Canciones de Navidad

The 8th grade Spanish students worked on singing some traditional holiday carols in Spanish this week. We even went caroling to some of the classes at Lakeview. We had a great time. Here's one of our performances. Enjoy!

Have a fun, safe break!

Canciones de Navidad

Some of the Spanish classes have been learning some holiday carols to share with their peers next week. Hopefully the students will be inspired by the wintery weather we're supposed to have to practice this weekend.

Mi Hombre de Nieve

Mi hombre de nieve,

es feliz y está muy gordo.

Con la boca, la nariz, dos ojos,

en la cabeza un sombrero.

(Repite)

Da da da da da,

Da da da da da

Mi hombre de nieve.

Da da da da da,

Da da da da da,

¡Mi hombre de nieve!

Cascabeles (Jingle Bells)

O qué felicidad caminar en un trineo

por los caminos qué blancos ya están.

Nos paseamos con gritos de alegría

Con cantos y risas de dicha caminamos.

Cascabeles, cascabeles, tra la la la la

Qué alegría todo el día, tra la la la la

(Repite el coro)

O qué felicidad caminar en un trineo

Por los bosques qué lindos ya se ven

Nos paseamos con gritos de alegría

Y cascabeles agitados,

Caminamos.

(coro)

¡Esquéletos festivos!

The 8th graders finished their día de los muertos skeletons and they look fantastic! We voted on the best skeletons from each class and the most festive and creative skeletons. Which are your favorites?

3rd period

5th period

6th period Great job, 8th graders!!

el día de los muertos

This week, many people in Mexico, Honduras & Guatemala celebrated el día de los muertos, the Day of the Dead. This holiday is hundreds of years old and began with the indigenous people of Mexico (the people who lived there before Columbus arrived). The people celebrated a day to honor the memory of their loved ones who had died and people who celebrate spend weeks preparing for this holiday.

The 7th graders learned more about this holiday and saw a día de los muertos celebration in Oaxaca, Mexico. They learned about ofrendas (altars), cempazuchitl (marigold flowers-"The flower of the dead"), velas (candles), calaveras de azúcar (sugar skulls) and chapulines (fried grasshoppers!).

The 8th graders were already familiar with this holiday and they are making skeletons to decorate our classroom. The skeletons are colorful and festive, not like the scary skeletons that Americans use for Halloween. Visit our blog next week for pictures of their finished products!

Tener phrases

This week the 8th graders reviewed the verb tener and combined it with new vocabulary to use special expressions with tener. Here are some of the phrases we learned:

Tener frío=to be cold

Tener calor=to be hot

Tener suerte=to be lucky

Tener sueño=to be tired

Have a fun, safe weekend!

la ropa y los colores

In 7th grade we have been practicing adjective agreement in preparation for our test next Thursday. We are working on making sure that our adjectives match the gender and number of the nouns they modify. How would you describe these articles of clothing?

El milagro en la mina

This week thirty-two Chilean and one Bolivian miner were rescued from a mine in Chile after being trapped since the first week in August. The mine collapsed on the miners and many days passed before rescue workers were able to contact them to realize that they were surviving.
Chile's government immediately began to formulate a rescue plan, but initially thought that the miners wouldn't be able to be rescued until December. Chile spent over $20 million on the rescue effort, but it was worth it because this week they began the daring rescue. The miners were pulled up one by one in a small capsule just big enough for one person.
If you watched any of the footage, it was very emotional to watch each miner be pulled up and hear the siren that went off each time a miner emerged.
This event sparked international interest. Chile is now looking into tighter safety regulations for its workers and these thirty-three men have to try to re-adjust to their lives. If you didn't follow the story, click on some of these links below. You can also look for articles on Google-there are many to choose from!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/chile/8063049/Chile-mine-rescue-timeline.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11475156

2010 Washington D.C. trip

Last weekend 66 of the 8th grade students went to Washington D.C. for the weekend. We saw many of the sites that D.C. has to offer and learned a lot. This was my third year to go on the trip and I learned and saw a number of new things this year! We had a great time, but it was good to get back into a normal routine at school this week.

. Here we are back at home with our souvenir t-shirts!

