I’ve just found this lovely clip on BBC Learning Zone yesterday. Funny and good for daily routine in Spanish. There are also Not now Farley episodes for weather, pets, food and clothes. And they’re also available in French and Mandarin!

Yes, it’s another Barcelona post but nothing to do with football – promise!

Last week when I was in Barcelona on a Comenius Regio visit, my colleague Jane and I hared around numerous sites in the city, collecting resources.

One place we visited was the Zoo de Barcelona. Are all zoos the same, we wondered? Well, no! Whilst there were plenty of animals in common, this was nothing like Twycross (our local zoo) You could get very close to the animals (a little too close we felt in some cases – aren’t hippos and rhinos rather dangerous animals to be kept in enclosures with 2 foot high walls) and the information was in three languages – Catalan, Castillian (Spanish) and English. Hence I pootled around happily snapping signs to the amusement of anyone who saw me, ready for comparison of languages activities, guessing games and reading activities.

I also took plenty of animals pictures to fit into our creative learning journeys – Are you my Mummy?  The Circle of Life. Big teeth. A walk on the wildside. The Blue Planet. And more.  It’s amazing how many links you can come up with when faced with a near empty zoo and armed with a camera and a creative thinking colleague to ‘bounce’ off. We tried to get some footage/ images for Down Under but the kangaroos were uncooperative, lying on their backs in the sun and  refusing to hop.

Anyhow, I’ve been thinking about these ideas and will be collecting the many pictures into folders and writing up some ideas for colleagues as well as giving them the opportunity to think for themselves given the footage and photos. And I had a look at the website to see what I could find.

Like the Zoo, it is tri-lingual and I LOVE IT! At last I’ve found a site in Spanish to rival the French Zoo Palmyre

There’s an interactive map that allows you to click on an animal silhouette and discover photos and information about that animal – scientific classification, habitat, how endangered it is and also a lovely chunk of writing about the animal too. And it’s all available in the three languages – great for Spanish teaching but also good so that the non-specialist who wants to use the Spanish version has a ‘safety net’ ;o)

Then there’s the Espacio Lúdico or recreational area where there are some fun games. One involves solving clues to find out to which animal the pawprints belong. Simple sentences that can be decoded with minimum help and a bit of previous knowledge of animals perhaps! And so easy to use in non discrete language lessons – which had be jumping up and down excitedly!

Other sections caught my attention such as the zoo rules, the history of the zoo and even the map of how to get there and the price list. Some people say I have a one track mind and never switch off from learning mode – I guess I do! And it doesn’t bother me much to be honest! If only there were enough hours in the day to explore all the ideas that come to mind in a place like that!

As we work on our ideas at school, I’ll try to share as many as I can here.

I’ll leave you with Copito de Nieve (Floquet / Snowflake), for many, the (sadly deceased) face of Barcelona Zoo. A powerful image and thought.

So, Barcelona won! And in style.

httpv://youtu.be/c-xWxzyeHxA

Abidal, after starting treatment for a liver tumour only 10 weeks ago, raised the Champions League cup following goals by Pedro, Messi and Villa (and Rooney I guess!)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3u2WPJDpns

And Gerard Pique went home with a rather original souvenir, apparently following a tradition set by the Barcelona basketball team!

httpv://youtu.be/ciiQV-EB2i8

Who will lift the trophy?

It won’t be me tonight…

It's heavy!

Hopefully it’ll be whoever is standing in for Carles Puyol as he’s injured.

I want to see them throw Pep Guardiola in the air and make him cry again! (I’m rather fond of Pep..)

Thanks to @nstone for this!

Here's how they line up for the Champions league final!

This one’s for Isaac who, despite supporting Manchester United this evening,will be very pleased if Lionel Messi scores!

httpv://youtu.be/jsEvROzXiK4

And here’s me at Camp Nou with Messi

This year’s cartoon from FCBarcelona in celebration of the Champions League final.

httpv://youtu.be/1ldukbGTnXY

And the 2009 one – which I love!

httpv://youtu.be/KLNem3icvY0

I’m getting rather excited now!

So cue a number of posts that indulge my excitement and might get you in the mood for what I hope to be a great game of football!

httpv://youtu.be/kvn2RaSnVos

I’ve never made  secret of my love of football, nor my love of Spain.  And I think most people who read my blog also know that Barcelona is very very dear to my heart, as a city and also as a team.

I haven’t been blogging here over the last week but I have been posting on my school website where you can catch a flavour of some of my exploits on our (final) Comenius Regio project.

One of the highlights of the visit was a trip and tour of the Camp Nou – I caused great amusement with my squealing, jumping, flapping and at times tears!

So I am VERY VERY excited about tomorrow and the Champions League final. It is so true that FCBarcelona is ‘més que un club’ – it’s a huge part of people’s life and the club is so much more than a football team.

In preparation, here’s the Himne de Barça – the children in Y5 at Els Pins sang it for us whilst we were there – everyone of them! This is the karaoke version so you can join in.

httpv://youtu.be/8b8cGhxhAsY

Want the words in English? See below!

Catalan

English

GrowStoryGrow, a story-telling website for learning languages, is holding a story writing competition.

Open to children aged 9-11, the winner will have their story translated into different languages, animated and publish

ed online with their name and school. The story can be written in any language so taking part will benefit general literacy as well as language learning.

The deadline is 30th June 2011 and the winner will be announced on 11th July.

The winning entry will be showcased at the London Language Show.