Especies en Peligro de Extinción - Spanish Substitute Lesson

My Spanish 4 class is doing a unit on conservation and ecology right now, and one of the terms on their vocabulary list is las especies en peligro de extinción.

I decided that I wanted to create a multimedia activity for them to do to end the week, so I focused on finding a video about various endangered species.  I thought it would prove informative as well as interesting, but ultimately there were three types of videos I found: 1) Those that were very well made but entirely too long and involved for this sort of activity, 2) Those that were filled will all sorts of nonsense and species of animals that do not exist, and 3) Those that were too simple for my level 4 students.  *sigh*

 I found one video that was about three minutes long and had some good information, but it really contained very little in the way of Spanish.  The names of the animals show up on the screen in Spanish, but there is no voice over - so it doesn't provide any authentic listening practice, which kind of defeats the purpose of the activity . . . . Still, I decided to make the activity anyway.  Not everything has to be super hard, I suppose.  Click here or on the image above to download the activity.

And when I finished it up I realized that, because the video is so easy to understand, this activity could be completed easily by any Spanish student that had had at least the first semester of level 1.  This means that it will make a great substitute lesson - provided your students have access to technology, of course. This particular activity will not translate well to paper, though I suppose you could always try.

I hope it is useful to you and, as always, if you do find a place for it in your classroom - I'd love to hear from you!

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

Feliz Viernes

I try to have a cute little graphic or joke to start each class.  It's fun to start the lesson with a smile on our faces, after all.  In theory it sounds great but honestly sometimes that it the hardest part of the lesson for me.  Finding something that is accessible and also funny can be tricky, so some days we just get a cute little "Happy Friday" or the equivalent.  Here are a couple cute ones I found yesterday while looking about:

I sometimes feel a little guilty about TGIF jokes because, at least on some level, it makes it seem like I don't want to be at school with my students.  Hopefully that isn't the message they are getting.  Most days I love my job and I'm happy to do it, but weekends are still fun.  Right?

And these cute little graphics have nothing to do with Friday, but still came up on my search for some reason.  I do wish the one with Frida were in Spanish but it's adorable and positive, so here goes:

¡Feliz viernes, amigos!

--AnneK