My Thankful Class

Yesterday afternoon we took some time as a class to share our gratitude for the special qualities that each student brings to our classroom. Each child was given a name of another student in our classroom and asked to write a note of thanks to that student sharing something positive they bring to our classroom community. 

I then compiled each page written into a book titled 

"Damos gracias por nuestra clase/We are Thankful for our Class". 

We will be reading our finished product on Monday morning upon our return from break.

Here are a few samples of the respectful and wonderful things the kids had to say about one another. Looking forward to keeping this in our class book bin to look back on from time to time throughout the year!

(I am thankful for ___________ because she is kind, a good friend, and funny.)

(I am thankful for ________ because he helps me when I do not know something to find the answer.)

Happy Thanksgiving blog family. I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with love, gratitude and lots of good eats. God bless.

Bilingual Blog Hop - Nov. Ed.

Welcome blog hoppers. I am so glad you are all here!

November is a month chalked full of gratitude and I must admit, I absolutely love it.

I am so incredibly thankful for the abundant blessings that I have in my life every day. 

That being said, I wanted to take a moment to embrace the spirit of this month to give thanks to those who make this lil' ole' blog of mine possible and that motivate and inspire me to be a better teacher and person each day.

First, I want to thank all of you - the readers- that are here, taking the time to not only partake in what I have to say, but continuously sharing your input and ideas with me as well! You all definitely motivate me - particularly when life gets going and the blogging' gets tough- to keep it up and stick with it.

Second, I want to thank the network of incredible teachers (particularly my iTeach Bilinguals guys and gals) that I have come to know, love, and lean on for support and insight over these past few years. Sharing is definitely caring, and this network of educational bloggers is such a powerful one to be a part of! 

Third, I have to thank my students. They are the ones who I ultimately do all of this for and who provide me with the content to be a blogger in the first place. They consistently teach me new things, keep me on my toes, and encourage me to be the life longer learner I strive to be.

With that said, as my way of saying thank you to all of you, a little freebie is most certainly in order.

My class is full of energy this year and loves participating in "I Spy" task card activities as it gets them up, moving, and most importantly learning. We are currently reviewing 2-digit subtraction with/without regrouping, and I thought I'd whip a quick set up to share with them and you all of course :).

If you haven't used an "I Spy" activity with your students before, it's super simple. Simply cut out the cards provided in the pack and place them in different places around the classroom. The students will then take the recording sheet (in English or Spanish) around with them (mine use a clipboard) and copy the problem and solve it in the space that corresponds to the letter on the card. The best part is, each of the task cards includes a QR code as well that your students can scan to check their answer. If you have the technology available to utilize this feature, it's pretty awesome, but if not, no worries - you can still use the cards and work together to check your responses together as a class at the end instead! Click on the image to grab your copy. It will be free for the duration of the hop Nov. 7-9 and after that will be on sale in my store!

If you are interested in more freebies and Spanish materials feel free to visit my Teachers Pay Teachers store and/or my Facebook page for updates and ideas! Thanks so much for stopping by.

Now head on over to your "Next Stop" with Carolina @ Fun for Spanish Teachers to check out all of the goodies she has in store :). 

YouTube and Spanish Texts

With many bilingual/immersion teachers such as myself having a limited number of Spanish texts to fill classroom libraries, I have come to find that YouTube is a wonderful backup option when there is something specific I am looking for!

There are a wide variety of Spanish texts read aloud and recorded that are available at your fingertips. 

For instance, at the beginning of the school year, I really wanted to use the book "Alexander y el día terrible, horrible, espantoso, horroso" for a character education lesson. But low and behold I could not get my hands on a copy. Enter YouTube to save the day.

On Book Character Day this fall I dressed up as the Paper Bag Princess and wanted to share the text with my students to start our day and do a character trait lesson. Unfortunately, I only had a copy of the text, myself, in English. YouTube to the rescue yet again.

And I just recently ran across this other fun little YouTube read aloud find.

Perfect for this weekend's occasion.

I must admit while I love holding a book in my hands and spending that quality time with my students huddled together enjoying a text together on our rug, I have come to enjoy and find that sharing the texts with them on YouTube is equally as engaging and taps into this technology age we live in.

Not only that, but you can share the link with students and families and they can listen again and again if they would like at home as well!

Do you use YouTube read alouds in your classroom? What are some of your favorites?