Options Evening

By Sue

Looking for colourful options to teach Spanish? Check out our magazines!

Our annual year 8 options evening approaches this Thursday and with it come anxieties and much apprehension from the students who, along with their parents, will choose the subjects that will, hopefully, provide them with good GCSE grades and will open the door to further education and eventually university.

The government has increased the Ebacc subjects that students can take, but rather than make this easier for them, it puts restrictions on their choices as many subjects clash on the timetable.

Avoiding Common Errors in Spanish: ‘to meet’ in Spanish with activities

By Maje

A Spanish version follows.

Hello everybody!

We hope you have had a great weekend!

During the past few weeks, I have been talking (a lot) about Spanish idioms, Spanish & Latin American vocabulary and Spanish grammar. And also about our online news articles! I love them because students can leave comments and that means we get to know the most common mistakes speakers of other languages make in Spanish! I must confess that I truly enjoy collecting them as knowing what they are is the first step to help students to overcome making mistakes.

Las Comidas

By T

© Picture Disk

Here we have a post by one of Sue’s students:

Hi! I am T and this is my post! I am in 7H at Ormiston Horizon Academy. Nice to meet you. First let me tell you about myself… My name is Theepiga, call me T. I live with my mum, dad and my nine year old brother Theepikan. I have 5 best friends… Ellie, Bailey, Julia, Aliye and a friend in London Praveena.

Currently we are learning about ‘Las Comidas’ which is ‘food’. Food is a very fun topic. Today we did a piece of writing on ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ writing down all sorts of food which the hungry caterpillar had eaten.

Winter Sports

By Maje

This is the last week of the Sochi Winter Olympics!  Are you enjoying the Games? This week, we have published an online news article on Julia Lipnitskaia, the youngest woman to take home a gold medal in this year’s Winter Olympics. She’s just 15 years old! We think it might be helpful to create a lesson plan on Sochi.

In Sochi 2014, there are 7 official winter sports and 88 countries competing for medals. In Spanish, we have translations for most of the Olympic sports but for some of them we just use English words. See below an infographic on Sochi Olympics and winter sports that you can display on the interactive whiteboard and use as part of your lesson plan about sports.

Ropa Limpia-project – Yr 11/Level 3

By Sue

You can download the article and the accompanying teaching plan below the cut

This week I’m starting the Ropa Limpia project with one of my GCSE groups.

Last week we looked at Tattoos, and their social impact and stigmas, and this week it’s the fashion industry.

I’m going to follow the lesson plan as in the Teacher’s notes, including some YouTube videos of working conditions in foreign climes.

Perks of the job

By Britta

Mary Glasgow Magazines sell magazines and books in more than 34 countries and we could not do so without the help of our agents in those countries.

It is not often that we have face-to-face contact with the agents. But sometimes one of us is lucky enough to travel abroad to meet with them. And sometimes those who have remained at home in the office get a taste of what the visit to that country was like in the form of a gift.

Gustar and Preferir

By Maje

A Spanish version follows.

This month, Facebook celebrates its 10th birthday (see a free Spanish news article and audio on Facebook’s 10th anniversary on the Mary Glasgow website). The Spanish version was launched in 2008 thanks to a team of volunteer translators. Since then I have always encouraged my students to use Facebook in Spanish so that they can experience learning a language in a kind of “immersion environment”. Facebook is also great to teach the infamous verb “gustar“. We spend most of our time on Facebook liking stuff so why not do it in Spanish?

Mediterranean Diet, broken New Year’s resolution buster?

By Britta

Download the article below the cut

Did you know that eating healthy to lose weight tops the 10 New Year’s resolutions and, alas, the 10 most commonly broken resolutions too?

Now that February has arrived,  statistically speaking, there is a big chance that many of you – yes, just like me – have given up on their diets and I bet it’s not much different with your students.

We all know that changing your eating habits is really what’s required. And if it’s not just weight loss you are after but a diet that benefits your health in general then the Mediterranean Diet is worth looking into.

Spanish Football/Soccer Idioms

By Maje

A Spanish version follows.

Football (fútbol in Spanish) is a very important sport in Spain, a key part of Spanish culture, and it features in many idioms and colloquialisms.

This week, I have written an article with podcast on El Balón de Oro, one of the most important football awards in the world. Cristiano Ronaldo, a Real Madrid player, has won the Balón de Oro and has presented the trophy to the fans at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, in Madrid. In the article I wrote for El Sol level, I used the Spanish sports expression rematar la faena. As we want to help our readers develop vocabulary skills, I have created an infographic with more Spanish sports idioms, focused on football.