Thursday, February 3, 2011

Spanish Club

This afternoon I will be signing up Spanish Club participants at the Enrichment Fair.  It's only $25 for 6 weeks of fun and food.  Each afternoon a typical Hispanic snack is served and fun craft activities are planned.  Your child can expect to listen to music, dance and play Hispanic games.  Come by and sign your child up for Spanish Club today in the cafeteria from 4:00 until 6:30pm.  There are a limited number of spaces so make sure your child gets theirs!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Great People

Fifth graders have been learning about how to describe themselves and others.  Students brought in a photograph of a family member and then wrote at least 5 sentences about that person.  They wrote them on a fan design, un abanico, and decorated them.  They are going to be posted in the school shortly.  Take a look at the students reading their sentences.  Here are a couple of presentations.

Los Animales del Bosque Tropical

Fourth graders have learned all about animals in the tropical rainforest.  They have made amates (bark paper paintings typical of Mexico) of their favorite animal and then written sentences about their animal.  Here are a couple of great presentations.

¿Cómo te sientes? How are you feeling?

Second graders have learned how to express their emotions (well, some of them) and they made videos about them.

Estoy contento.  Estoy enojado.  Estoy triste.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Las Mariposas en Mexico

Our butterflies have arrived in Mexico.  Click on this link to see one of our class butterflies with a group of students in Mexico.http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sm/fall2010/121410_ez5gr_a.html

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Book order forms are in

I hope everyone had a wonderful winter break.  I know I'm glad the snow is gone, for now at least, and we are back in school.  I've missed your children and am looking forward to teaching them more Spanish. 

Scholastic Club Leo book orders are now available.  There are many great books to choose from.  If you are interested you can have your child pick up an order form from me. 

My recommendations are as follows:
  • Mi Primer/My First Book of Spanish Words by Katy R. Kudela.  It is a good picture dictionary to help your children practice words they've learned in class.
  • My Bilingual Tales Trio/Mis cuentos bilingües trío is a set of books that are bilingual and two are used in my classroom in Kindergarten and 1st grades.  The children especially love El Ratoncito Perez y The Tooth Fairy by Jane Cadwallader and Gustavo Mazali which is part of this set.
  • Just about any book your child is interested in.  If they are a fan of Captain Underpants there's one in Spanish for them.  If they are interested in the solar system, there are books about the planets in Spanish.  They may not understand every word but it's great practice and they will likely find many words that they do know.
Happy reading!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

¡Feliz Navidad!

Diciembre en la clase de español

This month all Grange Hall kids have been learning new material.  Here is a quick run-down of what your students are doing in Spanish class.

Kindergarten:  Students have mastered the family members and the topic of mom and baby.  They loved pulling animals out of the magic box and matching mom to her baby.  We are now moving on to Community Helpers, what they do and where they work.

1st grade:  Building on what was taught last year, students have mastered the family members and have interacted with different kinds of families.  They are also learning about the house and some rooms and things in a house. 

2nd grade:  Second graders have learned about many foods and the food groups in which each belongs.  The idea that an egg (un huevo) is a meat product (carnes y frijoles) and not a dairy product (productos lácteos) was difficult for some.  We talked about prices of foods and are now beginning to work with money values.  This is all to help them practice their number vocabulary from 30-100.  Students by now are pretty comfortable with their numbers up to 29 but they need (and want) to learn the higher numbers.

3rd grade:  Students have reviewed the seasons, weather and months of the year.  All of this was in preparation for learning about holidays and when they happen.  First we talked about some of the holidays we celebrate here in the USA.  Now they are learning about some of the holidays celebrated in Mexico.  Right now the children are making something for "La Navidad" to take home to their families.  When we get back from winter break we will experience a little bit of "El Día de los Reyes" with some books and activities.

4th grade:  Fourth graders have learned many different animals that live in the tropical rainforest and some descriptions of each.  They can tell you all about the animals using adjectives like grande y pequeño, feroz y tranquilo, bonito y feo, and rápido y despacio.  They have talked about some fruits that come from the rainforest and we are going to do a hands on activity next week to reinforce the food vocabulary.  Pictures to come...

5th grade:  These students have also been learning about the family members and have been learning about different types of families.  They have learned more words for extended family members and lots of descriptions for people.  We are taking a short break from Spanish classes this week as they practice for their program which they will perform on Tuesday, December 14th. When they come back to Spanish we will celebrate the winter holidays with some fun activities that reinforce basic vocabulary.  Then we'll begin in January with a quarterly project in which each student will need to bring in a photograph of a family member whom they will write several sentences about.