¡NO, NO, NO, PICASSO! – art lesson in the Target Language

July 13, 2017July 14, 2017 / Spanish - Mrs. Mitchell / Leave a comment

When I saw this post by Señora Speedy I was SO excited to do this.

Picasso Portraits – Integrating Art & World Languages

After the unit “El rey no tiene una boca” I introduced Picasso and his work. Below are the lesson plans from my 1st-2nd grade classes. I think it could be adapted for an older group too.

DAY ONE

TPR- Pinta (pretend to paint) – grande, pequeño, rápido, lentamente, Pinta un perro, pinta los ojos, pinta la nariz etc. Pinta a Jacob, pinta los ojos ¿De que color son los ojos de Jacob? Pinta los ojos cafés

PQA- Clase, ¿Te gusta pintar? ¿Te gusta dibujar? (translate pintar and dibujar on board) No puedo pintar muy bien. ¿Puedes pintar muy bien? Oh sí, Nicolas es un artista. (translate artista on board). ¿Tu eres un artista? etc. ¿Te gusta dibujar a las personas? No puedo dibujar a personas. No puedo dibujar la cara. (I start drawing a face on the board badly describing each part.) ¿Puedes dibujar una cara? (Students have paper & pencil or whiteboards) ¿Puedes dibujar una cara en 3 minutos? ¡¿Puedes dibujar una cara en 1 minuto? ¿Puedes dibujar en 30 segundos?! (Give students 30 seconds to draw a face.) ¡Mira la cara de George! ¡Me gusta mucho! (Take time to describe different pictures, body parts, eres un artista, puedes dibujar muy bien, puedes dibujar rápidamente)

Dance Break TPR- Play a song as students dance. When you stop the music then call out an action for them to do. You can have them do simple things like “Pinta la cara con 10 ojos.” You could also change it up with partner activities like “Una persona es el papel y la otra persona pinta en el papel.” “Una persona pinta la cara de la otra.” they have to find a partner when the music stops and complete the activity. If you have a pair do a great job then have the class look at them. Start the music again.

¡NO, NO, NO, Picasso!- I used the book “Picasso’s Trousers” by Nicholas Allan to tell the story of Picasso. I used the pictures and narrated in Spanish. You can use this book or tell the story of Picasso with a slideshow of his work.

** bold words I write on the board to translate or stop to give more examples. These are new words and/or high frequency words.

Hay un niño que se llama Picasso. A Picasso le gusta pintar. Picasso y su familia viven en España. (I show my globe and we talk about where we live compared to Picasso) Picasso quiere ir a Francia. (show on globe again) Quiere ir a Francia porque hay muchos artistas en Francia. Picasso quiere pintar. Picasso quiere pintar en Francia. Pero hay un problema. El papá de Picasso no está contento. Picasso le dice “Quiero ir a Francia.” El papá le dice “No, no, no Picasso. ¡NO PUEDES IR! (I have students say it with me since this will be repeated.) Pero Picasso le responde “¡Si, Yo puedo!”

Picasso va a Francia. Está muy contento. Picasso pinta mucho. Pinta a las personas. Pinta a Francia. Un día, Picasso tiene una idea. A Picasso le gusta el color azul. Quiere pintar TODO de azul. No quiere pintar de rojo. No quiere pintar de amarillo. No quiere pintar de verde. Quiere pintar TODO de azul. ¡Qué diferente! Muchas personas le dicen “No, no, no Picasso. ¡NO PUEDES! No puedes pintar todo de azul. ¡Qué ridículo! Pero Picasso le responde “Sí, Yo puedo” Y Picasso pinta todo de azul. A muchas personas les gusta la idea pero hay otras personas que dicen “No me gusta.

