senoracmt

I must be crazy!!!

My Spanish club is great!  We always have a big fall fundraiser and so we are able to do a lot of fun activities!  Some are not school related (6 Flags Fright Fest and Ice Skating), some are definitely school related (celebrating holidays, SSH initiation).  This week we are using Spanish club funds to celebrate Dia (sorry no accents on laptop) de Reyes.

In Spanish 1 we did a short story about the Reyes Magos in which we (hopefully) acquired some vocabulary like they came, gifts, they saw a star, etc… We made paper shoes on Friday and left them over the weekend for the Kings!  Tonight the Kings will fill the shoes (this is a lot like Christmas Eve was!!! I am too tired to go to my classroom and do it but I have a lot of excited kids waiting on this!)  We have already discussed what they got for Christmas, what Santa puts in their stockings, etc… Tomorrow we’ll look in their shoes and compare what Santa brought to what the kings brought!

In Spanish 3 (here’s the I’m crazy part) we are going to make Rosca de Reyes….. We have also discussed Dia de Reyes, we have talked about the significance of the cakes, we have talked about the little baby inside… Now it is time to make the real thing!  I gave them a printed recipe and we watched a youtube video that demonstrated each step.  Tomorrow we head to the home ec room 3rd hour to put the ingredients together and get the bread started rising… lunch hour I have some volunteers coming in to punch it down and form the rings… 6th hour will bake the bread and while it is baking will cut the fresh fruit for decoration!  I am hoping that we’ll have 4 delicious Rosca to eat during our Channel One news at the end of the day but we’ll see!! 🙂  I’ll let you know how it turns out!  Someone very smart suggested that I make a rough draft ring at home so that I could work out any bugs but I just don’t have time this afternoon so we are totally winging it!

Spanish 4 has already studied Dia de Reyes and they are just at the end of a unit on Peru.  We are having a market in class tomorrow!  They spent Thursday and Friday in a full class discussion of bargaining words like expensive, cheap, a deal, a discount, I want it, I don’t want it, that’s too much, etc…. Each time they participated they earned one of my Teacher’s Discovery 5 euro bills to spend in the market.  In addition, we watched several videos online about bargaining and I gave them some little cultural quiz questions that were worth bonus euros… Ex. I found a video from the Monty Python movie Life of Brian in Spanish.  Brian doesn’t want to bargain because he is being chased!  They watched the segment and answered 6 simple questions like What did Brian buy?  Why was he running?  Why was the owner of the stand mad?  I added up all their fake euros and had my student helpers make little envelopes of money for each kid.  With Spanish club funds I bought food, drinks, school supplies, make up stuff, etc. and they’ll have to bargain for the items as they buy them in class.  The better deals they get, the more they can buy!

If I survive the day tomorrow, I’ll let you know how it all turned out! 😉  Wish me luck!  Let me know if you want more info about anything!

Published by senoracmt

I began teaching Spanish in Illinois in 1994. I have taught levels 1-4 in a small rural high school, 8th grade introductory Spanish, Biology 1, and 101 and 102 at the community college level. My Spanish classes are partnered with the community college to offer students 8 semester hours of dual credit on completion of Spanish 4. In 2011 I met Carol Gaab and Kristy Placido and have since co-authored the book "La hija del sastre" with Carol Gaab and authored the novels "La Calaca Alegre", "Bianca Nieves y los 7 toritos." "Vector," "48 horas","Bananas", "Sostenible", and "Papálotl" through Fluency Matters. In 2006 I became National Board certified and I have been serving as a mentor both for candidates seeking certification in world languages other than English and a virtual mentor for candidates in all certificate areas. I completed my Masters degree in Spanish education in 2011 and did my research on the use of Understanding by Design to create meaningful cultural units for the language classroom. I am a frequent presenter on this topic, please consider me if you are interested in a workshop on backward design. In 2013 I was named the ICTFL Foreign Language teacher of the year and in 2014 I was selected as CSCTFL's teacher of the year. In November of 2014 I was lucky enough to be one of the five finalists for the ACTFL National Teacher of the Year in San Antonio, TX. What a "Cinderella" experience! You can reach me via email at carrie at somewheretoshare dot com.

4 comments

  1. it makes me feel better to know that other people have these days too!!! Last year my seniors created a Kings’ Day celebration for the 8th grade classes complete with Rosca and shoes and (real) hay! It’s best not to overthink it and just enjoy every minute!!

    I’m hysterical that you brought up that scene from Life of Brian!! Mira Canion and I were just talking about that movie last night!!!!! What are the chances?! I saw that movie for the first time in a huge movie theater in Madrid…as a new release…subtitled in Spanish. My friends and I were the only ones in hysterics in the theater…some humor translates better than others lol.

    Feliz Dia de los Reyes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( de mi laptop tambien jejeje)

    with love,
    Laurie

    Reply

  2. Well….how did it go? Are you still charged from an exciting day or did you crash on the sofa?

    Could you post the link to the video you used for Rosca de Reyes? I found one I really like that is in Spanish, but I know a few weeks ago someone shared a link of another one I liked that I can’t find now.

    Cynthia

    Reply

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