I'm excited to read Bianca nieves y los 7 toritos by Carrie Toth this year with my 8th graders! In my backwards planning I read through the novel and pulled out all of the structures/words that I need to pre-teach to my students. I found a great video about guinea pigs in Ecuador that I used with the following structures:

• cuidaba a
• sufría 
• cariño
• vivía

I showed the video using a MovieTalk format, pausing and asking the students a lot of questions while we were watching. The video sparked some great conversations in my class. Do these guinea pigs suffer? Does María (main woman in the video) actually care for the guinea pigs with love and affection? After watching the video I gave the students an infographic (inspired by this infographic, but modified with comprehensible language). Students worked in pairs to read the infographic and answer comprehension questions.

I'm still feeling inspired by Carol Gaab's workshop at Comprehensible Midwest about using higher level thinking skills in the classroom. I gave the students the following statements that they had to put them in a venn diagram, comparing and contrasting María with themselves. It was great to see the students realize how much they had in common with María.

Next, we played Possible or Probable? (posible o probable), also inspired by Carol Gaab. I projected the statements below one at a time and on their whiteboards the students had to ask wether each statement was possible or probable. I loved this activity because there wasn't a right or wrong answer. It created a platform in class for everyone to express their opinions, but they had to support their answers with information they saw in the video or read in the infographic. It was awesome to see students engage in debates in the target language!

What are some activities you use in class to engage students in higher level thinking?

Thank you to all of the organizers of the first ever Comprehensible Input Midwest (CIMW) conference! Not only did I leave the conference refreshed with tons of great ideas, but I also scored a few free novels thanks to TPRS Publishing and TPRS Books. This conference was unique because I got a chance to connect with local CI teachers AND see presentations from superstars such as Stephen Krashen and Carol Gaab! I presented a session titled Turning the Page: Reading in the Lower Levels which focused on backwards planning strategies for novels and activities you can do to keep your students engaged while reading. Below is a pdf of my session and some ideas from other presentations that I am excited to use in my classroom.

The conference started out with a presentation from the one and only Stephen Krashen! Here are some powerful thoughts from his presentation:  

•  We all know about pop-up grammar, but what about pop-up theory? Pop-up theory is when we teach students about second language acquisition theory. Have you even told students to pay attention to the visual aids that you post for them during your lessons? You might not have known it, but this was a pop-up theory lesson! When you told your students to focus on visuals you were actually teaching them that context is an important aspect of language acquisition. 
• Krashen said, "If a lot of language is happening everyone gets what they need." Since my transition to middle school I have been nervous about meeting the needs of my fast processing students as well as my barometer students. Krashen eased my worries because in a Comprehensible Input (CI) classroom everyone is naturally getting their i+1 simply due to the fact that so much of the target language is being spoken in class. 
• We can't teach grammar in a pre-determined order! The rules of language are too complicated! This means we need to throw away grammar syllabi and notions that we should be teaching a specific gramatical topic during a specific year. When we use CI grammar occurs in a natural order. 

This session really got me thinking about the types of tasks I use in my classroom. During this session Carol stated that we need to "decide what we want to occupy our student's cognitive capacity." When I apply this statement to Bloom's Taxonomy on the left, I can see that I need to focus on creating more activities that use the upper skills. During this presentation Carol proved that you don't need to use complex language to talk about complex ideas. Teachers simply need to give students the language they need in order to process and respond to the questions they are being asked. Below are some of Carol's ideas that I have already implemented in my classroom this past week!

