Constitution Day

Constitution Day is on December 6th in Spain. Because of this, we talked about the constitution of the United States in the 5th and 6th grade classes. We read an document with information about the US constitution and after I surprised them with a short quiz consisting of 5 questions about the US constitution. The students who answered the most corrected won a pair of American-themed sun glasses! Here is a picture of Lidia and Alvaro wearing their glasses, they answered the most questions correct in their class!

Here is a copy of the information about the US constitution that we learned about:

• The Constitution is the supreme law of the land.
• It sets up the government and protects the basic rights of Americans.
• The Constitution was written after the American War of Independence.
• It was written in 1787.
• The federal government only has the powers that the Constitution says it has.
• The states have the powers that the federal government does not have.
• The Preamble is a short statement about the purpose of the Constitution. The Preamble does not prohibit actions or grant rights.
• The Preamble starts with the words "We the People." This means that the power of the government comes from the people.
• Changes to the Constitution are Amendments. There are 27 amendments to the Constitution.
• There are seven Articles in the Constitution.
• The Constitution separates the government into three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial.

Celebrating Universal Children´s Day

Today the students of the 6th year are celebrating Universal Children´s Day. They are going on an excursion to the center of Seville to complete workshops and activities about children´s rights. Yesterday they made a banner to present in Seville. Here is a photo of the students with their banner.

The banner featured a picture of Malala, an icon for children´s rights to education. Here is a link that explains more about Universal Children´s Day!

Around the World!

In Ms. Pilar´s 5th grade English classes the students are working on a special project. The students work with their classmates in groups to do a project about a country. The students are researching Morocco, Canada, Germany and Australia.

The students must find information about their country´s language, famous people, animals, land forms, climate, typical food, monuments and places. Then, the students will present the information on a poster. Here are some pictures of the students working on their projects in class.

Roman Ruins in Spain.

In the 5th year classes were are learning and talking about the Romans and Roman ruins in Spain. Here are some pictures.

Learning the basics about food!

With the 2nd year class we learned about the basic foods. Vocabulary included banana, yogurt, milk, cereal, peas, pizza, ham, rice, orange, cheese, pasta and tuna. We cut a circle from a piece of white paper to make a plate. Then, the students drew pictures of our new food vocabulary on the paper plates. Students chose their favorite foods to draw. Here are some pictures of the students with their plates and pictures!

Learning about the House

In the 3rd year English class we are learning about the house. When learning about the house we will discuss vocabulary about the different rooms in a home (living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, etc...) and some common furniture that is in the house (toilet, shower, washing machine, bed, stove, refrigerator, sofa, table, etc...).
We will draw a map of our houses and compare them to our classmates' houses. What is the same and what is different?

I am from Pennsylvania. There is a very famous house in Pennsylvania called Fallingwater. It was built by one of the most famous American architects named Frank Lloyd Wright. It is a national historic landmark. It is built on top of a waterfall! Many people go to visit this house in the autumn because of the beautiful and colorful trees.

Houses are different around the world. There are many strange houses also! Here is a link to a web page that shows some of the strangest houses in the world: http://www.boredpanda.com/unusual-homes/
Would you like to live in any of these houses? Which is the strangest?

Halloween at our school!

With the first years we are making a ghost craft and going over basic Halloween vocabulary like ghost, vampire, pumpkin, scary, costume, etc.

Also, with the 5th and 6th year we are going to create origami bats. 

We will go over Halloween vocabulary as well as vocabulary that corresponds to origami-making, like the various shapes. 

Here is the link to the origami bat instructions: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/origami_bat_instructions.pdf

Halloween!

Halloween is a very popular celebration in the United States. People celebrate in a few different ways. Children dress in costume and go trick-or-treating to collect candy from neighbors. Teenagers and adults also dress in costume and go to parties with their friends. Some examples of popular costumes are vampires, pirates and zombies but many people dress in funny costumes like superheroes or celebrities.

People carve faces into pumpkins and make sweets from pumpkin as well. Some people tell scary ghost stories and play tricks on one another.

When I was in high school, I went to many "haunted houses" with friends. These haunted houses were farms or large buildings in which different rooms are decorated to be scary scenes. People who work at the haunted houses dress up in scary costumes and are actor in the rooms or jump out to scare you as you walk through the haunted house. It was always really scary but exciting to go to these haunted houses!  Here is a photo of my friends and I outside of a haunted house and two actors dressed in costume for a haunted house:

The Skeleton

In the sixth year science classes we have been learning about the human skeleton and it's most common bones. New vocabulary includes: skull, spine, vertebrae, ribs, femur, humerus, radius, ulna, pelvis, tibia and fibula.

We practiced identifying the different bones using a paper skeleton. Next, we played a little game where as I did movements with the paper skeleton, the students had to copy these movements at their places.

In our next class we will do a craft activity about the skeleton. In this activity the students will use several different dry pasta shapes to glue a skeleton on a piece of paper and label it. Here are some examples from the internet:

And here are some photos of the students completing the project:

And here is a photo of some of the 2nd years and myself after doing an activity to learn the basic bones of the human skeleton:

Learning the five senses

With the 3rd years we are learning about the five senses. Here is a link to a good video to review the five senses and examples. There is also a quiz at the end to practice!

http://www.abcya.com/five_senses.htm

After we watch the educational video and take the quiz together we are going to play two games.
In the first we will practice with the sense of hearing. Everyone will close their eyes except for one person. The person with their eyes open will make a sound using an object(s) in the classroom. (For example writing on the chalk board or opening the window. The rest of the class has to guess what objects the person is using to make the noise and describe the noise (loud or quiet).
In the second game we will practice our sense of touch. We will blindfold one classmate and another classmate has to lead this classmate to an object in the room to touch. The blindfolded classmate has to guess what the object is and describe it (hard, soft, smooth, rough, hot or cold). We can also do this with partners where one partner covers his or her eyes and the other leads him or her to touch something.

Meet Rachel, the New Language Assistant!

Hello, my name is Rachel! I am from the United States.

My parents live in a state called Pennsylvania. Their house is in the country where there are many farms and beautiful forests.

Pittsburgh is a city near to my parents' house. It has many bridges because it surrounded by three rivers.

Heinz Ketchup and the famous artist Andy Warhol are from Pittsburgh.

I lived with my parents in the country when I was younger but then I went to the university in New York City. I lived in this city for 4 years. New York City is the biggest city in the United States. It has many people from all around the world. It also has many tall buildings called skyscrapers. The most famous is the Empire State Building.

At the university I studied English literature and Anthropology. When studying literature I read many books. Anthropology is the study of people and their cultures.

While studying anthropology, I did an archeological excavation in Peru. My archeology team and I studied an ancient people called the Incas. We found skeletons, ceramics and stone tools.

I have a big family with 3 brothers, 1 sister and my parents. My sister lives in Alaska, one brother lives in California, another brother lives in Georgia and another lives in Ohio. Christmas is very special to my family because it is the only time during the year that we can visit each other.

I also have one dog and her name is Pepper (pimienta in Spanish!).

I like to travel a lot. I have visited Paris, Portugal, Morocco, Kenya, Peru, the Dominican Republic and many cities in the United States and Spain. Seville is my favorite city in Spain! I want to explore more places this year!