Sunday, September 30, 2012

Fire Safety

Can't believe tomorrow is the 1st day of Oct.  Sept. sure went by fast.  This week in Treasures we are reading "Fighting the Fire" so I have updated my fire safety unit.  To purchase this unit check out my TPT and TN stores.  If you click the image below it will take you to TPT.

 
Over the past year I have many new followers.  Last year I posted some youtube videos on fire safety.  Click here to see last years post. (Also has some Columbus day videos as well.) I wouldn't want anyone to miss out.
 
Have a good week.

Friday, September 28, 2012

End of Quarter Sale and Halloween Punctuation Booklets

We are having an end of quarter sale on TPT. All the items in our store will be 10% off Sept. 29th and 30th. 



Be sure to check out our new Halloween Punctuation Booklet while you are there.  It's a great writing activity for Halloween and assess students on the different type of sentences. This is what I use as my last assessment for writing.  You may purchase this in either English or Spanish.  Be sure to click on the images below for more information. 

        

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

I'm Back! Spanish Heritage Month Ideas

Sorry it has been so long this I last posted on this blog.  I guess I'm not doing  a great job with my New School Year Resoultions so far.

Spanish Heritage Month by Virginia Duran


We are very fortunate to have a multicultural committee at our school and every month we acknowledge different cultures.  This month we will be celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.  Since I teach in Spanish and my students are from Mexico I try to incorporate as many lessons as I can all month long.  I try to expose them to both fiction and non-fiction texts.  I have been finding more and more books each year.  There are teachers like Mrs. Castro who have used them as part of books to read in the beginning of the year.  Mrs. Castro included a few of them in her back to school packet ( Marisol McDonald doesn’t Match Marisol McDonald No Combina  and Rene has two last names/ Rene tiene dos nombres). 

I try to find themes and do one each week.  This week ( since will be a short one for me since I will be out for training on Tuesday and Wednesday) will focus on Latin music.  I will read Salsa, Bailar and Celia Cruz.  We will listen to music from mariachi to salsa.   In our Tesoros reading basal we used to use, there was a cute activity to make maracas out of water bottles so we will be doing that on Friday.

Next week I want to introduce famous Latina women.  A great book is  “Quiero ser famosa”.  I found a book appropriate for children on Sor Juana,  Ellen Ochoa, and Frida Kalho ( to name a few). 
 

I also like to have students learn about famous latinos in the arts.  I found books on Diego Rivera, Pablo Neruda and Frida Kahlo.  Scholastic books had a Hispanic Heritage Month calendar on sale or for points and I purchased it.  Turns out there are 4 activities on the back of the calendar.  One is a picture of Frida.  If we have time, I would like to have students do a self-portrait or a picture of a bird.  Last year, the art teacher has them do this during art class. 

There are great children authors and illustrators.   Gary Soto, Rene Colato Xavier, and Antonio Sarce ( I love the book, The Barking Mouse).   We make connections to self and play loteria, a popular game played Mexico.  It is similar to Bingo.  I will be teaching the lesson this week, so I will take pictures. 

I like to end with  stories/ fables “cuentos”  or leyendas.   My students love when I read “La llorona” or “El Cucuy” since are stories they are used to hearing at home.

Click on the picture below to check out the class book writing activity to go with the book  “Quiero ser famosa”.  If you download the file preview you can get the booklist for free.  I have come up with a list of books by topic. There are great books you can use to compare and contrast. Others can be used to teach Spanish words. 
 
 
Be sure to come back soon for more ideas.  Coming Soon a Halloween Punctuation Booklet and 6 Traits - acitivities for the trait Ideas. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

Monday, September 3, 2012

Classroom Move Finished and Curriculum Night Freebies

As promised here are the finished pictures of Virginia's 1st grade bilingual classroom.

 
 
 
This cheveron carpet from Big Lots seems to be a big hit with teachers this year.  I have the same carpet in my classroom.
 
 
 
Curriculum Night Freebies
 
For Curriuculum Night in the past I have passed out apples with this note.  Since our school has put lots of restrictions on food I decided not to give out anything with food either.  It was a sore subject with some parents.  Click on the image below to open in Google Docs.
 
 
So this year I had some extra flashcards and deck of cards from the $1 section at the Target.  So I had a raffle of those items after we talked about the importance of students knowing their basic facts.
 
 
 
Now that we have been in school for a week and half  and Curriculum Night is out of the way.  Virginia and I hope to back more to post about what we are doing in our classrooms.