5th Grade Spelling Terms

Here are your ten words in flashcard form. Try playing the Space Race game to sharpen your spelling skills! http://quizlet.com/32739623/flashcards

Oral Exam Tutorials

Here's a link to me reading the passages you'll be asked to recite by Friday the 13th!

BAM!

Have a great weekend!

6th Grade Update

Flash cards for our new vocabulary can be found here. Run through them once and then try playing Space Race and get to Level 4.

A recording of the Lord's Prayer in Spanish can be found here. Write down the phonetic spelling of word's you don't know on the copy given to you.

Once you're finished to your satisfaction, try the link on the post below and sample the National Spanish Exam. Try to get at least 20% correct!

Practice NSE Achievement

7th Grade: Try to get at least 50% of this correct.

8th Grade: Try to get at least 80% of this correct.

http://www.quia.com/quiz/983522.html?AP_rand=1309305602

Show your score to Mr. Lobello when you're done. Remember: spelling counts!

6th Grade Test Review

Here are links concerning our Hobbies vocabulary.

• Flashcards
• Space Race! - Try and reach level 4!
• Game - Try and solve at least 10 puzzles.

Here are links concerning the grammar of the verb "gustar"

•  Lesson - Pay special attention to the box titled "Use of the singular form of gustar"
• Game - Try to reach $1,000,000 in this Rags to Riches quiz game.

Here are links concerning the grammar of verbs ending in AR.

• Lesson - Read this and see if there's anything you might not remember.
• Quiz - Take this quiz and try to get a 100

 Finally: How do you say the following sentences in Spanish?

• I am tall and strong.
• I am ten years old.
• She is beautiful and young.
• She is 16 years old.
• We have brown hair.
• We have blue eyes.

School Vocabulary

http://quizlet.com/29944207/classes-and-school-supplies-part-1-flash-cards/

Lord's Prayer

Here's a set of flash cards that can help your pronunciation of the Lord's Prayer in Spanish!

http://quizlet.com/27799837/flashcards


And here's me reciting it with a special guest!

New Vocabulary for 7th Grade

Click here for our new list of hobbies and pastimes.

BZAM!

6th Grade

This week, 6th grade will begin discussing parts of the body. On a piece of paper or in a word document, copy down the Spanish words and their English translations into your notes.

• Flash cards for vocabulary

 Once you're done with that, review them and play these games.

• Scatter
• Space Race

Seventh Grade

Tomorrow we'll have a short quiz on "tener" and body parts

• Flash cards for vocabulary
• Flash cards for the forms of the verb "tener"

Today I want you to do the following:

• Complete this activity.
• Take this quiz 

Once you've done all that, you can put the finishing touches on your project.

If you are finished with your project try this out.

The National Spanish Exam will be administered in March, however, below is a link to last year's NSE. You can put your name in it and give it a try. At the point we're at now, you should aim for about 40% correct. As always, focus on what you KNOW and try to learn about what you got wrong.

• 2012 National Spanish Exam - Achievement
• 2012 National Spanish Exam - Proficiency (requires headphones)

Scratch Project

Pong Project!

More fun with the verb "ser"

6th grade is not quite through using "ser" and 5th grade has just begun (ask your older siblings for help with this tricky section!)

• Flash cards on the meanings
• Flash cards on conjugation

Recall that we DO use the "vosotros" form of the verb even though most sites don't.

Body Parts Vocabulary

This week 7th grade starts body parts.

• Flash cards for vocabulary
• Flash cards for the forms of the verb "tener"

Alphabet Project

Rubric found here.

Practice with ser

Flash cards!!!

Ser vs Estar

Hey Eighth Grade, listen up!

Here's a practice quiz from our friends at the National Spanish Exam! (note: this quiz also includes the verb "hacer" for weather expressions, which we'll be doing later in the year)

Here's a podcast from our friends at Notes in Spanish!

Remember that our projects are due tomorrow and we'll test over this grammar and our vocabulary the next week!

Scratch Project

Shooter Project

PDF: Project

Practice with adjectives and the verb "ser"

For those of you still having trouble with noun-adjective agreement:

• Read this
• Take this quiz and see how you do.

 For those of you still having trouble with the verb "ser"

• Read this.
• Do this activity and see how you do

And for those who are still working with their adjectives:

• Take a look at these flashcards

New Vocabulary

It seems like everyone and their brother (literally in this case) is talking about adjectives in Spanish. Let's make sure we're all on the same page.

