Dear Parents and Grandparents,
I would like to share with you an activity we will be completing in Spanish when school resumes. I thought you might like to do the activity at home. I would be very interested in seeing the results as I think a book with parents' work and students' work might be a great project. The prompts in English are listed below. Respond to each question. After you complete all of the questions, Fill in your answers to make a beautiful poem about yourself. Pleae email me your poem when it is finished if you would like to be included in a book ( just for St. John's parents and students). This activity is OPTIONAL. It is not a homework assigment for students or parents! If your children want to complete it in English, we can translate it in school, but I would rather just do the activity in Spanish with them.
1. What is an every day item in your home?
2. What are two products or other every day items in your house?
3. What is a description of your home? (adjective)
4. What is a detail about your home? (a smell, taste, or texture).
5. What is a plant, flower, or natural item near your home?
6. What is one of your family traditions?
7. Who are two of your family members?
8. What is one of your family habits?
9. What is something you were told as a child? (advice)
10. What is the place of your birth?
11. What are two of your favorite family foods?
12. What are two of your family's momentos?
13. What is the the location of your family momentos?
14. What are three adjectives that describe your life?
Fill in the blanks below to make your poem.
1. I am from _______________and ____________.
2. I am from ________________ and ____________.
3. I am from _______________and ______________.
4. _____________________.
5. I am from ____________________.
6. I am from _____________________________.
7. I am from ____________________and _____________________.
8. I am from _____________________________.
9. I am from _____________________________.
10. I am from ____________________________.
11. I am from ____________________and _____________________.
12. I am from _______________________and __________________.
13. ________________________________.
14. I am from a life that is ______________, __________________, and ______________.
My email is: linda.delascuevas@sjdslaurel.com
You may also send your poem to school with your child.
Thank you! Have a Happy New Year!
Monday, December 30, 2013
Thursday, December 19, 2013
Dear Parents,
There is no homework during the Christmas vacation. I did distribute a list of new vocabulary I thought might come in handy during the vacation. Grades 4-6 received the lists.
It contains words associated with a birthday party. We are celebrating the birth of Jesus!
I explained that many Spanish-speaking students break open a pinata to celebrate Christmas. I wish we would have had time to do so!
K-4 and 5 sang their Christmas songs using a bell- una campana, a star- una estrellita, and a tree - un arbolito to sing their song: Uno, dos, tres arbolitos... Words were posted last week. They can teach the song to you! They do best with "arbolitos." I am not sure why. I'm thinking that is where they will find their presents from Santa and want to get those words right.
Grade 1 is doing a great job with responding to questions in Spanish. I am very proud of them. I can conduct part of the class entirely in Spanish with them.
Grade 2 finished telling time in Spanish. Many students can tell any hour on a traditional clock. Almost all of the students can tell time to the quarter hour. I am very happy with their progress. The level of involvement by the students is incredible. They are so eager to learn Spanish.
Grade 3 can tell any time indicated on a traditional clock. My third graders are also very eager to learn new concepts and vocabulary. You might want to ask them to tell you the time in Spanish.
Grade 4 and 5 received the list of new vocabulary. We will continue working with that list when we return to school.
Grade 6 brought a picture of what they feel would be the best gift to receive or to give. They each wrote a sentence in Spanish explaining their choice. They were all excellent choices. Please ask your child to share their choice with you. I kept the pictures, but they will remember what they chose and why.
I would like to wish all of my students and their families a very Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad.
Thank you for your cooperation and support.
Atentamente,
Miss Linda
There is no homework during the Christmas vacation. I did distribute a list of new vocabulary I thought might come in handy during the vacation. Grades 4-6 received the lists.
It contains words associated with a birthday party. We are celebrating the birth of Jesus!
I explained that many Spanish-speaking students break open a pinata to celebrate Christmas. I wish we would have had time to do so!
K-4 and 5 sang their Christmas songs using a bell- una campana, a star- una estrellita, and a tree - un arbolito to sing their song: Uno, dos, tres arbolitos... Words were posted last week. They can teach the song to you! They do best with "arbolitos." I am not sure why. I'm thinking that is where they will find their presents from Santa and want to get those words right.
Grade 1 is doing a great job with responding to questions in Spanish. I am very proud of them. I can conduct part of the class entirely in Spanish with them.
Grade 2 finished telling time in Spanish. Many students can tell any hour on a traditional clock. Almost all of the students can tell time to the quarter hour. I am very happy with their progress. The level of involvement by the students is incredible. They are so eager to learn Spanish.
Grade 3 can tell any time indicated on a traditional clock. My third graders are also very eager to learn new concepts and vocabulary. You might want to ask them to tell you the time in Spanish.
Grade 4 and 5 received the list of new vocabulary. We will continue working with that list when we return to school.
Grade 6 brought a picture of what they feel would be the best gift to receive or to give. They each wrote a sentence in Spanish explaining their choice. They were all excellent choices. Please ask your child to share their choice with you. I kept the pictures, but they will remember what they chose and why.
I would like to wish all of my students and their families a very Merry Christmas! Feliz Navidad.
Thank you for your cooperation and support.
Atentamente,
Miss Linda
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Dear Parents and Grandparents,
K-4 and K-5 learned a new song for Christmas. They did a wonderful job with the song! I appreciate the teachers and parents who sing the songs with the children at home or in class. I especially want to thank Miss Savannah for her assistance. Our new song is "Little Tree."
