We want to load our little darlings with compelling comprehensible input and what’s more compelling that food?! Not much, in my opinion!

It was really fun to chat with my Spanish 1s  about Thanksgiving foods this week.  We focused on the structures Eats, Likes, Loves and Is going to eat.  I made this little Thanksgiving Slide Show(Spanish)  and we had a jolly good time!

Hey ELL Teachers, here’s the English Version.

Grazie to Joyceanna D’Alessandro, here’s the Italian Version!

And Merci to Shari Belanger, here’s the French Version!

And Xièxiè to Yuming Cheng, here’s the Chinese Version!

And Danke to Katie Reimers, here’s the German Version!

(If you happen to change it into another language, share it with me! I’d love to include it here!)

Feel free to make changes, like if for example you say to yourself ¡¿Qué?! Those are not called ejotes, everyone knows they’re judías verdes! Come on, Señora Chase.  All you have to do is click “Make a copy” and edit however you want! Because really, at the end of the day I don’t expect them to acquire the word “Green Beans”, I just want to get more mileage out of high frequency structures, give them a chance to express opinions, and bond over talking about food.

A Picture Talk is just another way to give comprehensible input…Choose a picture you want to talk about…then talk about it in slow, comprehensible language. Ask questions. Elicit their opinions.  Since my Spanish 1s are kinda squirrley  I incorporated some Muévete si…(Move if)  to give them a chance to move around.

I didn’t get a good video of this lesson but it sounded like this: (But imagine it’s in your Target Language!)

Teacher: Class, next Thursday in Thanksgiving! (Show slide 1) Who loves Thanksgiving? Who loves the food of Thanksgiving? I LOOOVE Thanksgiving with my family. (Advance slide to show “Turkey arrow” pointing to the turkey on the plate) Who loves Turkey? Who doesn’t like turkey? Move if you like turkey. (Students stand and move to a new seat while teacher counts down from 5 to 1). Is anyone a vegetarian in here? (Susie raises her hand) Class, does Susie eat Turkey? No, of course not! Susie, do you eat Tofurkey? Class, Tofurkey is turkey for vegetarians. How delicious?  Or how disgusting?  (pointing to icons on the screen). (Click to show “ham” pointing to the ham on the plate). Who eats ham for Thanksgiving? Is ham traditional for Thanksgiving? I don’t eat ham for Thanksgiving, my family only eats turkey. Who’s family eats ham on Thanksgiving? Who’s family eats Turkey? Who’s family eats both? Which do you like more? Who likes ham? Who likes turkey? Class, does Susie eat ham? No! Of course not! How disgusting! Susie doesn’t eat ham! (Advance “Stuffing” on screen) Move if you love stuffing! (Students change seats while teacher counts down) Move if you don’t like stuffing at all. And so on…you get the idea…ask as many questions as you can about each Thanksgiving food. On the 2nd slide, I introduced “Is going to eat” and focused on the structure with each food item: Move if you’re going to eat a lot of turkey with gravy! Move if you are not going to eat green beans… 

I’ve got these opinion posters posted on my board and my little darlings are encouraged to holler out “¡Me choca!” or “¡Me encanta!” along with “¡Qué asco!” and “¡Qué rico!” to express their opinions. And they’ve got plenty of opinions, trust me!

We have class on Monday and Tuesday before Thanksgiving (Who else does too!?) and I’m looking forward to Movie Talking  Thanksgiving Showdown:Turkey vs. Farmer, that Señorita Spanish shared on her blog.     We’ll also play Thanksgiving Lotería before we head off to our Thanksgiving break.

Wishing you all a Blessed Thanksgiving!  May your turkey be delicious and your leftovers plentiful!

And if you’re in the market for some excellent professional development this spring…