España

8th Grade Class Work 5.29.15: La Comida y el Internet

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In class on Friday, you will be assigned a restaurant in Barcelona, and will spend time in class exploring the website to answer questions about that restaurant.  The links to the restaurants are below:

  1. Disfrutar: http://es.disfrutarbarcelona.com/
  1. Los Caracoles: http://www.loscaracoles.es/index.php/es.html
  1. Casa Calvet: http://www.casacalvet.es/index.php?lang=es
  1. 4 Gats: http://4gats.com/es/
  1. Barceloneta: http://www.restaurantbarceloneta.com/inicio/
  1. Els Pescadors: http://www.elspescadors.com/es/home
  1. 7 Portes: http://www.7portes.com/castellano/index.php

 

Many of the homepages for these websites offer the option of “English, Castellano, Catalá” (“English, Spanish, Catalán, each in the respective languages).  Remember, Catalán is the other language spoken in Catalunya, the region of Spain where Barcelona is located.  Be sure to select “Castellano,” which means “Castillian,” another way of referring to the Spanish language. Be honest.  If your website offers an English option and you do the assignment through that link, you may complete the worksheet, but you haven’t gotten the practice.  When you travel, this is exactly the kind of thing you need to be able to figure out en epañol!

  • ¿Cómo se llama el restaurante?   ¿Es un nombre en español o Catalán?  Qué significa el  nombre?
  • ¿Dónde está el restaurante?
  • ¿Cuál es el número de teléfono del restaurante?
  • ¿Cuándo está abierto (los días de la semana/horas)
  • ¿Qué tipo de comida hay?
  • ¿Quieres visitar este restaurante?  ¿Por qué? (o por qué no?)

When you are finished with your questions, give your completed paper to the substitute and either work on one of the extra credit assignments, or play Spanish games on Quia.

La Sagrada Familia

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La Sagrada Familia (“Sacred Family”) is a massive, highly unusual Roman Catholic basilica in Barcelona, Spain.  Construction on the the Sagrada Familia began in 1882, and it is still unfinished!  The architect, Antoni Gaudí, died in 1926, but construction has continued since his death, following the detailed plans that he left behind.  Gaudí was inspired by nature, and his designs reflect the shapes one might see in the natural world.  The Sagrada Familia is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  It is the most popular tourist destination in Spain, and receives about 3 million visitors every year.

After your class on Thursday, you will visit the links and videos posted below to answer the following questions.  Update: please complete these questions for homework Thursday night.  Do not do the question on another Gaudí design, as it says to do on the bottom of your paper; just complete the nine questions here.

For a virtual tour of the interior of the Sagrada Familia, click here.

To read about the history of the cathedral and some of the symbolism in the design, click here.

For a map to Barcelona’s metro system, click here.

For some information about visiting this popular site, click here.

For some other little-known facts about the Sagrada Familia, click here.

Below, watch this rendering of what the future additions to the Sagrada Familia will look like.  Remember, it is already huge!  What you see added during this video is what has not been built yet!

  1. In what year will the Sagrada Familia (hopefully!) be finished?
  2. What do the 12 towers on the Sagrada Familia represent?
  3. Gaudí was inspired by nature when he designed the Sagrada Familia. What do the pillars inside the main nave of the cathedral look like to you?
  4. What are some other unusual creatures that you can see on the towers of the Sagrada Familia?
  5. What are some other famous buildings designed by Gaudí?
  6. To get from the Sants Estació to the Sagrada Familia, which subway line would you have to take?
  7. What are the hours that the Sagrada Familia is open to the public?
  8. How much does a ticket to the Sagrada Familia cost?
  9. How can you avoid waiting in line for hours to see the Sagrada Familia?

Saint Jordi’s Day 2015

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St. Jordi Book Stand

Photo credit: Generalitat de Catalunya

Yesterday, 8th grade read about St. Jordi’s Day, which is celebrated in Catalunya on April 23rd (see the post below).  This holiday is similar to Valentines Day in that it is celebrated by couples.  However, instead of exchanging chocolate and cards, couples in Spain exchange roses and books.  See the links below to see how Spaniards celebrated Saint Jordi’s Day this year.

The soccer team FC Barcelona  celebrated by distributing roses and books about the team to fans at the famous Camp Nou stadium.

The Catalan New Agency reported on the bestselling books this Jordi’s Day.  Notice that the titles are in Catalán, which is similar to Spanish.  Can you figure out what the titles mean?

“Jordi” is Catalán for “George,” and this holiday to St. George is celebrated in various ways throughout the world on April 23rd.  This article details not only how it is celebrated in Spain, but other countries, as well.

