May 5 - ¡Celebrating Cinco de mayo!

Lower School Spanish classes from Kindergarten to 5th grade spent the end of April and the first week of May learning about Mexico and the holiday Cinco de mayo in preparation for our celebration of the holiday on Thursday, May 5!

Each class honored the holiday with a little history lesson, some mariachi music, a sampling of chips and salsa and lots of fun Mexican art projects!

*  Kindergarteners in KG made bright maracas out of water bottles filled with popcorn and lots of paper mache and paint!

*  First graders in 1K made colorfully painted paper sombreros.

* Second graders in 2D made complementary painted ponchos.

* Third grade Spanish students made beautiful Ojos de Dios (God’s Eyes). 

*  Fourth grade Spanish students wrapped up a study of Comida (Food) by making and eating tacos with soft tortillas.

*  Fifth grade Spanish students made cute mini piñatas filled with candy.

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

March - Wrapping up Projects

With just two short weeks in the month of March, students spent much of their time wrapping up projects.

Kindergarten (KG)
The Kindergarten students learned new familia vocabulary including the all-important words - madre, padre, abuelo and abuela. Just ask a Kindergartener if you aren't sure of the meaning.  They practiced the vocabulary through songs, games and making mini-libros.  

First Grade (1K)
The first graders continued their study of animales by learning about the wild animals in a zoológico. Each student chose an animal to draw in its habitat to add to their classroom zoo.  Take a look at their zoológico displayed on the bulletin board near their classroom!  They did a fantastic job!

Second Grade (2D)
The second graders continued their trip through Spain with a "Youtube visit" to different sites.  They also had the experience of ordering either tapas or a slice of tortilla española at the Café Swift and buying tarjetas postales (post cards) from Mrs. Dubé at her tienda (store).  The last day was spent at the aeropuerto writing their post cards while waiting for the plane to take them home.

Third Grade
The third graders continued work on their class books by adding Capítulo 5.  This chapter included food and family vocabulary to describe a typical lunch in Spain.  They reinforced the food vocabulary with independent work at differentiated centers.

Fourth Grade
Once the students finished writing their pages for their class book about España, they had the opportunity to read each other's work to learn more about Spain's culture.  They wrapped up the unit with a test on the cultura vocabulary.

Fifth Grade
The students completed their three-fold brochures detailing a 7-10 day itinerary of the sites of Spain! They worked with a template on the Chromebooks to create an authentic brochure full of interesting facts and beautiful photos.  Stop by the bulletin board outside the Spanish room to take a look at their impressive work!

Fourth & Fifth Grade Special Project
Finally, in preparation for my spring break trip to Costa Rica where I worked with an English teacher in a Costa Rican elementary school, the students wrote letters in Spanish to begin a pen pal correspondence with students at the Escuela Cacique Nicoya.  By now, the MVS students have the skills to write a short letter introducing themselves and including information about their interests!

February - Learning about España

Kindergarten (KG)
The Kindergarteners spent several classes learning how to count in Spanish.  Many of them know how to rote count beyond 10, but the trick is to mix up the numbers.  We played many counting games with the mixed-up numbers to 5. After numbers, the students listened to several books about a familiar dog named Bizcocho (Biscuit)! As in a true immersive classroom, students completed a variety of differentiated language arts activities around the vocabulary and comprehension skills related to the stories.

First Grade (1K)
The focus for this month has been on Animales. The first graders first learned vocabulary associated with pets.  Then we read the book Martí y el mango (Marty and the Mango) where they expanded the vocabulary to include more animals as well as the different frutas (fruits) that Martí's friends introduced in the book.  Of course, we could not learn about mangos, cocos y guayabas without actually tasting mangos, coconuts and guavas!

Second Grade (2D)
The second graders have been busy preparing for the trip to España!  They spent the first part of the month learning the vocabulary associated with the different articles of ropa (clothing) and then making the clothing out of paper to pack in their maletas (suitcases).  After identifying their travel plans on a map of España, they were ready to travel! On February 24, they checked in at the aeropuerto where Mrs. McCrimmon stamped their pasaportes and Mrs. Dubé checked them through Security.  The students found their asientos (seats) and the plane took off for Madrid! At the next class, the students found their places on an autobús for a video trip through Spain's capital.  They learned key travel vocabulary words as well as a few significant sites in Madrid! March will bring more travel adventures!

Third Grade 
The third graders also learned more about España this month.  The students watched an informative video about the life of a Spanish girl and they also rotated through a variety of different centers to learn more about Spain.  The centers included working on the Chromebooks to access the Time For Kids - Spain website where they learned information about Spain's sites, history and daily life of a student. They also researched "Fast Facts" about Spain, made the Spanish flag and studied the geography of Spain by working on a map.

