Free Spanish Resources for Back to School!

Welcome back to my blog, friends! Let me know: Are you already back to school or still have a few weeks left of summer. (Tell me in the comments below). Whichever the case is, today I'll be sharing how you can get access to over 40+ FREE SPANISH resources! Whattttt!!!!??? First things first, make sure you are subscribed to my email club. My email club members are always the first to find out about sales, free resources, and g.i.v.e.a.w.a.y.s. Click here to sign up and get instant access to a free Spanish prefixes unit. 

Free Spanish Elementary Resources 

Are you looking for FREE resources for your SPANISH elementary classroom?

1. Click the picture to go to TpT. 
2. There, you'll download the free resource.
3. Then click on page 2 of the file to have access to the Google Drive folder. All 17 FREE resources will be in your Google Drive in an instant. 

Free Spanish Secondary Resources

Are you looking for FREE resources for your SPANISH secondary classroom?

1. Click the picture below to go to TpT. 
2. There, you'll download the free resource.
3. Then click on page 2 of the file to have access to the Google Drive folder. All 25+ FREE resources will be in your Google Drive in an instant. 

Spanish TpT Gift Card Giveaway! 

Now what's better than 40+ FREE resources? Well, I've teamed up with amazing Spanish TpT authors to bring you this $1250 TpT gift card giveaway. There will be 5 winners of $250 each. How would you use that TpT gift card? Let me know below in the comments then head on over to La Profe Plotts blog to enter. Good luck!

See you next time! ¡Hasta luego!

Cinco de Mayo Activities in SPANISH

Cinco de Mayo is fast approaching! Do you teach or celebrate Cinco de Mayo in your bilingual classroom? Today I'll be sharing my favorite videos, books, and activities to help you plan your Cinco de Mayo lessons in SPANISH! 

I have to begin by stating one important detail: Cinco de Mayo is NOT Mexico's Independence Day. This is a common misconception. Instead, Cinco de Mayo celebrates Mexico's victory over France at the Batalla de Puebla (Battle of Puebla). 

Fun fact: Other than in the state of Puebla, Cinco de Mayo is mostly celebrated in the United States!

Videos

In order to build background knowledge and make connections, I like to start my Cinco de Mayo unit with videos. A KWL chart (Tabla de SQA) can help students jot down: what they know, what they want to learn, and what they learn. In Spanish SQA chart stands for: Lo que sé, lo que quiero saber y lo que aprendí. This is a perfect tool to engage your students in the learning process. 

Here are a few videos you can use with your students. *However, please preview these videos yourself to make certain they are a good match for your students.

• Batalla de Puebla para niños | 5 de mayo: This video gives information on the history of the Batalla de Puebla and talks a bit about the celebrations nowadays.
• 5 de Mayo Batalla de Puebla Para Niños: This video gives historical information and then shows small clips of fun parades and celebrations. 
• Celebrate! It's Cinco De Mayo Bilingual read aloud: This English/Spanish read aloud is engaging and students can make connections with both languages. 

Books

Here are four books you can get from Amazon and get them just in time to celebrate Cinco de Mayo! These are Spanish or Bilingual books you can use. If you need books in English just enter it at the search bar on Amazon.

• ¡Es Cinco de Mayo!
• Celebramos Cinco de Mayo
• El Cinco de Mayo
• ¡Celebremos! ¡Es el Cinco de Mayo!

*Please note: these are affiliate links and I do earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Resources

The following resources in my TpT store can help you plan and get your Cinco de Mayo unit organized. Word wall resources, graphic organizers, Boom Cards, and directed drawings! Check them out HERE or click each image.

Thank you for reading this far! Sign up for my email newsletter to get EXCLUSIVE FREE resources delivered to your inbox! I also host surprise giveaways in my newsletter so make sure you sign up HERE. Until next time friends! ¡Hasta luego!

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage - All Year Long

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month is super close to my heart! In my opinion, we should be teaching our students about influential Hispanics all year long. Can you tell I love my culture and heritage? Today, I am sharing a few things and ideas that can help you celebrate Hispanic Heritage all year long! Don't forget to sign up to receive my email newsletter and download a FREE Prefixes unit just for joining! 

Lotería

Lotería is a popular game played in Hispanic households. Have you ever played? It is a type of bingo with pictures and words that have become iconic over the years. Ask any Hispanic family about lotería, they probably know about it, own a set, and probably even have a t-shirt about it!!! Some of the pictures on the traditional lotería are not appropriate for the classroom. So imagine my excitement when I found a kid friendly version on Amazon. This Lil' Loteria is perfect for classroom use (pictures and words are kid friendly) PLUS it is bilingual. Such a great tool to build vocabulary in Spanish and English while having fun! You can see it on Amazon here with my affiliate link. 

