Hispanic Culture Study Month for Grades 3-5

The Día de los Muertos festivities at the beginning of the month seem like a long time ago now that Thanksgiving is already behind us! Here are some highlights from November:

Kindergarten (KG): The Kindergarteners had time to learn about classroom objects. They worked on a short project where they colored a mochila (backpack) drawing using the color words they learned earlier in the year. Inside the mochila, they wrote a short sentence in Spanish accompanied by a drawing of one of the classroom objects they learned.

First Grade (1H):  Animales have been the focus of the month.  The unit focused on animals that could be found in a zoo. The end project is a beautiful mural of their own zoológico (zoo). Take a look at the Spanish bulletin board where there is a display of the mural filled with the students' drawings of the animales they studied.

Second Grade (2E): In preparation for their final presentation of the book Huevos verdes con jamón (Green Eggs and Ham), the students learned the vocabulary associated with the book.  Students had the chance to work on the Quizlet computer website to practice the new vocabulary through a variety of games.  Once they felt comfortable with the vocabulary, they read through the full play written in Spanish and have begun rehearsing for the Spanish Assembly on December 14.

Third Grade: Students in third grade continued their study of Mexico by working at 6 centers where they had to choose three of the following six centers: 1) making a Mexican flag, 2) completing a map of Mexico, 3) using the iPad to access a Time for Kids website about Mexico, 4) reading a Mexican legend, 5) using non-fiction books to research some of their own questions about Mexico and 6) reading information about "Life in Mexico" and "Mexican Food”.  Most students were eager to do more than three centers!

Fourth Grade: Students in fourth grade expanded their cultural study to the hispanohablantes (Spanish-speaking) countries of South America.  They learned the geography terms in Spanish in order to complete their mapas políticos (political map) and their mapas físicos (physical map) of the continent.  Each student has also chosen a South American country to study in more depth.  The research and writing will take them through the end of the fall term.

Fifth Grade: Students in fifth grade continued their study of Mexico by studying its history. They learned about the impressive Aztec Empire that covered much of Central America and their unfortunate demise with the arrival of Cortez and the Spanish soldiers. The final project is a research project poster about one aspect of the Aztec civilization. Topics range from Aztec warriors and weapons to Aztec games and sports. Students are working with partners to research and write the information for their posters.

¡October Activities in LS Spanish!

Looking back at the month of October, it is hard to believe how much the students have accomplished in a month that was shortened by the mini immersion week! Here are some of the highlights:

Early Childhood:

In preparation for the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos I brought my “special” travel suitcase filled with “artifacts” related to the holiday.  I also read Eric Carle’s classic La oruga muy hambrienta in Spanish to reinforce the number and color words they were introduced to them earlier in the year.   

Kindergarten (KG):

They started the month learning about la familia, which was a wonderful connection to the beloved P.D. Eastman book ¿Eres tú mi mama?  They learned new Spanish words related to the story and completed language arts activities just as they would have done in an “English” class. At the end of the month, they learned about Mexico and prepared flores (flowers) in preparation for our Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration.

First Grade (1H):

They began the month learning animales and frutas vocabulary to read the book Martí y el mango. They even had the chance to sample the different frutas including coco (coconut), guayaba (guava) and, of course, mangos. They also learned about Mexico and started their skull mascaras (masks) in in preparation for our Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebration.

Second Grade (2D):

This was a particularly exciting month for second grade because now that they had flown to España they had the chance to travel throughout the country!  They explored Madrid by autobús and several sites in Spain by tren and ended up at el Café Swift to sample tapas and a tortilla española while writing tarjetas postales (post cards).  They had to quickly return home to get ready for the LS Spanish celebration of Day of Dead. 

Third Grade:  

The third graders began the month learning the Spanish alphabet and working on an alfabeto poster project.  Each student chose one or two letters to design for a class alphabet project.  They had to find a Spanish word beginning with their letter and then incorporate the letter in a drawing of the word.  After this short project, they focused on a study of Mexico in preparation for the upcoming Day of the Dead celebration.  They generated a list of 84 creative, thought-provoking and specific questions that they want to explore during our November study of Mexico.  

Fourth Grade:

The fourth graders had their first graded Spanish test on numbers to 100 or 1000 and facts about Mexico's Independence Day (celebrated in September).  Afterwards, they moved on to a study of colores and formas  (shapes), which provided them the opportunity to learn about masculine and feminine nouns and adjective agreement with nouns.  The final project was a mini-libro in which the students combined their understanding of numbers, shapes, colors and adjective agreement to write short sentences.

Fifth Grade:

The fifth graders also had their first graded Spanish test on numbers to 1000 and facts about Mexico's Independence Day.  They then moved on to a study of animales and adjetivos to describe the animals, which also provided them the opportunity to learn about masculine and feminine nouns and adjective agreement with nouns.  Their final project was a class book entitled, ¿Qué Animal es este? Each student made two pages for the book.  Each page asked the question, “What animal is this?” and then provided a 3-sentence description of an animal and a drawing of the animal under a flap. 

The students have worked hard this past month! And we haven’t even gotten to the Day of the Dead projects!  I will save those details for a separate blog entry.  Stay tuned!

Saludos,

Señora Swift

Día de los Muertos 2016

Lower School Spanish classes from EC to 5th grade spent the end of October and first week of November learning about Mexico and their special holiday Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in preparation for our celebration of the holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 1 & 2!

Each class prepared something to decorate our lower school ofrenda (alter) which is the focal point of the holiday:

*  Kindergarteners in KG made colorful paper flores (flowers) to represent the fragrant marigolds used for decoration.  They also colored calaveras (skulls) and sampled some delicious pan de muertos from a local Mexican bakery. 

*  First graders in 1H made paper plate skeleton masks with the help of the upper school Spanish 5 students and Sra. Sparks.

* Second graders in 2D made beautiful tin engraved calaveras (skulls). 

* Third grade Spanish student made delicate paper papel picados (paper with cut-out designs).  No fiesta is complete without these strings of papel picados banners!  They also hosted the upper school students in Spanish 1 who came to visit our ofrenda with Sra. McEwan.

*  Fourth grade Spanish students made Catrina-style esqueletos (skeletons) dressed in a variety costumes.

*  Fifth grade Spanish students made beautifully designed calaveras de azúcar (sugar skulls) – a fun fifth grade tradition!

Take a look at more pictures in the Photo Gallery on my Spanish with Señora Swift website!