• Adjectives describing physical description
• Find some flashcards here!
• Adjectives describing personality traits 
• Find some flashcards here!

Eighth Grade is doing something a little different. Their new stuff can be found in the Eighth Grade Portal (see above).

And here's a picture of Mr. Lobello joining 900 other fans in an attempt to break the world record of number of people dressed in Star Trek costumes!

Well you've gone and breached the temporal prime directive again.

7th and 8th Grade

For the first few weeks, as we review and get the basics down, 7th and 8th grade will be covering some of the same things, albeit at different paces with different contexts. Such as below (click the links for practice activities!)

• Numbers 1-100
• Definite Articles (el, la, los, las)
• Indefinite Articles (un, una, unos, unas)
• Changing words from singular to plural

We quiz over these on Thursday, so practice, practice, practice!

Fifth and Sixth Grade

Sixth Grade has some new grammar to think about!

• Pronunciation and Spelling in Spanish
• Gender and Number in Spanish Nouns

Remember also that Sixth Grade has a quiz on the following items (the links lead to flash cards!):

• Numbers 1-199
• Ordinal numbers 1st - 10th
• Greeting and introductions

Fifth Grade has some new vocabulary:

• Numbers 1-199

 And they have a short quiz on their greetings and introductions (flash cards linked to above!)

And here's a picture of a killer whale with a kitty face!

Try giving me a belly rub now. Try it.

Tips on Reading Comprehension Questions

Throughout the year in all middle school grades, we look at various reading-comprehension exercises. Here are some tips to make your experience successful!

• Don't panic! You are not expected to understand every word of the text.
  
• Take a positive approach to your reading. Concentrate on what you do understand, not on the difficult words and phrases.
  
• Have a good look at the title of the text as well as any illustrations. They may give you some important clues. Most importantly, read the question(s) carefully and use that as a guide when reading through the passage.
  
• Read the whole text before attempting to answer any questions. It is usually better to read the text twice at a brisk pace, than to struggle along once, slowly.
  
• Be clear as to exactly what each question wants. For example, should you be picking out precise details (for example, the date of someone's birthday) or should you be reading the whole passage in order to draw some broad conclusions (for example, a comparison of two people's attitudes to television)?

Be aware of different ways of finding out the meaning of words. For example:

• Can you guess the meaning of a difficult word in a sentence if you understand what all the other words mean?
  
• Can you find similarities between Spanish and English words? (e.g., farmacia = pharmacy)
  
• Can you find links with other Spanish words? (eg una mesa = a table: una mesilla = a small table)
  
• Are you aware of language patterns? (e.g., 're' in front of a word often means again: recomenzar = to start again)
  
• Use your knowledge of grammar. For example, if you can identify a plural, a verb tense, an adjective, an adverb or a preposition, you will be in a better position to make an intelligent guess at a meaning.
  
• Use your knowledge of Spanish-speaking countries. For example, knowing about Spanish food or the music of Mexico could be very useful if your passage falls in one of those categories.
  
• If you have to write answers in Spanish, be as clear as possible; but remember you will not be penalized for small mistakes when the point of the exercise is reading comprehension.
  
• Don't spend too long on a difficult item. Come back to it later.

Now decide which strategies will work best for you and practice using them as much as you can! The more you practice them, the more you are likely to remember to use them during the exercises.

Seventh Grade

Behold!

• Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers
• Greetings and Introductions

Remember also our lessons on cognates and Romance Languages. They'll show up again and again as days go by!

The Fedora's days have gone by. Gone.

La Primera Semana

The first week of school saw an open house, a retreat to a cub scout camp, a few pre-tests, and even some actual Spanish (yay!).

So what did we do?

Fifth Grade:

• Greetings and Introductions! 

Sixth Grade:

• Greeting and Introductions (Spelling Quiz on first 10 items on Tuesday the 13th)
• Numbers 1 - 100 

Eighth Grade

• Vocabulary Review (pay special attention to the verbs!)
• Verb Conjugation Review

Seventh Grade's first day was mostly devoted to working through the syllabus and taking our pre-test. Speaking of pre-tests: I'm going to hold onto them for the next couple of weeks and then we'll take it again. We'll see how much we learned and compare it to how much we remembered from over the summer!

In conclusion: Grumpy Cat

El Gato Desagradable

Welcome Back!

The First Days of School are upon us! Let's dive in, shall we?

