Home > Teachers > The 5'Cs

Questions and activities to engage your students and teach to the National Standards with Chispa!

Communication - Hear four engaging Latino baseball players answer many of the questions your own students are practicing: ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Cuántos años tienes? ¿Tienes hermanos? ¿De dónde eres? Practice clothing vocabulary by seeing a ballplayer describe the different parts of his uniform. See them demonstrate baseball vocabulary in action. Challenge your listening comprehension skills by hearing real people speak Spanish at their natural pace -- and fill out a challenging listening comprehension activity.

Cultures - What makes Latinos so important to baseball in the United States? What is their favorite music? How is their favorite music related to the country they’re from? What was life like growing up for some of these players? What are their accents like?

Connections – Connect to geography – what countries do most Latino players in the US come from? What part of Latin America are these countries in? Why? Look at a map of the Caribbean basin and see if you can make some guesses. How does the history of baseball in the Caribbean basin tie in with US and world history in general? What sports are popular in the rest of Latin America?

Comparisons - How are the accents different from other Spanish accents you have heard? How did the players compare their experience of growing up and playing baseball to the way kids learn to play baseball here? What are some of the conversation “fillers” that people use in Spanish, and what are some fillers that we use?

Communities - What Latinos live in your community? What are some of the professions they are in? What do they add to your community? How can you make contact with them? How can your students interview them? Many, many towns around the country have minor league teams. Who are the Latino players on your town’s minor league team? Where are they from? Invite them to your school to view the video and then ask them the same questions!