Previous Month Question

1. I teach beginning Spanish, so they compose surveys based upon the content (how many students like baseball, basketball, swimming, etc.). When we are learning the numbers I give them math problems in Spanish and they have to write them down and give the correct answer to get the points.


2. I teach kindergarten Spanish FLES. We name the numbers in the target language of course (we can count to 40 by now). We also name the shapes. Beyond that, we use manipulative such as small plastic bears to see the quantities that the numbers represent (cinco bears = 5), we perform math operations such as addition and subtraction (tres osos rojos + siete osos verdes = ? osos), we sort a certain number of bears by color, we use the bears to make patterns (dos rojos, un azul y tres amarillos - repeat the pattern cinco veces)and we count by 10 using groups of 10 bears of different colors. We use the shapes to describe our world (we compared two pigs and a student told me that one was more "ovalo" and the other more "circulo")I use the shapes to explain how to draw something; I taped a different shape on each table and when I send students to a certain table, I determine the table by naming the shape and the color (John, sientate in la mesa con el triangulo cafe por favor).


3. Just last week we were learning to tell time and developed a survey of questions such as: A quelle heure arrives-tu a l'ecole?
   A quelle heure manges-tu le petit dejeuner?
   A quelle heure te couches-tu? and so on.
   Students in class than polled each other and using an excel program created a variety of interesting graphs to share their information.


4. According to the Realidades level one Spanish text, the Fiesta de la Tomatina in Bunnol, Spain is a 2-hour long tomato-throwing food fight using more than 130 tons of tomatoes. I asked my students to calculate how many classrooms like ours (22'W x 33'L x 9'H) filled with tomatoes would approximate 130 tons of tomatoes. We assumed a standard tomato to be 3" dia., 1/4 pound. We then determined that 1 cubic foot = 64 tomatoes / 4 tom. per pound = 16 pounds. Next, we multiplied 22x33x9 room dimensions =6,534 cubic feet x 16 pounds per cubic foot = 104,544 pounds of tomatoes to fill one classroom. 130 tons, or, 260,000 pounds / 104,544 pounds = 2.487 classrooms. I showed how the approx. answer could be found by changing 260,000 / 104,544 ( a hard div. problem) to 260 / 104, or better, 26 / 10 = approx. 2 1/2 classrooms full of tomatoes. We related this to going to the cafeteria and having 2 1/2 classrooms full of tomatoes delivered for a great food fight. My 7th grade class stayed involved in solving the puzzle and enjoyed doing this.I do it all the time! Students laugh about that: I use +, -, = and other signs to explain simple grammatical rules.

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