Friday, December 2, 2016

Course Updates



PreK Spanish

Jen, the Spanish teacher, visits the PreK on Tuesdays and Thursdays during morning play time.  Jen's primary role is to visit with the kids in Spanish through engagement in their activities.  She often also reads a story in Spanish that reflects a topic of study or special time of year.  Jen also walks with the "Muddy Boots Club" on Fridays to continue the conversation in Spanish.


K/1 Spanish 

In K-1 Spanish, students have been learning about greetings, friendship, colors, and seasons.  Additionally, students are working on recreating a story by Eric Carle.  Songs (with fun choreography), picture books, creative illustrations, props, and games are currently being used to support the learning process and to reinforce topics.  

2/3 Spanish 

The 2/3 "home" topic transitioned nicely into a discussion of the larger community, and students delved into creating community examples with a partner, using various craft materials and short, written descriptions. Occupations have now been added, too, using appropriate vocabulary and the verb, "to work."  Students will continue their work with these topics using the alphabet as well as cultural comparisons with other communities.  Class time has further been enriched with musical games and stories in Spanish.  


4/5 Spanish

Following the country study project, students began a contextual discussion of numbers.  Number practice has included, for example, working with numbers to solve basic problems, assessing the number of various items in the classroom, identifying telephone numbers in a newspaper from Central America, and discussing prices of supermarket products. Additionally, students used their country study to discuss and present a travel packing list with prices.  Following a review of the alphabet, students will begin work on weather expressions.  Students will incorporate geography into this discussion, as weather comparisons will be made between locations of interest, and weather forecast presentations will be created.


Spanish I

Spanish I students continue to work with verb infinitives to reflect favorite activities.  Personal descriptions have also been incorporated into a contextualized class discussion with lots of visual reinforcement. Students are also observing different articles in context as well as noun/adjective agreement.  Students continue to complete short homework assignments/assessments to support class activities and comprehension of the class material.  Additionally, students will be working on diamond poems as well as a project describing a person of interest.

Spanish II

Following a culinary exploration, including gustar and -er/-ir verbs in context, as well as a Chromebook activity exploring the theme of "ecotourism," students have been discussing families.  Ages, birthdays/dates and possessive adjectives are being incorporated into the family fabric, and a "family-centered" project will follow.  Students continue to complete short homework assignments/assessments to support class activities and comprehension of the class material.

Spanish III


Spanish III students have worked on home vocabulary, including how to plan for a party.  They looked at Classifieds in Spanish and created creative homes with a partner "to sell."  Ser/Estar, ordinal numbers, impersonal commands, an ecotourism project as well as short homework assignments and assessments have further broadened the language tapestry.  Following a presentation incorporating some of the above topics as well as a student-generated story, students will begin to study saber/conocer in the context of sports.

Friday, September 30, 2016

Spanish in Grades PreK-8




PreK Spanish

Jen, the Spanish teacher, visits the PreK on Tuesdays and Thursdays during morning play time.  Jen's primary role is to visit with the kids in Spanish through engagement in their activities.  She often also reads a story in Spanish that reflects a topic of study or special time of year.  Jen also walks with the "Muddy Boots Club" on Fridays to continue the conversation in Spanish.


K/1 Spanish 

K/1 Spanish meets for two 30 minute classes each week. 
Students have been learning about greetings, friendship and colors through songs (with fun choreography), picture books and student pictures.  The next topic to be discussed will be seasons!

2/3 Spanish 

2/3 Spanish meets for two 45 minute classes each week. Students have been reviewing days of the week and months of the year as well as numbers in context.  Practice has included, for example, using the date (and time of day) to identify the location (home or school) of students.  The notion of "home," then, has helped to transition into a preliminary discussion of the home.  Students have illustrated favorite rooms, created a visual dictionary and incorporated colors into descriptions. The next topic to be introduced will be furniture!


4/5 Spanish

4/5 Spanish meets for three 45 minute classes each week. At this stage, students begin to bring a binder to class!  Following a review of some basic dialogues and greetings, students have extended the class conversation to favorite activities (and other action words) with a visual dictionary.  These "-ar verbs" will be used later to build some sentences and will foreshadow their work next year in Middle School. In the meantime, students incorporated a few adjectives and nouns to create diamond poems in class.  Students are also beginning to work on a country study using an online encyclopedia in the lab and writing prompts.


Middle School Spanish

Middle School students in Grades 6-8 receive four days of Spanish instruction each week.  Scaffolding vocabulary and developing communication in the present tense are emphasized in Grades 6-7.  Vocabulary is further expanded in Grade 8 with a look at the past as a highlight of the year.  Speaking, listening, reading and writing are woven into daily tasks, and students will have the opportunity to work on creative dialogues and projects throughout the year to enrich their language study.  Furthermore, students will have the opportunity to host students from Barcelona for a one week visit, and plan ahead for travel to this special Spanish city next year!


Spanish I

Students are beginning to establish routines and good organization practices.  Students began the year working on greetings/introductions, the alphabet, the calendar, and numbers in context.  Additionally, students worked in the lab on a geography activity that used "animal vocabulary," habitats, countries and writing prompts.  The next topic to be introduced will be favorite activities! 

Spanish II

Students began the year with a review of classroom vocabulary and grammar in context.  Students reviewed nouns, adjectives and verbs with autobiographical diamond poems, and the class butterfly ("la mariposa") helped students to review prepositions of location with the verb, "estar."  Additionally, students worked in the lab on a project about the architect, Gaudi. Following a discussion of the verb, "ir," students will begin a culinary exploration! 

Spanish III

Students began the year with a rather comprehensive review of major topics and grammatical structures discussed last year.  Like the students in Spanish II, students reviewed nouns, adjectives and verbs with autobiographical diamond poems.  A series of short games using class white boards have made the review process fun!  Additionally, students worked in the lab on a project in Spanish about a city of their choice in Spain.  Stem-changing verbs were used to further reinforce the review process.  Following a review of other stem-changing verbs, comparatives and direct object pronouns, students will begin to explore home vocabulary and commands!