St. Jordi Day

Otro día amoroso: el Día de San Jordi

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El Día de San Valentín es un día de fiesta muy popular en varias regiones del mundo.  Los novios1 y amigos se regalan flores, chocolates, y tarjetas.2  En los Estados Unidos, muchas personas celebran con una cita3 especial en un restaurante o el cine.

 Sin embargo, hay otro día festivo para los novios.  En España, en el 23 de abril, se celebra el Día de San Jordi.  Es un día romántico pero literario.  En vez de4 chocolates y tarjetas, los novios se regalan libros y rosas.  Tradicionalmente, los hombre les dan rosas a las mujeres, y las mujeres les dan libros a los hombres.  Hoy, las reglas no son tan estrictas; hombres y mujeres reciben los libros.

Source: barnacentre.es

En Barcelona, el Día de San Jordi es un día bonito.  Puedes caminar por las calles con tu novio o novia, mirando la gente y los vendedores de libros.  Como es la primavera y hace calor, es un buen día para dar un paseo al aire libre.  Hay muchos eventos en las librerías, también, con lecturas5 y firmas6 por autores famosos.

Barcelona street on St. Jordi’s Day
Source: demotix.com

Pero, ¿por qué libros, y no chocolates?  En el 23 de abril, murieron7 dos escritores importantes: Miguel de Cervantes, un escritor español quien escribió Don Quijote, y William Shakespeare.  Por eso, el día celebra el amor y la escritura.  Es un día importante para la economía, también: ¡se venden 400,000 libros y 4 millones de rosas en un día!

Source: flickr.com

1 boyfriends and girlfriends

2 cards

3 date

4 Instead of

5 readings

6 signings

7 died (ellos form)

 Additional readings en inglés:

ireport on CNN

Donquijote.org

8th Grade Enrichment: El Desayuno (Breakfast)

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By now, nearly everyone has heard back from their pen pals in Barcelona!  If you have your login and password with you (or memorized), you may log in to ePals to check for any new messages any time you like.  As always, no messages can go in or out without my and the other teacher’s approval.  However, you can check it if you’d like to see if you have heard back.

This week, many of your pen pals shared what they eat as a typical breakfast, and some have sent pictures of their breakfast (sometimes as a selfie!).  You may be interested to see what people in Spain typically eat to start the day.

On Thursday, we will be replying again.  Start thinking about what a typical breakfast consists of for you.  Also, if you would like to take a picture to send back, you may take one at some point this week (with or without your breakfast) and have your parent or guardian email it to me in an attachment, with a note that they approve you to send it to your pen pal.

8th Grade Enrichment Fall 2014

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This year, my 8th grade Thursday Enrichment class has the opportunity to take part in an email exchange with a school from another country using a program called ePals.   Students will exchange emails in both Spanish and English.  By communicating with these new pen pals, both sides of the exchange will learn more about the other’s language and culture.  In time, we may also arrange a video chat as a class, to meet our partner class “face to face.”

ePals is a safe way to exchange messages, as students do not use personal email and correspond exclusively through the site.  Additionally, all email correspondence is also monitored by me and the other teacher (each email is sent to our inbox).  Furthermore, students’ last names will not be shared.

We will be communicating with a classroom of students aged 11 to 12 in a small village near Barcelona.  These students speak Spanish and Catalán, a language spoken in the Cataluña region of Spain (sometimes called Catalonia in English).  They are learning English as a third language.  Here is a link to the school’s website: http://vilanova.escolateresiana.com/(notice that it is in Catalán, if you are curious to see what Catalán looks like, it is similar to both Spanish and French.

To the 17 students in my Enrichment class: please bring in your permission slips tomorrow if your parents are giving you permission to participate in this activity.  Tomorrow we will begin writing our first emails to our pen pals.

 

¡Feliz Día de los Reyes Magos!

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Shoes outside the classroom

Shoes outside the classroom

Yesterday in class we celebrated “El Día de los Reyes” (Three Kings’ Day).  In many countries around the world, January 6th is a day on which people celebrate the arrival of the wise men in the biblical Nativity story.  On the night of January 5th, boys and girls in Spain and Latin America leave their shoes out.  The next morning, good children find small gifts, candy and nuts in their shoes (similar to the tradition of hanging stockings popular in the United States).  Children who have misbehaved sometimes receive carbón dulce, a hard candy that is dyed black to look like coal!  Don’t worry, no one at LCS received carbón dulce this year 😉

Here is a story about the popularity of Three Kings’ Day (in English): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/06/three-kings-day-tradition_n_4548599.html