ES
If you’ve seen the movie Coco, you may remember the scene in which Abuela Elena breaks Miguel’s guitar. Miguel’s family is ready to celebrate the Day of the Dead at home, where they’ve built a beautiful ofrenda. Then Miguel’s grandma breaks his guitar, and Miguel runs away. He ends up going to the cemetery to steal -or borrow- the guitar … Read More
Hacemos una ofrenda
I’m sure we all agree that learning by doing is one of the best educational strategies. So if you want your students to learn about El Día de Muertos, making an ofrenda is clearly the thing to do. It sounds simple. But hold your horses! If you decide to build an ofrenda, there are 2 risks you need to get … Read More
¿Qué es el Día de Muertos?
This is what you’ll see by the end of this super engaging lesson about the Day of the Dead: Your students will make beautiful photo frames to decorate the class. They’ll also describe those frames in Spanish. They’ll know what Day of the Dead is about: when, where, how and why it’s celebrated. They’ll learn the basic vocabulary related to … Read More
Excursiones en el eje cafetero
When tourists visit our home country (Spain), they don’t need to use big numbers. Most of the things they buy -train tickets, souvenirs, meals- cost less than €1,000. Unless they buy several expensive tickets to see Real Madrid or spend many days at a fancy hotel, bills will stay in the dozens or hundreds. Colombia, and most Spanish-speaking countries, are … Read More
15 sueños – Playlist
15 sueños is an engaging Spanish reader that uses comprehensible language, easy to understand for Novice level learners and above. It features 15 short stories that honor the achievements of fifteen inspiring Hispanic and Latino champions, such as Sonia Sotomayor, Celia Cruz or Diego Rivera. We’ve created a playlist that connects each of those champions to a song. In the … Read More
Mi barrio
We used to live in Alcorcón, Madrid (Spain), in a small apartment in a building block. There were many places we could easily just walk to: our school, the supermarket, the park… We live in Dover, Delaware (U.S.A.), now. We have a much larger house with our own yard. Even if our schools are really close, as well as other … Read More
Quiero ser… Auxiliar de vuelo
The title of my last school PD of the 2022/23 academic year was Student voice. Its goal was to encourage student participation and to come up with strategies that help us listen to their input. Why?Because when students are involved in the education process they’re more engaged. When they’re more engaged, there are less discipline problems and we can focus … Read More
15 sueños – A super engaging reader
I’m sure you’re familiar with this situation: We celebrate Hispanic heritage month. We talk about remarkable Latino champions. Students research, and they make posters and presentations. And yet by the end of the school year, names such as Sonia Sotomayor or Diego Rivera don’t ring any bells. Why? And how can we fix that situation? Meaningful learning is all about … Read More
Voy a ir a Cartagena
We designed this lesson to fix a problem in our classes. Talking about future plans with our students was a struggle. Plans for spring break, weekend plans, plans for their summer vacation… It didn’t matter. We got a lot of Voy a estar en casa. Voy a dormir. No lo sé. Some students really don’t know, or they don’t have … Read More
La Semana Santa
The two main celebrations in the Spanish-speaking countries are Christmas and Easter, and we have great resources for both of them. We chose Seville (Spain) to film our Semana Santa videos and we’re really glad about that decision. Seville is awesome during Easter. Bueno, it’s awesome at any time, but let’s say it’s even better during Semana Santa. Filming Seville’s … Read More