El día de los muertos and Halloween in Spanish

There are two great videos which are to be found on and which are great to talk about two major cultural events happening very soon!

The first one “La noche de brujas” is perfect for one lesson:

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article46 brain break6 celebration20 channel2 cultural10 day of the dead4 día de los muertos1 Education20 fun413 halloween6 key structure10 Mary Glasgow6 miscositas1 repetition42 ressources40 Spanish33 spanish cuentos1 story46 storytelling39 target language12 target structure20 thematic1 TPRS71 unit3 video350 website1 youtube67

Speaking activity: giving opinions about TV programs and films.

This is a fantastic idea from one of my emails from the mflresources@yahoogroups.com: “I show the students some clips (2-3 mins each) from YouTube and they play the role of critic – after each clip they get 30 seconds to write their opinion of each clip and then a further 30 seconds to share their opinion with their neighbor.

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channel2 clip1 communication10 communicative7 comprehensible100 comprehension250 debating3 films2 flashcards8 fluency107 fluent57 forum1 group4 group work5 ideas7 input47 listening52 mfl1 movies2 opinions27 playlist4 programs1 quizlet9 series71 sharing6 skills26 Spanish33 speak85 speaking73 television5 trailer2 youtube67

Back to school with a song: mi persona favorita

I am back to school after a wonderful summer vacation and in order to get back into the swing of things, I found this catchy song which I played to my grade 8 and 10 classes:

As I mentioned in an earlier post,

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acquire50 acquisition65 answers24 communication10 comprehensible100 future32 input47 listening52 lyrics2 past316 personalized16 PQA8 present565 questions74 Rio Roma1 skills26 song29 Spanish33 speaking73 structures7 TPRS71 youtube67

The perfect song to use the past tenses in Spanish!

I love using songs in my lessons and I found out that my students enjoy it too! Apparently some of them even buy some of the songs! When we listen to a song in class, we listen to it several times in the week at the start of each Spanish lesson.

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acquire50 canción2 Education20 expressions5 imperfect187 imperfecto1 listen283 listening52 pasado1 past316 preterite1 preterito1 questions74 quiz18 Sheila1 Sheila Blanco1 Sheila Down1 skills26 song29 Spanish33 speaking73 story46 structures7

How to use poems with first year Spanish learners?

I found this lovely poem on Pinterest and I used it with my grade 6 students (11-12 years old) as it was the prefect review for physical description and family.

Listening/comprehension: I told the poem “TPRS style” by drawing the “abuela”

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beginner318 description96 family164 grade 68 physical10 poem71 pronunciation11 re-telling1 re-write2 read40 reading252 Spanish33 speaking73 story46 storytelling39 structures7 TPRS71 write59 writing55

What do the other students do when some are recording a podcast?

When some students are recording their IGCSE questions and answers to practice for the oral examination, I like to have the other students work in different stations so that nobody misses out during the lesson. The recording process is one station and I am lucky enough to have a spare room next to my classroom which is rarely used so that my students can record themselves in a quiet space.

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answers24 audioboo3 board4 book95 cd1 computer5 Education20 flashcards8 group work5 home town2 IGCSE12 listening52 local area2 memorize11 oral12 pair work2 pinterest6 podcast127 questions74 skill4 speaking73 station1 station work1 textbook2 topic24

Spanish story script number 5: ¿Por qué?

Here is another story script which follows the last story about Elena trying to apologize to Pedro. This time Elena offers a present to Pedro and he has to open different packages. The focus is on the difference between “¿Por qué?

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acquire50 acquisition65 because4 beginner318 ci145 comprehensible100 comprehensible input36 comprehension250 creative13 Education20 escuela1 furniture9 grade 68 grade 74 history92 imagination7 imagine9 input47 intermediate707 key structure10 languagelearning9 learn spanish1 material escolar1 por qué1 porque1 present565 re-write2 read40 reading252 school35 school furniture2 Spanish33 spanish input3 story46 story asking15 story listening19 story telling4 structure10 surprise6 target9 target language12 target structure20 TPRS71 why8 write59 writing55