---

Some days, we educators plan our lessons down to the minute. We have an excellent grasp of students’ abilities and how much content can reasonably be covered in a single class period. We have researched our subject, know it backwards and forwards, can predict potential tangents and plans gone awry, jump out of bed with excitement for the day…

And yet somehow, it still falls apart. A first grader loses a wiggly tooth in class and everyone gets excited and starts shrieking. I am interrupted 47 times in a row and can’t remember what our lesson is about. There is a fire drill. An unexpected and sudden thunderstorm causes waterfall tears amongst my most sensitive students. Note that this invariably falls on the first day of the workweek. Oh, Monday, you capricious fool! What is a teacher to do with you?

However, these days fall to the wayside–gently sliding off the cliff of Memories We’d Rather Forget–when a Bright Star appears in the night sky, aligning itself with the Constellation of Awesomeness, and makes everything okay again. In fact, better than okay! What was the magic ingredient? The spice that had the chef exclaiming, “¡Magnífico!”? Let’s find out.

---

For starters, I have always had the freedom to create my own curriculum. This has had a bag of mixed results: creativity abounds in my classroom, but in years’ past, there wasn’t always a thread holding everything together, and I wanted to fix that.

My classes meet somewhat irregularly–not every day–and when you start canceling them due to holidays or scheduling conflicts, well, there has to be something that connects everything and ties up the metaphorical gift called Spanish Class with a nice, neat bow. Or else, it feels random, too pixelated. What could hold it together?

Enter Storytelling, with a capital “S”.

---

IT BEGAN ONE SUNNY AFTERNOON, when a second grade boy started telling me all about a rhinoceros beetle. He was so enthusiastic, the passion just oozed out of him. He lit up when he talked about this, well, bug. I had wanted to make a connection with the student so that he would be more engaged in class, and here was my chance. Over time, this tiny character morphed into the hero of a Spanish class saga.

Read the English version below first to get a general idea of the plot–because it gets loco fast–and then check out the commentary farther down for lesson ideas. You can find the Spanish version of this story at the bottom of this post.

---

BOB THE BEETLE (English Version)

CHAPTER 1: There is a bug. His name is Bob the Beetle. The bug lives in a forest in Spain. His house is bigger than five red cars. Bob the Beetle has a [yellow] pickup truck. He doesn’t have a car; he has a pickup truck. He likes to eat chocolate. He says, “I don’t like chocolate. I LOVE chocolate.”

One night, there is a storm. Bob the Beetle is scared, very scared. Bob the Beetle runs and hides. He waits and waits and waits. Poor little guy! He says, “I’m cold. What can I do?” But class, Bob the Beetle doesn’t have his jacket. What a problem! The monster Fluphball has his jacket. In fact, the monster has a collection of jackets.

Bob the Beetle sees the monster in the darkness. The monster has his jacket. Bob says, “It’s not fair! I want my jacket!” Bob the Beetle sings, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking, I’m thinking–and now I know!” [this is from a cartoon] Bob says, “I have a plan”. Bob the Beetle runs. He runs very fast. But Fluphball yells, “I believe I can fly”. Fluphball uses the jacket to fly. Oh no!

Fluphball the monster flies higher and higher in the air, like a balloon. Bob sings, “Let it go, let it go!” and then he says, “Let it go, let it go, please, Fluphy, let it go!” [let the jacket go]

Fluphball flies to the planet Mars. Why? Because his family lives there. Fluphball sees his family and says, “I don’t care about this jacket.” Fluphball sends the entire collection to Bob the Beetle. Bob is happy, but he doesn’t need that many jackets. He sells the collection on Amazon.

CHAPTER 2 (NEW): Now Bob the Beetle says, “I’m rich.” Bob goes to the bank. He takes out a lot of money. Bob goes to the supermarket. He buys a lot of food. Bob says, “I want to buy a Volkswagen Beetle.” Bob buys a Volkswagen Beetle.

Class Story

---

Commentary

CHAPTER 1: There is a bug. His name is Bob the Beetle. The bug lives in a forest in Spain. His house is bigger than five red cars. Bob the Beetle has a [yellow] pickup truck. He doesn’t have a car; he has a pickup truck. He likes to eat chocolate. He says, “I don’t like chocolate. I LOVE chocolate.”

• We spent the first 3-5 minutes of class on this each day (or a new sentence or two each lesson), and incorporated whatever projects and vocabulary we happened to be working on. We started off very slowly. Where does Bob the Beetle live? (in Spain, obviously) What does his house look like? (It’s massive) What does he like to eat? (Chocolate, also obvious) Remember, this was 95% in the target language.
• For instance, when we decided that he didn’t just like chocolate, he LOVED it, I taught students a chocolate clapping rhyme and showed them a video about beautifully carved molinillos in Mexico.

---

One night, there is a storm. Bob the Beetle is scared, very scared. Bob the Beetle runs and hides. He waits and waits and waits. Poor little guy! He says, “I’m cold. What can I do?” But class, Bob the Beetle doesn’t have his jacket. What a problem! The monster Fluphball has his jacket. In fact, the monster has a collection of jackets.

• There actually was a huge storm one day, which was a great opportunity to talk about fears and make our own Popsicle stick Worry Dolls (Guatemala). My students also say, “Wait!” all the time in conversation, so it was a good high-frequency word to teach. Last but not least, you can get in counting with a good game of hide-and-seek here: listos o no, ¡aquí vengo yo! (ready or not, here I come!).

