S2.14 looks

14. ¿Cómo eres tú?

14. ¿Cómo eres tú?

What do you look like?

This final section for pupils provides children with the vocabulary they need to describe themselves. Whilst most primary aged pupils will not be writing letters in Spanish to their exchange schools, some may receive correspondence in Spanish which includes this kind of language.

For those pupils who are attempting some simple written correspondence, some of these phrases can accompany photographs or drawings they have made of themselves.

If you know your pupils well, you will already be aware of any children in your class who are sensitive about their appearance. For obvious reasons, we are not suggesting that physical characteristics such as fat/thin should be included. Some particularly tall or short children may also feel uncomfortable if they are immediately picked out as examples. If you are a visiting peripatetic teacher, you may not be 100% sure about how children feel about themselves in this context. We suggest that wherever possible, you call on volunteers to demonstrate particular characteristics.

HOW SPANISH WORKS There is no escaping the need to distinguish between masculine and feminine words when describing physical characteristics. However, the pattern is generally fairly straightforward.

When pupils are saying, “I’m dark/fair” and “I’m tall/short”- the base of the word is identical, the only thing that changes is the ending - an “o” is added for boys, an “a” for girls, e.g. Soy moreno (boy); Soy morena (girl).

When pupils are saying that they have short/ long hair and brown/blue eyes, it is not relevant whether or not they are boys or girls. These phrases can simply be learnt as a set phrase.

In Spanish the adjective comes after the noun.

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NEW WORDS AND PHRASES

Soy moreno I’m dark-haired (boy) Soy morena I’m dark-haired (girl) Soy rubio I’m fair-haired (boy) Soy rubia I’m fair-haired (girl) Soy alto I’m tall (boy) Soy alta I’m tall (girl) Soy bajito I’m short/small (boy) Soy bajita I’m short/small (girl) Tengo el pelo corto I’ve got short hair Tengo el pelo largo I’ve got long hair Tengo los ojos marrones I’ve got brown eyes Tengo los ojos azules I’ve got blue eyes ¿Cómo eres tú?

What do you look like? ¿Eres (alto o bajito)?

Are you (tall or short)?

14. ¿Cómo eres tú?

VIDEO Animation: Dark-haired boy - moreno Fair-haired boy - rubio Dark-haired girl - morena Fair-haired girl - rubia Children saying whether they are dark or fair “Soy moreno”. “Soy morena”.

“Soy rubio”. “Soy rubia”.

Animation: Tall boy boy - alto Short boy boy - bajito Tall girl - alta Short girl - bajita Children saying whether they are tall or short: “Yo soy bajito”.“Yo soy bajita”.

“Yo soy alto”. “Yo soy alta”.

Animation: Person with short hair - tengo el pelo corto Person with long hair - tengo el pelo largo Children saying whether they have short or long hair “Tengo el pelo corto”. “Tengo el pelo largo”.

Animation: Brown eyes - ojos marrones Blue eyes - ojos azules Children saying whether they have brown or blue eyes “Tengo los ojos marrones”.

“Tengo los ojos azules”.

Animation: “¿Eres moreno o rubio?”

Boys reply: “Soy moreno” and “Soy rubio”.

Animation: “¿Eres alta o bajita?”

Girls reply: “Yo soy alta” and “Yo soy bajita”.

Animation: “¿Tienes el pelo corto o largo?”

Children reply: “Tengo el pelo corto” and “Tengo el pelo largo”.

Animation: “¿Tienes los ojos azules o marrones?”

Children reply: “Tengo los ojos azules” and “Tengo los ojos marrones”.

Scene from video section 14: “Yo soy alta”. “Yo soy bajita”.

KEY SOUNDS Listen and enjoy copying these typical sounds: where have you heard them before?

“rr” as in marrones rubio Heard before in:

perro rojo

“j” as in bajito ojos Heard before in:

jueves gimnasio

(Listen to the native speakers - try to copy the typically Spanish sounds.)

Activities 1. Warm up Scene from video section 14: “Soy moreno”.

Animation: “¿Eres morena o rubia?”

Girls reply: “Soy morena” and “Soy rubia”.

