Exámen Dos next week

¡Hola a todos!

Just wanted to remind everyone that, next week, both la clase de 5o y 6o grados y la clase de 7o y 8o grados tienen un exámen (have a test).

7o y 8o grados will have their exámen el miércoles (Wednesday). Los estudiantes already have a study guide to look over and work on to study for the test. Make sure to know what all of the questions mean in the Preguntas section, and to be able to respond to each of the questions orally. Looking over Prueba 3 (the quiz that we had in this section) will also be helpful, and remember to also review cultural readings about Spanish as a global language, Lenguas en Sudamérica (Languages of South America), Día de los Reyes y Centroamérica. Also, know what el Día del Amor y la Amistad is.

5o y 6o grados will have their exámen el jueves (Thursday), but I will start doing orals for the test for those students who are ready el miércoles (Wednesday). Students should review the following items:
Preguntas: know what each mean, and practice how to respond verbally.
¿Quién es?
¿De dónde eres?
¿De qué ciudad/estado/país eres?
¿Cómo eres?
¿Cómo es (name of someone en la clase)?
¿Cuál es tu profesión? (or, ¿Cuál es la profesión de tu madre/padre (mother/father)?)

Study description word vocabulary (on ¿Quién es? Descripciones worksheet):
alto, bajo, moreno, rubio, pelirrojo, cómico, serio, guapo, bonita, simpático, antipático

- Know how to apply these describing words to people (tú eres guapo)
- Go over how we have to change adjectives to fit with the number and gender of the noun we are describing (for example, how does the sentence "Jorge es guapo" change when we want to say that another person is handsome as well? "Jorge y Roberto son guapos."

Study el verbo ser: (in Caja de Herramientas)
- Know how to say I am, you are, he is, she is, you formal are, we are, and they (masc/fem) are

Study profesiones vocabulary: (on Profesiones worksheet)
- Know the words enfermero, abogado, téchnico, piloto, cocinero, fotógrafo, músico, periodista, gerente, escritor, poeta, balarina, y policia

- Know how to say someone is a particular profession (Señora Greaves es maestra; él es piloto, etc.)

Study los países de Sudamérica y Centroamérica, and be able to locate them on a map
- Know how to say that someone is from a country (Yo soy de los Estados Unidos; ella es de Chile, etc.)

**Make sure to also go over Prueba 2 and la Lectura de Centroamérica (Central America reading).


If you have any questions about what you should be studying or something you didn't understand, please leave a comment or ask me in class.

¡Buena suerte! (Good luck!)

5o y 6o grado: Las Profesiones

¡Hola chicos del 5o y 6o grado! Hoy, ustedes van a aprender sobre las profesiones. (Today, you all are going to learn about professions.) While ustedes are doing today's actividades, make sure that ustedes are writing down CINCO nuevas palabras (5 new words) that ustedes learn!

Start off by watching a few of the Youtube videos below to see and hear the words for some common profesiones. Some of the videos are muy largos (very long), so you do not have to watch them all the way through.
Short and sweet pronunciation of common professions
Profesiones Flash Cards
Pronunciation practice with professions
Profesiones with pictures and music

Now that you've gotten a basic idea of what las profesiones are (and hopefully have written down 5 new words on your card), try out some games!
Review professions here. Then, practice with the profesiones vocabulary in this quiz game.

Want to challenge yourself? Try this actividad from el Instituto Cervantes to learn more professions and practice using them.

You can also try out the following games:
Professions Concentration game
Professions Scatter game
Professions Space Race game

If you've finished playing games, go back to some earlier posts to do some reviewing! You can play games with el verbo ser, check out the 7th and 8th graders' translation of "Soy Guapo," watch some videos about el verbo ser, or practice telling time.

Traducción: Las canciónes de ¿Adónde vas?

Hoy, van a trabajar en grupos para traducir las letras de las canciones sobre ¿Adónde vas? (Today, you'll work in groups to translate the lyrics of the songs about Where are you going?) Start off your work by reading all the instructions below together as a group.

1) Busca el número de tu grupo abajo (look for your group's number below) to find which song you'll be working on, and then go watch the video for your song one or two times.

2)Then, work together to type up a translation. You might want to use this on-line Spanish dictionary as a reference to help you translate.