• Possible or Probable: Ask students questions that require them to draw inference from the text. These questions are great because they have no "right" or "wrong" answer. Students simply find evidence from the text to support wether the statement is possible or probable. For example we just finished telling the story of the music video Soy yo by Bomba Estero. After reading the story I asked students questions such as: Do the girls on the street have a lot of friends? Does Carmen (that is what I named the star of the video) practice the recorder a lot? Would Carmen win a dance competition? These questions have no correct answer so students have to critically analyze the text and video to come up with facts to support their answer. 
• Venn Diagram: After watching the "Soy yo" video students had to compare and contrast Carmen (the star of the video) to themselves. Students put the following statements in a venn diagram to evaluate their similarities and differences with Carmen: no se preocupa por las opiniones de otras personas, juega al básquetbol, toca la flauta, le gusta bailar, lleva overoles, tiene estilo. Again, this task gave students the opportunity to analyze their own lives and compare them to Carmen. 
• Predictions: After each chapter (or at the end of a class if you didn't finish a story) have the students make predictions about what they think will happen next. Students write their prediction in a chart labeled 'prediction/fact', and when they find out what actually happens they write it under 'fact.' Carol wrote an entire post about how she uses predictions in CI Peek. 

Who else was at Comprehensible Midwest? Did you learn any ideas that you are excited to implement in your classroom this month?

I am now a middle school teacher! At the end of last school year a position at the middle school in my district opened up, so this year I am teaching 7th and 8th grade students. Although it has only been a couple of weeks I am loving the change. My students can speak so much Spanish! I am blown away by their creativity and willingness to express themselves! My brain is already spinning thinking of endless possibilities of activities that I can do with them this year. 

Over the summer I was inspired by the infographic syllabi that I have seen online so I decided to give it a try. I used Piktochart to create a new syllabus for both my 7th and 8th grade classes. I wanted to keep the information concise so I stuck to the following topics: contact information, class overview, classroom expectations, materials and goals. The "I can" goals are from Dustin Williamson's blog. Piktochart was easy to use, but in order to download the syllabus into a printable PDF I had to purchase an account ($20 if you are a teacher).   

To start off the year I was inspired by Allison Wienhold's blog Mis Clases Locas. On her first day of class Allison sets up an Instagram photo booth where her students can take photos upon entering class. I decided that an Instagram photo would be a great way for students to introduce themselves and choose a Spanish name. First, I had to create my school specific Instagram photo frame. I used this Instagram template to create my photo booth. After some fancy photoshop magic I took the finished product to Walgreens where I printed it onto a poster-sized foam core. Voilá, one life-sized photo frame!
On the first day of class I handed out a list of popular Spanish names. Each student had to pick a Spanish name and write a hashtag that represented how they were feeling about the first day of school. Students had the option to write their own hashtag or choose from options such as #necesitocafé, #odioloslunes, #megustaespañol, #megustaelverano, #tengosueño. On a piece of paper they wrote their Spanish name (in true Instagram fashion they put the @ symbol in front of their name) and their hashtag. When it was their turn to take a picture, students had the option to put on glasses and hats from my prop bins. Once they had their props on, each student introduced him/herself to the class (we all said hello using that person's Spanish name), read his/her hashtag and then I took the picture. Of course the student photos turned out better than mine, but the picture below will give you an idea of what the end result looked like.   

Like what you see? Download the template for your own Instagram photo booth. 

I printed out all of the student photos and put them on the bulletin board outside of my classroom for back to school night. The students and parents loved looking at all of the pictures! I loved that this activity gave the students an opportunity to learn their classmate's Spanish names and express their own feelings about coming back to school. It was also a great way to break the ice and show the students that this is a class where you can express yourself and have fun! 
​What are your favorite beginning of the year activities? 

It has been 90 degrees here in Chicago and I work in a building without any air conditioning... needless to say, this week has been a struggle! At this point in the year my students think that videos are much more interesting than I am, so I decided to embrace this and do a MovieTalk for the last week of school. This hysterical animated film is called Rollin' Safari - What if animals were round?. It has just the right amount of humor and excitement to keep my students engaged during the last stretch of school.  

With the use of some strategic pausing this video can create a lot of drama and suspense in class. We did class voting on topics such as 'Will the crocodile eat the flamingos?' or 'What animal is going to jump out of the water?'. Here are some of the structures I used for this video:

• nada
• se cae
• quiere comer
• tiene hambre
• bebe
• tiene sed
• corre
• casi agarra

All of my students loved this video! Next week we are going to create our own African Safari outside and dramatize scenes from the video. Anyone else have ideas on how to keep students (and teachers for that matter) engaged during this last stretch of school?

