A day early I know but I figured it would be more useful to tell you about it BEFORE the day so that you might be able to use it ON the day…

Via Twitter, I discovered this lovely activity from OnlineFreeSpanish.com for making Valentine’s Day cards.

I particularly like this resource as it offers lots of choice! You can choose a border, an image and a bilingual message to suit your personality and the recipient. Not all the messages are ‘slushy, lovey-dovey’ ones so it’s quite safe to use with a group of children who might not be into romance. And you can also choose to have the image in colour or leave it black adn white to be coloured in. Additionally, you can choose to print the card as a poster (one loveheart icon), as a sheet of four (four lovehearts) or as a sheet that can be folded to form a proper card (heart on card icon) The only downside is that the inside of the card is only in English 🙁

More Spanish Valentine’s fun here  on Youtube from Babelzone/LCF with a little video and a new take on He loves me, he loves me not!

For more Valentine’s ideas (mostly in French) check out Jo Rhys-Jones’ post on Talkabout Primary MFL.

And why not get adventurous and follow the lead of @wizenedcrone aka Fiona Joyce who had her Y9 learners writing a simple collaborative poem. Following a simple structure

Te quiero como ………… quiere a …………

learners can use dictionaries to suggest nouns to fill the gaps. In the example from Fiona, my favourite line is

‘Te quiero como las abuelas quieren a los crucigramas’

My example –

Te quiero como el mono quiere al plátano.

Te quiero como el pato quiere al agua.

Te quiero como los profes quieren a las vacaciones.

Te quiero como la fresa quiere a la nata.

Or you could try it with this pattern

…………. son rojos

…………. es azul

Quiero a ……………

Como quiero a tí

substituting the dots with a plural noun, a singular noun and another noun that you like a lot.

My poem might be

Las cerezas son rojas

El cielo es azul

Quiero al chocolate 

Como quiero a ti

Just rediscovered a lovely website for stories in Spanish. La Biblioteca Infantil and La Biblioteca Pre-Escolar are great for native speakers and young learners alike with stories on a variety of themes complete with accompanying activities.

For example, La Pelota Dorada in La Biblioteca Infantil is a story based on a fairytale (won’t give away which one!) in which you can name the princess, the prince and also the hero which you choose from a duck, a beaver or a tortoise. The story has passages of text to read and sections of dialogue that appear in speech bubbles and are read to you.

Accompanying the story is an activity – in this case a ‘Find the difference’ – and also a list of books on a similar theme.

In La Biblioteca Pre-Escolar the stories are more simple and are all read aloud to the reader. In El canto del corral features a little girl who wants to sing but everyone is too busy until he goes into the farmyard. To accompnay the story there is an online activity – choosing musical instruments – and a craft activity as well as a list of books ona similar theme.

There aren’t a huge number of stories, however they are on a variety of themes that are suitable for integration into the primary curriculum, particularly in the  EYFS / PSHE areas.

The site also exists in English so good for comparing language, and also for the less confident Spanish speaker who wants to check out the meaning of the story!

Not sure how I got to this today – I think the cold in Konstanz has wiped my brain! However, I just had to share this lovely magazine in Spanish for small people, downloadable free from elnuevodia.com All you need is Acrobat Reader and the PDF downloads for you to read it.

The graphics are big, bright and bold, and the topics covered fit well with the primary curriculum – healthy eating, family, the world, animals, festivals and so on. Lots of puzzles and activities, and short pieces of writing make it ideal for using with young learners.

I like the current issue which celebrates the 13th birthday of Mi pequeño día, with lots of lists of 13 things including 13 great inventions, 13 places to visit in Puerto Rico (the country of origin of the magazine) and 13 ecological habits.

I also enjoyed the issue Somos más about the world population reaching 7000000000. It includes some nice activities about people of the world and someone talking about their life.

It seems that you can only access the last 10 issues so might be worth visiting periodically and downloading some for future reference…

I’m pleased to say that before I leave these shores, I will be speaking for one last time (for now!) on October 1st in London.  Details are below, including the programme and the application form to complete. Great value for money at £25!

