Author: Flocabulary Team

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition to the New World that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire. Conquistadors were soldiers, explorers and adventurers at the service of the Spanish or Portuguese Empires. They sailed around the world conquering territories for their rulers, colonizing the New World and opening trade routes. Learn more about conquistadors in Flocabulary's song "Glory & Gold." Cortés was born to a family of lesser nobility. Before bringing down the Aztec Empire he made a name for himself in Cuba, where he received an encomienda (a system employed…

Review the Biggest Buzzwords of the Week! When you follow national and worldwide affairs, you get access to claims of self-defense, high stock prices, old mysteries, sports trades and more. Each week, we’ll highlight the top buzzwords or terms that your students might not have known or even heard until now. All these words are featured in the most recent edition of The Week in Rap. And once students beef up their vocab, the news will make a lot more sense. THIS WEEK self-defense -- a countermeasure to an assault on one's self, one's property or the well-being of another from…

What are the rules for capitalization? Capitalize specific versions of the type of word. If there is a more general version of the word, those are not capitalized. You can capitalize proper nouns like titles, cities, books, sports teams, languages and locations. But don't capitalize the general versions of the above. For example: Capitalize "Grandma Nelly," but not "grandma." Capitalize "New York City," but not "big city." Capitalize Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, but not "book." Capitalize the "Mets," but not "baseball team." Capitalize "Chinese," but not "language." Capitalize "Central Park," but not "park." Once you get the hang…

Running Through the Parts of Speech Listen to Flocabulary's Parts of Speech rap song to learn about the eight different parts of speech and how to use them. Parts of speech are important because they can help us understand the meanings of words and how they are joined together to become a communication. Here's the chorus: It goes... Noun, verb, adjective, adverb, Pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection. Uh-uh, uh-uh, pardon me, We're… uh… running through the p-p-p-p- parts of speech. Once you've listend to the song, try this fun Parts of Speech activity with your students: Write a sentence on the…

I Want Action Action verbs characterize our every movement and every thought. Do you need a list of action verbs to jumpstart your stories or writing? Here we go: jump sing think dance sleep race giggle watch nap study An easy trick to recognize action verbs is by asking yourself, "Can I do this?"  Can I sing? (Yes, but poorly.) Can I sleep? (Yes!) Can I giggle? (Yup, all the time!) Action verbs can also tell time by changing verb tense. For example, if you nap in the past, present or future, you could say, "I napped," "I am napping,"…