Below are links to digital copies of useful documents for the beginning of the year. Each student will receive one of these on the first day of class, but a digital copy is always helpful!

• Sixth Grade Scope and Sequence
• Sixth Grade Syllabus
• Seventh Grade Scope and Sequence
• Seventh Grade Syllabus
• Eighth Grade Scope and Sequence
• Eight Grade Syllabus

PLEASE NOTE that all Scope and Sequences are subject to change in the days leading up to Curriculum Night!

Listening Exercises

Click here for a link to an example of what you can expect to be on this Friday's test in the listening section!

Burrito Bison!

Past Tense!


Present Tense!

Los Caminos Felices

Can you feel the sweet breeze coming down the cold, stone walls? That means we're getting close to the exit of this cave!

Quickly, to the bridge!

 So as we wrap up the year, let's make sure you leave this school with a solid foundation for what's coming up next year:

Eight Grade:

• The Preterite Tense concerns actions that happened over a set period of time.
• Overview, overview, overview!
• Moar reading to do!
• Practice!
• Moar practice!
• Even MOAR practice! (multiple choice)

Seventh Grade:

• Spanish Food!
• Here's a video about fruits and vegetables!
• Let's compare things that are inequal!
• Let's also compare things that are the same!

 Sixth Grade

• Family members vocabulary! 
• click above for flashcards!
• Possessive adjectives and the word "de"!

Sigue estudiando! Yupi!

Bienvenidos de Nuevo - Welcome Back!

It's almost been a month since this blog has seen an update. Let's check out what's going on in the old internet and perhaps we'll meet some people with a little more devotion to their little corner of the internet...

• Vocabat is an AWESOME site that recounts the learning experiences of a young American woman named Katie who lived in Colombia for several years. Spanish is a part of her everyday life and she writes about culture clashes, misunderstandings, and confusing moments for a non-native speaker even after several years.
• Notes in Spanish are the ongoing conversations between Ben, a former British subject who moved to Spain 10 years ago with very little knowledge of the language, and his wife Marina, a Madrid native. Listen to their slow-paced conversations and in-depth analysis for a real taste of authentic Spanish from its mother country, Spain.
• Señora Hirschman's YouTube Channel is full of student projects and various songs from around the Spanish-speaking world and around the language learning spectrum. What a great resource for the curious learner.

I think it might be a neat idea to post some advice here on various aspects of language learning along with our normal vocabulary lists, grammatical points, and project rubrics. Anything you think might be of help?

The National Spanish Exam

It's happening this year! For realsies! The National Spanish Exam is an online assessment that gauges both academic achievement (vocabulary and grammar knowledge) and language proficiency (reading and listening) for second language learners. The testing schedule is as follows:

• Achievement - Grammar and Vocabulary
• Seventh Grade - Tuesday - 8:30 to 9:20
• Eighth Grade - Thursday - 11:01 to 11:51
• Proficiency - Reading and Listening
• Seventh Grade - Wednesday 12:35 to 1:20
• Eighth Grade - Friday 11:01 to 11:51

It's vital that all students bring a pair of headphones  for the Proficiency portion of the exam in order to provide a quiet testing environment and to allow students to go at their own pace.

6th Grade Unit 6

Our vocabulary can be found here:

http://quizlet.com/18508662/middle-spanish-clothes-flash-cards/

How to use the verb llevar can be found here:

http://www.123teachme.com/spanish_verb_conjugation/llevar

The following has a list of Spanish interrogatives and how they should be used:

http://www.spanishdict.com/topics/show/48

And here's a quick reference for your interrogatives!

http://quizlet.com/647828/spanish-interrogatives-flash-cards/

And here's a picture of Alt Hip Hop artist Talib Kweli!

I call these cats Reynolds cuz they plastic wrap

Indirect Object Practice!

The following websites will hopefully help the concept of indirect object pronouns become clearer!

This flash-based presentation gives a concise explanation of some words like "gustar" that almost always used indirect object pronouns. Refresh your memory and apply it to our current lesson!

http://www.myspanishgames.com/fun-Spanish-grammar/indirect-object-pronouns.html

"Rags to Riches" is a Java game based game asking you to figure out which pronoun would best fit to replace the indirect object of the sentences. Try to win a million dollars!

http://www.quia.com/rr/226636.html

This Sporcle game asks you to come up with the correct pronoun given certain indirect objects. Try to beat Mr. Lobello's score of 1:26!

http://www.sporcle.com/games/bquarnstrom/indirect-object-pronouns-in-spanish

Finally, take one of the quizzes in the links below to see how well you understand the difference between the indirect object and the direct object, and how well you can distinguish the subject from the indirect object pronoun.

http://www.studyspanish.com/practice/iopro1.htm

http://www.quia.com/quiz/154722.html?AP_rand=1929799644

And here's a picture of a lizard with a hat!

