Early Start Spanish 2: Chap. 1

Early Start Spanish 2

1: ¿Dónde vives? - Where do you live?

Early Start Spanish 2: CONTENTS | HOME

Finding towns on a map of Spain
Madrid's Royal Palaces
Another Spanish-speaking country: Mexico
More about the "pilgrims' road" - and projects on 'pilgrims'
How to send a "Talking Postcard"...

What you will learn in section 1:

You will hear different people - mainly children - tell you where they live. In hearing and saying the names of Spanish towns, you will practise a lot more typical Spanish sounds.

You will see something of their towns in different parts of Spain - showing what a diverse country it is.

You will also see that some live in houses and others in flats.

You will learn how to say where you live (which town you live in) - and whether you live in a house or a flat.

Calahorra- town hall Najera- Ebro bridge
(Left) "I live in Calahorra" (Right) "I live in Nájera"

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Finding towns on a map of Spain

Your class can find out more about these towns, and many others in Spain, by looking at the web sites for tourists:

Follow the links on the Spanish Tourist Office website: http://www.tourspain.co.uk

Ideas for your Town Guide project

If you are planning to make a guide to a town in Spain as an ICT multimedia project, this web link will give you some good ideas and information: http://oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/ontheline/spanish/activity2/index1.htm

In a project for the year 2000, Oxfam looked at towns in countries along the Greenwich Meridian line, 0 degrees longitude, which runs through Spain (and there's a Quiz):

Malaga on the Costa del Sol and the annual 'Feria' festival

Santiago de Compostela

Zaragoza

San Sebastián &endash; Donostia

Ronda

Find out more about these towns in Spain

Find out more about the towns on our video, plus some others
www.bbc.co.uk: "Spain Inside Out"

"Spain Inside Out" is a website, and a 5-part TV series,regularly repeated on BBC Learning Zone, BBC TWO, in the middle of the night.

Travel writer Robert Elms and Spanish journalist Inka Martí give you a guided tour through places in central and southern Spain.

The book of the series is now out of print but you might find it in a library: ISBN no. 9434228249.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/languages/spanish/spaininsideout

Spain on Google Maps:

Children can explore towns like Nájera (right) using on-line maps. Zoom out to find where it is in Spain, and how to get there.

Zoom in to see details of the town, and find places in the films and links to photos.

The satellite view shows what it looks like from the air.

View Larger Map

Plan a journey to Spain:

If children are planning how to get from their home town to a town in Spain, you will find links to airlines, railways and bus companies on the Spanish Tourist Office website: http://www.tourspain.co.uk

Do you want brochures and leaflets about places in Spain?

Try contacting the Spanish Tourist Office with specific requests, via their website: http://www.tourspain.co.uk

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Madrid's royal palaces

One class were interested when their teacher mentioned that Spain's royal family lived in Madrid (see Teacher's Guide), and decided to find out more. They looked at two web sites which told them a lot more about the magnificent royal palaces.

They talked about why Spanish royal palaces should be so grand - and why, centuries ago, the King of Spain was such an important and powerful person.

This linked with their citizenship lessons.
http://www.patrimonionacional.es/home.htm

This picture of the website links to the website itself. It's in Spanish, but worth visiting just for the illustrations!

(LEFT) The class found out that King Philip II of Spain (the one who sent the Spanish Armada) ruled much of the world from his office in this stark monastery-cum-palace in the country. (RIGHT) They saw that the King of Spain was personally involved in battles - 16th king's armour is displayed in the Armoury Room of the royal palace in Madrid

They found pictures of Philip II's palace - the Escorial - on this website:

http://www.banesto.es/banesto/escorial/i9700010.htm

When their teacher told the class about Philip II's Armada, they realised that, if he had succeeded, they might have grown up speaking Spanish instead of English! see.... http://www.theotherside/tm-heritage/background/span-armada.htm

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MEXICO CITY & TOCUARO: towns in Latin America

One teacher wanted her class to look at cities in Latin America as well. She helped children find how Spanish-speakers say the names of some well-known cities like Mexico.

Her class looked at a BBC Education website which she had found about children living in Mexico City, which it compares with Belfast.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/twocities/mexico/

They also studied Tocuaro - a rural village in Mexico (QCA Geography Unit 22). The teacher thought it is important that the children learnt about both rural and urban areas, to avoid perpetuating 'mud hut' stereotypes about developing countries like Mexico.

They returned to look at Mexico as well as Spain in many of the following sections.

The house of a Mexican family

The class compared the flats and houses of the Spanish families in the video with where people lived in their own community.

In contrast, they looked at the Horta family's house in the voillage of Tocuaro, near Mexico City.

They found interesting information on both the Horta family and Mexico on the GlobalEye website:

http://www.globaleye.org.uk/primary/eyeon/index.html

The Horta family of Tocuaro in Mexico

Resource Pack

Tocuaro: A Mexican Village is a photo pack published by:

The Geographical Association,
160 Solly Street, Sheffield S1 4BF,
tel: 0114 296 0088)

Website about Mexico and Tocuaro

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More about the "pilgrims' road".

