We have had a great start to the school year! Going forward,
I will post on a regular basis, but for this first blog, let me tell you all
about the first trimester.
All students in grades 1-8 started the year learning how to
greet each other, tell their names, and express feelings. Students in grades
4-8 also practiced telling where they are from, as well as other conversational
basics, such as “It is nice to meet you” and “May I go to the bathroom?”
Next, all students practiced expressing likes and dislikes
of foods and beverages. Students in 8th grade also leaned how to
conjugate verbs in the present tense and were able to form simple sentences
about food, such as: She eats apples or
they drink milk. While the older students dug deeper into food vocabulary, the
younger students learned and practiced colors.
For students in grades 4-8, the trimester ended with a
simulated flight to Spain! The room was set up as an airplane and the students
were challenged with only speaking Spanish for the class period. After
obtaining a boarding pass and hearing safety instructions, the plane took off!
Passengers were able to order a beverage and a snack from the “flight
attendant,” Luisa. They problem-solved when they did not know vocabulary and a
few even got “motion sick” from the turbulence! The in-flight movie was a few
minutes of Frozen, in Spanish. Then, we landed in Spain! It was a great way to
practice all the vocabulary learned during the trimester, in an real-life
situation. I was proud of them for speaking and listening to Spanish for 45
minutes.
By the way, have you heard about Pepe and Tilda? They are beloved puppets in our classroom,
especially for the grades 1-3 students.
Pepe is a monkey from Gibraltar and Tilda is a turtle from the Galapagos
Islands. We have started talking about those places and how they connect to the Spanish speaking world. The puppets only speak Spanish, so if a student wants to communicate with
them, Spanish it is! Tilda is very shy and does not like loud noises; she will
retreat into her shell if it gets too crazy in the classroom. You can see Tilda in the picture above.
And now we are on to the second trimester! Check back in soon for updates.
