The original game in English is called Ships and Sailors. I adapted it to my elementary school students. Here are the instructions in Spanish. I have them on the Smart Board during the game until the students (and I) become familiar with all of them.

Left-stand on the left side of the room A la izquierda
Right-stand on the right side of the room A la derecha
Captain's coming-stand at salute (with your hand near your head standing straight)Viene el Capitán
Sharks-all players lie down on the floor, face down and make a fin with their hand behinf the neck. Tiburón
Periscope
Hand overboard-one player kneels and the other puts his/her hand on their partner's shoulder and pretends to look overboard Hombre al agua
Three hands rowing-players get into a group of 3 and mime rowing furiously Abandonen el barco

OK, I did it. I went to Walmart and bought 23 Merge Cubes for $1 each. I joined the hundreds of teachers who bought truckloads of these cute cubes with no idea of how to use them. Now that they are sitting on my shelf staring at me, I need to figure out how to implement their magic in my Spanish classes.I have not gotten very far, yet, but this technology is way too cool to let it pass. So, if you have any ideas, please share them in the comments. Of course, there is a Facebook page for Cube Educators. The Merge Cube website is full of resources for all teachers. Also, I found this blog that has some great information on how to get started. 

 If you print this mat, you can scan and upload your own objects so when you point your phone or tablet to the cube you can see your object in Virtual Reality (VR).  Once again, not sure how I can use this in the future, but I am exploring. If you have any ideas, please, share in the comments. Happy Exploring!

In order to prepare my fifth grade students for middle school, I am  expected to teach three units of  Realidades. In chapter 2A, we are talking about ordinal numbers. Well, I posted a question in the CI LIftoff Facebook group and a teacher suggested using Sr. Wooly's "Las Excusas" video and embedded readings. So, I went to his website and looked at the embedded reading. I remembered a game that I saw in the Brandon Brown teacher's guide. I can't remember if it was the "dice la verdad" or "quiere un perro" TG. The game is called Anteojos, I think. I modified that game to use an online spinner instead of post-its simply because I hate throwing the post-its away after the game. I printed the long version for principiantes of teh reading and I cut the story in half. I printed each half on a different color paper to make it easier to explain. I also wrote A, B, C, D, E on each paper. When the kids came in, I numbered them 1,2 as they came in. I asked the 1s to stand in line on one side of the room and the 2s to stand in a line facing the 1s. Next, I gave one part of the story to the 1s and the other part of the story to the 2s. I instructed them to get in their group (1 or 2), read the story and make sure that everyone understood all the paragraph. I set the timer for 10 minutes and then I asked them to get in their letter groups A, B, C, D, E. Students numbered themselves within each group. I gave them a couple minutes to make sure everyone in the story understood the reading. At that point, I explained that I was going to ask a question and say who would answer in the name of the group. For example: I would ask, "what is the name of the girl? #2 will answer for your group".  The whole team has to make sure #2 has the correct answer. As I call on each team, if the answer is correct, student #2 comes to the smart board and spins the wheel to know how many points the team get. We write the scores on the board and, at the end, we add them up. The points are just for fun and we get to practice numbers, too. 
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In May, we will have Andres performing in our school for PS -1 grade. Today, with Preschool we danced to Salta, Salta, practicing Salta/Brinca, 1,2,3, arriba, más alto.

Next, I introduced the word "araña"with some plastic spiders I had left over from Halloween. We talked about the color of the spiders, how they walk and what they make. Then, I asked them what could bounce on a spiderweb. As they suggested things, I used "más grande" and "más pequeño" to guide them. When a student said "elefante" ,I acted surprised and started the video. We counted, practiced colors, the words "pesado"and "no se rompe". Next class, I will have them sit in a circle and, with masking tape, we are going to create our own web. Stay tuned for pictures!
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After taking the rainforest down, I showed the Jungle Book to my classes. Today we are doing this activity called Interactive Writing. I got the idea after reading this post: deskfree.wordpress.com/2016/10/06/interactive-writing/ and it is wonderful!
First, I cut copy paper in half and post its in half, too. Then, I explained to my first grade students that they had to draw a scene from the movie, without any writing. After drawing, I had them color their pictures. Next, I asked them to leave their pictures on their chairs. When the music played, students did a gallery walk. When the music stopped, they had to choose a picture and write as many words in Spanish related to that picture. We had written a list of words on the board before starting the activity. Then, the music started again and they continued walking. They stopped at two other pictures and then it was time to leave. Tomorrow, I will give them their pictures with the post it comments and I will have them write sentences with those words in their notebooks.
I will do the same with my older classes, just encouraging to write a paragraph with more details as they are capable. 

Over Spring break, my classroom was transformed into a magical rainforest. After studying different biomes, my students came back from Spring break to this:
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Before break, students had started working on an animal of their choosing. They had to find out information about it and draw a picture. Kindergarten, PS and PK worked on making flowers with coffee filters. 
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Here are some samples of drawings and information for the different grade levels. The drawing of teh Basilisk goes with the first description. 
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These are pictures of my Preschoolers enjoying the forest. We were moving as different animals of the jungle. When I said "bird" they all found a flower and started "sucking" the nectar off of it! Precious!

Virtual tour: