4: La sierra
The mountains
Sofía takes Charlie and Quique to the mountains just outside Madrid and they meet Sofía's friend, Guillermo, a mountaineer. Teresa tells a story about two rival mountains - El Teide on Tenerife and Popocatépetl in Mexico - and Uncle Manu sings about the seasons. Key vocabulary includes the weather and seasons and key grammar points include making negative sentences.
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Guidance and follow-up activities (13MB pdf)
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Dual transcript / translation for Clips 13 - 16 (pdf) with links to the online audio clips
Clip 13: Cercedilla
Cercedilla
Quique, Charlie and Sofía take a train to Cercedilla, a town in the mountains just outside Madrid. There they meet Guillermo, a mountaineer. Charlie finds out that it isn't always sunny in Spain.
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Clip duration: 03 52
Supporting images
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Describing the weather in Spanish
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The points of the compass in Spanish
Clip 14: Cuento - Cartas de las monta帽as
Story - Letters from the mountains
Verónica loves looking at maps. Then one day she receives letters from two mountains: El Teide on Tenerife in the Canary Islands, and Popocatépetl in Central Mexico, who tell her their stories.
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Clip duration: 04 21
Themes, Vocab and Grammar
| Themes and vocabulary | Grammar and pronunciation |
|---|---|
| seasons | frequency phrases |
| weather - eg hace fr铆o (it's cold) and hace calor (it's hot) | negatives |
| points of the compass - norte (north), este (east), sur (south), oeste (west) | pronunciation of ll (llueve / llamas) |
| - | Spanish climate |
Clip 15: En la cafeter铆a
In the café
Quique, Sofía and Charlie are sheltering from the rain in a café: the perfect opportunity for Charlie to get to grips with some Spanish phrases to describe the weather. Charlie hears the phrase se puede for the first time.
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Clip duration: 03 26
Key vocabulary 1
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| Las estaciones | The seasons |
| primavera (f) | Spring |
| verano (m) | Summer |
| oto帽o (m) | Autumn |
| invierno (m) | Winter |
| siempre | always |
| normalmente | normally |
Clip 16: Canci贸n - 隆Qu茅 bonita es la Tierra!
Song - How pretty Earth is!
A Martian observes the Earth from afar and says how lucky Earthlings are to have the changing seasons, while he sits shivering, with freezing cold feet, on Mars.
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Clip duration: 03 18
Key vocabulary 2
| Spanish | English |
|---|---|
| alpinista (m/f) | mountain climber |
| bosque (m) | wood, forest |
| esqu铆 (m) / esquiar | skiing / to ski |
| 别蝉迟谩 | it is (located) |
| fuerte | strong |
| hacer alpinismo | to go mountain climbing |
| monta帽a (f) / monta帽ero (m) | mountain / mountaineer |