In Summer Spanish classes today, we talked about past times in Spanish. The students all created books and index cards of pictures of the things the like to do. Everything from mirar la tele (watch TV) to dar un paseo (take a walk) was offered up in the form of line drawings.
I had the older students draw two matching pictures on their index cards. They repeated the phrases in Spanish as they drew. We then played Memory with the cards. And the students could only keep their match if they knew the phrase in Spanish. Finally, we created a booklet of me gusta y no me gusta (I like and I don't like) and read each page to the class aloud, agreeing or not on each topic (all in Spanish)
For the second class, the 4 to 8 year olds, we used the index cards from the older class and glued them in and colored them as we spoke about the things we like and didn't like. We didn't get time to play memory with the cards, but this class thoroughly enjoyed their books, and I asked who liked and didn't like different topics - jugar juegos (playing games), leer libros (reading books), tomar una siesta (taking naps) - and they had to open their books to the page as they said me gusta or no me gusta.
I wish I had worked in the memory game, as that would have been one more time to say the phrases and touch the pictures without having to read. We also acted out the list, as we always do, and I sent home a word search as the activity for the week. One boy was very interested in how to say "drawing" - (dibujar) and the class got quite excited about adding that word to our list as well.
Both classes were a lot of fun! Only two weeks of summer Spanish left, and then regular classes begin Sept 5! Where dies the time go! I still have to finish up Flip Flop Spanish for ages 6-9 - if there were only more hours in the day!
Sra. Gose
From Sra. Gose, a weekly private lesson Spanish teacher, and author of Flip Flop Spanish Workbook you can go along for the ride as I post my class journals - what happens in classes, Spanish teaching tips, and just fun anecdotes about homeschooling and teaching Spanish to children. My classes don't have restrictive state guidelines, so the children simply get to learn what they need to know to communicate!
