Los Volcanes Mexicanos

In this activity we will be visiting web sites about volcanoes in Mexico.

1. With a partner, list what you know about volcanoes: What are they, where are they, what do they do, names of some famous volcanoes. Predict how you would feel, what you would do if you were in the path of an active volcano.

2. Share your ideas with the class.

3. Go to the web site: http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/031volcano/main1.html

Scan the article from "Volcano Lovers" to "yikes", then answer the following.

What is the Nahuatl name of the "Smoking Mountain"?
Describe the volcano.
Where is it located?
What significance do the numbers 17; 500; 30,000,000; 8,000; 40,000; 10 centimeters have in relation to this volcano?
Why is there "potential for catastrophe"?

4. Click on the link: National Autonomous University of Mexico (http://www.cenapred.unam.mx/cgi-bin/popo/reportes/ultrep.cgi)

Scan articles and photos from "Popocatepetl Volcano News" to "Latest information about Popocatepetl provided by CENAPRED".
Write the Spanish equivalents of these words: emission, ash, plume, volcano, sand-sized ash, mud flows, rains, glacier, melting, elevation, crater, wind, water vapor, lava dome, earthquakes, magnitudes.

5. Go to the web site: Los Volcanes Mexicanos (http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/proyectos/volcanes/proyecto/introduc.htm) (Spanish version)

6. Los Volcanes Mexicanos

· ¿Dónde hay una gran cantidad de volcanes?
· ¿Cómo se llaman algunos de estos volcanes?
· ¿Cuáles han sido activos durante el siglo veinte?
· ¿De qué han sido inspiración los volcanes?

7. Click on the link: Popcatepetl (http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/publicaciones/publi_volcanes/popocatepetl.htm)
· ¿Qué significa Popocatepetl en Nahuatl?
· ¿Cuáles son los estados que el volcán afecta?
· ¿Cuáles son los años de erupciones de fechas reportadas?

· ¿Cuándo fue la erupción más grande en el presente?
· ¿Cuál es la fuente (source ) de la información en este resumen?

8. Using what you have read, make a timeline of Popcatepetl's eruptions from the earliest reported dates to the present.

9. Choose a date of one of Popcateptl's eruptions and write a diary page in Spanish imagining your experiences that day. (Use the preterite. )

Los Volcanes Mexicanos

Teacher Lesson Plan
Gail Saucedo
Coronado Middle School

Language: Spanish
Level: One
Grade Level: 7-12

Objectives

· Set the stage for reading the legend of the volcanoes Popo and Ixta
· Connect natural phenomena to the development of legends
· Cross-curricular - Spanish / Earth Science

Materials

· Computer with access to the World Wide Web (preview all sites)
· (or) Printout of selected sites
· Student worksheet
· Paper, pens or pencils

Procedure

1. Show a video clip of an erupting volcano. Student and partner(s) list knowledge of volcanoes: what are they, where are they, what do they do, names of famous volcanoes.

2. Students predict how they would feel/react if they were in the path of an active volcano.

3. Students share their ideas with the class.

4. Go to web site: http://whyfiles.news.wisc.edu/031volcano/main1.html

5. Worksheet activities: http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/proyectos/volcanes/proyecto/introduc.htm
(Spanish version)

7. Worksheet activities

Extension
Students choose a date of one of Popocateptl's eruptions and write a diary page of their experiences that day using the preterite. (This lesson will be continued with the legend of Popo and Ixta, with activities for pre-reading, reading, post-reading and extension.)

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