COMMUNITY GREETINGS ARE PART OF ALMOST EVERY CLASS, providing an opportunity for us to interact with one another, building feelings of welcome & belonging. Coming up with new greeting activities, and/or twists on old ones keeps them fresh & appeals to the novelty factor many kiddos crave. Here's my newest one-a fun combination of greeting & freeze dance. THIS GREETING HAS TWO PARTS, THE GREETING ITSELF AND THE MUSIC COMPONENT. The greeting is comprised of a FIST BUMP, FIREWORKS (that's what I call it ;) ), and the VERBAL GREETING (Hola, Bonjour, Ni hao, etc).  NOTE: be s ..read more

CENTERS THAT FOSTER PRE AND EARLY LITERACY SKILLS are a focus for my classes, with many different ways for this manifest. One set of activities I include are 'word of the week' or 'word of the day' activities, which typically involve one or more words that kids re-create in some fashion, either with magnetic letters, gems, beans, popsicle sticks, to name a few. After reading this blog post on Kindergarten centers, I am working to adopt her system with some tweaks to better fit my elementary Spanish classes.  TO THAT END, I AM IN THE PROCESS OF CREATING KITS which kids can take to a seat ..read more

GREAT BOOKS JUST KEEP ON COMING! This year was no exception, with what almost feels like an explosion of graphic novels, which my kiddos clamor for! Great picture books too-check them all out! And don't miss our printable list for sharing-click here. PICTURE BOOKS Three, yes three!, books came out about plátanos, and they are all wonderful-bringing together family, tradition and yummy plátanos! I am also thrilled about how they feature Abuelas as an integral part of a child's life-I spent a lot of time when I was a kid with both of my grandmothers so this definitely strikes a chord with m ..read more

INSPIRED BY PEQUETEACHER (LINK BELOW), I was able to adapt this game, GRAB IT! for my classes with hands on three dimensional (in most cases) items. Besides being a great review game for all sorts of vocabulary, it also has the advantage of being what I call a 'workhorse activity' meaning you can play it again and again with new vocabulary and old, across themes and grade levels.  Here's the set up and play: TO SET UP: *First I decide on my categories and create slides accordingly. For example, for each round, I am going to give a prompt like 'grab something green' or 'grab a fruit ..read more

INSPIRED BY OUR MUSIC TEACHER, I'VE BEEN TRYING INSTRUMENTS CENTERS with my elementary Spanish classes and they have been a hit! AS CAN BE IMAGINED, KIDS LOVE TO PLAY THE INSTRUMENTS, which provides an authentic experience with a PRODUCT, and coupled with a song, also provides a PERSPECTIVE as kids can see the song in video format on an Ipad, being therefore able to see the people and/or scenery that makes up the video.  CREATING AN INSTRUMENTS CENTER: -CHOOSE A SONG: This can either be a song they are familiar with and can sing along to OR a song that lends itself to keeping the bea ..read more

EASIER LESSON PLANNING? YES, PLEASE! Every teacher faces the challenge of time-planning & prepping lessons can be a real time suck, for sure. As I've moved away from whole group for much of class time, utilizing centers/ stations and/or activity boards/baskets has been extremely helpful BUT can be time consuming as well, especially on the front end of having everything ready for the rotation/ selection.  TO MAKE THIS EASIER, I co-opt the meal planning hack of having RECURRING TYPES of activities in the rotation- think Taco Tuesdays, you always know you are going to have tacos on Tu ..read more

OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS I have moved away from whole group instruction as my primary approach in my elementary Spanish classes, incorporating more centers and small group activities. This has been prompted by noting whole group and circle time has become increasingly difficult for kiddos to sustain and be successful in. Prior to the pandemic, I had moved away from circle entirely for third and fourth grade, having them sit in small groups at tables; primary grades started at circle for the beginning of class, then often went to tables/small groups for centers. I have written extensively in ..read more

ISABEL AND HER COLORES GO TO SCHOOL by Alexandra Alessandri and illustrated by Courtney Dawson is a beautiful book focusing on first day jitters for a little girl who speaks little English. While the title, and various points in text, highlight colors, it is the addressing of themes such as belonging, friendship, and being different/unique, that make this a wonderful entry point to conversations with kids about first days, identity markers such as language and bilingualism, and emotions.  Click here to download READING THIS BOOK INTERACTIVELY, meaning asking questions & pro ..read more

ANIMAL PROPS, like food props, are a fun, hands on way to bring imaginative play, content based learning, and more to world language classes. Not only that, but printable props allow us, as teachers, to inexpensively make multiples of beloved animals and those that are not so familiar to kids! Here are some ideas to use my printable animal props in class: Click here to grab our Animals of the Caribbean! *SORTING/CATEGORIZING: One of the easiest ways to use animal props, and gives you multiple lessons!, is to have kids sort them-they can be sorted by color, size, how they move, where ..read more

I HAVE LONG BEEN A RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM TEACHER, an approach which proactively seeks to build community and positive learning environments for kids. A key tenet of this approach is the language we use when reminding and redirecting, with the goal of choosing language that fosters independence, reflection, and responsibility. Over the years, I've found that, along with these, there is a need to evolve our language to ensure it is based in an understanding of specific neurodiverse perspectives, such as autism and ADHD. Here are some ways I have been re-framing my teaching language: *One of the ..read more