Level 1

After playing a warming up with a review of verb combinations we reviewed our “La Comunidad” dialogue and then wrote one of our own. It’s amazing that after such a short time studying Spanish, students have the skills to fill an entire whiteboard with a Spanish dialogue. Very impressive! Next week we’ll wrap up our 12 week session.

RESOURCES

1. VOCABULARY el cajero automático, la librería, mandar, paquete, sellos

Level 2

After a review of “Go Verbs,” students shared interviews they conducted with each other on their top vacation destinations. We followed that with a review of the 17 Most Wanted Verbs and a conjugation practice activity. Next class we’ll wrap up our “las vacaciones” theme and do a review and recap of what we’ve covered in the last 12 weeks.

Level 1

We wrote dialogues in class this week, based on the context of our first theme, “la comida,” and saw some fabulous readings of those dialogues. We also continued to work more specifically with verb combinations, practicing asking and answering questions using them. Next week we’ll work more with theme #2, “la comunidad.”

RESOURCES

2. VOCABULARIO la lechuga, el queso, caro, pagar

2. Use these images as prompts to practice asking and answering questions using verb combinations.

3. VERB COMBINATIONS

Why are Verb Combinations important?

Verb Combinations allow us to express any action without needing to conjugate a verb. They are extremely easy to use, and allow us to express ourselves without making the more complex modifications that conjugation requires.

How do I use them?

Choose which Trigger verb to use. We learned 4 different trigger verbs.

Quiero / Quieres - to express desire

Puedo / Puedes- to express to ability or to ask permission

Voy a / Vas a - to express an action in the future

Acabo de / Acabas de - to express an action in the past

To express the action of the verb, simply add the infinitive to the end of the trigger.

Can you show me an example?

Quiero visitar mi mamá

Puedo correr 10 kilómetros

Voy a escalar mañana

Acabo de comer una hamburguesa

Now you try.

¿Adónde vas mañana?

¿Puedes hablar italiano?

¿Qué acabas de comer?

Level 2

This week in Level 2 we reviewed “boot verbs” (see last week’s La Semanal) and then continued with another family of irregular verbs, “go verbs.”  These are verbs that have the letters “GO” in them, in the yo form.  They include: tener (tengo), venir (vengo), decir (digo), hacer (hago), salir (salgo), and poner (pongo).  Three of these are just “go” verbs - but three (tener, venir, decir) are boot verbs as well!

Level 1

Last week students developed their own questions and answers incorporating verb combinations based on images of verbs. We also continued to learn new vocabulary relating to our theme “la comida.” Next class on Monday, Nov. 22nd at 6:15, we’ll move into theme #2, “la comunidad.”

RESOURCES

2. VOCABULARIO la lechuga, el queso, caro, pagar

2. Use these images as prompts to practice asking and answering questions using verb combinations.

3. VERB COMBINATIONS

Why are Verb Combinations important?

Verb Combinations allow us to express any action without needing to conjugate a verb. They are extremely easy to use, and allow us to express ourselves without making the more complex modifications that conjugation requires.

How do I use them?

Choose which Trigger verb to use. We learned 4 different trigger verbs.

Quiero / Quieres - to express desire

Puedo / Puedes- to express to ability or to ask permission

Voy a / Vas a - to express an action in the future

Acabo de / Acabas de - to express an action in the past

To express the action of the verb, simply add the infinitive to the end of the trigger.

Can you show me an example?

Quiero visitar mi mamá

Puedo correr 10 kilómetros

Voy a escalar mañana

Acabo de comer una hamburguesa

Now you try.

¿Adónde vas mañana?

¿Puedes hablar italiano?

¿Qué acabas de comer?

Here’s a review of how stem-changing works, in a familiar verb - querer - an e-ie boot verb:
yo quiero

tú quieres

él quire

nosotros queremos

ellos quieren

So, if you imagine drawing a shape around the conjugations that changed (yo, tú, él, ellos), you’ll notice that it makes a boot!

Other boot verbs we learned include o-ue: encontrar, poder, volver, costar. E-ie: empezar and perder.

Level 1

This week students developed their own questions and answers incorporating verb combinations based on images of verbs. We also continued to learn new vocabulary relating to our theme “la comida.” Next class on Monday, Nov. 22nd at 6:15, we’ll move into theme #2, “la comunidad.”

RESOURCES

2. VOCABULARIO la lechuga, el queso, caro, pagar

2. Use these images as prompts to practice asking and answering questions using verb combinations.

3. VERB COMBINATIONS

Why are Verb Combinations important?

Verb Combinations allow us to express any action without needing to conjugate a verb. They are extremely easy to use, and allow us to express ourselves without making the more complex modifications that conjugation requires.

How do I use them?

Choose which Trigger verb to use. We learned 4 different trigger verbs.

Quiero / Quieres - to express desire

Puedo / Puedes- to express to ability or to ask permission

Voy a / Vas a - to express an action in the future

Acabo de / Acabas de - to express an action in the past

To express the action of the verb, simply add the infinitive to the end of the trigger.

Can you show me an example?

Quiero visitar mi mamá

Puedo correr 10 kilómetros

Voy a escalar mañana

Acabo de comer una hamburguesa

Now you try.

¿Adónde vas mañana?

¿Puedes hablar italiano?

¿Qué acabas de comer?

Here’s a review of how stem-changing works, in a familiar verb - querer - an e-ie boot verb:
yo quiero

tú quieres

él quire

nosotros queremos

ellos quieren

So, if you imagine drawing a shape around the conjugations that changed (yo, tú, él, ellos), you’ll notice that it makes a boot!

