Breaking down stereotypes

This article examines why stereotypes can be so wrong and so damaging. 

http://zinnedproject.org/2012/05/rethinking-cinco-de-mayo/

“Students found that the typical large, overstuffed, high-calorie burrito, including the breakfast burrito, is a U.S. creation and the smaller meat and vegetable burritos are popular in northern Mexico.”

“…Mexico has a tremendous diversity of languages, dialects, culture, and politics, as well as rural and urban differences. She also pointed out that Mexican American culture has the same complexities.”

“ ‘I don’t know how to do the Mexican hat dance. No one in my family does the Mexican hat dance.'”

¡Feliz cinco de mayo!

A few fun facts from your friendly, neighborhood maestra!

Cinco de mayo is NOT Mexican Independence day! It commemorates the Battle of Puebla, in which the small Mexican army in Puebla defeated the well-armed French army on their march towards the capitol. 

Cinco de mayo is not an official Mexican holiday. This holiday is almost exclusively celebrated in the Puebla region, and it not widely recognized by the rest of the country. 

Cinco de mayo literally translates to “Fifth of May,” the day on which it is celebrated ;) In Spanish, months are not capitalized.

This holiday is a celebration of Mexican pride. Mexicans in Puebla and Mexican-Americans in the United States celebrate this day by showcasing Mexican heritage through traditional music, dances, clothing and food. 

Don’t just use this day as an excuse to eat some Taco Bell and wear a sombrero! Honor Mexican pride this day by finding  or making authentic Mexican food, talking with a Hispanic person about their culture, or maybe even taking a salsa dancing lesson!

¡Felices fiestas!

Kindergarten-2nd grade: La Primavera

In kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grades, we are talking about la primavera (Spring) and all that la primavera brings! Students are learning weather words and words associated with springtime. This week, they will be bringing home their own mini-libros(books) to share with you! Here are a couple examples of what they are working on!

The students are doing a great job reading these mini-libros! Ask your child to read and explain their books to you!

3rd and 4th grade: Weather!

Third and fourth grade finished up their chapter on “está cansada, está enferma and duerme” and are moving on to our chapter on weather. Spring is such a fun time to talk about weather, especially here in Colorado! Can you believe it’s April and we are having a snow day?

Here are some amazing cartoons the students drew to wrap up our last chapter. I even had several students perform these scenes in mini-skits which provided lots of laughs! I asked students to take home these drawings and tell the story to someone in their family! Hopefully you got as much enjoyment out of it as I did!

Our new procedure is telling the date and the weather in Spanish. Over the next couple weeks, your students will become masters at this skill!

5th and 6th Update: “Isabela captura un congo”

For 5th and 6th graders, we will be dedicating our 4th quarter to reading Isabela captura un congo. The story is completely in Spanish and it takes place in Costa Rica. We will be acting out scenes, discussing culture and comparing/contrasting our lives to the life of Isabela, along with many other fun activities! 

I also forgot to give credit to all my students for their hard work creating their own monsters! We used the vocabulary “soy” (I am) and “tengo” (I have) along with body part vocabulary and descriptive adjectives.

Here are a few examples: 

Have you been practicing?

Buenos días, mis amigos,

¿Han ustedes estado practicando el español durante las vacaciones? Have you been practicing your Spanish over break? I know some of my 5th and 6th graders were so intrigued by the Guapo videos that they just HAD to watch them over and over during break! ;) If you have no yet seen these videos, here is a taste:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34FxtEyRgIw

5th and 6th grade has been discovering the differences between 1st person (Soy guapo = I am handsome) and 3rd person (Es guapo = He is handsome) Can you hear the differences in the video?

3rd and 4th grade just finished a chapter on emotions. We acted out some fun stories! The best one was about a sleeping teacher: “La maestra está muyyyy cansada. La maestra está muy cansada y duerme. Duerme mucho. La clase come jelly beans y pizza con mucho queso y ice cream y popcorn. La class come mucho y la maestra duerme. Ahora, la clase baila. La clase come y la clase baila. ¡OH NO! Señor Nolan entra la clase. Señor Nolan no está contento. Señor Nolan está cansado y duerme. La clase baila.” Ask your student to read this to you and tell you what happened!

Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade is learning the emotion words está cansado, está enfermo, duerme. We  have been acting out mini stories and play games to learn these words!

Here is a little picture I found that will give us the motivation to get back to school on martes!

 

¡Hasta pronto!

Señorita T

Para mis estudiantes jóvenes…

For my young students… Here are some games to play to practice the vocabulary we have already used! http://www.gpbkids.org/salsa/ It is great practice for my older students, too!

¡Una gracias grande!

¡Quiero dar una gracias grande a dos estudiantes! ¡Me regalaron estos dibujos y me encantan mucho! I want to give a big thank you to two students! They gave me these drawings and I love them! 

¡Gracias, chicas!

¡La Hora de Aventura!

Mi sala nueva

¡Aquí está mi sala de clases nueva! ¿Les gusta mi sala nueva?

Here is my new classroom! Do you like my new room?

 

 

 

 

¿Estás aburrido?

¡Feliz día de nieve! Happy Snow Day!!

Si estás aburrido, aquí están algunos juegos divertidos para practicar el español. If you are bored, here are some fun games to practice Spanish! 

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Spanish.htm

¡Disfruten de su día de nieve!