Back in November I was inspired by Martina Bex's session on teaching language through culture at ACTFL. In her presentation, Martina took us through the steps of how to take a cultural product, practice or perspective and create an entire comprehensible input (CI) friendly unit. After her presentation I was inspired to create a CI unit for the Reyes Magos and the result was awesome. It was great to watch my students be engaged while learning about cultural practices! Since that lesson I've dropped the ball...I was busy reading novels with my 3rd and 4th graders and doing typical CI stories and activities with my 1st and 2nd graders. But when I was spending the last of my curriculum budget for the year I found an amazing lesson on the encierro de toros (the running of the bulls) from Martina Bex. Martina already did the work for me by creating an informative presentation with pictures that explains the encierro de toros in comprehensible Spanish (thank you Martina!). I did take some liberties in paring down the language even further for my 2nd graders, but since I am new to this whole CI/culture thing it was great to have Martina's work as a starting point.

After my students learned about the history of the running of the bulls, I created a story about a young girl named Sofía that goes to Pamplona and participates in this exciting event. I tried to find images on Storybird that would fit with the story I wanted to tell, but I didn't see anything that matched the story I had in my mind. I ended up taking images from Google and creating a Where's Waldo-esque story that includes the following high frequency structures: 

• camina hacia/corre hacia 
• sube/baja
• se pone
• tiene miedo
• prende
• ve

This story was a hit with my students! What kind of kid wouldn't want to act out the part of the bulls chasing people down the streets of Pamplona!? After we read and acted out the story I saw a project on the Spanish Cuentos website that I wanted to try. If you are not familiar with this site you really should check it out! The website has a variety of different hand drawn videos that are compelling AND focus on high frequency structures! Jackpot! They charge a small fee to unlock all of the videos (I think I paid about $20), but I've used it enough that it was definitely worth it.. On the website there is a video of a very creative digital storytelling project. In the description of the project it says that students were asked to create a story in class using high frequency words. Once the story was written each group made characters and other paper props for their story. After the props were created one student narrated the story (no reading allowed), one student videotaped, and another student manipulated the props. The result was awesome!

I applied this project to my 'Aventura de Sofía' story for my 2nd and 3rd graders. I broke up my students into small groups and gave each group a list of props that they were responsible for making for the story (each separate group made all of the props and recorded a their own story). I gave each group one iPad and one student was responsible for filming the story while the other group members manipulated the props. Instead of having a student narrate the story I decided to read it aloud (this simplified the project for me because it allowed all of the groups to videotape at the same time). The next class period we had a viewing party where the students got to watch all of the videos from their class. 

In his book The Power of Reading, Stephen Krashen says "Language acquisition comes from input, not output, from comprehension, not production" (p 136). Even though most teachers agree that reading is a powerful way to provide students with the input that is required for language acquisition, many teachers are hesitant to being reading a novel with their students. As a teacher who teaches four different levels and around eight classes a day, I'm here to assure you of one thing: novels are your friend, not your enemy! For me, using novels has been a total lifesaver for the following reasons:  

• Novels provide a clear map of the vocabulary structures that I need to teach throughout the year. When I meet teachers who are thinking of making the switch to Teaching with Comprehensible Input (T/CI) they often ask me "How do you know what vocabulary structures to teach?". In the lower grades I focus heavily on Terry Waltz's Super 7 (the verbs that express location, existence, possession, identity, preference, motion and volition), but after these structures are acquired it is easy to get overwhelmed with the possibilities of what to teach next. This is where novels come in--I backwards plan to teach the novel by pulling out vocabulary structures that are in the book. Not only does this make it so my students can confidently read the novel, but is also gives me focus and structure in my lesson plans throughout the year.  
• Reading a novel in Spanish is exciting! I can write stories and print them on printer paper until I'm blue in the face, but when they are holding an actual book in their hands that is written in Spanish it is exciting! 
• Two words: Teacher's guides. Teaching a novel makes my lesson planning a breeze because I can pull activities and ideas from the teacher's guide for the novel. I have to give huge props to TPRS Publishing because their teacher's guides are awesome! They have quizzes, games, cultural activities, picture slideshows, discussion questions and video clips that relate to the novel. 