Fourth Grade
The fourth graders took the study of Spain to a new level by focusing on its culture.  First they learned the vocabulary associated with a culture study of a country.  Then they each chose a topic to research for a class book about España. Each student contributed a page to the book.  They had to use books and websites to research a minimum of 10 facts and record their sources.  Once the research was complete, they organized their facts into a one or two paragraph essay where they practiced writing interesting topic sentences and conclusions.  The final result is an impressive book!

Fifth Grade
After wrapping up their study of the face and body vocabulary with a final test at the beginning of the month, the fifth graders also moved on to a study of Spain. They began their study with a video tour of the major travel destinations in Spain.  They are using the information learned in the video tour plus information from travel books and websites to create their own 7-day itinerary of a trip to Spain! The end result will be an authentic three-fold brochure complete with daily sites and photos.  Stay tuned because the end result looks like a travel brochure from a travel agent! Be sure to talk to a 5th grader if you are planning a trip to Spain!

January - Off to a Busy Semester!

Kindergarten (KG)
The Kindergarteners have started their first semester of Spanish! They began by learning how to greet people and ask and answer the questions ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?) and ¿Cómo te llamas? (What's your name?) They also learned some of the colors in Spanish by singing songs and painting.

First Grade (1K)

The first graders also began with a study of greetings and polite words.  (It's always a good idea to know how to say por favor (please) and gracias (thank you) in any language!) They also played games, sang songs and learned the vocabulary for numbers.  They all know how to rote count past 20, but the hard part is knowing the numbers out of order!  

Second Grade (2D) 

The second graders started the semester adding more greeting and polite word phrases to their knowledge base. They now know enough to present a short skit to their friends.  They will need some of these phrases for their imaginary trip to Spain!  They are getting ready for their trip by making their own pasaportes, billetes (tickets) and maletas (suitcases) for the trip!  Stay tuned because the departure day is February 24! 

Third Grade 

The third graders have been working on Capítulo 3 & 4 for their "A Day in the Life..." style books.  Capítulo 3 focused on ropa (clothing) vocabulary and Capítulo 4 focused on mandatos (classroom commands). They practiced the vocabulary in a variety of differentiated centers including using iPads to access QR codes of different articles of clothing (pictured below).  The third graders had the experience of taking their second Spanish test in class.  They all did a fantastic job reviewing the words at home with the help of Quizlet (a vocabulary review website)!  

Fourth Grade

The fourth graders have just finished a unit on calendario (calendar), estaciones (seasons) and tiempo (weather) vocabulary.  Besides learning isolated words or phrases, they learned how to ask and answer questions using the vocabulary.  They all enjoyed working on a  Powerpoint slide project where they had to find images of holidays, weather and seasons and then use their vocabulary to describe the images (see below). 

Fifth Grade 

The fifth graders have also just finished a unit on cuerpo (body) and cara (face) vocabulary.  They took their vocabulary to the next level by writing paragraph descriptions of imaginary monsters.  They used their past knowledge of adjectives, colors, shapes and numbers to create interesting monstruos.  They then described their monstruos in an oral presentation to the class.  Take a look at an example below.

It has been a great start to the new year!  I am so proud of the work that ALL of the Spanish students from Kindergarten through 5th grade have done!  

New Term Begins with El día de los Reyes!

It’s back to school and the K-2 students are switching to their second language for the second semester!

The Kindergarteners in Mrs. George’s class and the first graders in Mrs. Krochmal’s class had a special treat because they started the year with the January 6^th holiday of El día de los Reyes (Three King’s Day).  This is the day that Hispanic children throughout the world set out their shoes on the doorstep to wake up to presents brought by the three kings.  So keeping with tradition, the KG and 1K students left their zapatos (shoes) in the hallway at the beginning of class.  After learning about the holiday and making coronas (crowns) with the help of the visiting US Spanish students, they discovered a little regalo (gift) in their shoes at the end of the class.

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

Fall Term Ends with a Spanish Assembly!

The fall term ended with a Spanish Assembly on Monday, December 14 when all 75 Spanish students shared their songs, projects and dances with the rest of the lower school students. 

Kindergarten (KS):  After the students introduced themselves one-by-one in Spanish with the phrase Me llamo______, the class sang five short songs they had learned 

throughout the year. 

First Grade (1E):  The first graders had spent several classes learning the Mexican hat dance and they all performed it beautifully! 

Second Grade (2E):  The second graders performed the much-loved classic book Oso pardo, oso pardo ¿Qué ves ahí? (Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?).  The students did an excellent job of memorizing their lines and creating colorful drawings of their animals.

Third Grade:  The third graders presented their alphabet letter drawings in Spanish and then sang the Alfabeto song combined with a short dance. 

Fourth Grade:  The fourth graders presented their Mexican travel posters of interesting travel destinations in Mexico.  These posters were “hot off the press”! 

Fifth Grade: The fifth graders presented their Aztec culture projects in Spanish.  They also acted as hosts of the assembly by introducing each class and opening and closing the assembly with Spanish songs they had learned.

What a great way to end the fall term!