Picasso puede pintar muy bien. Le gusta pintar a las personas. Le gusta pintar la cara. Pinta la cara de frente. (show a picture and translate) Pinta la cara de costado. (Show the picture and translate. I also use motions to show the front and side of my face until I think everyone understands.) Un día, Picasso tiene una idea. Picasso quiere pintar la cara de frente y quiere pintar la cara de costado al mismo tiempo. ¡Qué diferente! Muchas personas le dicen “No, no, no Picasso. ¡NO PUEDES! No puedes pintar la cara de frente y de costado al mismo tiempo. ¡Qué ridículo! Pero Picasso le responde “Sí, Yo puedo” Y Picasso pinta la cara de frente y la cara de costado al mismo tiempo. A muchas personas les gusta la idea pero hay muchas personas que dicen “¡No me gusta!” ¿Te gusta?

Picasso puede pintar muy bien. Picasso puede pintar rápido, muy rápido. Un día, Picasso tiene una idea. Picasso quiere pintar una pintura en 30 segundos. ¡30 segundos! ¡Qué rápido! Muchas personas le dicen “No, no, no Picasso. ¡NO PUEDES! No puedes pintar una pintura en 30 segundos. ¡Qué ridículo! Pero Picasso les responde “Sí, Yo puedo” Picasso pinta en 30 segundos. (show the pictures)

Un día Picasso quiere pantalones diferentes. Hay muchos pantalones de rayas verticales. Pero Picasso no quiere pantalones de rayas verticales. Quiere pantalones de rayas horizontales. Muchas personas le dicen “No, no, no Picasso. ¡NO PUEDES! No puedes llevar pantalones de rayas horizontales. ¡Qué ridículo! Pero Picasso le responde “Sí, Yo puedo” Picasso va a un hombre. El hombre le da los pantalones de rayas horizontales a Picasso. Picasso tiene pantalones de rayas horizontales. Está muy contento. Picasso pinta y lleva los pantalones de rayas horizontales.

I created a handout that could be used instead of the book. It does not include the last part about the trousers.

Here is the Spanish story available on a handout.

DAY TWO

ROLL-A-PICASSO- I used this handout from Teachers Pay Teachers and big dice.

First, create a drawing together as a class. The students roll the dice and you describe the painting as you draw on the board.

Then, your students can do a drawing separately. I had them do a simple one with pencil and paper before getting out the construction paper, scissors, and chalk.

After students have a good idea how to use the handout, hand out the supplies for their big drawing.

MATERIALS

color construction paper cut into small squares
8 x 11 black construction paper
scissors
glue
handout Roll-a-Picasso
dice
(optional) sidewalk chalk
(optional) the face shapes already cut out and ready to glue

Students roll the dice and then draw each part of the face on a separate small piece of construction paper. They glue it to the face and continue until they have their own original Picasso. I also had students draw with sidewalk chalk around their Picasso.

** optional activity- Students can write a description of their Picasso on a notecard that can be glued to the painting.

How I plan a K-2 lesson… Building Blocks- After the story

June 8, 2017 / Spanish - Mrs. Mitchell / Leave a comment

So, how do I plan a lesson for my Kindergarten – 2nd grade class?

Here is my first post about Building Blocks of my lessons- TPR.

Here is my second post about Building Blocks of my lessons- PQA.

Here is my third post about Building Blocks of my lessons- STORIES

BUILDING BLOCKS

Things that I continually use throughout a lesson.

So the story is over…now what?

Well, if it was a good storytelling day, then make the most of it.

If it wasn’t (and we have all been there), then we can still salvage it. Call it STORY REHAB.

There are lots of activities to choose, but here are some of my favorites. You can choose just one, 2 of them or all. It just depends on your goals.

Number 1 — DRAW THE STORY

As you retell the story, students draw the story on their paper. I use a simple 4 box storyboard.

4 box storyboard

I like to draw with them so that as I draw I can describe what I am drawing. And, many kids don’t know how to draw certain things like speech bubbles, expressions, and adding details. The very creative kids draw their ideas, and kids who need some extra support can look at my drawings to guide them.

What is great about this activity is all the extra repetitions the students hear, and it is a less stressful time for students to ask questions.

After you have the drawings, you can retell the story as students point to their drawings. You can then do it out of order to check listening comprehension. You could have some of the students try and tell about one frame in Spanish or all of them. I always make this optional and worth classroom points. (For more information on classroom points, see my observation notes of Annabelle Allen La Maestra Local)

Number 2 — Character Study

Which character?