I hate this hat. I hate it.

 

Practice with Stem Changing Verbs!

Here's a set of flash cards focusing on our vocabulary:

http://quizlet.com/20016902/stem-changing-verbs-flash-cards/

Here's a pleasing-to-the-eye concentration game that won't give you headaches at all!

http://www.quia.com/cc/1071770.html

Here's a fun driving game that makes you think on your feet about conjugation. Don't crash!

http://spellic.com/eng/driving-game/stem-changing-verbs.137624.html?

This typing game uses some stem-changing verbs we haven't talked about yet. Try your best to get what you can!

http://www.sporcle.com/games/vic3233/verbosconcambioradical

Here's a quiz you should take to test your knowledge!

http://www.studyspanish.com/practice/stemie.htm

Here's a picture of my dog wearing sunglasses!

Eyyyyy...

Mas, mas, y mas tarjetas de repaso!

Here are more flashcards for telling time (I made these!)

http://quizlet.com/19320139/telling-time-flash-cards/

Annnnd here are flashcards for our months and days.

http://quizlet.com/19319002/days-and-months-flash-cards/

Also: here's a great website that talks about saying the date in Spanish

http://spanish.about.com/od/writtenspanish/qt/dates.htm

And here's a picture of a killer whale baby!

Harrooooo!!!! 

Writing Assignment!

The sixth grade class has a writing assignment they're working on for the next week and a half. It's due on February 12th and will be put in the gradebook as a summative assignment!

Check out the rubric here!

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B8KUqUeBDWcJS0F5UFFKY0EwRlU/edit

Flash Cards!

The verb poder!

http://quizlet.com/19097203/the-verb-poder-flash-cards/

Verbs with Irregular Yo forms!

http://quizlet.com/19096475/verbs-with-irregular-yo-forms-flash-cards/

The present progressive tense!

http://quizlet.com/19098147/the-present-progressive-tense-flash-cards/

Commands with direct object pronouns!

http://quizlet.com/19102426/commands-and-direct-object-pronouns-flash-cards/

Telling Time in Spanish (These were made by another Quizlet user. There may be some terms we, as a class, haven't seen.)

http://quizlet.com/16110993/ch2-spanish-time-flash-cards/

Saying the date in Spanish (These were made by another Quizlet user. There may be some terms we, as a class, haven't seen.)


http://quizlet.com/15229401/exp-languages-spanish-dates-flash-cards/

Sample Project

Here's an example of the project we're looking to complete for 8th Grade this quarter. [RUBRIC]


And here's an example of the project we're looking to complete for 7th grade! [RUBRIC]

A Long and Lustrous Winter

We have effectively finished Unit 4 in all our Middle School classes. The last step is the following!

8th Grade has a writing assignment due on Tuesday, January 22nd.

You can find the rubric here.

We'll begin our next units next week. They will be as follows.

Eight Grade: 

• Vocabulary -  Chores / Things to do around the house 
• Grammar – Commands with direct object pronouns 
• Grammar – The present progressive tense  

Seventh Grade

• Vocabulary - Places and Things inside and around the house
• Grammar - the  verbs poder and querer
• Grammar - Verbs with irregular "yo" forms

Sixth Grade

• Vocabulary - Days, Months, and the Date
• Vocabulary - Places to go
• Conversation - "Donde" and "Cuando"
• Conversation - Telling Time in Spanish

La Animacion!

This is only a test.

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Hola mis estudiantes!

Entering the year 2013 we have some exciting new units we're covering!

Eighth Grade:

• Spell-changing Verbs 
• Homework for this found here.
•  Clothing (New and Old)
• Direct object pronouns
• Our notes to be found here.
• Practice sheet from class can be found here.

Seventh Grade:

• The verbs "ir" and "jugar"
• Clauses with two verbs
•  Sports, Equipment, and Places

Sixth Grade:

• Things to do in your free time
• Describing obligations, abilities, wants, and the immediate past with helping verbs.
• Homework for this found here.

Nunca paren hablar español!