3) Double check your translation by watching the video again while reading it to make sure it makes sense.

4) When you finish with your translation, post it on the blog as a comment con tus primeros nombres, sin tus apellidos! (With your first names, without your last names!) Remember that you have to type in the verification code after you press "submit comment" in order for your comment to go through!

Anita, ¿adónde vas? por Señor Wooly
1. Anita, ¿adónde vas?
¿Adónde, adónde vas?
Yo tengo dolor de cabeza
Voy a la enfermería

¿A la enfermería?
¡Qué conveniente!
¡Dáme tu pase!
¡Quiero ver tu pase!
Está aquí.

Anita, ¿adónde vas?
¿Adónde, adónde vas?
Son las once,
y ¡saliste de clase a las diez!

Anita, ¿adónde vas?
¿Adónde, adónde vas?
¿Vas al baño con tus amigas?
¡No, estoy enferma!

2. Anita, ¿adónde vas?
¿Adónde, adónde vas?
¿Saltas una clase?
¡No!
¿Tienes un exámen?
¡No!

Anita, ¿adónde vas?
¿Adónde, adónde vas?
¿Vas a dormir en una clase vacía?
¡Claro que no!

Anita, ¿adónde vas?
¿Adónde, adónde vas?
¡Díme adónde vas!



¿Adónde vas? Rap
3. ¿Adónde vas?
Voy, vas, va, vamos, van
¿Adónde vas?
¿Adónde vas?
Voy, vas, va, vamos, van
¿Adónde vas?

¿Adónde vas este fin de semana?
¿Adónde vas?
¿Adónde vas este fin de semana?
¿Adónde vas?

¿Adónde vas?
Voy al parque.
¿Adónde va?
Ella va al parque.
¿Adónde van?
Vamos al parque.
¿Adónde vas?

4. ¿Adónde vas?
¿Adónde vas?
Voy a la playa.
¿Adónde va?
Él va a la playa.
¿Adónde van?
Ellos van a la playa.
¿Adónde vas?

¿Adónde vas?
Voy a jugar fútbol en el parque,
Y voy a la playa para nadar.
Voy a jugar fútbol en el parque,
Y voy a la playa para nadar.

¿Adónde vas?
Voy, vas, va, vamos, van
¿Adónde vas?
Voy, vas, va, vamos, van
¿Adónde vas?

¿Adónde vas este fin de semana?
¿Adónde vas?
¿Adónde vas este fin de semana?
¿Adónde vas?


If your group finishes, you should work on making sure that your folders/binders are organized for the folder check, or if you're done with that, you can go here to do some practice from Mi Vida Loca. You can also look at the comments section to see how other groups translated their portion of the songs.

El Verbo Ir y Las Profesiones: Actividad del Blog

¡Hola, chicos del 7o y 8o grados!

Hoy, para la actividad del blog, ustedes van a trabajar (will work on) las profesiones y el verbo ir. There are a smorgasboard of actividades to try to suit tus necesidades e intereses (your needs and interests). Choose at least one of las actividades from Las Profesiones and one from El Verbo Ir from the lists below.

El Verbo Ir
Still confused about el verbo ir? Start out with a video explanation from Tonito Frito.

Feeling pretty comfortable with el verbo ir? Click on the link below, and once the page loads, click on the circle with the giraffe and zebra on it (Un fin de semana especial). Once you've clicked on that, click on "Mochila de palabras" to go over some place vocabulary that this lesson will teach you, and then you can go back to the "Un fin de semana especial" page to do activities in "El mundo de Carlos" and "Pasatiempo." You may find it a little confusing to use "Mi Mundo" at first, but if you play around with it a little, you'll start to get the hang of it. Start using Mi Mundo by clicking here.

Las Profesiones

Review professions that we went over in class and learn some new ones by clicking on the names of different professions. Then, practice with the profesiones vocabulary here.

Want to challenge yourself? Try this actividad from el Instituto Cervantes to learn more professions and practice using them.

If you finish, you can also listen again to the ¿Adónde vas? rap that we heard en clase to practice with the verb ir.

Don't forget to write down on your index cards:
a) What actividades you did today
b) Dos cosas nuevas (new things) that you learned!

¡Buena suerte!