Talleres de formación de la Consejería de Educación

Sábado 1 de octubre de 2011: talleres para profesores de primaria
Sábado 8 de octubre de 2011: talleres para profesorado de secundaria
Lugar: Colegio Español Vicente Cañada Blanch, 317 Portobello Road, London W105SZ
Los programas y hojas de inscripción están publicados en nuestra página WEB:
http://www.educacion.gob.es/reinounido/convocatorias-programas/formacion-profesorado.html
Plazo de inscripción: hasta el 26 de septiembre.
Coste de la inscripción, incluido almuerzo y materiales: 25 libras por persona
Os esperamos.

Spanish workshops

The Consejería de Educación are organizing their Spanish Workshops.
Saturday October 1st: Spanish workshops for Primary teachers
Saturday October 8th: Spanish workshops for Secondary teachers
Venue: Colegio Español Vicente Cañada Blanch, 317 Portobello road, London W105SZ
Programmes and application forms are available at: http://www.educacion.gob.es/reinounido/convocatorias-programas/formacion-profesorado.html
Registration will take place until September 26th
Cost: 25 pounds, including lunch and materials
We look forward to welcoming you

Application Form Primary

Primary Workshops

Application Form Secondary

Secondary Workshops

Thanks to Jen Turner for telling me about this fun site on which you can make a jigsaw puzzle of any image, specifiying the number and shape of pieces as well as difficulty.
To demonstrate, I’ve made a couple that could be used for Spanish cultural awareness.

20 Roscón de Reyes

30 Sardana

Zachary Jones’ site Zambombazo is a great source of inspiration for all things Hispanic.

And I love it because it proves time and again that there is always something to learn about a language you thought you knew quite well.

I’m often challenged by pupils when I can’t recall the word for ‘meerkat’ or ‘spark plug’ that ‘you’re supposed to know Spanish’ to which I reply I don’t know every word in English. Especially when it comes to colloquial useage. I mean, my son tells me that when he says soemthing is ‘sickage’, that’s great. I’m not so sure…

So, I particularly like this map that Zachary has made – ¿Cómo se dice ‘cool’ en español?

As he points out in his post, the answer to that question depends on lots of factors including the country or even region you’re in, your socioeconomic status as well as your age. The post also offers ideas on how you might use the map to increase vocabulary, to encourage intercultural discussion and to promote discussion of current linguistic useage.

Another of the poems suggested by Joaquín Moreno in his presentation about poetry in Spanish teaching and learning was Nanas de la cebolla by Miguel Hernández.

He played us the poem sung by Joan Manuel Serrat – here it is below, along with a perfomance of it in spoken form and also the words.

Spoken version

httpv://youtu.be/ktZEWJAoai0

Nanas de la cebolla

La cebolla es escarcha
cerrada y pobre:
escarcha de tus días
y de mis noches.
Hambre y cebolla:
hielo negro y escarcha
grande y redonda.

En la cuna del hambre
mi niño estaba.
Con sangre de cebolla
se amamantaba.
Pero tu sangre,
escarchada de azúcar,
cebolla y hambre.

Una mujer morena,
resuelta en luna,
se derrama hilo a hilo
sobre la cuna.
Ríete, niño,
que te tragas la luna
cuando es preciso.

Alondra de mi casa,
ríete mucho.
Es tu risa en los ojos
la luz del mundo.
Ríete tanto
que en el alma al oírte,
bata el espacio.

Tu risa me hace libre,
me pone alas.
Soledades me quita,
cárcel me arranca.
Boca que vuela,
corazón que en tus labios
relampaguea.

Es tu risa la espada
más victoriosa.
Vencedor de las flores
y las alondras.
Rival del sol.
Porvenir de mis huesos
y de mi amor.

La carne aleteante,
súbito el párpado,
el vivir como nunca
coloreado.
¡Cuánto jilguero
se remonta, aletea,
desde tu cuerpo!