Animation: “¿Eres alto o bajito?”

Boys reply: “Yo soy alto” and “Yo soy bajito”.

You could warm up by reminding pupils of just how much Spanish they have learnt during the course of their Spanish lessons. Everybody stands in a circle with you in the middle. Toss a soft ball or toy to different pupils. As you do so, ask each child a question, covering a whole range of topics e.g. names, ages, birthdays, pets, where they live, likes and dislikes.

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14. ¿Cómo eres tú?

2. Watch the video ❑

Watch video section 14: ¿Cómo eres tú?

3. Get used to the sounds ❑ Echoing: Invite a dark-haired boy and girl and a fair-haired boy and girl to come to the front of the class. Gesture towards the darkhired boy’s hair and say, “moreno”. Pupils echo the word. Now gesture towards the dark-haired girl’s hair and say “morena”. Pupils echo the word. Repeat this with the fair pupils, “rubio” for the boy and “rubia” for the girl. If you are obviously dark or fair-haired yourself, point to yourself and say “moreno/morena” or “rubio/ rubia” as appropriate. Pupils echo the word.

If you think some more reinforcement is needed, repeat this with a different set of dark and fair pupils. ❑ Echoing: Now invite a tall boy and girl and a short boy and girl to come to the front of the class. Gesture towards the tall boy and say, “alto”. Pupils echo the word. Now gesture towards the tall girl and say “alta”. Pupils echo the word. Repeat this with the shorter pupils, “bajito” for the boy and “bajita” for the girl. If you are obviously tall or short yourself, point to yourself and say “alto/alta” or “ bajito/bajita” as appropriate. Pupils echo the word.

If you think some more reinforcement is needed, repeat this with a different set of tall and short pupils. ❑ Echoing: Make enlarged photocopies of the pictures on the activity sheets which accompany this chapter, or make transparencies for the OHP. You will need to colour the hair and eyes on the pictures.

Show the picture of the dark-haired boy and say “Soy moreno”. Ask a dark-haired boy in the class to echo the phrase. Now show the picture of the dark-haired girl and say “Soy morena”.

Ask a dark-haired girl to echo the phrase. Repeat this process using the pictures of the fairhaired boy and girl.

Continue with other dark and fair pupils.

Note: Spanish people say “rubio/rubia” when describing people with medium brown hair as well as blond hair. See this chapter’s “talking point”.

❑ Echoing: Now repeat the process using the pictures of the tall boy and girl and the short boy and girl. Try not to choose the tallest and shortest children in your class for the very first examples - or ask for volunteers. See chapter 16: En la clase for examples of how to ask for volunteers in Spanish.

Soy alta Soy bajito

❑ Echoing: When you feel that everyone has caught onto the idea of differentiating between moreno/morena, rubio/rubia, alto/alta and bajito/ bajita, repeat these echoing activities with the phrases tengo el pelo corto/largo and tengo los ojos azules/marrones.

4. Responding with understanding ❑ Play “¿Cómo eres tú?” 1 Make multiple copies of the pictures on the activity sheets. Colour in the hair and eyes.

Give everyone one of pictures. When you call out a physical characteristic, e.g. “Soy morena” all the pupils with the picture of the dark-haired girl hold it up for everyone to see.

As pupils become more confident, you can call out combinations of characteristics, e.g. “Soy rubia y bajita” or “Soy rubio y tengo los ojos azules”. ❑ Play “Me llamo ... ” 1 Tell the children that you are going to pretend to be someone in the class. You are going to describe yourself and everyone has to guess who you are. Write the person’s name on a slip of paper and turn it face down on the table.

It is quite likely, of course, that there will be several pupils in the class who match a particular description, but the important thing is that pupils are understanding the description you are giving. You could also include an additional

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14. ¿Cómo eres tú? piece of information, such as how old s/he is, what they like doing, where they live etc. - any distinguishing feature that uses well-known vocabulary. e.g. “Soy morena. Tengo el pelo corto y los ojos marrones. Soy alta. Me gusta nadar”.