Activities

You can use a variety of activities to teach or have students learn about influential Hispanics. I have created a bundle of activities that you can use all throughout the year and still be purposeful when teaching about these amazing Hispanic Leaders. 

• Hispanic Leaders Book and Activities with matching game cards and worksheets
• Hispanic Leaders Research Slides: Students can research, learn and complete.
• Hispanic Leaders Fact/Opinion: You can use these any time you are teaching a unit on fact/opinion
• Hispanic Leaders Fix the Sentences: You can use these in a grammar/writing center.

Click on any of the titles above to see this resources or click HERE to see the bundle. 

Videos

There are a few videos I've used to introduce and review Hispanic Heritage. Click below to be taken to the videos on YouTube. There are so many more amazing videos, these are just a few of my favorites. 

Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month | Disney Channel

Hispanic Heritage Month | Nick Jr.

Sesame Street Latino Festival

FREEBIE

Thank you for reading this far! I hope you and your students have a great time celebrating influential Hispanic Leaders all year long. Click HERE to download FREE bookmarks featuring 8 different influential Hispanics.  These FREE bookmarks are exclusive to my blog readers. This means they are not available any where else! Enjoy!

Don't forget to visit my TpT store HERE to see more activities for your bilingual classroom. Until next time friends! ¡Hasta luego!

*This post contains an Amazon Affiliate link. This means I make a small commission at NO EXTRA CHARGE to you when you purchase through my links. Thank you for your support, come back soon!

Teacher Appreciation

Welcome back to my blog friends! Today I am sharing a quick idea for teacher appreciation and FREE gift tags in English/Spanish.

First, I'd like to begin by thanking each and everyone of you for all that you do for your students day in and day out. At this time of the year, we are exhausted and any little handwritten note reminds us of our daily impact on our students lives. I cherish each coloring picture, each "I love you, teacher", and each day with my students.

I have created a free gift tag you can share with your child's teacher. Just grab some sweet snacks, print this out in either color or black/white, sign child's name, and attach. Your child's teacher will love the thoughtfulness.

Click HERE or the pictures to download.

ALSO, with Teacher Appreciation Week right around the corner, my friends and I have joined to give one lucky reader an amazing prize pack! Just look at all the goodies you could win!

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:  

Prize: 10 Teacher "Must Haves" prize pack including: Mr. Sketch Markers, Flair Markers, Personal Laminator, Dry Erase Pockets, Dry Erase Markers, Astrobrights Paper, Sharpies, Ticonderoga Pencils, a Wall Calendar, and a $50 Teachers pay Teachers gift card.

Giveaway Organized by: Kelly Malloy (An Apple for the Teacher)

Co-hosts:   An Apple for the Teacher,  MM Bilingual, Debora Marines TeachMagically, Cara's Creative Playground, Amanda's Little Learners, The Craft of Teaching, Jackie Crews, Sugar Cube Learning Resources, Stephanie Rye-Forever in Fifth Grade, Teach with Hope, 180 Days of Reading, The Literacy Garden, Sandra Naufal, Teacher Jeanell, Sliding into 1st, Teacher Mama School, Tried and True Teaching Tools, Third Grade Giggles, The Chocolate Teacher, Sarah Griffin, Peas In A Pod, Heart 2 Heart Teaching, It's a Teacher Thing, Teacher Gameroom, Save the Teacher, A Plus Kids, Digging Deep to Soar Beyond the Text, It Happened in 3rd, The Literacy Garden, A Place of Story, Kindergarten Is Crazy, and Knowledge Mobile.

Rules: Use the Rafflecopter to enter. Giveaway ends 5/8/17 and is open worldwide.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Exit Tickets in the Bilingual Classroom

Welcome back to my blog friends! Today I am sharing ideas on how to use Exit Tickets in the bilingual classroom.

Exit tickets are a way great to assess your students quickly and effectively. I do not use these every day, but I do try to incorporate them at least two to three times per week. On other days, I utilize Plickers for an easy way to check for understanding and collect data. (Blog post to come soon).

So how do I use these and what are the benefits? Keep reading to find out and grab a FREEBIE.

~Participation

During whole group teaching, I always have the same students that are participating and showing their understanding, while the rest of the class is quiet. With exit tickets, all student are accountable to be paying attention. I do tell them "Class, there will be an exit ticket after this so make sure to focus and pay close attention." This promotes 100% engagement. 