Día de la raza

We don't have school on Monday for Columbus Day, but in many Spanish speaking countries the holiday is called día de la raza. The day marks Columbus's arrival in the New World and the first meeting of Europeans and the indigenous peoples of the New World. Many view Columbus's arrival positively, but there are others for whom it meant the destruction of their lives as they knew them. Sometime this weekend, think about what Columbus Day meant for Europeans in 1492 and what it meant for the indigenous people too.

Día de mellizos

Today was Twin Day! Many teachers dressed in Bears gear, but Mrs. Mastny and I were "identical" twins in our Robbie Gould jerseys. It was great to see so many students and staff participate in this spirit day!

Have a great weekend!

7th Grade

On martes, you have a prueba on Subject Pronouns and Ser.

Study the chart we made in class!

Singular

yo soy

tú eres

él es

ella es

usted es

Plural

nosotros(as) somos

vosotros (as) sois

ellos son

ellas son

ustedes son

8th grade

*On lunes, you will have a prueba on interrogative words. On lunes you just need to identify and spell the diez interrogatives from your notes.

*On jueves, you have a prueba on la hora (time), estar (How you feel and where you are is when you use the verb estar) and interrogatives (using interrogatives in questions and answering questions).

La independencia de México

¡Viva México!

On Thursday Mexico celebrated 200 years of freedom from Spain. Just before dawn on September 16, 1810, a priest named Father Hidalgo called Mexicans to fight for their freedom. This cry for independence sparked Mexico's fight for independence. Read more about the history of Mexican Independence day by following this link.

http://www.mexonline.com/mexican-independence.htm

La geografía

The 7th graders have learned the location of countries in Central America & The Caribbean and their capitals. Now it's on to South America! We made notes yesterday with maps of South America and practiced pronouncing the countries and capitals today. Make sure you're ready for the quiz next Wednesday!

8th Grade Quiz

We are continuing our review of concepts that we learned last year. Next Thursday we will have a quiz on the following concepts:

• Regular -ar verbs
• Classes
• Adverbs (expressions) of Frequency
• Obligation

7th Grade Test

We have our first test next week! Many people were prepared for our geography quiz this week so I am optimistic that our first test will go well! Here's a copy of the Study Guide we went over in class.

Study Guide
Examen (test )

Fecha (date):_Thursday, September 8__
Hay que estudiar:
(You need to study: )

El alfabeto
-__p. 10-11_____

Los números de 0 a 10
-____notes, p. 12______

Los días de la semana
-__notes, p. 13, song___

Origin (where people are from)
-__notes, ser de +place_

Greetings & Farewells
-___notes, p. 2-3______

Spelling counts!

Questions?? See Señora Bergmann before next Thursday!

8th Grade Quiz

Next Wednesday (September 8) we will have another quiz to review concepts and vocabulary that we learned last year.
The following will be on your quiz:

• Tener
• Numbers 11-100
• Possession with "de"
• Possessive Adjectives
• Dates

*You need to know the following vocabulary for the sections of your quiz: family, months of the year, clothing.

¿Preguntas? See me!

Welcome Back!

¡Hola! Welcome back to school! I know that some of you are returning to Spanish for another year and some of you will be learning a new language for the first time. ¡Bienvenidos a todos! I think it will be a great year for all of us!

I hope you all had a great summer. I got married this summer, so I have been busy planning and celebrating over the last few months. I was able to read a few books, but not as many as I like to read during my time away from school.

I'm looking forward to starting the school year-it's going to be a great one!

Here are a couple of pictures from my wedding this summer-

Field Day!

This week each grade level participated in the Field Day that they earned through their Ride Janie Ride fundraising efforts. The 7th graders had a great afternoon outside playing Tug o' War, Water Balloon Toss, Kick Ball and Spin Race. We were lucky to have great weather as well. Thanks so much to the parents who volunteered their time to run these games!!

Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend!!

Lakeview's First Career Fair

Today the 7th graders attended a Career Fair. Instead of traveling to the College of DuPage like they have in the past, they attended the fair right here at Lakeview! Close to twenty parents and community members, including our own Dr. Tiede, gave up their mornings to come to present to the students about their careers. The students were able to attend eight different sessions to learn about various careers and the different aspects of these vocations. The Career Fair was a great success, thanks to Miss Enzbigilis, who put the whole thing together.

