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.