Wow!  Just discovered that there are starter clips in Spanish too!

This time they’re set in Mexico.  They cover similar themes – traditions as well as daily life.

One particularly caught my eye – La cultura folclorica de Veracruz .  This short clip is about music and musicians, and a story telling festival.  This links with Unit 14 of the QCDA scheme – and I happen to be doing that at the moment with year5!

Hopefully this will help them understand what ‘la música folclórica’ is all about!

CILT advertisement that might be of interest to people – If you’re interested in this, the closing date is 15th September, so best to sign up before the holidays!  Find out more on the CILT website or by emailing ptp@cilt.org.uk

On the eve of the World Cup in South Africa, here’s the first of (I expect!) several football related posts.

I am a football fan, and I make no secret of my love for La Furia Roja.

¡Sí, podemos!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5YNmTQ5Qng

Today sees the beginning of another wonderful offering from Radio Lingua Network as episode 1 of NewsTime Spanish is launched.

Made by a highly talented trio – Mark ‘Mr RadioLingua’ Pentleton, José ‘just say Edmodo and I melt’ Picardo and Chris ‘where’s it to?’ Fuller, this weekly podcast keeps you up to date with news from Spain and Hispanic countries.

In this week’s edition of News Time Spanish we’ll be looking at the major financial reform in Spain as a result of the ongoing issues around Europe. Other stories include:

• UK elections news
• Spanish sporting successes
• Mexican/US immigration issues
• Health problems in Spain

You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and listen for free, whilst a Premium pass will allow you access to transcripts, exercises and a slower version of the audio.

I came across this wonderful website today, linked from Teaching Ideas site.

Chillola.com is a multilingual site, offering simple resources in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian.

There are attractive vocabulary presentations accompanied by audio on subjects like colours, numbers, months, fruit and vegetables and body parts.  There are also very simple printable activities and colourables.

It’s a great resource for introducing vocabulary and for individual access, as well for raising awareness of other languages that are not necessarily taught at your school.

My favourites are the hamster teaching prepositions and the lovely illustrations for the opposites.

The site also offers links to several other websites about which I’ve never previously heard.  I feel more posts may be forthcoming…

Thanks to an e-mail from Speekee, my knowledge of Spanish festivals has just grown!

This weekend in Spain’s festive year it’s The May Crosses – Las Cruces de Mayo.

Las Cruces de Mayo form a Spanish tradition which dates back to Roman times. Anyone can take part in making the decorative crosses, usually achieved by fitting together sections of plastic tubing, each punctured with lots of little holes. Then the crosses are laced with flowers which fit into the holes. Often, the immediate surrounds of the cross are also ‘dressed’ – with herbs, flowers and the like.

Here’s a clip they posted on Youtube to show what they look like.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERiyXCUlyNo

You can find out more here, here and see some photos here.

And here’s a marvellous 360º panorama of Las Cruces in Motril.

Las Cruces de Mayo – Motril (Granada) in Spain