Prueba (Quiz) - 5o y 6o grados

¡Feliz Día de Martin Luther King Jr! It's a good day to remember all that people like Martin Luther King Jr. have done to make our country a more equal and just one.

As Ustedes are enjoying su fin de semana extendido (your long weekend), I wanted to remind 5th and 6th graders about their prueba (quiz) on miércoles (Wednesday). Remember to look over the following things:

- El verbo ser: how to say I am, you informal are, he/she is, you formal are, we are, they are, you all are in Spanish.

- Important preguntas (questions) we learned using ser:
¿Quién eres? (who are you?)
¿De dónde eres? (where are you from?) Make sure you also know tu ciudad
(city), estado (state) y país (country) - los Estados Unidos!
¿Cómo eres? (what are you like?)
***Remember also that these questions change their meaning when we change the verb:
¿Quién es Señora Greaves? (who is Señora Greaves?)
¿De dónde es Señora Greaves? (where is Señora Greaves from?)
¿Cómo es Señora Greaves? (what is Señora Greaves like?)

- Descripciones: describing words on the ¿Quién es? Descripciones handout (the one with all of the faces on it). Know how to describe someone (tall or short? Pretty or handsome? Blond, brunette, or red-head? Funny or serious?)

- ¿Por qué es importante hablar español?: Why speak Spanish? Look back at the Spanish: A Global Language reading that we had, especially at the three reasons we wrote on the side (one of the 3 most spoken languages on Earth, US is the 5th largest Spanish-speaking country, US has a Spanish-speaking past).

- Día de los Reyes: What is it? When is it? What does it celebrate? What do people do on that day?

- Países (countries) en Sudamérica: know how to identify them on a map.


Aquí hay a few games for you to practice with!
Practice with ser
Matching games with ser
South America map quiz game

¡Feliz Día de los Reyes! (and a few notes)

Happy Three Kings Day! Me divertí mucho ayer celebrando con ambas clases. (I had a lot of fun yesterday celebrating with both classes.) En las clases, nosotros comimos (ate) Rosca de Reyes, a traditional Mexican sweetbread served on el Día de los Reyes, complete with a little plastic baby Jesus, to represent the need to find a safe place for Jesus, with the knife cutting the bread representing the danger that Jesus was in because of Herod's jealousy. In case anyone is interested in picking up a Rosca de Reyes to try, panaderías (bakeries) may still have it today - I got mine from La Gloria Panadería in Mexicantown on Bagley. 5th and 6th grades participated in "un asalto"/una parranda (you can read more about those here) by surprising the 7th and 8th graders and singing a song about los tres reyes to them (the three kings). In case you'd like to listen to the song they sang(or if you still have it in your head!), it's on the class playlist on Grooveshark, towards the bottom of the list. I've also included some other Christmas carols on there, such as "Campana sobre Campana," "Los Peces en el Río," and "Mi Burrito Sabanero."

Now, on to some information about grades:
For 7th and 8th, nosotros will have una prueba (quiz) el martes. La prueba will cover the use of the verb ser ('to be'), description vocabulary, ¿de dónde eres?, reasons why it's important to learn Spanish (see the handout about Spanish: A Global Language especially), Día de los Reyes, and labeling a map of the países (countries) en Sudamérica. I'll be giving another extra credit opportunity on lunes in case anyone wants to help bump up their grade before the 2nd quarter ends on the 20th.

For 5th and 6th, I'll also be giving an extra credit opportunity. I'm posting it here in case anyone would like to get a head start. The assignment is to read the handout that I gave la clase about el Día de los Reyes, and then to write a short paragraph (at least 4 sentences) summarizing what tú learned about el Día de los Reyes, and present it to la clase. Doing this will earn tú up to 25 extra credit points.

As always, please comment or contact me by e-mail if you have any questions. ¡Feliz Día de los Reyes!

Más Sobre Personalidad

A few people have expressed interest in taking longer, full versions of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or having their parents take it! For more information about the real, full test, which you take with a person who is licensed to give the test and explain your results to you, you can go to the Myers-Briggs Foundation website.

There are a few free tests in the style of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (like the one that 7th and 8th grade took in class) online. Aqui hay enlaces para algunos:
Humanmetrics test
Similar minds test
Here's a link to more information about the different personality types, for after you take the test.

Disfruten, y feliz Navidad.