Pupils will probably start guessing from the moment you say “Soy morena” - when they guess correctly, turn over your slip of paper so that they can see the name. ❑ Play “Me llamo ...” 2 This is a variation on the previous game. This time pupils give the descriptions.

Ask a confident pupil to leave the room. Ask for a volunteer who is willing to be the subject of a description. Now ask for another volunteer to pretend to be volunteer 1 and to describe him/ herself in Spanish. Invite the pupil who has left the room to come back in. S/he has to guess who volunteer 1 is pretending to be. ❑ Play “Me llamo ...” 3 Give a confident pupil a slip of paper with a classmate’s name on it. The pupil says whether the person is a boy or girl. This time pupils take it in turns to ask questions to find out who s/he is pretending to be, e.g. for a boy: “¿Eres rubio?”, “¿Eres alto?”, “¿Tienes los ojos azules? “¿Te gusta jugar al fútbol?” etc. The pupil replies “sí” or “no” as appropriate.

Note: This question and answer format is good if the person being described is neither particularly tall nor particularly short. If the answer to both “¿Eres alto?” and “¿Eres bajito?” is “no”- then the person must be somewhere in the middle! ❑ Play “Me llamo ...” 4 Ask a confident pupil to leave the room. Invite several pupils to come to the front of the classroom and stand in a line. The first pupil is either blindfolded, or must keep his/her eyes closed when re-entering the room. S/he has to touch and feel the pupils who are standing at the front and describe them e.g. “alta, pelo largo”. S/he can also ask questions e.g. “¿Eres morena?” “¿Tienes los ojos marrones?” The aim is to guess who each person is.

❑ Play “Me llamo ...” 5 Collect a selection of famous people that the children will know from magazines. You could include pop stars, sports stars, historical figures and cartoon characters The best pictures are those with big close-ups of people’s faces. Cut the faces up into halves.

Before the lesson begins, attach the picture sections in different places on the wall - some could even be upside down if you think pupils will find it easy to recognise the person. Number each section of picture.

Ask the children to move round the room and write down the two numbers that make up each complete face or body.

When everyone has finished, ask them to call out the matching numbers (in Spanish). Reconstruct the pictures so that everyone can see them and ask pupils to describe the people. ❑ Play “picture consequences” Everyone draws a face on a sheet of paper. The face must have distinctive hair and eyes. Pupils fold over the top part of their sheet of paper so that the face cannot be seen. They then pass their papers on to the next person. Everyone now draws a body on the new piece of paper.

This is then folded and passed on to the next person. Finally, everyone draws a pair of legs on the sheet they now hold. These sheets are then passed to the next person.

Everyone opens their sheet of paper to see the figure that has been drawn by three different people. Pupils take it in turns to describe their person.

Note: Some pupils may want to draw silly pictures e.g. green hair, red eyes, six legs etc. See “extra words and phrases” at the end of this chapter.

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14. ¿Cómo eres tú? ❑ Telephone conversation Ask pupils to imagine and mime that they are having a telephone conversation with a Spanish penfriend that they have never met. You take the part of the penfriend and ask, for example, (a) You: “¿Eres moreno o rubio?”

Pupil (boy): “Soy moreno”.

You: “¿Eres alto o bajito?”

Pupil (boy): “Soy bajito”. (b) You: “¿Eres morena o rubia?”

Pupil (girl): “Soy rubia”.

You: “¿Tienes el pelo corto o largo?”

Pupil (girl): “Largo”. ❑ Mirror drawing This game works well with a small group of pupils.

Children take it in turns to draw a person. You hold a mirror at an angle over the paper so that the drawing is reflected clearly. You also hold a book between the pupil and the paper, so that the artist cannot look down at his/her drawing, but has to watch his/her progress in the mirror.

As each pupil draws, s/he describes the person s/he is drawing. ❑ Play “five dots” Everyone draws five random dots on a piece of paper. The papers are then collected up and redistributed. Pupils now have to draw a person using the dots as guidelines e.g. one dot for the head, one for each foot and one for each hand.

When the drawings are complete, everyone takes it in turns to describe their person (or monster!) ❑ Play “join the dots” Everyone draws a number of random dots on a piece of paper (maximum ten). They then pass their papers on to their neighbour. Everyone now has to join the dots together and try and make them into a face, a person, or a monster.

