There is something about working with children that allows you to see beyond the Realm of the Ordinary on a daily basis. That ruler is a lightsaber. That mango and those markers are perfect for an indoor game of bowling. That table is a house (below), train (above), or bunkbeds (top and bottom).

That cardbox box is not merely a cardboard box, it is a–well, see The Adventures of a Cardboard Box for ideas (have a tissue on hand for the end). I can’t compete with this one!

More to the point, educators search for creative ideas to increase student engagement in the subject matter, to get out of a rut, to stay motivated and passionate about teaching, and even to diffuse heated arguments amongst first graders. For example, this week two students were discussing shouting back and forth about one of the plastic fruits in my room. “It’s a cantaloupe!” “No! It’s a kiwi!” “No, it’s a cantaloupe!” and so on.

They bustled over to me as six-year-old boys sometimes do, both clearly agitated. “What is this, maestra?” I was being consulted as the deciding factor, the Omniscient Adult. Oh, boy. Someone was not going to be happy with my answer. “It’s a cantaloupe. Kiwis are much smaller.” One of the boys bolted across the room in response, collapsed to the ground, and began sobbing hysterically. I looked at the other boy: “But what else could it be?” He thought for a moment. “I know!! HEY [so-and-so]!! It’s THE LARGEST KIWI IN THE WORLD!” The other boy liftted his head and started to giggle. I even started to giggle. “That’s brilliant!” Imagination had saved the day, once again.

You might be wondering now where this blog post is headed, and question my use of English in the Spanish classroom. The thing is, everything is a teachable moment–but not everything we teach is our subject matter. Character, kindness, grit–all of these things matter. Maybe our students won’t be fluent Spanish speakers as adults (*sad face*), but the skills they learned along the way in our classrooms will stick with them in different ways.

That said, I also try to use these moments as fruit for storytelling. If The Largest Kiwi in the World becomes A Thing in general conversation–if it is trending among six-year-olds–then let’s create a class story around it.

Accordingly, and as this kiwi incident just occurred, I am thinking that we might need to include it in our current story. Do I remember how the following story began? No. Honestly, not at all. Do students love it and does it have potential? A big YES! So let’s get down to the more interesting part of this post, The Plot.

NOTE: While I love TPRS, my first graders are not literate enough for this to be practical quite yet. Instead, I sort of combine PQA (Personalized Questions and Answers) with repetition and the AIM methodology of gesture-storytelling.

What does that mean? It simply means that each day, we add a new sentence to our class story, but we always tell it (with gestures for each word and phrase) from the very beginning. If there are interruptions, we have to start all over again. Some days, I tell a short anecdote from my travels to ingrain new vocabulary, such as the time when I was on a train in Spain, and overheard a man’s conversation that [I kid you not] lasted twenty full minutes and consisted of only one word, “Vale/ okay” [“BAH-lay”] inflected in myriad ways. Okay? Okay. Okay! OKAY!!!

TO BE CONTINUED…

I know, I know. This is a photo of La Torre del Oro in Spain, while in the story, the Evil Onion escapes to Argentina/ the North Pole. Maybe this is where the LARGEST KIWI IN THE WORLD comes in. ???

On second thought, perhaps the slippers dance all the way to Spain!

Yesterday, I subbed for Library class, but got the times mixed up–and consequently, first graders were only able to hear the beginning of a story after checking out books. As I am a huge proponent of reading, I felt it my duty to take some class time today to finish the story, especially as it is pertinent to the Spanish curriculum.

We read The Story of Ferdinand, which takes place in Spain. It is about a very sweet bull/toro named Ferdinand who loves to smell the flowers in the field and has no interest in bullfights. However, the ONE day a group of men come to choose the fiercest bull among the group, Ferdinand sits on a bee, which stings him and, naturally, because of the pain, he goes into a rage.

If you do not know the story, here is a link to a read aloud. I read the book to one class, but there was a boy in the other class who had practically memorized the book (at home), so he read it to us, which was lovely!

Because children are only in first grade and it is a controversial topic, they were only exposed to the following information:

• bulls are very large animals;
• they run in the streets to the bullfighting arena;
• the police set up two layers of VERY heavy duty, wooden fences to keep observers safe;
• this takes place in Spain.**

**NOTE: I explained that there is a festival for this each July in Spain (Sanfermines) and there are a lot of people around; but that real people–and bulls–can be badly injured or killed was not mentioned. Students were more invested in pretending to be toros/bulls, anyway.

