¡Felices Fiestas!

Marzipan: Dr. Who, anybody?

Today we reviewed la familia in Spanish.

 We also made some marzipan figurines, we had caracoles (snails), serpientes (snakes), fruta (fruit), verduras (veggies) and all kind of creatures and objects.

If you want a better flavor and consistency, you can glaze them with egg white and bake them in a toaster oven for a few minutes before you eat them, otherwise they are ready to eat as they are.

Snake and some Kirby characters?

Next session we will start with a quick review of what we have learned these past few months and then we will venture into new material.

Felices Fiestas/Enjoy the Holidays!

La familia y figuritas de mazapán

Today we reviewed the days, months and seasons in both classes. Some of you brought to my attention that the lady in the videos was sometimes differentiating between V/B. (Good ear Jana!). You are right, she does in some of the videos, but believe me, NO native speaker of Spanish does. For right now do not worry too much about it. We will explore those and other sounds some more next year, after the break.

We also explored how to refer to family members and made a chart with the most common relationships. Please go over the chart we created in class and watch the two videos below.

During the second half of the class we will make some traditional frutas de mazapán (marzipan figurine candies shaped like fruits), a traditional dessert that many in Spain enjoy to celebrate the holidays. We will be using a commercial confection. List of ingredients: sugar, blanched almonds, water, sorbitol, corn syrup, potassium sorbate (preservative) and food coloring.


VIDEO: mijahgi: - La familia

In this video you will hear Este/esta es mi papá/mamá (This is my dad/mom) or Estos/Ellos son mis abuelos (These/They are my grandparents)





VIDEO: FluencyProf - La Familia: Basic Spanish Lesson

This video is a little bit more involved than the one above so please watch it a couple of times. Some longer sentences; much of it already covered in class.



See you at the winter festival and in class.

¿Qué fecha es hoy?

Today in intro Spanish we learned about the days (día) of the week (semana), the months (meses) of the year (año) and how to write a date (fecha): number + de + month

Tuesday, December 2nd = martes, 2 de diciembre.

Next week we will reinforce what we learned today. Please, in preparation for class, watch the three videos below to practice how to better pronounce the days, the months, AND the seasons (las estaciones).

Also, please take a look at pages 16 and 87 in our book. Thanks and see you on Tuesday (Hasta el martes)!


VIDEO: Mahalodotcom- How to say the Days of the Week in Spanish




VIDEO: Mahalo- How to say the Months of the Year in Spanish




VIDEO: Mahalodotcom - How to say the Seasons in Spanish

Today in Intermediate Spanish we practiced our present tense conjugations.  We also started learning about the Inca. I was impressed to see that some of you had gone to the library and done research on the Maya and the Aztec. We also talked about Tintin :)

Please watch these two links in preparation for class: The Inca Empire 1 and The Inca Empire 2.

Also, if you could, after watching the English version, please watch the Spanish version of the Time Compass (Exploradores de la Historia) and see if you can recognized any words or expressions. (It will take you an extra 14 minutes, but you may find it interesting as an exercise, even if you only recognize a few words).



VIDEO: Exploradores de la Historia - Imperio Inca