Desperté de ser niño.
Nunca despiertes.
Triste llevo la boca.
Ríete siempre.
Siempre en la cuna,
defendiendo la risa
pluma por pluma.

Ser de vuelo tan alto,
tan extendido,
que tu carne parece
cielo cernido.
¡Si yo pudiera
remontarme al origen
de tu carrera!

Al octavo mes ríes
con cinco azahares.
Con cinco diminutas
ferocidades.
Con cinco dientes
como cinco jazmines
adolescentes.

Frontera de los besos
serán mañana,
cuando en la dentadura
sientas un arma.
Sientas un fuego
correr dientes abajo
buscando el centro.

Vuela niño en la doble
luna del pecho.
Él, triste de cebolla.
Tú, satisfecho.
No te derrumbes.
No sepas lo que pasa
ni lo que ocurre.

Ages ago I bought a book of little plays and poems by Gloria Fuertes, and have to admit that I haven’t looked at it much since I bought it. However, I was reminded of it on Thursday at the ALL NorthEast Spanish day in Gosforth when Joaquín Moreno was talking about using poetry in teaching Spanish.

He mentioned using a particular poem by Gloria Fuertes to read aloud and act out in order to practice getting English mouths around Spanish sounds – in this case, ‘rr’ is particularly practiced.

The suggestion was to chorally repeat the odd numbered, repeated  line “Doña Pito Piturra” and for volunteers to read the even, varied line, with feeling and an action to accompany it.

A very simple idea that I shall be using in my classroom soon!

Below is the poem, and also a video of the poem being recited plus two versions, as a song!

DOÑA PITO PITURRA

Doña Pito Piturra
Tiene unos guantes,
Doña Pito Piturra
Muy elegantes.

Doña Pito Piturra
Tiene un sombrero,
Doña Pito Piturra
Con un plumero.

Doña Pito Piturra
Tiene un zapato,
Doña Pito Piturra
Le viene ancho.

Doña Pito Piturra
Tiene toquillas,
Doña Pito Piturra
Con tres polillas.

Doña Pito Piturra
Tiene unos guantes,
Doña Pito Piturra
Le están muy grandes.

Doña Pito Piturra
Tiene unos guantes,
Doña Pito Piturra
¡lo he dicho antes!

Having posted my presentation on the QCA unit El Carnaval de los animales earlier today, it seemed rather appropriate that I should find a free resource that goes with the unit this evening!

I knew that the Consejería de Educacción had a wonderful poster to illustrate this unit, but until now didn’t know that they had a downloadable animation that features the same wonderful illustrations. With files that are compatible with Mac or PC, the animation presents the vocabulary if you press the musical notes, then asks you to drag the correct word to the correct picture. If you make a mistake, there’s a lovely chorus of children saying ‘no’. Only does one thing but fun nonetheless.

There’s also an animation for Christmas featuring a Christmas decorated with baubles from the Spanish speaking world and the villancico Campana sobre Campana which is lovely, and an animated alphabet which is only downloadable on a PC :O(

Lots of other great stuff on the site for the primary classroom too. More at a future date!

Sorpresas y sonrisas – tips and ideas on how to keep everyone enthused and engaged in the Primary Languages classroom was th title of my contribution to the ALL NE Spanish day at Gosforth High School in Newcastle.

I had the daunting task of starting the day, and if that wasn’t enough, I was sharing the bill with Rachel Hawkes, Neil Jones, Joaquín Moreno and John Connor. No pressure then ;o)

Having got everyone moving with Uno de enero from Take ten en español as it was the last day of San Fermín, I launched into my presentation (see below) punctuated by a quick game of puntos de contacto and el Baile Olímpico (hope the Youtube link works in Slideshare!)

Hope it was useful to everyone, even if they weren’t primary teachers. I certainly enjoyed presenting and the rest of the day was awesome – more of that later!

And thanks to ALL NE for the wonderful book. I am SO excited about it!