That said, if you would like to continue this discussion at home, please feel free to watch Ferdinand the movie, or check out THIS PAGE for more information. Tomorrow we will watch this one-minute video (below) about the Paso Doble dance together.

With the aforementioned information, students transformed the Spanish Cave into the streets of Pamplona and a bullfighting ring arena. I also showed the class a picture of the fancy outfit the matador wears, and they took turns pretending to be bulls and shouting, “¡Olé!” (“oh-LAY”), which has a neat history if you like learning about words like me. And yes, I’m going to share the etymology with you. Just because!

“[…] There existed an ancient tradition among many Moors to have great celebrations that included dancing. When a dancer performed at the highest levels of grace and intensity, for that moment, they were believed to be vessels through which Allah was acting, and the moment allowed the witnesses to see a glimpse of Allah’s power through the artist.

So, it was customary for the Moors of Northern Africa centuries ago to exclaim Allah! when a dancer was performing in such an inspired and moving way.”

Source

Spanish and Arabic have a rich linguistic history, so “Allah!” naturally morphed to ¡Olé!” but…

“Somewhere along the course of its long history in Spain, the word Olé lost its connection to Allah, and became a common Spanish exclamation for any situation where human physicality inspires people to cheer, whether it’s a fútbol match, a bullfight, or a Flamenco performance.

In Flamenco, which shares perhaps the most intimate connection to the word’s origin, Olé is not reserved for marking transcendent moments (though it can), it’s really meant to give the dancer energy and encouragement.

No three letter word could capture as much Spanish history as Olé.”

Source

I didn’t go into the history of ¡Olé! with first graders, but thought you might find it interesting nevertheless. Anyway, it was an exciting day!

The Bug.

PART II: Students also heard a quick anedcote about one of our new vocabulary words, confundido(a)/ confused, which is #AbsolutelyTrue and happened yesterday.

In second grade, I was talking with students when all of a sudden, my Google slides started switching and changing, even though I was a good distance away from the touch screen board. Tabs started popping up, as if someone was controlling it remotely.

This was obviously frightening to an educator with young students in the room–what is happening?! what is going to pop up on the screen?–but suddenly someone said, “Look! There’s a bug!” The bug had landed on the board and by ‘hopping around’, was activating the touch screen. The bug even opened up a new tab and played a song from YouTube. Oh my goodness! It was hilarious!

I was very confundida/confused initially, but thankfully, it all worked out and had a good ending.

So anyway, bullfighting and bugs. That’s what you get today!

During the month of December, students in first grade have focused their attention on Spain, or España. While this is part of the first grade curriculum, I decided to introduce the unit before Christmas because Party the Partridge rehearsals resulted in a few double [combined] first grade Spanish classes, and a focused project seemed the best route to take.

Anyway, as with most of my lessons, I give students a little information the first day, and then just keep adding more details each subsequent lesson. Initially, students learned that La Alhambra is a fort/palace in Spain that was built a LONG time ago. It is a beautiful fortress, with hand-painted tiles inside and stunning architecture on the outside.

First graders had the option of building the Alhambra (out of cardboard and blankets, based on a model); or coloring in different outlines and perspectives of the fort and surrounding gardens, or the tiles inside. Several builders found printouts of the Spanish flag and pasted them on the cardboard walls–which was great, considering that 1) I didn’t know I had the printouts (they were mixed in with other coloring sheets); and 2) they [correctly] deduced it as relevant iconography!

The next layer was to talk a bit about the Arabic language, and compare and contrast it with Spanish and English. Spanish and Arabic have a rich linguistic history, primarily due to the fact that Arabs ruled the Iberian peninsula for around 700-800 years. Even today, Moorish culture is strongly present in Southern Spain.

Students were introduced to the Arabic script, learning that Spanish and Arabic share some 8,000 words. Wow! Some even practiced copying the foreign symbols [alphabet] as part of the “writing” center (escribir/to write), while others handed out tickets to visit La Alhambra and/or drive tourists there on the class trains.

Today, I received confirmation that the cultural piece had settled into students’ vernacular, when I overheard two boys arguing. The subject of their argument? “No, you can’t live in a condo INSIDE the Alhambra! That’s not allowed!” #TrueStory

During our last class before break this afternoon, several first graders also took turns with a plastic fishing pole, trying to “fish” in the gardens surrounding the Alhambra. If my memory serves me correctly, I don’t recall anyone actually fishing there when I visited (haha!), but we combine play and reality in Spanish class; and, honestly, who wouldn’t want to go fishing with a plastic fishing pole, loads of tape, and plastic food in a fake pool? I mean, seriously. Unless, of course, you just want to watch from your condo in–that is, across the street from–La Alhambra. Ahem.

