1. Tree, pen
2. Light switch, bow tie, swan
3. Stool
4. Car
5. Glove
6. Gun
7. Dice
8. Roller skates, ice cream cone
9. Cat
10. Bowling ball, stone tablets
11. Goal post
12. Eggs
13. American Flag, witch, donut (baker's dozen)
14. Ring
15. Paycheck
16. Candy, a tarantula eating another spider (8+8)
17. Airplane, magazine
18. Voting booth, 18-wheeler
19. Golf club
20. Glasses
21. Cards
22. Tutu
23. White sheep
24. Watch
25. Quarter
26. Alphabet Soup
27. Euro
28. Saturn
29. Moon
30. Chocolate kiss
31. Pumpkin
32. Ice cube
33. Cross, prayer beads
World War II series 1934-1945
34. Toothbrush (Hilter come to power in Germany, toothbrush mustache man)
35. Blood wig (Hitler wanted to make everyone blonde in 1935)
36. Helicopter (flying guns, invented in Germany in 1936)
37. Great wall of China (Japan occupies China and play dice on the Great Wall)
38. Boots (Austria surrenders to Germany, and soldiers march in on their boots)
39. Tank (Hiter's fat cats invade Poland with tanks)
40. Pears (Hilter bowls over the French army and rolls into Paris)
41. Snowman (Hilter invades Russia, but the cold and snow defeat him)
42. Smoke stacks (Hitler orders the final solution to flip the switch on the ovens and to burn the Jews and other prisoners in the concentration camps)
43. Pentagon (The Pentagon is finished in 1943, and many office workers sit on stools)
44. Boats (The US send boats to unload military vehicles and troops onto Hilter's defenses)
45. Mushroom (The US drops the atom bomb on Japan raising a mushroom cloud.)
45. Mushroom
Monday, November 29, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Letter Sent Home with Students Today
November 12th, 2010
Dear Spanish Class Parents,
Next week we our having our last four Spanish classes before ending with school wide presentations on Monday and Tuesday, the 22nd and the 23rd. This weekend students who are behind have to decide whether the pass or fail the class; or, if they are doing well, whether they pass or achieve a grade of outstanding. There are three conditions for passing the class:
1) Students must be sufficiently on task—or at least not disruptive—during our four sessions a week. Everyone has seen many of their grades in this respect already; and so far, everyone is passing in this regard.
2) Students must, at minimum, complete individual illustrations for all of the alphabet icons, labeling them correctly with the gender and the alphabet letter on each drawing. Most students are passing at this level, but some students are failing for one of two reasons—either the student hasn’t finished all of the letters yet, or the student is labeling the picture incorrectly, writing the letter “R” on a page with a picture of a sponge for example, instead of “S.” You might want to check each page in your student’s workbook this weekend to make sure that all the letters of the alphabet are complete and that each letter matches the animal icon drawn. A packet with outstanding examples of student work for each letter is included with this letter. You can also see all of the examples in the packet on the class webpage at http://spanishforpoets.blogspot.com.
3) Students must pass an oral spelling test covering all of the letters, genders, and animal icons next week. On the test, students will be told only the name of the letter and the name of the animal. They have to fill in the correct gender by memory. This will be easy if they focus on only memorizing which animals are feminine as there are very few feminine animal icons on our list. So, 1/3 of the test next week is spelling the letters correctly (a, be, ce, de, e, efe, ge, hache, etc.), 1/3 is labling the gender correctly (el, la, los, or las), and 1/3 is spelling the animal name correctly when it is heard.
In order to get a grade of “outstanding” rather than “passing,” students must also complete imaginative association pictures for each of the numbers 1 through 15, one page of notes or a picture for the numbers 16-19, and one picture for the number 20. They must also pass a spelling test on the numbers 1-20. Any mistakes in this area may be compensated for by advancing into the geography series.
This class established a basic introduction to Spanish phonetics for students who demonstrated that they lacked this knowledge on a pretest at the beginning of the year. Unlike English (where speaking and spelling are two different things), speaking and spelling work together perfectly in Spanish. Words are spelled exactly the way they sound. That is why we lay a strong foundation in the alphabet in Spanish before advancing into lots of vocabulary, verbs, and conjugations. Every verb in Spanish can be changed with one or two letters to mean over 120 things in Spanish. With a strong foundation in the alphabet it is possible to master this later on; without it, it’s very challenging for non-native speakers.