---

Bob the Beetle sees the monster in the darkness. The monster has his jacket. Bob says, “It’s not fair! I want my jacket!” Bob the Beetle sings, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking, I’m thinking–and now I know!”

Bob says, “I have a plan”. Bob the Beetle runs. He runs very fast. But Fluphball yells, “I believe I can fly”. Fluphball uses the jacket to fly. Oh no!

• When our protagonist had to think about something, I found a translation of the cartoon Pinky Dinky Doo, where a girl thinks and thinks and thinks, and her head literally gets bigger when she has to solve a problem.
• This all quickly escalated as suddenly, there was an enemy at large: The Monster Fluphball, who had STOLEN Bob’s jacket so that he could add it to his Jacket Collection. An innocent motive. #Hardly! The Monster Fluphball uses said jacket to fly. Somehow, we progressed from an orange fluffy monster to these flying videos:

• And without knowing how it began, I had second graders taking 3-second turns singing, “Sé que pue-do vo-lar” (I believe I can fly), running across the room, pretending to fly, and then epically throwing themselves on the carpet (#fail). This was a big hit. Clearly.

---

Fluphball the monster flies higher and higher in the air, like a balloon. Bob sings, “Let it go, let it go!” and then he says, “Let it go, let it go, please, Fluphy, let it go!” [in Spanish, the direct object has to change to a la instead of a lo for it to make sense here; so we sang it twice to account for that]

• At this point, Fluphball keeps flying high in the sky, so Bob says, “Let it go!” (Frozen reference), and I showed students various translation medleys of the famous song (Frozen- 25 Languages; also, Behind the Mic).
• I also blew up a red balloon so they would sing, “LET IT GO!!!” with me, and the first class said that the red balloon looked like Mars. This happened on a Tuesday, so I went to a #TeachableMoment and explained that martes means Tuesday in Spanish, but Marte is the planet Mars.

---

Fluphball flies to the planet Mars. Why? Because his family lives there. Fluphball sees his family and says, “I don’t care about this jacket.” Fluphball sends the entire collection to Bob the Beetle. Bob is happy, but he doesn’t need that many jackets. He sells the collection on Amazon.

• In class, students said that the jacket collection “gets sucked through a portal and goes directly to Bob’s door”, but I simplified the Spanish here. When Bob opens the door, a bunch of jackets fly in, and he doesn’t need all of them, so he sells the rest on Amazon and becomes very rich.

THE END OF CHAPTER ONE.

---

In Chapter Two, Bob gets a Volkswagen Beetle with all of his Amazon-jacket money; but we’re not there yet. So you’ll have to wait a while to find out what happens next. Spoiler alert: we will probably have to fit in something about a yellow submarine/ submarino amarillo, to the tune of The Beatles…

---

Man, you give second graders an inch and we wind up on Mars!

So what was the secret ingredient, after all that? Honestly, I think it was the Storytelling Thread that held the lessons together. We connected close to 90% of everything we did to this story, and it took off. The nice, neat bow gave my tangents and those crazy days where nothing went quite right… well, it gave it a purpose and focus, and the kids knew it.

Thanks, Bob.

---

BOB THE BEETLE (Spanish Version)

Hay un insecto. Se llama Bob the Beetle (el escarabajo). El insecto vive en un bosque en España. Su casa es más grande que cinco coches rojos. Bob the Beetle tiene una camioneta [amarilla]. No tiene un coche; tiene una camioneta. Le gusta comer chocolate. Dice, “No me gusta el chocolate. ¡ME ENCANTA el chocolate!” 

Una noche, hay una tormenta. Bob the Beetle tiene miedo, mucho miedo. Bob the Beetle (el escarabajo) corre y se esconde. Espera y espera y espera. ¡¡¡Pobrecito!!! Él dice, “Tengo frío. ¿Qué puedo hacer?” Pero clase, Bob el escarabajo no tiene su chaqueta. ¡Qué problema! El monstruo Fluphball tiene su chaqueta. De hecho, el monstruo tiene una colección de chaquetas.

Bob el escarabajo ve al monstruo en la oscuridad. El monstruo tiene su chaqueta. Bob dice, “¡No es justo! ¡Quiero mi chaqueta!” Bob el escarabajo canta: “Pienso, pienso, pienso, pienso– y ahora lo sé.” Bob dice, “Tengo un plan”. Bob el escarabajo corre. Corre muy rápido. Pero Fluphball grita, “Sé que puedo volar”. Fluphball usa la chaqueta para volar. Oh no!

Fluphball el monstruo vuela más y más alto en el aire, como un globo. Bob canta, “¡Suéltalo, suéltalo!” y luego dice, “¡Suéltala, suéltala, por fa-vor, Fluphy, suéltala!”

Fluphball vuela hasta el planeta Marte. ¿Por qué? Porque su familia vive ahí. Fluphball ve a su familia y dice, “No me importa esta chaqueta”. A Fluphball le manda toda la colección a Bob el escarabajo. Bob está feliz, pero no necesita tantas chaquetas. Vende la colección en Amazon.

CAPÍTULO 2: Ahora Bob the Beetle dice, “Soy rico”. Bob va al banco. Él saca mucho dinero. Bob va al supermercado. Él compra mucha comida. Bob dice, “Quiero comprar un Volkswagen Escarabajo”. Bob compra un Volkswagen Beetle.

Class Story