In other news, most students can also name and identify on a map at least five Spanish-speaking countries in South America at this point (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia).

And last but not least, if you would like to get a better feel for Southern Spain, you are welcome to check out my narrative prose piece/essay on the topic HERE. Thank you so much for reading and have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and Happy Holidays!! See you in 2022!!!

In class this afternoon, first graders came to Spanish and happened to notice that my classroom was–almost literally–coated in glitter: from the carpet to the tables, to even the teacher’s chin [I learned that after class], specks of gold fairy dust were everywhere.

BACKGROUND: If you have a child in kindergarten, you already know why–but a quick recap is that Pato had to escape from an erupting volcano, and used a boat, treasure map, and telescope to make his way to an island, which had a treasure chest full of gold there (convenient how these things work out in Stuffed Animal World, right?!).

Anyway, first graders collected tiny rocks, squished them around in glue, and coated them with gold glitter (the same activity as kindergarten), but LEVELED UP!! and alongside a much more culturally-based lesson.

Here, students learned that while the Camino (500-mile hike) is located in Spain, today we would be traveling to Peru, another Spanish-speaking country. We used Google Maps to locate Peru with respect to Spain, Mexico, our state, and more. In Peru, there is a place called Rainbow Mountain, or Vinicunca, that has a unique composition–14 different, colorful minerals–which make the mountain range appear like the inside of a jawbreaker.

A day or so away from Rainbow Mountain in Peru is [arguably] the highest city in the world, or La Rinconada, at a whopping 3 miles high! We did a little math, and that would be a student who measures 4 feet, standing on top of 4,183 of his/her own clones, going straight up. REALLY HIGH! This location is of interest because the town was built on top of a–you guessed it–GOLD MINE! First graders watched a 43-second video of how gold is mined, and then (as described above) created their own little pieces of gold to bring home. It was an exciting start to the week!

September of 2020

My Dearest Pato:

You are very sweet to write. Your penmanship, however, seems to have regressed. Then again, I am not as fluent in Duck as in years past; it is likely this was a factor in my overall comprehension. But yes, I am doing well and greatly enjoying my new adventures. Thank you for asking. The candy heart drawing was beautifully done.

I was pleased to hear that you eventually made it to Stain Spain. But what a trip! The colorful Popsicle stick boats first graders made sank; the paper airplane was not quite robust enough to support a stuffed animal of your generous proportions; and the miniature zip-line inside the classroom lacked, well, length. Thankfully, you had the foresight to bring the latter outside and (whoosh!), landed north of Madrid. I won’t harp on the time you wasted jumping into a pool (agua/water) before your trip–we both know that you know better–but I understand the temptation, given the recent high heat index and humidity.

And, yes! Imagine your surprise upon learning that first graders had painted you a house. You must have been delighted when [one class] shouted, “¡Sorpresa!” (surprise!). I knew that they had consulted the world renowned Duck Designs, Inc. to match your particular tastes and preferred color schemes. Naturally, then, the house was covered in beautiful splashes of color, but it was also a PHOTO you saw, which would explain the bump on your head as a result of trying to enter the 2D image. For future reference, you must venture outside to move into the actual house (casa).

But look, I get it. You want to go away for the weekend and catch a quick flight south to that famous palace/fort. The house can wait. The paint is barely dry, anyway, and you deserve a vacation. The life of a stuffed animal can be trying at times. There are so many things to deal with: getting dizzy going ’round and ’round in the machines at the laundromat (surely a traumatic ordeal); receiving numerous air-hugs (abrazos/hugs) from students simultaneously (does that hurt?); and dealing with transportation mishaps (boat sank; airplane crashed; zipline wasn’t initially long enough).

I still think you’re loco (crazy) for not wanting to rest up, but you are permitted to go at your own pace. That is what the Camino teaches us: one step at a time. Be well, stay out of trouble, and keep me posted on your adventures.

Much love,

-Señorita

Newsletter 20-21, Sept.