If your story had 3 or more characters, then you either have students draw the characters separately or create a document quickly with google images or images free of copyrights on pixabay.com. Students then cut them out, or you can cut them out ahead of time.

Download PDF of the image above – Character Study Butterfly

Once students have all the images, you describe the character. For example, tell something they might say or something they do in the story to the class. Students listen and raise the picture or pictures of the characters matching your description.

Variations:

Put pictures of the characters around your room and students walk to the picture of the character you are describing.
Take the activity outside! Students draw the characters on the sidewalk with chalk, and then as you describe the character, they can jump on top of their drawings.
Now take those same images and students act out the story as you retell it. Or, as you retell the story, they hold up the character you are talking about at that time and switch throughout the story.

Number 3 — Parallel Story

I like to make a PowerPoint of a story that I can use year after year that is similar to the story I know I will tell or we will create as a class. Sometimes I have the story written out on the slides, or sometimes it is just the images. You can also check Storyteller’s Corner on TeachersPayTeachers for GREAT stories. I love to tell her stories in class and print them for my classroom library.

Below is a sample of one of the PowerPoints I have made.

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Number 4 — Act out the story again

Something great about little kids is they will love to act the the story. You can have another set of actors to act out the story, OR you can put the kids in groups and have the groups act out the story at the same time as you retell it. (All the World’s a Stage)

Number 5 — Musical Story Review

I love to turn on the music. It can change things enough to make it novel. So, turn on your favorite Spanish song. Students walk around the room. Then, when you stop the music, they listen for a sentence from the story that they then act out. For example, (stop music) “The butterfly flies to México” or “The snake says -I like the desert-” Of course you do this in the target language.

Number 6 — Drawing

I love this one when I have an unexpected 5 minutes left after telling a story.

Pass out half sheets, and have students draw:

OPTIONS

their favorite scene from the story. You can have requirements like there have to be 2 characters and/or the setting around the characters.
what happens next in the story OR maybe draw a spin-off scene (like in the story of “The King doesn’t have a mouth” the students draw HOW the king lost his mouth).
a story ending. Cut the story off before you end it. Your students draw the ending. For example “The boy opens his present, and it is ______ .”

Me gustan los colores. ¿Sabes porqué?

March 7, 2017March 6, 2017 / Spanish - Mrs. Mitchell / Leave a comment

I use Martina Bex’s curriculum for 6th-8th grade. In Unit 8 one of the target structures is “sabes.” I use a song called ¡Colores Colores! with my little students, and it fits well with this unit. It is a children’s song written for a younger audience, but I created resources to use the premise of why you might like a color.

The packet includes:

Lesson plans (2-3 days of class)
Lyric activity (match the color to the profession in the song)
2 readings- The first reading is about a child asking their family members why their grandmother likes the color purple. Each family member gives a different reason, and then questions the reader which one of the reasons seems correct. The second is the grandmother giving her reason.
Creative writing activity where students write their own verse

You can purchase the plans and resources HERE.

(**Side Note- This is based on a true story. My grandmother LOVES the color purple. So when I was thinking of a story to go along with this song, I immediately thought of her. I had to call her to ask because I had never asked why. It was because she remembers as a child going to church all the ladies who wore beautiful hats. Her aunt would come to visit and she had a big purple hat that was so beautiful next to her white hair.)

¡Pokémon Go! What I am doing in my classroom?

August 24, 2016 / Spanish - Mrs. Mitchell / 4 Comments

I learned at iFLT 2016 that using the interests of your students goes a LONG way to providing compelling input and building community. So I knew I wanted to do something with Pokémon Go. Here is what I have been doing in class and my future plans.

