1.7 Mi familia
1.7 Mi familia My family
This section takes a big step, introducing pupils to the concept of nouns having gender in Spanish. Talking about people and family, the gender is obvious, but children are prepared for the notion that all Spanish nouns have gender, not just those about people. Activities can revolve around imaginary, famous or fictional families so pupils do not have to talk about their own circumstances. Teachers should be sensitive to individual children’s circumstances. Pupils will find that articles in Spanish (‘a’ and ‘the’) and the Spanish pronoun ‘this’ are amongst those that change with a noun’s gender.
Films to see A1. My family B1. More family
NEW WORDS AND PHRASES A1: My family
mi padre mi madre mi hermano mi hermana
mi abuelo - my grandfather mi abuela - my grandmother
Planning your lessons
mi familia - my family
Plan activities from those suggested to give children lots of practice at listening and talking, first about their “own family”. They could assume another identity if they prefer.
Activities
Familiar names
1
Warm up
❑ Before watching film A1, it is a good idea to have a brief “warm up” session to remind pupils of all they can now say in Spanish about themselves: for example, ask several pupils their names and ages. If you have time, play a quick game to reinforce this vocabulary.
Watch film A1: My family
2
❑ Watch film A1 which introduces "my family" with the phrase “This is...<my mother>”etc. : “Éste es mi padre, mi papa.” “Ésta es mi madre, mi mama.”
papa - dad/daddy mama - mum/mummy
Introducing people
Éste es mi padre - this is my father Ésta es mi madre - this is my mother Ésta es mi familia - this is my family Other families
el padre la madre el hermano la hermana el abuelo la abuela
- the father - the mother - the brother - the sister
- the grandfather - the grandmother
B1: More family
mi tio mi tia mi primo mi prima Film 7 A1: “Ésta es mi madre”.
- my father - my mother - my brother - my sister
- my uncle - my aunty - my cousin (m) - my cousin (f)
see Talking Dictionary
7.1