Please sign and return this letter so that I know that you have received it.
Sincerely, Signed:_________________________________
Señor Apache For Student:___________________________________
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Z sounds like C, as in "la cebra"
Be careful with the letter "Z" in Spanish. It appears from time to time, but it is not a common letter at all. You can't assume that just because a word in English has the letter Z in it that the same word in Spanish will too. That's why we're learning la cebra as our warning icon for the letter Z, just like we had an animal starting with B as our warning icon for the letter V. Thank you John for this picture. Instead of giving this animal a necklace to remind us that it is feminine, John colored la cebra purple to let us know it's a girl. Also, the fact that it ends in an "A" sound is a big clue too.
Y is for "el yac"
Like we said earlier, the K (and the W) are virtually nonexistent letters in Spanish, used pretty much only to spell Australian animals, so yak in Spanish is spelled "yac" with a "c" instead of a "k" because "k" is only for very foreign words in Spanish. Thank you John for this picture. You even captured the full pronunciation of the letter Y's name as igriega. The only thing we are missing though is the necktie on the yac since he's a masculine animal.
X is for "el xilofono"
There are no (normal) animals starting with the letter X, so we'll turn to the all purpose xylophone for our icon. The Spanish word for xylophone, as you might guess, is simply el xilofono. "X" is another virtually non-existent letter in Spanish, like "K" and "W." Whenever you see it, pronounce is as an "S" sound. Most Spanish speakers don't use the "ks" sound. Thank you Leeann for a great burst of creativity in giving us el xilofono man at the end of the alphabet. He looks like the letter X the way his arms and legs spread out, and his head makes and "O" shape on the top reminding us to end this word in the "O" sound. Great work!
W is for "el wallaby"
A wallaby is like a smaller version of the kangaroo. It is spelled the same in Spanish as it is in English; however, we must remember to pronounced the "LL" in the middle as a "Y" sound. The "Y" at the end acts like the letter "I" in this word as a vowel. The "Y" in Spanish works as a "sometimes" vowel making the "I" sound when there are no other vowels in the syllable. This Wallaby is wearing a necktie to remind us that he is masculine in gender.
V sounds like B, which is for "el buitre"
Thank you John for our icon for the letter V. In Latin American Spanish we rarely hear this sound as it has mutated into a clone of the sound for B. Therefore vaca, the word for cow, sounds like baca, in Costa Rica for example. To emphasis this point, we are using an animal that starts with a "b" in Spanish, el buitre (vulture), as our icon for the letter "v" even though it doesn't start with a "v."
U is for "el unicornio"
Thank you John for the icon for the letter "u." Remember that the unicorn is masculine because he wears a tie.
S is for "la esponja"
The are a few animals that start with an "s" and not an "es" in Spanish (when there is another vowel immediately after the "s"), but we chose la esponja as our icon for the letter "s" because most words in Spanish with an "s" in the beginning of the word are preceded with an "e" like in the word "español" for example. In fact, this is the rule whenever the letter "s" is followed by another consonant. For example, my first name is Sky, but since that breaks the rules of Spanish phonetics it is virtually impossible for monolingual Spanish speakers to say my name correctly. When I was living in Costa Rica everyone called me "Es-kai." So thank you to Leeann, for giving us the best illustration of this icon for the letter "s" in español class. Leeann has drawn a necklace around this sponge to let us know this is a feminine word.
R is for "el reno"
Thank you John for our icon for the letter "ere". This is the rolled Spanish "R" sound. Think of a cat purring to make this sound. In this brilliant imaginative association, John shows us cheerios raining down on the reindeer. Rain + O = el reno. And of course, his necktie reminds us he's a masculine animal.
Q is for "el quetzal"
Thank you John for illustrating the letter "Q". El quetzal is playing with a "Q" shaped pretzel to remind us that its animal name sounds like pretzel. Just remember, the "Z" in Spanish is always pronounced like the "S" in English.
P is for "el pingüino"
It this illustration that Andrew made for our class, we see that el pingüino has a bowl of cheerios in front of him because he has an "O" at the end of his animal name. And of course, his necktie tells us he's a masculine animal. There is something special you may have noticed though about the word pingüino: there are two dots on top of the "u." Normally when you see "gue" or "gui" in Spanish it means that the "G" is pronounced like the "G" in "Good" and the "U" is simply there as a silent protector so that the "E" or "I" won't influence the "G" and turn it into an "H" sound like we learned earlier. However, if the "U" has two jobs, both protecting the "G" and making its own sound, then we must have the two dots on top.
