Today's post focuses on the activities second and fourth graders have been doing recently in Spanish class: learning how to tell time (2), describe daily routines (2), talk about family members (4), their professions (4), where they work (4), and how to say large numbers up to a million (4).

Students are expected to not only conduct mingle/match/short dialogue activities with each other, but also focus on writing short sentences correctly in Spanish related to their curriculum theme. Second graders had to interview their classamtes (completely in Spanish ¡claro!), record at what time they did certain things, and then compare their schedules.

Fourth graders had the chance to show off their knowledge of job and workplace vocabulary, the verb ser (to be) and the verb trabajar (to work) by making their very own crossword puzzles to exchange with classmates. Here's a sample clue they wrote on their crosswords:
2. Horizontal - Es hombre y trabaja en un hospital.

Can you figure out who that is? Fourth graders can! We also learned how to convert millas (miles) into kilómetros (kilometers) and are studying modes of transportation.

For doing such a great job with classroom behavior, second graders received a celebration day. Some classes voted to make quesedillas, while others voted for a piñata. Every class had a great time celebrating....congrats second grade!

Mmmmmmm...licuados

After learning about food, nutritional groups, and how to express our culinary likes/dislikes in the target language, third graders worked in small groups to deliver a cooking show...all in Spanish! Since most students are already familiar with tacos, quesadillas, churros, empanadas, etc. we explored another aspect of the Latin American and Spanish diet: licuados. A licuado (or batido) is kind of like our American smoothie. But it usually has more of a milk base (instead of juice) and can include nuts, honey, and even granola.

Students were videotaped and explained to the viewer in what order to cut (corta), put (pon), and add (añade) fruit and milk to the blender (licuadora). Although uvas were popular, most of the licuados included a mixture of duraznos, fresas, and plátanos along with leche.
Everyone did a fantastic job, and I'm sure they'll be making many more licaudos at home with their families.

¡Buen provecho!

Mi familia

Today in class, first graders worked on finishing their "Te presento a familia" mini-books. They enjoyed expressing in Spanish how many people are in their family (Yo tengo 6 personas en mi familia), who is who in the drawings (éste es mi madre..) and what their names are (se llama...). We hope to read our books to some Upper School Spanish students sometime soon!

¡Feliz año nuevo!

Happy new year!

To mark the beginning of 2011, students celebrated like Spaniards! On New Year's Eve, families and friends in Spain eat twelve grapes (doce uvas) for good luck (buena suerte) when the clock strikes midnight. We watched a few YouTube videos of the event and made a list of the similarities and differences between American New Year's Eve celebrations and those in Spain. Students came up with the following observations, comparisons and contrasts regarding this night:

Los Estados Unidos
-don't eat grapes
-don't really have a special food to eat that night
-drink champagne

Los Estados Unidos y España
-stay up late
-people go outside to big spaces like Times Square
-parties
-watch the clock or a ball drop and countdown

España
-eat 12 grapes
-eat a grape every time the clock strikes
-it's hard to chew and eat them all in one minute
-grapes can come in a bag or even in a little metal can
-drink champagne and maybe other drinks

Fourth graders then communicated what their resolutions (propósitos) are for 2011 by color coding their own bunch of grapes. We hope to follow through with those propósitos as the year continues as we learn how to describe who is in our family (1st grade), tell time and describe our daily routines (2nd grade), express our food and nutritional group likes/dislikes and act in a Spanish cooking show (3rd grade) and describe our family members' professions and where they work (4th grade).

PK Cubismo

In conjunction with our shape and color studies, PK students have been learning about Pablo Picasso and his cubist style, CUBISMO. Here are some examples we looked at on a power point. Be sure to also watch the video that can be found in the PK links and participate in the interactive, Mr. Picasso Head game we played on the Smartboard. Original cubist works to come!

PK: Formas

Prek Spanish classes have begun to work with learning the shapes in Spanish. In this activity students are looking at cards of everyday items to determine their shape. Here are the shapes we will be working to identify

círculo: circle
triángulo:triangle
cuadrado:square
rectángulo:rectangle
semi-círculo: semicircle
óvalo:oval

¡Somos piratas! - We are pirates!

¿Qué necesita una pirata? (What does every pirate need?) When I asked second graders, they decided that in addition to ships, swords, and funny hats, every pirate needs a treasure map! This was one of our contexts for learning about geographical features, cardinal directions, and describing how to get somewhere on a map. Students designed their own maps, hid their tesoro (treasure), and then had to describe to a fellow pirata how to get around obstacles and get to the loot. Student communicated with instructions such as ve al norte, or ve al sur (go to the north, go to the south). We eventually moved into learning the specific geography of Mexico, and making pop-up maps. Students utilized the verb "estar" (to be located) and cardinal direction vocabulary to describe the layout of Mexico. They are able to understand and answer the following questions in Spanish: Where are the mountains? Where is the capital? Where is the desert?