Spanish 1 - Lesson 2: Los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud

At the beginning of the school year, I asked Spanish 1 students which sports/activities they enjoyed.  We then learned about Usman Garuba, a promising young athlete from Madrid.

Although our primary cultural focus is Spain, I decided to reinforce sports/activity vocabulary by talking about Los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud (The South American Youth Games), in which young athletes from South America compete against each other every four years.  I profiled several athletes from the 2017 games:

Note: Preview links before clicking on them to make sure they are working properly and still lead to the correct photos.  Follow links at your own risk.

Nathalie Key Matsubara Osawa
Les presento a Nathalie.  Tiene dieciséis años.  Es de Chile.

Nathalie nada.  Practica mucho.  Tiene mucho talento.  Nathalie es muy rápida.  En el 2017, representó a Chile en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

Jhomar Aimar Garibaldi Bryant
Les presento a Jhomar.  Tiene dieciséis años.  Es de Panamá.

Jhomar juega al baloncesto.  Practica mucho.  Tiene mucho talento.  En el 2017, Jhomar representó a Panamá en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

Yoel Augustín Vargas
Les presento a Yoel.  Tiene diecisiete años.  Es de Argentina.

Yoel practica ciclismo.  Practica mucho.  Tiene mucho talento.  Yoel es muy rápido.  En el 2017, Yoel representó a Argentina en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

Yoel ganó la medalla de oro.

Stefany Paola López Mendoza
Les presento a Stefany.  Tiene quince años.  Es de Colombia.

Stefany corre.  Es muy rápida.  Tiene mucho talento.  En el 2017, Stefany representó a Colombia en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

Stefany ganó la medalla de oro.

Alan Benítez
Les presento a Alan.  Tiene dieciocho años.  Es de Paraguay.

Alan juega al tenis.  Practica mucho.  Tiene mucho talento.  En el 2017, Alan representó a Paraguay en los Juegos Sudamericanos de la Juventud.

I copied and pasted a photo of each athlete into a Word document, then wrote a description of the athlete under each photo.  I printed this out and gave it to my students as an in-class reading.  I am not sharing this reading handout because I am not certain of the copyright restrictions on the photos, but you can make your own by following the links to each athlete's photo, copying and pasting the photos into a Word document, and copying and pasting the above descriptions.  

This is a great video to play as students are entering the classroom.  Most of the voiceover will not be comprehensible for beginning Spanish students, so I turn the sound on the video off and play it with trailer music in the background:

Trailer music:

4th Grade: Lesson 1 - ¿Dónde está España?

This year, both kindergarten and fourth grade students are learning about Spain.  In this post, I describe the first culture lesson I teach to fourth grade students.

Lesson 1: ¿Dónde está España?
I play the following video as students are entering the classroom.  It's a great introduction to some of the most iconic elements of Spanish culture:

At the end of the video, I tell my students that we are going to spend the entire school year studying Spain.  I write ¿Dónde está España? on the board.  I then open Google Maps and we do the following:

• We find our school on Google Maps.
• We zoom out on the map to see our city.
• We zoom out again to see our state.
• We zoom out again to see our country.
• I slowly move the map so we can see both our country and Spain.  

I ask my students to name the capital of Spain.  Most of my students previously studied Spain in kindergarten, so they know that the capital is Madrid.  We then use Google Maps to calculate the distance between our city and Madrid.

After this, we take a Google Streetview tour of Madrid.  Note: Preview Google Streetview before showing it to your students to make sure all of the images are appropriate for your students.  This includes the Streetview images linked from this blog, as images can change.  I usually show my students 3-4 iconic places in Madrid, such as:

La Gran Vía

La Plaza Mayor

El Palacio de Comunicaciones

After a quick brain break, I show my students a presentation about Spain.  (You can find the presentation in the linked folder on my Google Drive.)  I then give students a worksheet to review what we have learned.  I also give them a map of Europe with instructions to find Spain, color it in, and label it.  If they have extra time when they finish, they can do the following: 1) Color and label Portugal.  2) Color and label France.  3) Put a circle around the Iberian Peninsula.  4) Color the oceans around Europe blue.

We add the worksheet and the map of Europe to our Spain portfolio, which students take home at the end of the school year.

Lesson 1 - Presentation, Worksheet, and Map of Europe

Download files at your own risk.

Starting the School Year: Kindergarten

This year, my kindergarten and fourth grade students are learning about Spain.  In kindergarten, students receive a basic introduction to the country, while in fourth grade, we delve deeper into its history, culture, and traditions.

Kindergarten:
Kindergarten students are currently learning colors, family members, and the adjectives grande, mediano, and pequeño.  (We are leading up to the story of the Three Bears.)  This is perfect for teaching about flags.  I begin this lesson by sitting in a circle with my students on the rug.  I show them an American flag and a Spanish flag.

I hold up the American flag, point to each part, and ask what color it is.  We learn that the American flag has three colors: red, white, and blue.  I call on students to touch different colors on the flag.  (Touch the color red.  Touch the color blue.  Touch the color white.)  We look at some pictures of the American flag, like a photo of our school with the flag waving outside, and we identify the colors of the flag again: red, white, and blue.

Then I hold up the Spanish flag, point to each part, and ask what color it is.  Note: The official colors of the Spanish flag are el rojo and el gualda, but in kindergarten, I use el rojo and el amarillo because amarillo is a much higher-frequency word than gualda.

After going over the colors, I review grande, mediana, and pequeña with flags of different sizes.  First I hold up flags of two different sizes and having students point to the size I say.  Then I call on students to touch flags of different sizes.  (Heidi, touch the large flag of Spain.  Jamal, touch the small flag of the United States.)  After this, I hold up one flag at a time and ask my students which size it is: grande, mediana, or pequeña. (Credit to Janice Holter Kittock, who does a similar lesson with the Swedish flag.)

After this, I give students a coloring sheet with the Spanish flag.  There are two options for coloring the Spanish flag:
1) Give students a blank flag with just the stripes.  Students color the stripes red and yellow.  Give students the coat of arms on a different sheet of paper.  Students color the coat of arms, cut it out, and paste it on the flag.  (Credit to Gisela Schramm-Nagel, who does this with her students.)
2) Give students a flag with the stripes and the coat of arms.  Students color the flag.

Option 1 is perfect if you want to make the flag during class.  Option 2 is perfect if you want students to color the flag at home. 

Below is a link to a Google drive folder with three files: 1) a blank flag, 2) a coat of arms to glue onto the flag, and 3) a flag with a coat of arms. 

Spanish Flag Files
Download files at your own risk.