O if for "el orangután"
John is consistently one of our best Spanish students as we see again in this picture of his. El orangután is wearing a "tan" tie, to remind us both that his animal name is masculine and that the ending of his name sounds like "tan." Thanks for your consistently good work John!
N is for "el nido," ñ is for ñandu
This was another tough picture to construct, and again, Andrew's was the best. Nest in Spanish is "nido," and it's our icon for the letter "ene." It's a masculine word, and it sounds like needle with an o replacing the "le." The way we put all of this together in imaginative association is to imagine a bird sowing neckties (masculinity) and cheerios (the letter "O") onto his nest with a needle. Need(le) + O = nido, and the necktie makes it "el nido." Way to go, Andrew!
Bailey did a great job on the ñandu'. The mini-ostrich-like ñandu' is in NY sporting the NY letters shaved into its hairdo. He's also wearing a tie to remind us this is a masculine letter.
M is for "El Mono"
Nice work Andrew. This picture for the letter "eme" shows us a monkey wearing a tie buying cheerios with money. Money + O = mono. As we've begun to get into words are are further away from the English spelling in the Spanish translation, Andrew is one of the top students for building good imaginative associations. Finally, El mono is wearing a tie because his animal name is masculine of course.
LL is for llama, ever wonder why it has 2 L's?
Great work on this picture Joshua! The llama is eating yams in this picture to remind us that the sound of double "L" in Spanish is pronounced like the "Y" in yams. We incorporated this word "llama" into English exactly how it is spelled in Spanish, but we don't pronounce it correctly for the double "L's." In some parts of Latin America you might hear the double "L's" and the "Y" pronounced like an English "J" sound (think of the llama having Jam on her Yams), or in Argentina, you'll hear the "LL" and the "Y" pronounced as "zh" like the "s" in measure, or like the 2nd "g" in "garage." This is our first feminine animal icon. That's why she's wearing a necklace instead of a necktie.
L is for Leon
The letter "L" in Spanish is the first letter that both starts and ends with the vowel "e." He is wearing a tie to remind us that he has a masculine animal name, "el león." Good job, John!
K is for Koala
Good picture John! The letter "K," unlike most other letters in the Spanish alphabet is followed by the letter "a" instead of "e." It is called "Ka." "Ka" is for "el koala." This animal is usually spelled exactly the same way in Spanish and in English; however, you may sometimes see it spelled as coala in Spanish because the letter "K" is so rare in Spanish, some people never use it at all. Another strange thing about this word is that it is a masculine animal name even though it ends in "a." Words that end in "a" are usually feminine. That might be because the Koala is sometimes called the koala bear and the word bear in Spanish ends in "o," the sign for masculine words.
J is for "El Jaguar"
Great job on this picture John! In this picture we see a Jaguar laughing, "ha, ha, ha." The "J" sound in Spanish is like the "H" sound in English. Mr. Jaguar is also wearing a tie because he has masculine animal name, "el jaguar."
I is for "El Insecto"
Tristan, this picture of yours was a stroke of genius! In most of our alphabet icons, we are practicing the simplest memory technique of basic association. We pick and animal that starts with the same letter in English and Spanish and use it to remind us of the pronunciation of the letter in Spanish. On top of that we may put a tie on the animal to let us know if it's masculine. However, in this picture, Tristan really takes off into advance imaginative association. The insect in the ER, wearing a tie, receives a severed toe to begin disection. "In + (di)sect + toe = el insecto." Insect in English sounds so similar to insecto in Spanish that most students might think, why bother thinking up an imaginative story like this? The reason this is great is because it's memorable. Just noting that insect sounds like insecto and moving on isn't guaranteed to stick in the memory. However, I'm convinced Tristan will never forget that "the insect" translates to "el insecto" in Spanish. Think about this picture, and you'll never forget it either!
H is for "El Hipopótamo"
Thank you John for this picture! The letter "H" is silent in Spanish, but it has a big name, "hache," and a big animal icon, el hipopótamo. Do you think that necktie itches on the Hippo's neck? Itch sounds a little like "hache," and the necktie also reminds us that this animal, like all the others we saw before it, is a masculine animal in Spanish. He's also in a big "O" shaped pool to remind us his name ends in the "O" sound.
