I couldn’t wait to tell you about our splendid class this week. We are at that place, historically, where we are discussing Miguel Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. Most of my students were not very familiar with Don Quixote (and I had to admit I’ve never read the entire book myself. Shhhhhhh, that will just be our little secret!) However, it’s hard to go through life without hearing parts of this classical story.
What I wasn’t expecting was the enthusiasm the students had for the adventures of Don Quixote. We found a short version of the book on www.mainlesson.com This is a beautiful website that I have talked about before. Please take a few minutes to visit it and you will understand why I love Lisa’s project so much! Anyway, our class divided into groups of two and they each chose a chapter to read and then share with each other. They even created their own crossword puzzles pertaining to Cervantes and Quixote.
While some were reading, others were busy cooking Spanish omelets in honor of Cervantes’ homeland. The omelets were delicious and looked as good as they tasted! We made our own version of non-alcoholic Sangria to go along with the omelets and enjoyed eating and laughing about Mr. Quixote’s strange quest!
Next it was out to the front yard to share adventures packed with knights, ladies, noble steeds, loyal squires and skeptical onlookers. This is where the kids really breathed life into their understanding of Cervantes’ characters. It was great fun to watch and chuckle as they narrated and acted out their chapters. In the end we all learned a lot and had a marvelous time doing so!