Cinco de mayo

Many people think that Cinco de mayo is Mexican Independence Day, but that isn't what will be celebrated this coming Wednesday. Cinco de mayo celebrates Mexico's victory over France in The Battle of Puebla, a small town not far from Mexico City. The battle took place in 1862 after France sent Maximilian of Austria to rule in Mexico because Mexico owed money to several European countries.

Click on these links to learn more about this holiday that celebrates less than 5,000 Mexican soldiers winning a battle against more than 6,000 French soldiers.

http://www.mexonline.com/cinco-de-mayo.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo

Way to go!!!

You've probably heard about the Ride Janie Ride fundraiser in which the schools in our district are participating. Our students have done an AMAZING job raising money for this worthy cause. For the last two weeks the students have been going around their neighborhoods, getting permission to stand outside of businesses, talking to people in their churches and making and selling duct tape pens to raise money.

I am really proud of the initiative and the drive that the students have displayed in their efforts to raise money. I don't think that anyone imagined that we would raise as much money as we have. Great job you guys!!

Visit the Ride Janie Ride website for more information. http://www.ridejanieride.org/

Travel delays

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland erupted on March 20 after last erupting from 1821-1823. It began erupting again on Wednesday and the ash that is coming from the volcano is complicating air travel in much of Europe. Many countries closed their airspace Countries like Romania, Switzerland, Hungary England, Ireland and Poland have closed much or all of their airspace and cancelled flights until Saturday. Northern European countries are expected to reopen airspace as the ash moves south, but this will cause problems for countries to the south. Click on this link to read a complete article about the effect on air (and train) travel that the volcanic ash is having.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8623534.stm

¿Sabes las respuestas?

Did you know the answers to last week's trivia questions? Here they are:

San José is the capital of what country? Costa Rica
Santo Domingo is the capital of what country? La República Dominicana
What is the capital of Nicaragua? Managua
What is the capital of Perú? Lima

Countries & Capitals

Today our trivia questions were about countries and capitals. How well do you know your capitals of Spanish speaking countries?

• San José is the capital of what country?
• Santo Domingo is the capital of what country?
• What is the capital of Nicaragua?
• What is the capital of Perú?

Spring Break is here!

Everybody is ready for some much-needed time for relaxation. It sounds like some students have fun vacations planned and others, like me, will be relaxing at home.
Spanish students: don't forget you have a test or quiz coming up after break.

• 7th grade: We have a test on Wednesday, April 7 on Unidad 2, etapa 3. Look over your notes and the study guide that you received this week so that you don't forget everything over break!
• 8th grade: We have a vocabulary quiz on Wednesday, April 7 on the words for rooms in the house and furniture.

Have a great week off!!

Protect yourself online

A few weeks ago during Homebase, the 7th graders talked about ways to stay safe online, specifically on social networking sites, like Facebook. Please be aware of hackers that may try to get into your account.

Click on the following link to read an article about a virus on Facebook.
New password-stealing virus targets Facebook http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20100318/NEWS-US-FACEBOOK-VIRUS/

Make sure you are safe online. Don't share personal information with people you don't know and don't make information about yourself available for anyone to see!

ISAT testing

This week the students took their ISAT tests. They have been preparing for these tests in LA/Reading, Math and Science so I know that they were ready! It was a long week of testing, but the students were troopers and I'm sure they'll be pleased when they get their scores.

Great job!!

¡Buena suerte!

Tonight (Friday) our girls play for the championship of our conference. They have come a long way since they started playing as sixth graders and have really earned this honor to play tonight. I've had the privilege of seeing a few of their games this season. In addition to being great players they are a hard-working group of girls. Best of luck to Mr. Little and the girls tonight as they play!

Go Spartans!!

Casimir Pulaski Day

We don't have school on Monday! Some students didn't know that we didn't have school and a number of students didn't know why we don't have school. On Monday, we and a number of other public schools in the Chicago area observe Casimir Pulaski Day. Pulaski was a cavalry officer during the Revolutionary war. He contributed to the war by training soldiers and cavalry. He was born on March 4, 1745 which is why we observe Pulaski day the first Monday of every March.

Vocabulario nuevo

This week the 8th graders started a new chapter on daily routines. Here is some of our new vocabulary:el espejo

el cepillo de dientes

el champú

el secador de pelo


This week I've been taking a Mimio class offered by Mrs. Kucera. I've created lots of fun and interactive lessons, including one with this vocabulary, and can't wait to use them in my classroom! ¡Gracias to Mrs. Kucera for all of her help!