My 4th graders are currently reading Las aventuras de Isabela by Karen Rowan. I spent months pre-teaching the vocabulary words so that my students could read straight through this novel. In my experience, pre-teaching the vocabulary makes it so when you read the novel you don't lose momentum and the class can get lost in the story! 
This book is set in México and offers opportunities to explore different cultural topics. As a teacher it was awesome to expose my students to such a wide variety of authentic resources while reading this book! Check out my top 3 cultural resources for this book:

1. This video of Guanajuato takes you up the steps of the University of Guanajuato, into the Basilica and down the streets of the city. It provides the students with a great visual of what the city looks like. 
2. I loved showing this street view of the steps of Universidad de Guanajuato when my students were reading chapter 2. It made the scene with the students running up and down the steps come alive.  
3. My favorite resources was this video of a panadería in México. All of my students were starving after seeing all of the pan dulce!
   
   

Besides including compelling and authentic cultural resources, here are some other activities that kept my students engaged while reading the book:

• Freeze Frame
  In secret, the teacher selects a sentence from the text and calls up students to act out that sentence (the number of actors depends on the number of characters in the sentence you select). The actors read the sentence, but the rest of the class doesn't know what it is. The students have a copy of the text in front of them and the teacher tells the students what page the sentence is found on. The actors then act out the sentence, but there is a catch: the action of the sentence is frozen in time. The class looks at the 'frozen' actors and tries to find the exact sentence that is being acted out (remember, you told them which page to look on). The students raise their hand when they have found the sentence--the student that finds the correct sentence gets to be the next actor.
•  Freeze Frame 2.0
  The students are in pairs and the teacher reads a sentence from the novel and the students act out the sentence with their partner. When the teacher rings a bell the students have to freeze where they are and the teacher comes around and take pictures of the students in their frozen poses. When the game is done, the teacher projects the pictures on the SmartBoard and re-read the sentences to the students while they look at their classmates acting out the scene. To make it more of a game, have the sentences on the board and display the pictures in a random order to see if the students can match the sentences that corresponds to the picture. 
•  Partner draw
  The teacher picks 10 sentences from a story that contain target vocabulary structures and puts them on the SmartBoard (for my younger students I broke the sentences up into 2 groups of 5). Before starting the game the teacher should read each sentence to the students to make sure everyone understands what they mean. In groups of 2 the students secretly select one of the sentences that is on the board--they then have 20 seconds to draw a picture that depicts the sentence that they choose. When the 20 seconds is up the students have to guess what their partner drew (they must read the sentences from the board in Spanish). If they correctly guess they earn a point. 
• Taco caliente
  I have a giant taco pillow in my classroom. During this game the students stand in a circle and underhand toss the pillow to each other while Spanish music is playing in the background. When the music stops whoever has the pillow must respond to a comprehension question in Spanish that is displayed on the SmartBoard. Depending on the level this could be a yes/no question, multiple choice or open ended. I tell the students that they each have 1 phone a friend--one time during the game they can ask a friend to help them with the answer. If a student incorrectly answers a question he is out for one round.
  
  

Do you read novels with your students? What are some of the benefits that you have found from using novels in your classes?

Rewind to me three years ago sitting in my first Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling® (TPRS) workshop. I was learning about great reading and storytelling techniques but I couldn't wrap my mind around one thing: how does this work in the elementary classroom? How do I make reading an integral part of my curriculum when half of my students are preliterate? How are my squirmy first graders going to be able to listen to a story for a thirty minute class? 

One of the reasons I started writing this blog was because I felt there was a lack of resources for Teaching with Comprehensible Input (T/CI) at the elementary level. Of course you can always take materials that are created for the upper grades and modify them for younger learners, but what do these modifications look like? Below are some of the ways that I have adapted T/CI to keep my elementary-aged students engaged and my class comprehensible.  

