Pobre Ana

Sixth grade student started reading a short novel in Spanish called, Pobre Ana, by Blaine Ray. It's a great first reader about a girl from California who has an opportunity to study abroad in a small town in Mexico. There she stays with a nice family, meets new friends, compares her life with theirs, and her view of her life begins to change. Having the experience in Mexico helps her see that her life in California really isn't that bad. Students are really engaged in reading, sharing and discussing this novel in Spanish. They are learning new words and phrases in Spanish too. Below is a glimpse of some of the words they've learned so far.

Los Deportes

Sixth grade students were interested in learning about their favorite sports in Spanish. To begin, students were given four sports categories (winter, water, outdoor and indoor). In groups, they listed as many sports they could think of in English for their category. Once they generated their list, they found the words for the sport in Spanish. Students shared the list with their peers and explained some of the rules of their sport. This lead students wanting to choose a favorite sport or game and teach it to the class in Spanish. Students divided themselves into four groups, wrote the rules of their sport in Spanish, and practiced how they would teach it to their peers. Sixth graders were clear in their explanations. If they noticed there was some confusion, they resorted to actions rather than using English. We enjoyed learning how to play tag (encantados), volleyball (voleibol), golf, and baseball (béisbol). 

Marketing a Hispanohablantes

Marketing a Hispanohablantes - Sexto Grado
Recently, in CPR (Circle of Power and Respect) sixth grade students were focusing their attention on Media Literacy and the different tools of persuasion used in all types of advertising. I had the opportunity to join in on their conversations which lead to larger conversations and questions about marketing to Spanish-speakers in the United States. What do Spanish-speakers like? How do Spanish commercials differ than ones in English? What type of consumer is a Spanish-speaker? Where do they live? What products do they prefer?

We began watching commercials in Spanish and looking at different types of print ads. While looking at these advertisements, students learned the 3 grades of adjectives (positivo, comparativo y superlativo). The 3 grades of adjectives eventually would help students create their projects.
After learning about the adjectives, we began to explore the 4 Ps in Marketing (product, price, placement and promotion). All four of these are essential when introducing a product to the market. We talked about how important it is to provide information and engage your target audience in just 30 seconds.

Students decided to create commercials and/or print ads incorporating the 3 grades of adjectives, information about marketing to Spanish-speakers and the 4Ps. Each group created a product for their target audience (elementary school-aged children) while keeping them in mind during their planning process. In addition, students shared these commercials with their Guatemalan friends at CAS.
Sixth graders enjoyed this study as they were able to explore different avenues of marketing and incorporate Spanish grammar too.

Sixth graders enjoyed this study as they were able to explore different avenues of marketing and incorporate Spanish grammar, and have fun too!

To view some of the students' commercials and print ads, click here. 

Skype con Guatemala

This semester sixth graders have the opportunity to Skype with a school in Guatemala. Colegio Americano del Sur (CAS) is located in Santa Lucía in Guatemala. We are fortunate for our relationship with this school as it allows students to experience another culture, collaborate on projects, and practice their Spanish-speaking skills.

Today, students from both schools introduced themselves by saying their names, their ages and their favorite things. NMY students spoke in Spanish, while CAS students spoke in English. We will be meeting every other week. Our plan is to collaborate on a gardening project.

Presente Progresivo

Sixth graders learned about the present progressive (presente progresivo) tense in Spanish this week. In Spanish, it is used to express what someone is doing at the current moment. It is paired with the verb, estar (to be), which students recently learned. In order to comprehend the tense and its uses we did several activities. One of their tasks was to find an article, song or TV commercial where the presente progresivo is used. Several sources students used were: Univision, Telemundo, El Clarín and Moral. In addition, to finding real world examples of the presente progresivo, students played several rounds of charades while others guessed what they were doing at the current moment. Some examples of the charades were: empacado una maleta, haciendo la cama, comiendo sopa, actuando en un teatro. Next, students will explore reflexive verbs.

¿Ser o Estar?

Sixth grade students learned how to differentiate between the two verbs ser and estar. Both verbs mean, "to be." . Students were familiar with the present tense conjugations of the verbs, but not their uses. To practice the uses of the verbs, students wrote sentences while describing images. They were careful in selecting which verbs to use when describing different aspects of the images. Some of the questions they answered were, ¿dónde está?, ¿qué están haciendo?, ¿Cómo es?, ¿De dónde son?. These questions opened up the possibilities for them to be creative in their writing as well as using each verb correctly.

Below are some of the ways students learned to differentiate the verbs and their uses:

Ser                                                           Estar

physical description                               feelings
nationality                                             emotions
gender                                                   physical conditions
profession                                             location
possession                                             present progressive tense (-ing)
dates, times, events

Students also enjoyed this rap video explaining the difference between the two verbs.

Los Mapas

Sixth grade students were learning prepositions (giving and receiving directions) in Spanish and we decided to learn where the buildings of the school were located. We took a walk around the campus and drew maps of the school in our notebooks. We then labeled the buildings and the students decided to create maps of the school, but in Spanish. Students created maps from Google Earth, 3D maps and large scaled maps all representing their school. When students presented their projects, they told the location of some buildings using the prepositions they learned earlier. 

Tamales

Sixth grade students had an amazing opportunity of making homemade tamales. Making tamales is a holiday tradition in Mexico and other Central American countries. It is a time when families gather together and make the masa, salsa de chile, and use hojas de maíz y hojas de plátano.  It's a family event where everyone has a task, joins the assembly line and makes tamales. The best part is enjoying the yummy tamales after a long day of hard work.

Thanks to Vicky, Ana Cristina and Ana Rosa for their help and guidance in making the tamales!