Embellishments (eye colour, hair colour etc.) are allowed.

Pupils then describe their face, person or monster. ❑ Play “remember the picture” Choose several magazine pictures where it is

easy to see distinguishing characteristics such as hair colour and length; eye colour; whether someone is tall or short etc. (Each individual picture does not have to show all these elements.)

Show each picture to the class for a short time.

When you have removed each picture ask a series of questions , e.g. “¿Morena o rubia?”; “¿Ojos azules o marrones?”; “Pelo corto o largo?”

Pupils answer the questions.

5. Working in pairs ❑ Play “picture dictation” Pupils take it in turns to describe either a classmate or an imaginary person. e.g. “Soy moreno.

Tengo el pelo corto. Tengo los ojos azules. Soy alto”.

The partner draws the person being described.

Encourage pupils to add additional information for the drawing, e.g. “Tengo un perro. Me gusta montar en bici”.

6. Watch the video again ❑ Show video section 14: “¿Cómo eres tú?” again for reinforcement.

7. Look again at sounds Now that the new words and sounds are familiar, remind pupils of the typical Spanish sounds that have been highlighted in earlier chapters. ❑ Play “listen to the sounds” 1, 2 or 3 as in previous chapters.

Introducing the written word When pupils have had plenty of exposure to the sounds of the new words and phrases, you may like to show them the final sequence of video section 14 “¿Cómo eres tú?”, in which each of the key phrases is repeated with text superimposed on the pictures. ❑ You could play “listen to the sounds” 2 using word cards. ❑ Pupils can draw self-portraits and label them to send to their exchange school. Alternatively, they could mount photographs of themselves in a book and label these with additional information about themselves which might not be immediately obvious from the photograph.

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14. ¿Cómo eres tú?

CROSS CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES ❑ Numeracy: Pupils can measure how tall they are in cm. ❑ Art and design: Pupils can draw self-portraits. When they are ready, they can describe themselves to the rest of the class.

Overall blonde and fair-haired people are a lot less common, and for this reason the “blonde” standard is much wider than in the UK so that anyone with blue or green eyes and medium brown hair is considered “rubio/a”.

❑ Drama: Pupils can imagine that they are having a telephone conversation with their Spanish penfriend whom they have never met.. One pupil takes on the role of theSpanish friend, the other comes from the UK. These conversations could include greeting each other, asking how they are, saying how old they are, describing what they look like, their likes an dislikes and what pets they have.

“Soy rubio” - Not all Spanish children have dark hair.

Cultural awareness ■ You could talk with pupils about their perceptions of what Spanish people look like.

What have they learnt from watching the video?

EXTRA WORDS AND PHRASES

los ojos verdes green eyes los ojos grises grey eyes

Talking point SPANISH PEOPLE Avoiding stereotypes British people often imagine that all Spanish people have dark hair and brown eyes. Whilst this is certainly a common feature, it is by no means typical throughout Spain.

In the north-west (Galicia and Asturias) there are quite a number of fair-haired and blue-eyed people - generally thought to be of Celtic origin.

In Andalucía, in the south, there is also a higher percentage of fair-haired and blue-eyed people than you might expect. These are probably descendents of the British and German population that settled there and worked in the mining industries. There were also North European settlements in Andalucía in the 18th Century when the King Charles III created towns so that the mountains were inhabited by people other than “bandoleros” (bandits), the only ones willing to live in this desolate area before the towns were built.

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Soy pelirrojo (boy) Soy pelirroja (girl) I’m red haired Tengo el pelo liso I’ve got straight hair Tengo el pelo rizado I’ve got curly hair No soy ni alto/a ni bajito/a I’m neither tall nor short and for monsters ...

los ojos rojos el pelo verde el pelo azul

red eyes green hair blue hair

The pronunciation of these additional phrases can be heard on the audio CD for teachers.

¿Cómo eres tú?

This page may be photocopied for classroom use

©2002 Early Start Languages

¿Cómo eres tú?

This page may be photocopied for classroom use

©2002 Early Start Languages