Speciality Highlight March 2025: Spanish
Dear Grades Families,
Our year in Spanish is going very well!
First Grade
First Grade continues learning vocabulary through songs. As part of the progress for learning the language, students learn part of a song one year and then add more verses the next year. We also practice the vocabulary by playing games and then using the new vocabulary to respond to simple questions. This quarter, both classes named parts of the body from head to toe. Students learned the phrase Me duele ( my ... hurts).
Classes also learn winter vocabulary, such as snow and cold, the clothes we wear, the sports we practice at this time of the year, and the winter colors, blue and white. In February, First Grade learned the songs la vaca lechera and un elefante; we are working on la Cucaracha song at the present time.
Second and Third Grade
The Second and Third Grade classes continue learning vocabulary through songs. As part of the progress for learning the language, students learn part of a song one year and then add more verses the next. We also practice the vocabulary by playing games and then using the new vocabulary to respond to simple questions. This quarter, all classes reviewed parts of the body from head to toe. Students learned the phrase Me duele ( my ... hurts). Second and Third Graders learned verbs associated with the different parts of the body: escuchar, tocar (to listen, to touch).
Additionally, in Second Grade, the lessons focused on words and phrases about animals that live in cold climates and their body parts. While in Third Grade, the focus rested on studying the changes that take place in nature, such as the migration of birds, the freezing of lakes, and things that we do to keep us warm during the cold months. Last week, we started our unit about spring. Being able to observe the vocabulary we’re working on in the world around them makes the learning more relevant.
Both grades enjoyed playing games and singing songs about the days of the week and morning routines, like vestirse, peinarse, and desayunar (get dressed, comb your hair, eat breakfast). Second Graders also learned about afternoon routines (eating lunch, learning, doing homework), and Third Graders added nighttime routines (setting the table, having dinner, taking a shower). We danced to La Macarena while learning the months of the year. We learned about the four seasons and activities like como helado, escalo montaña (I eat ice cream, I climb mountain) and places we go like el parque (the park) el teatro (the theater), la playa (the beach), la montaña (the mountain), la cuidad (city).
Fourth and Fifth Grade
The Fourth and Fifth Graders continue to practice taking dictations. We finished the legend from the Pemón tribe of Venezuela el tigre y el rayo (The Tiger and the Thunder). We identified verbs and their conjugations in the story. We are practicing tongue twisters, compadre compreme un coco y el jarró. We are presently working on a new story," “Rosaura en bicicleta and singing el himno del árbol”. We began creating stories using TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling). It is a language teaching method that uses storytelling and physical responses to enhance language acquisition, focusing on comprehensible input and fluency in addition to memorization.
Sixth and Seventh Grade
Six and Seventh Grade continue to take dictation of “La leyenda del dorado” from Colombia. They researched its origin and shared their findings in class. We have used our dictionaries to look up adjectives to be used in sentences. We are conjugating regular verbs in past and future tense. We also worked on the verb “to be” in Spanish: ser and estar. We began creating stories using TPRS (Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling).
