Near the end of the term you will need a passport to help you get past the customs officer (me). Don’t worry. Make the passport early on and you’ll have plenty of time to practice talking before the end. (Yes, you need to learn your answers, but I’m giving you the questions and I’ll go over your answers in advance provided you give me enough time.)

We MIGHT begin to make a passport in class, or it might be totally on your time. We’ll see. Here’s what you need to do:

CREATING THE PASSPORT

  1. Get 2 pieces of blank white paper and cut them in half along the width (not long and skinny).
  2. Place the 4 halves on top of each other to make a stack.
  3. Place your stack on top of construction paper or colored paper and trace and cut out a rectangle to serve as a cover.
  4. Place your cover underneath your stack of blank paper and fold both your stack and the cover in half to create a book. Press down and make a crease.
  5. Unfold your stack and flip it over so that the cover side is face up. Gently tuck a stapler around one of the sides of your book so that you can staple the book together along the crease that you’ve made. Use at least 2 staples. The staples should be spaced out and the bars of the staples should be along your colored cover on the outside and the folded over pieces of your staples should be on the inside of your crease on your center page on the inside.

FILLING THE PASSPORT

  1. Pick a Spanish-speaking country of origin. Put the flag of your country of origin on the cover (outside) of your passport.
  2. Open your passport, skip the first page, and number each of the remaining pages along bottom, in the center.
  3. Go back to the page you skipped. The first side of the first page in a passport usually contains a phrase from the country’s founding documents. If you can find such a phrase, great.
  4. Go to the back side of the first page and turn the book lengthwise so it is no longer a rectangle standing up, but lying down.
  5. On that page you will put/draw a small picture of yourself on the left side of the page. On the right side of the page you will print your real first and last name. Everything after that, make it up. I don’t want real info.
  6. Under your name, include a fictitious birthdate.
  7. Under your birthdate, include a city from the country of origin that you put on the front cover.
  8. On the remaining pages (the ones you numbered) include the following dialogue prompts according to the numbers below. You can even write your answers in the passport too.

PAGE 1

  • ¿Adónde fuiste?
  • Where did you go?

PAGE 2

  • ¿Qué hacías en _______?
  • What were you doing in________?

PAGE 3

  • ¿Por cuánto tiempo estuviste en ________?
  • For how long were you (PT) in _________?

PAGE 4

  • ¿Qué compraste que debes declarar?
  • What did you buy that you should declare? (Things that you need to declare vary from country to country. Tobacco. Wine. Fruit. Meat. Houseplants.)

PAGE 5

  • ¿Con quién te quedabas? ¿Y dónde te quedabas?
  • With whom were you staying? And where were you staying?

PAGE 6

  • ¿Tuviste contacto con un desconocido que te pidió traer algo por la frontera?
  • Did you have contact with any unknown person that asked you to bring something through the border?

PAGE 7

  • ¿Había razón para visitar al centro médico o al hospital? 
  • Was there a reason to visit a medical center or hospital? (You’re going to answer Yes, so have a story ready for the following questions…)

PAGE 8

  • ¿Tuviste accidente? ¿Qué te pasó?
  • Did you have an accident? What happened?

PAGE 9

  • ¿Recibiste tratamiento médico?
  • Did you receive medical treatment?

PAGE 10

  • ¿Te divertiste de todos modos?
  • Did you (have a good time) enjoy yourself (anyway)?