My students love storytelling! Often when my students enter my classroom the first thing they ask me is "Are we acting out a story today?" They love having their voices heard and playing an active role in their learning. I have found the general guidelines of storytelling are the same at the elementary levels as the upper levels with a few key exceptions...

1. Less is more! Because my students are younger their attention span is short, and therefore I spend less time focusing on specific details in the story. Carol Gaab calls ​this "parking"--
   pausing the storytelling process to establish specific details in the story. While this does provide great comprehensible input, it is often difficult for a 7 year old to stay interested and focused on a small detail for a long period of time. The elementary T/CI teacher spends less time "parked" on specific details and instead focuses on keeping the story moving. 
2. Keep it tangible! I have found that with my younger students (especially first and second graders) I have the greatest success when we create stories that focus on their lives and community. Developmentally, my young students are more invested in stories that focus on their lives than stories about famous people in bizarre places. That is not to say that the bizarre doesn't hold a place in storytelling because it certainly does (we all know that input needs to be comprehensible AND compelling), it just means that young learners are more engaged when they can see how the story relates to their lives.    
3. Props, props, props! The use of props during storytelling should always enhance class--
   the moment the prop turns into a distraction it becomes counterproductive. Having said that, adding a simple pair of glasses or jacket can make a story come to life! These props, however basic they may be, help add to the magic and excitement of storytelling.
4. Asking questions is an integral part of storytelling because it adds repetitions of target vocabulary structures and lets the teacher gauge the level of student comprehension. For my students in the upper grades I rely heavily on question words posters to ask a variety of questions such as Who?, When?, Where?, Why?, What?, etc. The question asking process looks different for my students in the lower grades because so many of them are preliterate. If I refer to the question word posters I will often just focus on one or two words (usually who? and what?) and assign a person who yells out the translation every time I point at the poster. Otherwise, I do a variety of yes/no questions or I ask the question and give the students options to choose from. For example instead of asking "Who picked up the cat?" I would ask "Did Roberto or Marcos pick up the cat?". When the focus is on comprehension of the story instead of on understanding the question itself, my preliterate learners can more accurately demonstrate comprehension.
5. Time is everything -- In a first or second grade class I spend a maximum of 10 minutes acting out/telling a story. If the story isn't done in that 10 minutes it is ok...just move on to a comprehension activity and finish the story next class period. Storytelling requires intense listening and I have found that by breaking the storytelling process up into smaller pieces my students are more engaged and have higher levels of comprehension. 

The first time I tried telling/acting out a story with my first graders it was a complete disaster. Not only did I spend too long establishing details, I also tried to tell the story for the entire thirty minute period. One of the most valuable adaptations that I have made to my T/CI practice is the inclusion of activities to break up the listening and allow my students to get up and move around. In general, I think that incorporating movement and brain breaks into your lessons is important at all levels, but since younger learners have shorter attention spans movement is even more important in the younger grades. 
Here are some simple ways I incorporate movement in my class:

• Total Physical Response (TPR)--Developed by James Asher, TPR is the association of words with physical movement. An action is assigned to a word and the students respond to commands using physical actions. Not only does this technique get your students up and moving, but it is also engaging and provides great repetitions of target vocabulary structures.   
• Yes/No -- This activity is extremely simple but my students love playing it! I ask students questions using the target structures and the students respond by getting up and standing by signs that say "yes" or "no" that are on opposite ends of the classroom. The physical movement provides a brain break for the students and everyone has an opportunity to participate and share their opinion. After the students are standing next to one of the signs I ask students personalized questions to get more repetitions of the target structures.
• Vote! When we are trying to decide on a story detail I write down 3 or 4 students' suggestions on separate pieces of paper. I post the suggestions in different locations of my classroom and the students have to get up and stand by the suggestion that they like the best. Not only is this a great brain break, but it also gives more students an opportunity to share their voice.
• Use All the World's a Stage to give everyone an opportunity to act out the story. I first heard about the technique "All the World's a Stage" from Karen Rowan. Put students in groups of 2 (or more depending on how many characters are in your story) and have them find a place in the room where they can move around a little bit. Each group member chooses a role and silently acts out the role as I orally re-tell the story. Beware: This activity can get crazy if you don't make clear expectations beforehand. I tell my students that this is silent acting, and the only time they can make any noise is if their character has a line of dialogue. All the World's a Stage is great because everyone is hearing the story again and physically demonstrating to you that they understand what is being said.

