Beginning Spanish with Stories & Games for Chicos & Puppets - Lessons 1-8 (FLEX)

Stories, laughter, puppets, and games make compelling forces in language-learning! In this class, those at or near the beginning of their Spanish-language journey will practice different kinds of phrases and dialogues each week while playing games and listening to simple books. No previous Spanish knowledge is required.

~Instructional videos~
Each week, I will post a video: 
1 - Introducing and modeling the new phrases and vocabulary with my puppets,
2 - Reading the week's story with explanations,
3 - Modeling the game of the week, and
4 - Guiding a quick quiz on what we have just learned.
I make use of props, my flannel board, shared slides, and of course puppets in these videos. Some weeks my puppets and I also provide review videos to practice recalling the phrases from previous weeks. 

Though this flex version of the course includes no live class time, please see below the various ways we will interact over the course of this learning experience:

~Interaction by sharing puppet conversations~
I ask that learners submit video recordings (through the Zoom function in the classroom page) showing conversations with their puppets or stuffies with the phrases we are working on that week. I give feedback on these videos via a personalized video for each learner. Learners can also give encouraging comments on one another's videos. 

~Interaction through feedback on homework~
Each week with the instructional videos, I provide class notes, a printable version of the week's story, at least one worksheet (tracing, cut-and-paste or drawing) for learners who may not be reading and writing on their own yet and at least one other worksheet for learners who are reading and writing.  Learners can post their completed worksheets in the classroom and comment on each other's work, as well as receive feedback from me.

Some learners who are already reading may wish to submit recordings of themselves reading the book of the week. I love receiving and giving feedback on those as well!

~Interaction through asynchronous games~
At the beginning of each week, I will also present a game to practice that week's focus together on the classroom page. Examples are: 
- Name Chain Puppet Game (We make recordings in which each of our puppets or stuffies says the name and age of the previous commenter's and tells their own)
- Mystery Item - We post an image that goes with a vocabulary word from the week (very close up or at an odd angle to make it tricky) and the other learners guess which one it might be. 
- Charades (in which learners act something out in a quick recording and the other learners comment, trying to guess which vocabulary item was acted out)
- Guess the drawing (Learners draw a vocabulary phrase from the week and other learners guess which one it is.)

~Kahoot quizzes~
Kahoot quizzes will often be available for learners to check the recall of the material and compete with their classmates.

Sometimes I also provide additional optional games for learners to practice outside of our online classroom with family or friends. Examples are: simple board game, memory games (finding pairs), charades, "Juguemos en el bosque" (Let's play in the forest) running game, and "¿Dónde está?" (Where is it?) guessing game. I also love to see photos of learners playing the games if they share those on the classroom page!

These will be our weekly focuses:
Week 1  - Telling our names and ages, Book: "Tú no te llamas Juan" (by the instructor)
Week 2 - Asking and answering what things are, Book: "Busco un gato" (by the instructor)
Week 3 - Telling how we feel, Book: "Copo de nieve, ¿cómo estás?" (by the instructor)
Week 4 - Telling what we are doing, Book: "¿Estás listo, Federico?" (by the instructor)
Week 5 - Telling where we are with the book, "Paula, ¿dónde estás?" (by the instructor)
Week 6 - Expressing likes and dislikes, Book: "Mónica, ¿qué te gusta?" (by the instructor)
Week 7 - Describing our attributes, Book: "¡Así soy yo!" (by the instructor) 
Week 8 - Telling what we have, Book: "Tengo diez perros" (by the instructor)