Christmas in Colombia

Christmas in Colombia

December is a busy month in Colombia. Many schools close early in the month, and everyone gets ready to celebrate “la Navidad” with friends and family. Everything starts on December 7th with “La Noche de la Velitas,” a night  for everyone to celebrate la Inmaculada Concepcion. You will find candles in many houses, and they will stay lit all, night and the celebration continues until December 8th.
 
From December 16 to the 24th, many families gather to recite prayers and sing Christmas songs next to the Nativity scence. This is called “Las Novenas” because it lasts nine days.
 
December 24th is a family night, when everyone awaits with joy the rebirth of “El Niño Jesús.” People share Colombian treats such as natilla, brevas, and manjar blanco to celebrate. The children that attended all the novenas without missing a might will get presents from the family hosting the celebration. This is the most important night when people stay up waiting for Niños Dios to arrive. Children have to go to bed before midnight to be able to receive their presents.
 
December  25th is the day when the children celebrate opening the presents “El Niño Jesús” left next to the Nativity scene, the Christmas tree, or under the bed.
 
All these celebrations lead to December 28th“El Día de los Inocentes,” a day that is similar to April Fools in the United States. It is a day filled with jokes and fun.  
 
And on December 31st everyone gets excited about the New Year and the resolutions it brings. Año Viejos are built in many places to leave the bad things from the previous year behind and make a new start. They are be burned at 12:00am. The five minutes before the year ends are crucial and frantic, with yellow underwear for good luck, suitcases filled to go around the block (to ensure you travel much), a dollar bill in your pocket (you probably get the reason for this one), 12 grapes with 12 wishes or resolutions, and many other exciting and fun thing for a new start to a new year.
 
January 6th is usually not a big day in Colombia, but it is in other countries like Spain. In Colombia, it’s the date that marks the end of the Christmas season which means it’s time to put away the pesebre for next year!
Hav fun!

Interactive Notebook in A FLES program {Take A Quick Peek!}

This is my first year using interactive notebooks with my students. I teach grades PreK-3, but I only use it with second and third graders, and they have Spanish twice a week for 45 minutes each class. We play games and sing a lot in class and sometimes make projects on iPads,  but at the end of every unit I like making a paper project or worksheet they can keep in their notebooks. Last year I used binders and divided them into sections, but soon enough the binders were messy, and some students dropped them by accident, and pages flew all over the place. I am not sure how interactive this notebook is, but I like calling it that because it sounds less boring than calling it just a a regular notebook, at least for my own motivation! So far the results have been great and the children really love them. Creating an interactive notebook is a lot of work. I have decided to create mine along with my students and with the curriculum in progress to see what activities really work.

Take a peek inside our notebooks. These are some of the activities in the second and third grade interactive notebooks. I will keep adding more pages as the school year progresses. 
  
Children worked on personalizing their notebooks
  
We used these two activities during the first two weeks of school. 
The calendar in the notebook is very useful as we use it as part of our class routine and can refer to it and access it very easily.
We also glue regular worksheets in the notebook folded in half to save space.

 
These are two different activities second and third graders did to review and learn new parts of the body.

   
We also glue booklets and lyrics of some of the songs we learn during class.
 

This is our latest activity to share what we are thankful for in Spanish.
 
At the end of the notebook we glued envelopes to keep those extra papers we need to save such as our participation cards.
Purchase this product here!
More pages will be added as the year goes by and we explore more language in our classes. You can purchase all the activities above in my TpT store. The good news is that I will keep adding more activities to this set, and if you purchase this set now you will be the first to get the new activities at no extra charge. You will be notified via e-mail every time I add more to this product, and you will just have to download the recent file! The price will change as the product grows, and you won’t have to pay anything extra.

Have fun putting your interactive notebooks together with your students!
Carolina

November Bilingual Blog Hop

This month I have joined a group of amazing teachers in a bilingual blog hop. You will be able to download free resources for your classes. 
Here is my free product for you:
A Thanksgiving Pie in Spanish
A cute mini-book to count up to 10
Download your freebie HERE!
Please stop by my Teachers Pay Teacher store for more freebies and holiday resources for teaching Spanish. Don’t forget to like my page on Facebook to stay updated about more teaching ideas!

Next stop is at Maestra Sandoval’s blog! Make sure to visit her to get the awesome freebie she created for you!

https://www.maestrasandoval.com/2014/11/bilingual-blog-hop.html
Happy Thanksgiving!
Carolina

¡Es la Gran Calabaza, Charlie Brown! {Movie} – Activity Guide for Spanish Class

It’s Halloween time, and many of our students get excited about it in school. I always see this time as an opportunity to bring a new language to my classes. It’s a great time of year to teach or review colors, seasons, feelings, and so on. Last year, I bought this holiday movie classic and watched it in my classes but didn’t really have the time to plan an activity to go along with it. This year I decided to create an activity set that students may use to talk in Spanish after watching the movie.
Download the free activity set  HERE!
I show the movie to my students in Spanish and show English subtitles. According to your level and class meeting frequency, you might want to watch it in Spanish without subtitles. I used this activity in my third-grade classes, but I am sure it can be used with various levels.
Happy Halloween!

Carolina

 

 

Take Your Students on A Trip With This Awesome Puzzle!

As a Spanish teacher, I feel that teaching geography is a responsibility of mine. Due to the ages that I teach, I find it hard because many of the maps that show Latin America are either in English or are not simple enough for the eyes of my second and third grade students. 
I felt a relief when I received this puzzle. The picture is a piece of art and is simple enough for my students to put together. I have used this puzzle as a center for early finishers and they absolutely love it. I often use a corner in my classroom for students from different classes to work on the puzzle collectively, adding pieces when they have time.

This puzzle has become a collaborative project in my room, serving as a thread to connect all of my students throughout the week. And the best is when I hear them reading the names of the countries in Spanish or making comments such as “I didn’t know Colombia is next to Ecuador.” Children always come to my classroom asking for el rompecabezas. It’s an activity that engages them easily and allows them to work in groups. They have made it a challenge and can’t wait to finish and see the final result. This will take your students on virtual trips to different places in Latin America. 
This puzzle has worked great for my students and I am sure it will work for your students too. This puzzle was created by a Spanish teacher who knows the importance of including geography in foreign language curriculum. To learn more about this great teaching tool please visit their Amazon store or like the their page on Facebook. I would love one of our readers to have one these awesome puzzles! 
And, with students who know where the Equator is, here’s to hoping I never get asked if it’s “winter” in Colombia with students who know not to assume that all of South America is south of the Equator! 

Giveaway Time!

One lucky teacher will get to win this puzzle for her/his class! Just enter below to participate. Winner will be announced on November 1st, 2014. United States only!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

¡Buena suerte!
Carolina