This week, following introductions, students in first grade named as many words that they could think of in the target language (e.g., red/rojo, blue/azul, green/verde, uno-dos-tres, dog/perro, etc.), and then listened to their get-up-and-dance CLASS SONG. Not long after, they transitioned into an immersive Spanish classroom environment, and realized that they could understand and intuit a lot simply by watching. You see, when their teacher snaps, she magically begins speaking Spanish. If she snaps again, she turns back into an English-speaker. Very strange. Magic is everywhere.

“AH-HEM!” [A loud, shrill voice from the corner pipes up.]

“Yes, I know. I’m sorry, Pato. I know I should have introduced you first, but–“

“NO EXCUSES!” The voice is coming from a stuffed animal duck. His name is Pato (which conveniently means duck in Spanish). He was grumpy, but there was no need for disrespect. “I do not like your tone, young man duck!”

As you may have already heard, Pato is quite the character. He has a big heart but frequently interrupts (we’re working on that) and is always getting into some sort of harmless mischief. He claims to know how to speak Spanish, but bops back and forth between English and Spanish so quickly that there might as well be a ping-pong game going on in his head. He also forgets where he is; arrives late to first grade on a regular basis (after Señorita–and sometimes on a red-eye flight from Brazil); wears sock pajamas to school; and takes a nap/siesta in the middle of class (which is what happened today).

Either Pato has no idea what’s going on, or he lives in his own world, or maybe he knows what’s going on and is intentionally doing the opposite of what he ought to, most of the time. I’m guessing the latter is probably closest to the truth, but with him you never know.

“GRIFFFSNSHFKDJSFIBDSTH“. The normally shrill voice was muffled behind his mask.” “¿Qué? (“K”)/ WHAT?” He took off the mask.

“I SAID, I’m taking a nap/siesta because we’re in Spain. Don’t you know? The restaurants are all closed, so I’m going to sleep.” [proceeds to snore obnoxiously to make his point]

Aha, now I was beginning to understand. First graders did make a banner of colorful, glittery shells, as scallop shells are used to mark the 500-mile hike across northern Spain that Lower School has been talking about this week. (This trek will correspond with the Weekly Spanish Challenges.) And Señorita did use an abanico/ fan from Spain to cool him down when he was wearing his iconic yellow knit sweater and Christmas scarf (Come on, Pato! It’s summer in the south! TOO HOT! This led to a conversation about ice-cream/helado, which was ironic, considering that I ate A LOT of ice cream while actually hiking the Camino de Santiago.) And she was speaking in Spanish. Maybe we were in Spain. Or maybe we should go?

We decided that his reasoning was valid. There was just one problem. “Where did you say that you think we are, Pato?”

“Stain.” [Ventriloquism requires that certain consonants be slightly mispronounced, so as not to move the lips. P’s become t’s, m’s become n’s–you get the idea.]

“You mean Spain.”

“That’s what I said.”

“No, you said ‘Stain’.”

“I DID NOT!” The high pitched, going-to-throw-a-temper-tantrum pronto voice had returned. This was not something I wanted first graders to witness on the third day of class. Why couldn’t he just behave?

“Let’s try it in Spanish: España.”

“ES-TAHN-YAH.”

“Never mind. Let’s just go there instead.” And so we did.

After a quick flight–arms outstretched in airplane mode (there’s a pun in there somewhere)–first graders spent the remaining 5-10 minutes of class outside, placing tiny [real] shells in the mulch patches of the courtyard, marking the Camino de Santiago trail and creating our own little Spanish paradise.

And as for Pato, well, he found a large piece of bark and has decided that his mission in life is to build a boat and actually sail to Stain Spain.

To be continued…

PATO: “Senorita, why can’t you just write normal newsletters?”

ME: “I honestly have no idea…”

VIRTUAL LEARNERS are encouraged to check out the video and photos at THIS LINK, and to create their own “Camino” at home. The arrows and shells are oftentimes made out of things in nature as well. Students may color or paint the shell template below; outline an arrow using some rocks or palms; collect shells at the beach; or simply draw your own arrow and shell signs and hang them up around your house. Make sure they are all pointed in the same direction, so that you don’t get lost. Feel free to send pictures, if you like!

For language input, virtual learners may also 1) participate in the Weekly Spanish Challenges and/or watch a movie or cartoon in the target language (Spanish voiceover and English subtitles). Just get used to hearing a lot of Spanish!

*ONE FINAL NOTE: To clarify, the bulk of classes have been in the target language, but I wasn’t sure how many of you would keep reading if I sent the original transcript. I do switch to English periodically, but mostly to communicate more abstract, cultural points where visual cues don’t do the trick.

Newsletter 20-21: