Trae

This story was a complete home run in my class!  I introduced trae (brings) to my students through having students pick items from the Caja mágica or Magic Box. I then described the items and told the class that the student brought the item to Spanish class. Then in Spanish I asked them "Why did you bring _______ to Spanish class?". My students are allowed to offer suggestions using anything that they know how to say in  Spanish or using two words in English. When a student starts to give me a long idea in English I hold up two fingers (to signal that I will only take 2 words in English) and I call on another student. At this point in the year they have become great about following this rule which helps to keep them speaking and hearing the target language. Students pulled eyes, pants, coffee, rats, and ears out of the box. It was fun to hear the students come up with ideas as to why these items were brought to Spanish class. This activity was a great way to provide repetitions of trae  and recycle old vocabulary words.

Next, I asked the students questions with ¿Traes? (do you bring). I asked them if they brought chocolate to their mom, coffee to the music teacher, cars to the school principal and they had to stand by a sign that says Si if their answer was 'yes' and a sign that says No if their answer was 'no'. I then asked PQA (personalized question & answer) questions to get even more repetitions of trae.  

The next day I did a lot of TPR practice with 'le da' (gives to him/her). The class then acted out mini stories where a student brought items to different teachers in the school (great reps of trae) and gave them the item (more reps of le da). After the student gave the item to the teacher I asked for suggestions on how the teacher reacted.  

Sample:

• Sol brings 12 cockroaches to Mr. Wendt.
• Sol gives the cockroaches to Mr. Wendt.
• Mr. Wendt screams and throws the cockroaches.  

The students loved giving their input as to how the teachers reacted to these strange gifts. After we acted out several mini stories, I put the following story on the SmartBoard screen to read to the students. I read the story out loud and the students followed along with me. There was an actor at the front of the room that acted out each sentence after I read it.   

Hay una princesa.  La princesa se llama Isabela.  Isabela es la princesa de Winnetka.
Isabela se pone una corona. Isabela se pone ocho collares. Isabela se pone una falda. Isabela se pone una bolsa.  ¡Qué guapa!

Aunque (although) Isabela tiene la corona no está feliz.  Isabela quiere más (more). Un día, Bob sube al unicornio y trae un coche a Isabela. Bob baja del unicornio y le da el coche a Isabela. Isabela le dice “¿Por qué me traes un coche? ¡No me gusta!” Isabela tira el coche a la basura. ¿Qué quiere Isabela?

Al día siguiente, Francine sube al coche y trae una rata a Isabela. Francine baja del coche y le da la rata a Isabela. Isabela le dice “¿Por qué me traes una rata? ¡No me gusta!” Isabela tira la rata a la basura. ¿Qué quiere Isabela?

Al día siguiente, Carlos sube al avión y trae Papa Noel a Isabela. Carlos baja del avión y le da Papa Noel a Isabela. Isabela le dice “¿Por qué me traes Papa Noel? ¡No me gusta!” Isabela tira Papa Noel a la basura. ¿Qué quiere Isabela?

Finalmente, María sube al bus y trae Gabi el Gato a Isabela. María baja del gato y le da Gabi a Isabela.  Isabela le gusta a Gabi. Isabela le dice “Gracias por traerme el gato. ¡Me gusta mucho!”

Pero… (but) Gabi no le gusta a Isabela. Un día Isabela duerme y Gabi come la nariz de Isabela. ¡Delicioso! ¡El fin!

The following class period we did a technique called ''All the World's a Stage" (I first heard about this from Karen Rowan, but I know that it originally came from someone else). In this activity the entire class acts out the story in groups of 2. One person in the group plays the part of Isabela and the other person plays the part of everyone else. It is important to set some ground rules with so many people moving around, so make sure you make your expectations clear before you get started.  
Next, I orally re-told the story in small language chunks (I chose 12) and the students drew a comic to demonstrate their understanding. I orally read each language chunk several times while the students drew a sketch of what I was saying. When I moved on to the next language chunk the students drew in the next box, etc. In the end the students used their comic pictures to orally re-tell the story to their classmates.