One class saw the pilgrims in the video walking to Santiago de Compostella, and decided to make a map of the "pilgrims' road" from Paris to Santiago. They found out about some of the towns along the way, and made an illustrated display about the pilgrims' journey and places where they would have stopped.

A medieval pilgrim - and the route he would have walked from France to Santiago (from web site, see right).
This US university web site for students on Pilgrimage to Santiago has information and links about towns on the way to Santiago:

http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/santiago/iagohome.html

Other pilgrimages

Another class wanted to find out more about medieval pilgrimages to the nearby city of Canterbury in England - which were made famous in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".

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How to send a "Talking postcard"...

Even if you are just starting to write Spanish, you can send an interesting postcard to a link school in a Spanish-speaking country!

1. Think of a picture of you, your friends, school, or community that will be interesting to the children in your link school

2. You can draw it, and scan it in to a paint program your computer

3. You can take a digital photo and send it from your camera into your computer

2. You can take an ordinary photo, have prints made from the film, and scan a print in to a paint program your computer

4. If your computer has a microphone, you can make a sound recording to go with the picture.

Keep it short and simple! You can say a few words in Spanish to say what your picture or photo is about.
If your Spanish contacts are learning English, they may also welcome a short message from you in English.

5. Make a careful note of in which folder you stored the picture file and the sound file.

You can use "Sound Recorder" - a simple utility in Windows - this is the Windows95 version

6. Get your e-mail ready. Follow the instructions to add the sound and picture files as attachments.

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Madrid's royal palaces
One class were interested when their teacher mentioned that Spain's royal family lived in Madrid (see Teacher's Guide), and decided to find out more. They looked at two web sites which told them a lot more about the magnificent royal palaces. They talked about why Spanish royal palaces should be so grand - and why, centuries ago, the King of Spain was such an important and powerful person. This linked with their citizenship lessons. http://www.patrimonionacional.es/home.htm	This picture of the website links to the website itself. It's in Spanish, but worth visiting just for the illustrations!
(LEFT) The class found out that King Philip II of Spain (the one who sent the Spanish Armada) ruled much of the world from his office in this stark monastery-cum-palace in the country. (RIGHT) They saw that the King of Spain was personally involved in battles - 16th king's armour is displayed in the Armoury Room of the royal palace in Madrid
They found pictures of Philip II's palace - the Escorial - on this website: http://www.banesto.es/banesto/escorial/i9700010.htm When their teacher told the class about Philip II's Armada, they realised that, if he had succeeded, they might have grown up speaking Spanish instead of English! see.... http://www.theotherside/tm-heritage/background/span-armada.htm

MEXICO CITY & TOCUARO: towns in Latin America
One teacher wanted her class to look at cities in Latin America as well. She helped children find how Spanish-speakers say the names of some well-known cities like Mexico.
Her class looked at a BBC Education website which she had found about children living in Mexico City, which it compares with Belfast. http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/twocities/mexico/ They also studied Tocuaro - a rural village in Mexico (QCA Geography Unit 22). The teacher thought it is important that the children learnt about both rural and urban areas, to avoid perpetuating 'mud hut' stereotypes about developing countries like Mexico.
They returned to look at Mexico as well as Spain in many of the following sections.
The house of a Mexican family The class compared the flats and houses of the Spanish families in the video with where people lived in their own community. In contrast, they looked at the Horta family's house in the voillage of Tocuaro, near Mexico City. They found interesting information on both the Horta family and Mexico on the GlobalEye website: http://www.globaleye.org.uk/primary/eyeon/index.html	The Horta family of Tocuaro in Mexico
Resource Pack Tocuaro: A Mexican Village is a photo pack published by: The Geographical Association, 160 Solly Street, Sheffield S1 4BF, tel: 0114 296 0088)	Website about Mexico and Tocuaro

More about the "pilgrims' road".
One class saw the pilgrims in the video walking to Santiago de Compostella, and decided to make a map of the "pilgrims' road" from Paris to Santiago. They found out about some of the towns along the way, and made an illustrated display about the pilgrims' journey and places where they would have stopped.
A medieval pilgrim - and the route he would have walked from France to Santiago (from web site, see right).	This US university web site for students on Pilgrimage to Santiago has information and links about towns on the way to Santiago: http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/santiago/iagohome.html
Other pilgrimages Another class wanted to find out more about medieval pilgrimages to the nearby city of Canterbury in England - which were made famous in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".

How to send a "Talking postcard"...
Even if you are just starting to write Spanish, you can send an interesting postcard to a link school in a Spanish-speaking country! 1. Think of a picture of you, your friends, school, or community that will be interesting to the children in your link school 2. You can draw it, and scan it in to a paint program your computer 3. You can take a digital photo and send it from your camera into your computer 2. You can take an ordinary photo, have prints made from the film, and scan a print in to a paint program your computer
4. If your computer has a microphone, you can make a sound recording to go with the picture. Keep it short and simple! You can say a few words in Spanish to say what your picture or photo is about. If your Spanish contacts are learning English, they may also welcome a short message from you in English. 5. Make a careful note of in which folder you stored the picture file and the sound file.	You can use "Sound Recorder" - a simple utility in Windows - this is the Windows95 version
6. Get your e-mail ready. Follow the instructions to add the sound and picture files as attachments.