Middle School Spanish Classes have Fun

In 8th grade Spanish class we have been reading the novel, Agentes secretos y el mural de Picasso, which is a historical fiction that takes place in Spain. The theme centers around motives and desires as well as how art can be a reflection of our internal world as well as used for activism ("Artivism"). We had a guest speaker, Chicho Lorenzo, who is originally from Spain but is a local artist who has done many murals around Charlottesville. He was interviewed in Spanish by our class and he shared his story with us and his love of art as well as people. When asked about what is most important to him, he said that being attentive and living in the moment is important to him to make the most out of life and to really be with those we love. He also spoke about how we all have a passion and things that spark that light within us and asked all of us what that passion was, which included running, drawing, baseball, soccer, acting, and singing.  

 

In 6th grade Spanish we learned about typical Venezuelan food and how to place an order at a restaurant. We learned about what flour is used to make arepas and explored other staple foods such as yucca (cassava) and plantains. We then visited Arepas on Wheels and had the opportunity to put our knowledge into action and shared a meal together while answering a simple question in Spanish we each got in order to initiate some conversation.