Week of February 18 - 22

NATURAL SCIENCE

In fifth grade we are working on ecosystems and food chains. I used this week to combine both and made a game for class. I gave each student a strip of paper that had a plant or animal on it. Their job was to find the other organisms within a given ecosystem and determine what order their food chain belonged in. After we completed the food chains, we looped the strips of paper in order to create an actual chain for each ecosystem.

This activity didn't go as well as I'd hoped because I didn't give them enough clues about where they belonged. I intended for them to use logic and reasoning for the more difficult organisms and ecosystems but that didn't go as planned. I think they felt defeated by the lack of information. I will certainly remember that for the next activity but we still got the idea of the excercise.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

This week the students played classic Spanish games as part of the Andalucia Day festivities. It isn't until next week but they are preparing now. They taught me several ways to play marbles! In America as a kid, I only pretended to know how to play marbles with the ones from my grandma's vase. Don't tell her we used to play with those! ;)

This day was fun, naturally less active than normal but a great day for the students to teach me instead! They explained all of the rules in english and asked me to join their groups to play. I had a few small wins and we had fun together!

Our first six weeks with Teacher Melanie!

Our first six weeks with Teacher Melanie!

Now that I’m adjusted to my new life here in Spain, let me tell you about these amazing first six weeks…

I am the Auxiliar or Culture and Language Assistant here at CEIP Antonio Rodríguez Almodóvar and my role is to encourage conversation and introduce relevant American culture into the classroom. Let me say…this is THE BEST job I’ve ever had! I am showered with love and appreciation and I get to use fun activities to get students involved in their curriculum. I think the one thing that I have been shocked by is how much I am truly able to teach the students. When I have their full attention I am able to introduce new subject matter and they walk away with knowledge and new confidence in their English. There is no better feeling!

Let’s talk about fifth grade. My mini adults! They have so much individuality and have their minds made up about so much. Quite naturally their English is the strongest and I enjoy our classes together as I’m able to have conversations with them about many things. They are so entertaining and teach me a lot about what it’s like to be a Spanish kid. Here’s what we’ve covered so far…

SCIENCE

We began with the Spanish constitution and I learned so much about the country. We played a lot of Pasapalabra in class, which was great for listening and answering.

We moved onto demographics and I created an activity called “Find my Family” for this unit. Each student was given a flashcard of a family member that they had to portray and their goal was to find the other members of their family by asking questions about where they live, where they’re from and where they’d like to move if so. Once they found their family they were required to tell the class who they were and facts about themselves. We then created graphs to describe our demographics from the game and it reinforced the trends they were learning about. This activity was so much fun and brought out the students’ acting skills!

After demographics they started to work on projects about different provinces of Spain and I enjoyed helping them describe the facts of their province. We are moving into ecosystems and food chains so last week I taught on the types of ecosystems in Texas. It’s very similar to Spain in that we have so many types but the one big difference was the wetlands we have in Texas! Describing the alligator at the top of the food chain seemed to be exciting for them.

I hope to introduce a form of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader before the school year is over!

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

I was most excited about this part of my job because I love sports, and it has not disappointed! Each week we play 3-4 games in class and they build their skills to master a type of sport such as handball or soccer. The students take the opportunity to explain each game and how it’s played in English. I participate in the games every chance I get and the students love this. Last week we played human foosball. I introduced the idea of requiring the students to hold hands as they played and it really elevated the game. They were forced to use strategy and team work. It was my favorite game to date and I can’t wait for the next chance to play along with them!