Other boot verbs we learned include o-ue: encontrar, poder, volver, costar. E-ie: empezar and perder.

Level 1

We continued to work with verb combinations and began our first theme, which is on food, learning lots of new vocabulary. Next week we’ll play more with verb combinations and create a dialogue around the theme of food.

RESOURCES

VOCABULARIO

1. la lechuga, el queso, caro

2. VERB COMBINATIONS

Why are Verb Combinations important?

Verb Combinations allow us to express any action without needing to conjugate a verb. They are extremely easy to use, and allow us to express ourselves without making the more complex modifications that conjugation requires.

How do I use them?

Choose which Trigger verb to use. We learned 4 different trigger verbs.

Quiero / Quieres - to express desire

Puedo / Puedes- to express to ability or to ask permission

Voy a / Vas a - to express an action in the future

Acabo de / Acabas de - to express an action in the past

To express the action of the verb, simply add the infinitive to the end of the trigger.

Can you show me an example?

Quiero visitar mi mamá

Puedo correr 10 kilómetros

Voy a escalar mañana

Acabo de comer una hamburguesa

Now you try.

¿Adónde vas mañana?

¿Puedes hablar italiano?

¿Qué acabas de comer?

Level 2

After reviewing last week’s La Semanal homework and our new “viajar” vocabulary, we began to study “boot verbs.”  Boot verbs are a kind of irregular verb in which the stem of the verb changes in conjugation in addition to the ending changing.  The pattern that the change takes is in the form of a boot….you’ll have to imagine this in the example below!  There are several families of boot verbs; the two we examined this week are “o-ue” and “e-ie” stem changers.  Here’s how stem-changing works, in a familiar verb - querer - an e-ie boot verb:

yo quiero

tú quieres

él quire

nosotros queremos

ellos quieren

So, if you imagine drawing a shape around the conjugations that changed (yo, tú, él, ellos), you’ll notice that it makes a boot!

Other boot verbs we learned include o-ue: encontrar, poder, volver, costar.  E-ie: empezar and perder.

Level 1

We took our Spanish skills to a whole new level this week by jumping into verb combinations. We’ll continue to practice these, studying several different themes in the weeks to come. Take a look at the resources below to practice!

RESOURCES

For next week, try answering these questions……¿Dónde quieres viajar?  ¿Por qúe?

Level 1

After a lively review of “la conversacíon” we added some more conversation chunks and lot’s of new vocabulary, talking about where we work. We also completed the mid-Session check-in. Afterwords a student mentioned how she found the check-in satisfying because it made her realize how much she has learned! ¡Felicitaciones!

Q: ¿A qué te dedicas? or ¿Cuál es tu profesión?

A: Yo soy profesora. (substitute any profession for profesora).

Q: ¿Dónde trabajas tú?

A: Yo trabajo en la biblioteca.

Level 2

After looking at last week’s La Semanal homework, we jumped into a scenario exercise. In this role play, one person was “un agente inmobiliario” and the other was “un joven” who was looking for a house to rent in Jackson.  They then presented their questions and answers, practicing their “el hogar” vocabulary in the process.

Level 1

We jumped into “las profesiones” this week, learning to ask others what they do professionally, and talk about what we do.  We added lot’s of new vocabulary related to “las profesiones.” We also discussed likes and dislikes with “la hora.” Next class we’ll learn to talk about where we work.

Q: ¿A qué te dedicas? or ¿Cuál es tu profesión?

A: Yo soy bibliotecario. (substitute any profession for bibliotecario).

Level 1

What an amazing group of folks! Students jumped right into the new Spanish conversation we studied and there was lot’s of conversation and introducing going on — all in español of course! Under Resources below, check out the dialogue we learned to greet and introduce ourselves, and practice “el alfabeto.”

RESOURCES

1. El Alfabeto

2. ¡La Conversación!

John: ¿Cómo estás?

Alicia: Yo estoy bien, ¿y tú? ¿Cómo estás?

John: Yo estoy muy bien, gracias. ¿Cómo te llamas?

Alicia: Yo me llamo Alicia. ¿Cómo te llamas?

John: Yo me llamo John. ¿Dónde vives?

Alicia: Yo vivo en Victor. ¿Dónde vives tú?

John: Yo vivo en Jackson.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

For class next week, see if you can answer the following questions, and leave your responses in the comments section at the bottom of this post:

1. ¿Cómo estás?

2. ¿Cómo te llamas?

3. ¿Dónde vives?

4. ¿De dónde eres?

Level 2

Welcome to all of our new Level 2 students! It’s exciting to see so many folks talk about their interests, and interact with others! We began our classes with personal introductions, using phrases like “Yo vivo en Jackson,” “Yo soy de Connecticut,” y “Me gusta leer y andar a caballo.” We then reviewed verb combinations - our quick and easy expressions that allow us to circumvent conjugation. You can review these below under Resources. The concept of conjugation was reviewed, and we talked about how AR/ER/ and IR regular verbs are conjugated in Spanish. We will get a lot of chances to practice this over the next 12 weeks! If you’d like to do some practice with it between now and your next class, click on the verb conjugation link below under Resources.

RESOURCES

1. Practice Verb Conjugation

2. Verb Combinations

Quiero / Quieres - to express desire

Puedo / Puedes- to express ability or to ask permission

Voy a / Vas a - to express an action in the future

Acabo de / Acabas de - to express an action in the past

To express the action of the verb, simply add the infinitive to the end of the trigger.

Can you show me an example?

Quiero visitar mi mamá.

Puedo correr 10 kilómetros.

Voy a escalar mañana.

Acabo de comer una hamburguesa.