¿CUANTOS LIBROS HAY EN LA CLASE?

¿Cuantos libros hay en la clase?

How many books are there in the class?

Hay muchos libros.

There are many books.

Our Claxton students who are working on their Spanish are really hitting their stride! This week, we learn a new classroom item: 

libro    book

We've been working on:

¿Cuantos hay?    How many are there?

Putting together these phrases, and using their knowledge of classroom items and colors, allows students to start having conversations. What an empowering feeling!

Use this video to see how much progress we've made ... and to learn the Spanish words for even more classroom objects:

And just for fun, see how much of this trailer for the Spanish language version of Libro de Vida (Book of Life) you can follow!

CUANTOS SILLAS HAY EN LA CLASE?

¿Cuantos sillas hay en la clase?

How many seats are there in the classroom?

Hay muchas sillas en la clase.

There are many seats in the classroom.

Now that we know hay sillas en la clase, we're ready to ask ¿Cuantos? How many?

We've been practicing counting Spanish every morning, so chances are your student can tell you exactly how many seats there are in her or his classroom. But it's also useful to be able to say hay muchas/there are many.

Notice that many is a word that describes a noun: many seats. 
That means, in Spanish, it can be masculine or feminine, depending on the noun it describes: 

muchas sillas
muchos lápices

And speaking of muchos, this video is worth watching again as we learn the Spanish words for objects in the classroom:

EN LA CLASE HAY SILLAS

En la clase hay sillas.

In the classroom are chairs.

Learning to name objects in the classroom in Spanish continues! Silla, or chair, is a fun one because of the ll, which is pronounced like the letter y in English.

Plus, everyone has a silla en la clase. And some other objects that are fun to say in Spanish with this classroom rap:

EN LA CLASE ...

En la clase hay lápices amarillos y rojos. ¿De cúales otros colores son los lápices?

In the classroom there are yellow and red pencils. What other colors are the pencils?

It's quite a mouthful, but our Claxton language leaders are up to it! We've spent the past several weeks practicing different ways to talk about the pencils we find in our classrooms: in the singular or plural, in different colors, and in statements and questions.

We're loving this short rap about the classroom. Keep watching -- los lápices están allí!

And if you've got 10 minutes, try this video that reinforces the Spanish words for different colors and applies them to all sorts of objects, giving kids a great chance for some mini-immersion:

LANGUAGE LEADER LEADERSHIP!

A big shout out to 4th grade Language Leader Camille Ramirez Chavez! She exemplified CLX leadership qualities at Monday morning's Language Leaders meeting!

Camille prepared an excellent and informative presentation on Colombia complete with notes, a detailed map, artifacts, and delicious homemade empanadas to share! 

Let's congratulate this awesome student for going above and beyond and being an example to our school community!

EN LA CLASE HAY LAPICES AMARILLOS

We're starting to put it all together!

En la clase hay lápices amarillos.
In the classroom there are yellow pencils.

Keep practicing those colors ... and see if anyone remembers the Spanish words for some of the other classroom items we've learned.

En la clase hay lápices amarillos.

En la clase hay lápices rojos.

En la clase hay libros verdes.

En la clase hay libros morados.

En la clase hay estudiantes de colóres diferentes.

Notice that when the noun is plural (lápices, libros, estudiantes), the adjective/color that describes it is plural as well (amarillos, rojos, verdes, morados).

Here's a fun, repetitive immersion song to find the rhythm of asking and answering what color different things are:

And, to practice classroom items:

EL LAPIZ ES AMARILLO

El lápiz es amarillo.

The pencil is yellow.

Claxon students are continuing to solidify their knowledge of Spanish words for colors and classroom objects. By using these words in different types of sentences, they are also gaining an instinctive understanding of Spanish grammar, which differs in some ways from English grammar.

This week's statement is particularly simple for students, since the structure of the sentence is exactly the same in both Spanish and English. This lets students play:

El lápiz es rojo. 
The pencil is red.

El lápiz es naranja.
The pencil is orange.

What other colors does your student remember? Sing along to keep it fresh!