I work in a district that has a play-based kindergarten program (I am so lucky to work in a place that values social emotional learning!). Having said that, most of my first graders start the year at very basic reading levels. When I started TPRS and T/CI I got hung up on "R" (reading) of TPRS--how much language should I be posting for my young learners? Am I harming them by posting words that they can't read? By not posting written language am I depriving them of valuable comprehensible input that they need? I now post our target structures on the front white board with their english translations, and when we are first learning the word I will pause and point at the structure just like I do with my older students. I also write out short dialogues on white board thought bubbles that I hold above my student actors. Sometimes I also write a summary of the story on our storyboard for them to read along with me if they are ready. After talking to my colleagues I realized that providing written language for pre-literate students is still extremely powerful because they are starting to make connections between sounds and letters. I never force them to read until they are able to, but it is important to provide the written language for the students that are ready to read it (and know that the other students will follow suit when they are ready).    

When I think about teaching cultural lessons I usually come up with a list of excuses that looks something like this: 

1. It is too hard to find authentic resources that are comprehensible to my students.  
2. The vocabulary needed to understand complex cultural issues is too difficult for my students.
3. ​Rewriting resources so they are comprehensible to my students takes too much time.

Who can relate to these excuses? I know that focusing on cultural topics is something that I want to do more of with my students, but I always find reasons not to...until now! At ACTFL I was inspired by Martina Bex's session on teaching language through culture. In her presentation, Martina took us through the steps of how to take a cultural product, practice or perspective and create an entire comprehensible input (CI) friendly unit (did I mention that she also made this process look totally effortless?). I'm taking baby steps, so instead of making an entire unit I created a mini unit that I can finish before winter break.

My mini unit focuses on el Día de los Reyes in Spain. I started the unit by looking at pictures and reading an explanation of the holiday with my students.  

Phew! Talk about something that looks easier than it is! Writing a summary that is interesting and comprehensible is tough! It was hard to not include so many of the details that I find interesting about this holiday, but my new mantra for writing is less is more! 

​After the reading I used MovieTalk to show a short video from Nickelodeon. The video is about the anxiety that one boy feels when he can't find one of his shoes on the night the Reyes are coming. I focused on the following vocabulary structures for this MovieTalk:

• duerme
• busca (el zapato)
• tiene
• quiere
• ve (no ve el zapato)
• abre el regalo

After we watched the video we acted out different variations of the video using All the World's a Stage (I narrated the story and all of the students silently acted out what they are hearing). It was fun to think of creative places to make them look for the shoe and to see their reactions when I told them different items were in the box! 

My younger students wrote letters to the Reyes Magos. In the letter the students explained how they behaved this year (I had them circle different smiley faces), drew a picture of one item they wanted and signed their name. I shared each of the letters, circling vocabulary words as I went, and finally the students put their letters in an envelope addressed to the Reyes.
​If you would rather write the letter as a class here are some great online platforms where you can email a letter to the Reyes.
http://www.carta.es/
http://www.parabebes.com/reyes-magos

If your students are too old to write a letter and you are looking for a service project the group 'Reyes Magos de Verdad' is an organization that emails you a letter that a child wrote to the Reyes Magos and asks you to send a gift. 

Even though I am still far away from creating a cultural unit as complete as the ones that Martina presented, I am excited to start creating CI lessons that focus more on culture!  

My colleagues and I have decided we want to move to San Diego! The weather is glorious (mind you it started snowing in back home in Chicago tonight) and the sessions on Comprehensible Input have been incredibly inspiring. It is always so great to see how passionate T/CI teachers are and how willing they are to share their ideas with others. Also, I got to meet my idol Martina Bex today...I've never felt so starstruck. Her presentation on teaching language through culture was awesome!