~Reflection

Through this exit ticket students can self reflect. I'll have students that cannot answer come up to me and tell me, they didn't understand or know what to write. I can do a quick reteach and it's wonderful to see their faces when the lesson clicks and they suddenly "get it," Also, I love seeing those that can answer accurately right away and their comments such as a confident: "I know this!"

~Writing

Writing about content is such an important skill for my students. Exit tickets help me evaluate their writing and they get extra practice in writing about what they've learned. This is the perfect time to spiral in proper capitalization and punctuation in a quick way. 

~Assessment/Reteach

Students post these up on my wall and I am able to gauge almost instantly who needs extra help. During small groups, I am able to group based on their needs and reteach the skills necessary to master the concept. 

Here are a few pictures of exit tickets in action and how I display them in my classroom. I team teach so I have two anchor chart sheets posted by my door. These charts have squares with numbers on them. Students in my class are assigned a number at the beginning of the year and that's where they will place their exit tickets throughout the year. 

Here is a freebie you can use right now with your students.

My Spanish pack of exit tickets is available at my TpT store! These are perfect to use with any content and promote self reflection after a lesson.

Have you used exit tickets in your classroom? Let me know how they've worked for you! Until next time friends!

Elf-tacular Giveaway

Hello friends and welcome back to my blog! Can you believe December is here?? This is my favorite time of the year! Today I have a few ideas to share with you and an Elf-tacular Giveaway you won't want to miss!

Recipe
A nice cool front just came in here in South Texas so it's time for hot chocolate and these delicious hot cocoa cookies I came across on Pinterest! Check them out, they are easy to make and look so tasty.

Craft
This time of the year is so busy that I want to share a quick craft I will be trying with my kids this year. Nothing too fancy or difficult, you just need popsicle sticks, paint, sequins, glue, scissors and twine.

Freebie
In the spirit of Christmas....here is a fun SPANISH FREEBIE for you - Christmas tree organizers. They can be used with any story and cover story elements, main idea, and vocabulary. Share the link with any bilingual teachers you know :)

Here is my Elf-tacular letter!!!

Now keep on blog hopping over to The Science School Yard to grab your elf letter

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Back to School K-2 Linky!

Hello friends! Welcome back to our monthly I Teach K-2 Linky! Today I am joining my wonderful blogger friends to talk about back to school inspiration and some resources that will definitely SAVE you some time and money!! Make sure to read all the way to the END for an amazing giveaway!!! 

To start off, I'm going to share two of my favorite inspirational quotes for back to school. Feel free to download these, print them, and share them. 

Now on to a FREEBIE just for you! I usually struggle heading back to school trying to find the perfect reading logs for my students. I know there are many free ones, but I wanted one that would meet the needs of my bilingual kiddos. I have two versions for you both in English and Spanish. One is a general reading log with space for date, title, minutes, and signature. Then there's a different version labeled Monday-Thursday where I added the option for students to write a summary of what they read. It helps keep them accountable for their reading and practice their summarizing skills. Click HERE to download these or click the picture below to be redirected to my TpT store for your FREE download.

I also wanted to add a website you will definitely want to visit during back to school season: MPM School Supplies! I am loving their classroom rugs (which are also in English or Spanish if you're looking for bilingual resources) and will be a great addition to any classroom!

Enjoy and hope these help you as we head back to school for an AMAZING 2016-17 school year! 

XOXO Until next time friends! Don't forget to enter below to WIN one of three amazing prizes :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An InLinkz Link-up

Do Not Disturb Folders - Spanish

Hello friends and welcome back to my blog! Today I will be sharing a wonderful organization/management tip that has worked with my kiddos: Do Not Disturb Folders! My team teacher introduced me to these my very first year teaching, and I haven't looked back since then. Of course, now they look much cuter. 

Basically, these create a little office for students when they need to really, really focus on their work (also during state testing)! You've probably seen these at teacher stores or online. Here's a picture of some type of offices teachers use.

Find these at Really Good Stuff

Back in 2010, my team teacher helped me create these with recycled manila folders and tape. Those were great and lasted several years. I think some are still around. However, I worked on some new ones for my kiddos that have this "Do Not Disturb" sign in SPANISH! Want to create these for your students? It's fairly simple and will definitely help lessen distractions during independent work time. 

First, you will need two manila folders, a glue stick, and this FREE download from my TpT store. Print it out in color or in black and white as needed.

Next, overlap the two manila folders and glue them together to make a trifold. See below.

Then, glue the printable on the outside middle cover. Finally, you can laminate them to guarantee they'll last for years to come!

Easy peasy huh! Now, create as many as you need for your class. I team teach, BUT only create one class set.  I keep them in a skills box so that students can use them as needed. 

Enjoy your free download, friends, and until next time! XOXO