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