Below I am posting the PDF version of my presentation "Turning the Page: Reading Short Novels in the Elementary Levels". For those of you that attended my session, thank you for coming! Please feel free to contact me with any questions or comments that you may have. For those of you that couldn't attend, feel free to look through the slides and reply below with questions or comments. I hope that the presentation provides teachers with strategies to make reading short novels more manageable for the teacher and accessible for the student. Enjoy!

I'm sure that all teachers can relate to the craziness of Halloween...the costumes, the classroom parties, and the candy! I've finally learned that it is best to embrace the excitement that comes with this day. Pick activities that will match your student's excitement! Below are some ideas for activities that I do with my students to celebrate Día de los muertos.  

We read Rosita y Conchita by Erich Haeger aloud as a class. The book is in Spanish and English but I rewrote the text using simple Spanish that I know my students can understand. Some details of the story are lost when you simplify the text, but the basic plot line stays the same and the language becomes comprehensible for your students. One of the best advantages to rewriting a text is that you can target specific language that each grade level is working on. On a side note, the Kindle version of Rosita y Conchita includes a game where students click and drag items to make their own ofrenda. After reading the book we make ofrendas together on the SmartBoard--so fun!
I also love the book Day of the Dead by Tony Johnston. This book is in English so I rewrote a simplified version of the text in Spanish to make it comprehensible for my students. This book hits on a lot of traditional foods and symbols for Día de los muertos and it is easy to rewrite in simple Spanish for lower level students. 

​After introducing my students to Día de los muertos we usually do a simple art project to celebrate this special day. My 1st graders use pictures from Día de los muertos celebrations as inspiration to decorate their own skull masks. After decorating the face they cut out the faces (I usually help them cut out the eyes) and tape a popsicle stick at the bottom to make a mask. Below are the templates I use for the masks. 

My 2nd graders make skull faces out of paper plates. A co-worker cut out the idea from a magazine and they look awesome! Again, we look at images from Día de los muertos celebrations for inspiration on how to decorate the faces.

​The 3rd graders make papel picado. Here are some simple instructions--it is basically the same process as making cutout snowflakes. I usually have my students make 3 or 4 panels and then send the panels home with a string to hang them (I fold a piece of construction paper in half and put the papel picados inside to keep them from getting torn on their journey home). Insider tip: having the students glue at home is key--when they glue in class the tissue paper always manages to get stuck to another student's project, creating a sticky mess. 

My 4th graders make calaveras de azúcar. Here is my tried and true recipe. The students decorate with the pre-made cake icing that comes in tubes (I limit each student to only 3 colors of icing in the hopes that it will still resemble a skull when they are finished). We usually spend one day making the skulls and one day decorating them. While my students are waiting to be called up to make/decorate their skulls they complete reading activities on Textivate!  

The majority of you have probably already heard about the animated short Día de los muertos. If you haven't then you should watch it right now because it is fabulous for a MovieTalk! In her Día de los muertos packet on Teachers Pay Teachers Martina Bex uses another animated short entitled Día de muertos by Sofía Aviles. Both are great videos, although the second video is probably better suited to older students (I'll let you watch them both to figure out why). After watching the video there are a lot of different activities you could do to reinforce the key vocabulary structures...

• Play strip bingo using a simplified script from the MovieTalk (thank you Martina Bex for this awesome game). Give your students a list of key words that are in the MovieTalk script. Students then write the vocabulary words on their bingo strips (if they finish early they can draw a small picture to help them remember what the word means). The teacher reads the script and the students tear off the vocabulary words on the ends of their paper as they hear them. Always a fun game!
• Act it out! In pairs one student plays the part of the girl and the other plays the part of the skeletons. The teacher orally retells the story while the students silently act out what they hear. 
• Take screenshots of the video and sequence the story on the SmartBoard using the pictures.

What are some of your favorite ways to celebrate Día de los muertos with your students?