RockAlingua: 1 Year Membership {Giveaway}

I wrote a review about RockAlingua a couple of weeks ago. Three lucky readers got RockAlingua’s awesome music CD. This time two lucky winners will get a one year membership access to the website. Through this winners, will get to have every single song, access to all the videos, worksheets, lyrics, games and pictures dictionaries. A song for every unit with tons of vocabulary and a lot of fun for your classes!

The Giveaway

I would love two lucky readers to have a chance to win a membership for RockAlingua. Just enter below to participate! Winners will be announced on Saturday, February 22nd, 2014. Open worldwide!

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¡Buena suerte!
Carolina

Five Fun Dances to Try in Spanish Class

I use music to welcome my students to my classroom. This week, I welcomed my second graders to class with “Vivir Mi Vida” by Marc Anthony. One of my students said he wished he knew how to dance to the rhythm of the song, so I took action! I took a few minutes at the beginning of the class to show them the basic salsa step. It was five minutes of fun and a chance to share some culture with them – plus they got to move a lot before settling down for class.

I found some videos on YouTube that might be helpful if you decide to teach your students some steps.

Salsa
 

Cha-Cha-Chá

Waka Waka

La Macarena

And if you feel like you want your students to learn a full choreography, here is
Asereje.

Have fun!
Carolina

Project: Winter Olympic Athletes {Spanish}

Bringing the Winter Olympics to your Spanish class is a fun way to engage your students. This time the Winter Olympics will be in Sochi, Russia. What a great opportunity to pull out a map or visit Google Earth to locate the country and your current locations. Visiting an online gallery of Russia sounds very exciting and could be also used an a opportunity to invite your students to talk about what they see. You could ask you students to tell you about colors, clothes, weather and so on depending on their level.

The games will host athletes from 88 countries representing 7 sports divided in 15 disciplines:

Taken from Wikipedia
For the purpose of the class I recommend you to use just the names of the sports: el esquí, el patinaje, el biatlón, el curling, el bobsleigh, el hockey sobre el hielo y el snowboard.

For this project you will need to have access to the internet to visit the website for the Winter Olympics. You will also need to download the printable for this activity HERE.
Your students will need to visit the link where the athletes are listed. They will need to find the information presented in the sample below:

Download HERE

After completing their own cards, each student will need to get ready to be interviewed by other classmates. Each of them will need to use the information in the picture below to respond to questions that the other students will ask:

Download HERE
Students can also print pictures of the athletes to make masks to use during their interviews.
Have fun!
Carolina

Let “Coloreando” Bring The Colors of Traditional Music to Your Spanish Class

Coloreando is one of the newest music CD’s featuring Marta Gómez, a Colombian singer and songwriter. This music CD has 17 songs, all sung by Marta who, in my opinion, is the Colombian equivalent of Mercedes Sosa. Not only does her voice entertain children, but it’s also great  for grownups. I have been a fan of Marta ever since her time filling the streets of Cambridge, by Harvard Square, with good music. At the time she was a student at the Berklee College of Music. I have been following closely and try not to miss any of her concerts in Boston. 

I am very excited to learn about this new album for children, created to support Global Language Project, a non-profit organization that helps bring foreign languages to public school children in the New York area.

Coloreando has 17 traditional songs that any Spanish teacher from an ELE or bilingual program should have in their collection. If you are looking for truly cultural music to bring your students, this music CD is a must!

One of my favorite songs is “Un Elefante,” not only because I have good memories from having grown up singing it, but also because Marta makes it very fun. I put together this set of props that go along with the song. You can download your own elefantes, telaraña and araña here! This song can also be used as a game where you invite volunteers to jump on an imaginary spiderweb. 


Make sure to visit Global Language Project and Marta Gomez on Facebook to stay tuned about their news and exciting projects! Coloreando is available on the Global Language Project website.

The Giveaway!
I would love two lucky readers to have a chance to win a CD for their classes. Just enter below to participate! Winners will be announced on Friday, February 7th, 2014. United Stated only!

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¡Buena Suerte!
Carolina