Work and Play-8th Graders

The first few days after we came back from our Christmas break were gray and dismal, weather-wise.   Class-wise, we were starting to feel the doldrums, too.  We had worked hard on some tough grammar concepts, slogging through rules and worksheets, and though the students put great effort into it and didn't complain, the spark wasn't quite there.

I had just finished grading some leyendas misteriosas that our eighth grade class had written to contrast the preterite and imperfect and I was amazed at their competence and creativity.  On the spur of the moment, we switched up the lesson plan and decided to have them write and perform a mini-play for the Spanish kindergarten class.

We had learned the Apostles' Creed in Spanish last semester and discussed the differences in Spanish and English.  In Spanish, it reads that Jesus, "fue concebido por obra y gracias del Espíritu Santo" (was conceived by the work and grace of the Holy Spirit).  We had talked about differences in the words trabajo and obra in Spanish, and that the word obra could mean many things, from a deed or action to a work of art or a play.  

It takes much, much more effort to produce language than to merely understand it.  Reading Spanish is comparatively easy.  Writing it isn't, especially when you are talking about a five minute play completely in Spanish.  But the students embraced the challenge and poured themselves into it.  They formed small groups, wrote their own stories and scripts, and designed their own costumes and props.   As we revised the scripts, we reviewed ser vs estar, the preterite vs imperfect, direct vs indirect object pronouns, vocabulary and more, all in a context that mattered because they wrote it.  Next week, we will be performing for the little ones.

As you can see, their stories are full of princesses, peril and picos (beaks)!   If we have even half as much fun performing them as we have had preparing them, it will be a treat indeed.  It is a good class when work and play mean the same thing.

Back in the Groove

The Christmas break was a wonderful time to relax and enjoy ourselves.  Now we are back in the groove of classes and new material.

Our third, fourth and fifth graders have been going over our vocab from the first semester and identifying the masculine and feminine nouns.  They learned the rules for plural forms last semester.  This week we have been putting it all together with the definite and indefinite articles.

Our sixth grade students have been working on the possessive adjectives and the comparatives.  Tomorrow they are going to pair up with our second grade buddies to help them memorize the blessing  before meals in Spanish.  We are all looking forward to celebrating with an (appropriately blessed) ice cream party once they all have it down!

Our seventh grade students have been going over travel vocab and the reflexive verbs.  Today we combined those with the direct object pronouns.  Students closed their eyes, fished around in the suitcase, chose an item and then identified in Spanish, and told what they use it for using the reflexive verbs.

The eighth grade class has been using the preterite and imperfect to create their own leyendas.  It has been so much fun reading their stories that I think we might need to have a play so that the entire class can enjoy their creative tales! 

One of the sentences in the homework with the comparative forms had the students choose whether work was more fun than play or less fun than play.  Your children make sure that for me the answer is always that work is fun!