After the first few days of asking ¿Adónde fuiste? (Where did you go?) I went digging for Pokémon Go fanatics. Honestly it came up pretty naturally when I asked about their weekend. I found those who went Pokémon hunting.
I introduced vocabulary using Martina Bex’s dictionary page (I make one change by only having one box instead of two because I have my younger students just draw a picture)
- busca- he/she looks for
- ve- he/she sees
Then I projected some of their pictures from the dictionary page and ask questions. For example, one girl drew herself looking for her iPod but her little sister took it. Then I asked about other brothers and sisters that take things. Do you take things? I had a student that took their parent’s cellphone to play Pokémon Go. (HELLO! Brandon Brown dice la verdad!!)
I introduced MI AVENTURA- a PowerPoint of my adventure looking for Pokémon around the school (Circling and personalizing throughout the presentation). I told the story as if I didn’t know that Pokémon weren’t living in the real world and went looking for REAL Pokémon. I took pictures with me going into their classrooms and other rooms in the school. I used the PAST tense version for my older students and the PRESENT tense version for my little kids. Below are some slides I used. (If you are interested in the full PowerPoint then email me.) amitchell@berry.edu
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The next class time we went hunting for Pokémon with my iPad. I gave the students a map of the school and the grounds. They had a green and red color pencil to mark where we would find Pokémon. I realized pretty soon we needed to mark Poké Stops and Gyms too. As we walked around we watched Pokémon Go and marked when we found something and whether or not we caught Pokémon. Some students wanted to write the names of the Pokémon and others wanted to draw them. Some just wanted to mark a green check mark or a red X. See below my hunt with 4th grade.
So now students have a map that is marked with Pokémon, Poké Stops and Gyms. We will project the map and talk about it. (I plan to use buscamos- we looked for, vimos- we saw and había- there was/were but you could use encontrar or capturar) We will talk about where we saw different things, how many and describe the different Pokémon.
I haven’t gotten to this yet but my next plan is to write up a summary of the events that we read and possibly draw pictures. In the older classes we might write the summary together then illustrate.
Lastly I plan to use a Pokémon Go infographic to look for words we know and discuss the game.
I would also like students to log in to their Pokémon Go accounts on my iPad to show off their Pokémon collections. (Our school secretary is OBSESSED. So I would love for her to come show off her collection.)

What are you doing in your class? Here is a post by SraSpanglish with her great ideas. Kristy Placido has a FREE reading for older students.

¡PARA!- review game

August 24, 2016 / Spanish - Mrs. Mitchell / 1 Comment

I got this idea from Keith Toda when he wrote about a post reading activity called Stultus. He got the idea from James Hosler, a fellow CI Latin teacher in Ohio.

I took his idea and changed it to fit my K-8 Spanish classroom. There are two versions.

REVIEWING A STORY (Listening)

After telling a story in class, the teacher retells the story with actors (same kids or different) BUT……
As the teacher tells the story he/she purposely makes mistakes and changes the story.
As soon as the students hear the wrong information, they yell “¡PARA!” (he/she stops) or ¡PARE! (Stop!) Throwing up their hands with the motion to STOP!
Then students raise their hands to “fix” the mistake.
The teacher restates the correct sentence and then continues.
Sometimes I keep points. One point for the class for catching my mistake, and one point for me and the actors for getting a mistake by without them noticing.

** This is an AWESOME “game” to play after you have retold the story but want more repetitions. ESPECIALLY if you are working with pre-literate or emerging readers because they depend on the oral story more. (My 2nd graders LOVED yelling at me!)

** I like to ask the actors to help me so if they hear me say the wrong information they just do the wrong action to “throw off” the class. This makes them listen extra hard too. (ex. I say the character dances with the pizza instead of eating it.)

REVIEWING A STORY (Reading)

After reading the story in class, the teacher retells the story as it is projected or the students have the story in front of them.
As the teacher reads the story he/she purposely makes mistakes and changes the story.
As soon as the students hear the wrong information, they yell “¡PARA!” (he/she stops) or ¡PARE! (Stop!) Throwing up their hands with the motion to STOP!
Then students raise their hands to “fix” the mistake.
The teacher restates the correct sentence and then continues.

Mrs. Spanish's class

Trying to make it all comprehensible, one lesson at a time.

Listening Activity