¡Comida Latina!

The last day of National Foreign Language Week coincided with our Comida Latina or Latin Food presentations.  Students researched authentic recipes from Latin American countries and had the option to prepare the dish for the class to try.  

Thank you to all of the families who helped out with this part of the project!  

Here are some photos from the day:

Alfajores from Argentina

More Argentine alfajores 

Flan

Pastel de tres leches - a cake served all over Latin America

Another batch of alfajores later in the day!

Pan trenza

Nuegados de masa from El Salvador

Helado de mango - a frozen mango treat

Empanadas de manzana

Empanadas de carne from Argentina

Chancho en piedra from Chile

Flan

Frozen orange delight

One group of students even made a short video about their Latin American cooking adventure!

Guest Speakers during National Foreign Language Week!

This week we are celebrating National Foreign Language Week at CMS, and yesterday Spanish students had the very exciting opportunity to talk with native Spanish speakers in class!  This is the second time I've teamed up with the Office of International Education at UVM to bring native Spanish speakers who are living and studying in our area to CMS to talk with our Spanish students.  This year four UVM undergraduate and graduate students from Colombia and Spain visited our Spanish classes.  Students had the chance to ask questions in Spanish and we also had some more in depth conversations with our guests in English.  It was a great experience that I think was equally enjoyed by the CMS and UVM students!

¡Tortillas!

As part of our Food and Restaurants unit, we spent a day in the kitchen the week before vacation learning how to prepare authentic corn tortillas from scratch.  Students followed these step by step instructions (method 2 - corn tortillas), and were quite successful in their efforts.  When the tortillas were prepared, we added cheese or queso to make quesadillas.  

Dried hibiscus petals steeping in simple syrup to make agua de jamaica

As an extra treat I prepared agua de jamaica for students to try.  Agua de jamaica is a sweet beverage made from the dried petals of the hibiscus flower.  This is a very traditional Mexican beverage that tastes somewhat similar to fruit punch.  

I've offered students extra credit for this unit if they make tortillas at home and document the process with a series of photos or a video.  The main ingredient, masa, can be found in the international aisle in most grocery stores and a rolling pin can be used in place of a tortilla press.  Check out our photos from this very fun class!

End of the School Unit - Now on to the FOOD Unit!

We've made it to my favorite unit of the school year - La comida y los restaurantes or Food and Restaurants!  

Students did a great job overall on their speaking assessments this week.  They were given a sample student schedule and had to answer eight questions in complete sentences in Spanish about the schedule.  Speaking assessments can be nerve wracking, but everyone survived! :) 

Now that we've wrapped up El día escolar  or the School Day we can begin to learn to talk about what we like to eat.  By the end of this unit students will be able to discuss what they eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Most exciting in my opinion, is that students will be able to order food in a restaurant!  Start planning that Latin American vacation now!  To get things started today we listened to this song in class by Mexican hip hop artist, MC Luca.  It's ALL about food, Mexican food to be precise.

Wrapping up another unit!

Spanish students have been working hard on their Mi Vida (My Life) projects.  These are multimedia projects that include photos, writing, student narration (en español of course), and music.  We will be presenting our videos tomorrow in class, and I've also asked students to email a copy to parents.  Check them out!  

Busy fall!

We've been very busy in Spanish class so far this fall!  We've completed our second unit, El Calendario y El Tiempo (The Calendar and Weather), and are deep into our third unit Así Soy Yo (All About Me).  Students are learning how to talk about what they like and don't like to do, and how to describe their personalities.

We also spent some time at the end of October and the beginning of November studying El Día de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) which is celebrated in Mexico and some Central American Countries.  Students created papel picado (cut paper banners) to line our hallway and decorated authentic calaveras de azúcar (sugar skulls).