Acción de Gracias - Organizador Gráfico

I have a really good Thanksgiving activity that I wrote a few years ago and that I have for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers.  However, I cannot do it every year or else my Spanish 3 students from this year will be bored and annoyed with me next year in Spanish 4.  You know how it goes.

So this year I decided to share Thanksgiving vocabulary and talk a bit about traditions and food in class.  The discussion in second period was especially fun because we have an exchange student from Barcelona with us, and she has never experienced the holiday before.  Students were gushing about the deliciousness of pumpkin pie (mostly in Spanish!) and about how she was going to love stuffing.  When we were done discussing, I then asked my students to organize their thoughts into a graphic organizer.  We completed the activity with a brief writing about what we will eat and do on Thanksgiving, who we will see, and what we are grateful for.

I have a copy of the organizer here for you, of course.

And in case you are new around here at Confesiones y Realidades, I have posted a couple other Thanksgiving activities in years past.  Here are a few in case you are looking for something to do with your classes.

If you are feeling creative, you might want to do Verb Turkeys!  Good times, good times.

If you want to review vocabulary with your students, I have a Power Point.  It is editable, so you can add your own vocabulary and take out slides as you wish.

And the above-mentioned activity I have my students do alternating years is for sale at Teachers Pay Teachers.  It contains a reading with vocabulary, pre-reading, and comprehension activities.  It also contains a culminating activity in which students research Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico and plan a fiesta.  (Rumors are that there is a secret bonus file in the package too . . . shhh!)  It's a brilliant value for $2.50, if I do say so myself.

And in case you have little ones in your classes - ages 6-10 or thereabouts, I even have a fun packet for them available too.  It has puzzles, vocabulary, drawing, and coloring - all in Spanish, of course.

All in all, I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving wherever you are.  And I hope your students have fun exploring the holiday in Spanish.

Hasta pronto,

--AnneK

El Día de los Muertos - Las Calaveras

Did you ever have one of those days where you were going to decorate sugar skulls for Day of the Dead, but the night before, a panicked student texted you to let you know that she can't find the molds for the skulls and the ones in the store are too expensive?  Yes, I know.  That's probably just me.  But I had to think of something quickly so the whole fiesta wouldn't be a flop.

The solution?  Sugar cookies.

Though I will be the first to admit that these are not the most authentic sugar skulls that ever existed, we were still able to have fun and learn a little about Day of the Dead in the process.  And we didn't have sugar and meringue powder all over the classroom when we were done.

The night before your event, you make simple sugar cookies in an oval shape.  This works best if you split up the chore among several students, in case someone forgets or someone is not as good at baking as they claim.  *wink*

In class the next day, you frost the cookies with white icing and then decorate them with various colored icings to make them look like calaveras.

The colored frosting can be made easily by spooning white frosting into ziplock bags and adding a drop or two of food coloring.  You then seal up the bags and squish them around until the color mixes through. Cut a tiny little notch out of the corner of one of the bags and Bob's your uncle!  (That is slang for "Everything is great").

We made enough cookies for each student to have two.  It's more delicious that way, but it also is a learning process and it lets the kids experiment a bit without having to worry that they have ruined their cookie.

Have fun, amigos!

--AnneK