Spain
As well as writing to each other in English, the Year 5 children at Cringle Brook and the Year 5 children at CEIP Blas de Otero, in Madrid, wanted a Spanish connection. Cleverly, the children from Cringle Brook produced leaflets about Manchester in Spanish! These were sent to Madrid for the children there to learn all about Manchester in Spanish. As Spanish is their first language, we hoped our leaflets would impress them! They will report back in Spanish! We have also asked them to tell us about Madrid in Spanish to see if we can understand these sentences!
In December the Year 1 and 2 classes at Cringle Brook primary were delighted to receive a huge Christmas card each from the Year 1 and Year 2 children at CEIP Blas de Otero, in Madrid Spain!
In reply, our Year 1 children made a huge Christmas card for the Year 1 class in Madrid, wishing them a Happy Christmas in Spanish: Feliz Navidad. They signed it all and included a photo of themselves.
Our Year 2 children made a Christmas card each for the Year 2 class in Madrid and also described how Christmas was celebrated in England. For example, "In England, Christmas is one of the most important celebrations because Father Christmas comes and puts presents under your tree. The tree is decorated with lights, baubles and tinsel. If you are naughty, he might leave you coal! On Christmas day we eat Christmas dinner, pull crackers and open our presents. 'At school, we do a nativity play, have a Christmas fair and we also help the homeless.'
Interested to see how Spain celebrate Christmas? https://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/spain.shtml
Children from CEIP, enjoying reading thecards from Cringle Brook pupils
Year 5 children at Cringle Brook were delighted to get a letter from the Year 5 class at CEIP Blas de Otero. They wrote to us because they know that we are learning Spanish and thought it would be useful for both schools to practise each other's languages and learn about one another's countries. They also sent us some photo's of Madrid and their school.
The letter:
Dear Year 5 at Cringle Brook Primary school,
Hola! We are a Year 5 class writing to you from Blas de Otero primary school in Madrid, Spain. Because your MFL is Spanish, we thought we would write to you. We would also like to learn more about your fascinating, interesting city!
In our school, some subjects that we learn are: Natural and Social Sciences, Art, P.E, Maths, Spanish and English. What are your favourite subjects in school? Do you wear a school uniform? As you can see from the photographs, we don't wear uniform in school.
Madrid, which is the capital city of Spain, has some famous places. Some examples include: Bernabeu Football Stadium (where Real Madrid play) , Cibeles Monument and Plaza Mayor. What is Manchester famous for? In addition to football, we are sure there are other interesting places?
If you came to Spain, you would be able to enjoy these delicious, awesome foods: paella, cocido, ham, gachas and for Christmas we eat polvorones, turrón , roscón de reyes. Interestingly, we also enjoy pizzas, burgers and kebabs. What foods do you enjoy eating? Could you include both British and multicultural food please?
In our spare time, we enjoy: football, hockey, basketball, playing with our friends, (especially on video games) dancing, singing and going to the cinema. What are your hobbies and interests?
We are enthusiastically looking forward to hearing from you and learning all about your school, city and lives!
Your friends from Spain.
PS As well as some photographs, we have also included some links to our blogs which we hope you will enjoy reading. Furthermore, our Year 1 and Year 2 classes are sending Christmas cards for your Year 1 and Year 2 classes.
We learnt all about Madrid, which sounds amazing, and also found out the names of some traditional Spanish foods. However, people still like burgers and kebabs, like us! They also enjoy playing video games like us!
We wrote back and told them all about ourselves, our school and Manchester.
Links to their blogs:
http://elblogdelblasdeotero.blogspot.com/
We were delighted to receive their leaflets about Madrid recently - in English - and emailed back:
"Year 5 would like to say how much we enjoyed receiving the leaflets from Madrid! The children enjoyed recognising food they have tried like churros con chocolate, finding out that we have things in common (like computer games and football) and seeing photos of places in Madrid.
The children were also impressed with how much effort was put in to the leaflets, how good their English was and how they represented Spain to us! Children also said the drawings and lettering was very cool!
Thank you Blas de Otero!
Besos de Cringlebrook"