G is for "El Ganso"
Thank you Bailey for this picture! The Goose in Spanish sounds like a gun slinger with the animal name "el ganso," as Bailey illustrated so well below. In the future, we may give him a bow tie or necktie though to remind us he's considered to be a masculine animal. Watch out for this letter though! "G" makes two sounds in Spanish, but those two sounds are "G" (like in Good), and "H" like in (Hood). There isn't any "J" sound in some parts of the Spanish speaking world. It is considered interchangeable with the "Y" sound. So just remember, this Gangster Gun Slinging Goose lives in the Hood. When he is followed by an "e, i, or y" he makes an "H" sound rather than the "J" sound we hear in English in the same situations.
F is for "El Flamenco"
Thank you John, again, for this picture also! Our icon for f is el flamenco, and there are no surprises with this letter. The only letter in Spanish that makes an "f" sound is "f" and no other letter or pair of letters ever makes this sound. Why the pinkest of all animals would be masculine is beyond me, but he is! We could put a bow tie on him to remember that in the future.
E is for "El Elefante"
Thank you John for this picture! El elefante is playing in a fountain because that sounds like part of his name. He's masculine, so he should be wearing a bow tie in the future.
D is for "El Delfin"
Thank you Dylan for this picture! There is a Dell computer on the shore next to the dolphin to remind us that the first part of his animal name in Spanish sounds like a "dell" in "el delfin." Always expect Spanish spelling to be simple and direct. There is no such thing as a "ph" making an "f" sound in Spanish, so spell it with an "F!" We could add a bow tie around the neck of this delfin to remind us that delfin is a masculine word.
CH is for "El Chimpancé"
Thank you John for this picture! The "ch" sound in Spanish works just like the "ch" in English. Our chimp icon for the "ch" sound is wearing pants because the full animal name in Spanish is "El Chimpancé." We could add a necktie to the picture to remind us that el chimpancé is masculine.
C is for "El Camello"
Thank you Bailey for this picture. This Camel is travelling with a cello to remind us that he has an "o" at the end of his Spanish animal name--"El Camello." He could also wear a necktie in a future image to remind us he's masculine in Spanish. The letter "C" acts just like the English letter "C." When it is followed by an "e, i, or y" it makes the "S" sound, whereas at any other time is makes the "K" sound like in the word camel.
B is for "El Búfalo"
The letter "B" in Spanish is pronounced "be" (buffalo + egg). Búfalo in Spanish is a masculine word, so we could put a necktie on this picture in the future to help us remember that. Thank you Andrew for this illustration:
A is for "Los Animales"
The reason we chose an ostrich, an octopus, and an otter for our "Los Animales" icons is that they all start with the "aw" sound like the Spanish letter "a". We need to build a basic association to the letter. To improve this picture we might make all of the animals where neckties in the future since "Los Animales" is a masculine word in Spanish. He is the illustration by John:
The Vowels Before the Alphabet
The very first thing any English speaker learning Spanish should learn is the proper pronunciation of the vowels in Spanish. If you don't know this, you can't even learn to say the other letters of the alphabet properly because they combine with the vowel sounds! We have a little story for learning the Spanish vowels, which are always pronounced the same way unlike in English. Our story is as follows:
Awwww!!! says the egg, skiing over blue ooz.
(translation:)
(¡aaah! diga el huevo cuando esquia sobro algo azul.)
Don't worry about the translation to start with. Just make sure you know the English pronunciation of "A" as in saw, "E" as in egg, "I" as in ski, "O" as in over, and "U" as in blue. That is how the vowels are ALWAYS pronounced in Spanish. He's Bailey's drawing from Spanish class to illustrate this basic association:
Intro to the Memorization Concepts of Basic Association, Pegging, and Imaginative Association
Ahola, Spanish enthusiasts. Here's a taste of what's to come later on the website once we pass the alphabet and numbers and get into geography and vocabulary, ojala'. This first picture is by one of our students Laurel Mentor, and it starts off our Latin American geography series. In the picture below, we know this is the 1st country South of the U.S. Mexico Mexico Laurel
Friday, November 5, 2010
Welcome to Spanish for Poets
Will will be posting beginner Spanish materials on this website this weekend.
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