¡Un concurso de ortografía!

A B C

The 8th grade students are preparing for a Spanish spelling bee. They will compete with their classmates to correctly spell their vocabulary words for this chapter in Spanish. Here's a link to a website that has the pronunciations of the Spanish alphabet for those students who are a little rusty on the letters we learned last year! http://www.spanishspanish.com/alfabeto_ipower.html

¡Buena suerte!

A great scholar

Luis Leal (1907-2010) was a pioneer in the field of Chicano studies. He was born shortly before the Mexican Revolution. After becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States, he was drafted to fight in World War II. He fought to take the Philippines back from Japan.

Luis Leal made many literary contributions to the world of Chicano and Hispanic literature. Among other places, he taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois. He also taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which is my connection to Dr. Leal.

During the three summers I spent at UCSB, I had the honor of meeting "don" Luis Leal. In August of 2007 we celebrated Dr. Leal's 100th birthday (which he celebrated in September of that year). This past summer, "don" Luis Leal was preparing to celebrate his 102nd birthday. He came to lunch with my classmates, professors and I. He entertained us with stories from his childhood and his career.

On January 25th of this year, Luis Leal passed away at the age of 102. He was a scholar who made many contributions to Chicano studies and literature. He will be remembered fondly and missed by those who knew him and have read his works.

Answers to trivia

Did you know any of the answers to last week's trivia questions?

• What vegetable is carved and judged at a festival in Oaxaca, México? Radishes
• What sea borders Spain? The Mediterranean
• What famous South American soccer player is known as "The King"? Pelé

Trivia

Here are some of the trivia questions that the Spanish classes tried to answer today. Do you know any of the answers?

• What vegetable is carved and judged at a festival in Oaxaca, México?
• What sea borders Spain
• What famous South American soccer player is known as "The King"?

Check back next week for the answers. Have a great weekend!

A time of need

Last week tragedy struck a country not far from here. The devastating earthquake in Haiti has left a country that was already in shambles, in ruins. The earthquake destroyed buildings, many of them in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince. It also killed many people, there has not been a final death toll yet. As countries scramble to give aid to Haiti, there are difficulties caused by the earthquake that are creating problems for getting the aid to Haiti.
In times like this, it is easy to say "I wish I could help, but there's nothing I can do." The Red Cross makes it easy for us to help. Donations can be made to the Red Cross. There are different funds that the Red Cross has available for donations. They are: International Response Fund, Haiti Relief and Development, Disaster Relief Fund, Where the Need is Greatest, Service to the Armed Forces and Your Local Red Cross Chapter.
Another option that the Red Cross offers is to text "Haiti" to the number 90999 and a $10 donation will be given to the Red Cross and the charge will appear on your cell phone bill. It's easy-I did it just a few days ago. You get a text back asking you to reply "YES" to confirm your donation and then it's done!
Please consider doing something to help. You can find more information about these funds and the Red Cross by visiting their website http://www.redcross.org/

Quizzes

7th grade: You have a quiz next miércoles on your flash card vocabulary and -ar verbs. You need to know the definitions of the infinitives and be able to conjugate the verbs.

8th grade: You have a quiz on jueves on the o to ue stem-changing verbs. Make sure you know the definitions of the infinitives and can conjugate the verbs to use in sentences.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

There will be no school on Monday in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It's nice to have days off, but it is important to recognize the reasons for these days. Dr. King worked to make this country a better place. The 7th graders are watching a video in Homebase about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I think it will be a great opportunity for them to learn about Dr. King's work and his life.
Although he gave many speeches and sermons, his best-known speech is known as his "I Have a Dream" speech. It was delivered in Washington D.C. in August of 1963. You can follow this link to watch some or all of this powerful speech. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk

Have a good weekend. Take some time to learn more about Dr. King's contributions to our country.

El calendario azteca

Today the 8th graders spent some time looking up their birthdays in the aztec calendar. The aztec calendar is set up differently from our calendar, but we were able to find close equivalents. These are the symbols for my birthday:

This is the year Acatl

This is the 13 day period known as Tochtli. (This would be our equivalent of a month) This is the day, Xochitl

Find out what your birthday is on the aztec calendar. Go to www.azteccalendar.com