Uno dos tres arbolitos,
Cuatro, cinco, seis arbolitos,
Siete, Ocho, Nueve, arbolitos,
Diez arbolitos mios. (We change "arbolitos" to "Estrellas" and "Duendes.") Trees,
stars, and elves.
1st. grade We answered questions and continued counting in Spanish. We applied knowledge of numbers to telling time, but we have not actually begun a formal study of telling time. We continued learning the days of the week.
2nd grade We finished our clocks. I am taking them home to completely finish because of limited time in class to complete them. Students can tell time to the quarter hour. I will bring the clocks to school next week to allow students to practice at home. It is so neat to hear the students asking each other the time and hearing the responses in Spanish. If you ask your child at home to tell you what time it, it, she may respond in Spanish!
3rd grade - We have two different activities for the third grade classes. Miss Cockrell's class has a homework assignment. Miss Bower's class has some new terms to study, but no formal homework.
Miss Cockrell's class* needs to write twenty digital times once again, and write the
Spanish number words indicating the time shown. Here are the numbers the students need to know:
uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, once, doce, trece, catorce, quince, diesciseis, diecisiete, diecocho, diecinueve, veinte, veintiuno, veintidos, (etc.) treinta, treinta y uno, etc. cuarenta, cuarenta y uno, etc. cincuenta, cincuenta y uno....cincuenta y nueve.
Ex: 1:15 Es la una y quince. (Only 1 o'clock uses "es la." 2:20 Son las dos y veinte.
We already copied this structure for reference. Some students are not copying down the information they need to do the assigment, even though we ALWAYS complete at least two or three examples before students leave. We learned all numbers last year and I distributed lists of all the numbers to 100 to students last year and at the beginning of this semester.
Miss Cockrell's class needed to review time. I felt Miss Bower's class did not need to review based on oral evaluations of our time unit in class.
4th Grade We completed time unit. No homework. Students did a superior job with their questions and answers about the time they do certain activities. There was a minor interruption, so we were not able to begin our discussion of how to describe people's personality traits. I did ask the students to think about a best friend and what they would say to others about that friend, i.e. where they live, what is their favorite color, food, sport. They do NOT have to write anything.
5th grade did not meet. We will meet on Thursday.
6th grade took a short written exam. They wrote eight sentences about their best friend. I took a look at the sentences and see that students are really grasping grammatical structures in Spanish and have an excellent vocabulary. I am so proud of our sixth graders! The homework assignment is to bring a picture cut from a magazine, an original drawing, or a photograph* that represents what they feel is the best gift they can give to someone. They do NOT have to write anything to accompany the image. I saw students today who asked if they could please write something in Spanish to accompany the image! I told them it was not required. Of course, students may try to write a brief paragraph in Spanish that explains their gift. Again, the paragraph is NOT mandatory. Coming to class next Monday without a drawing, photograph, or magazine image will result in a 0 for this assignment.
K-4 and K-5 learned a new song for Christmas. They did a wonderful job with the song! I appreciate the teachers and parents who sing the songs with the children at home or in class. I especially want to thank Miss Savannah for her assistance. Our new song is "Little Tree."
Uno dos tres arbolitos,
Cuatro, cinco, seis arbolitos,
Siete, Ocho, Nueve, arbolitos,
Diez arbolitos mios. (We change "arbolitos" to "Estrellas" and "Duendes.") Trees,
stars, and elves.
1st. grade We answered questions and continued counting in Spanish. We applied knowledge of numbers to telling time, but we have not actually begun a formal study of telling time. We continued learning the days of the week.
2nd grade We finished our clocks. I am taking them home to completely finish because of limited time in class to complete them. Students can tell time to the quarter hour. I will bring the clocks to school next week to allow students to practice at home. It is so neat to hear the students asking each other the time and hearing the responses in Spanish. If you ask your child at home to tell you what time it, it, she may respond in Spanish!
3rd grade - We have two different activities for the third grade classes. Miss Cockrell's class has a homework assignment. Miss Bower's class has some new terms to study, but no formal homework.
Miss Cockrell's class* needs to write twenty digital times once again, and write the
Spanish number words indicating the time shown. Here are the numbers the students need to know:
uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez, once, doce, trece, catorce, quince, diesciseis, diecisiete, diecocho, diecinueve, veinte, veintiuno, veintidos, (etc.) treinta, treinta y uno, etc. cuarenta, cuarenta y uno, etc. cincuenta, cincuenta y uno....cincuenta y nueve.
Ex: 1:15 Es la una y quince. (Only 1 o'clock uses "es la." 2:20 Son las dos y veinte.
We already copied this structure for reference. Some students are not copying down the information they need to do the assigment, even though we ALWAYS complete at least two or three examples before students leave. We learned all numbers last year and I distributed lists of all the numbers to 100 to students last year and at the beginning of this semester.
Miss Cockrell's class needed to review time. I felt Miss Bower's class did not need to review based on oral evaluations of our time unit in class.
4th Grade We completed time unit. No homework. Students did a superior job with their questions and answers about the time they do certain activities. There was a minor interruption, so we were not able to begin our discussion of how to describe people's personality traits. I did ask the students to think about a best friend and what they would say to others about that friend, i.e. where they live, what is their favorite color, food, sport. They do NOT have to write anything.
5th grade did not meet. We will meet on Thursday.
6th grade took a short written exam. They wrote eight sentences about their best friend. I took a look at the sentences and see that students are really grasping grammatical structures in Spanish and have an excellent vocabulary. I am so proud of our sixth graders! The homework assignment is to bring a picture cut from a magazine, an original drawing, or a photograph* that represents what they feel is the best gift they can give to someone. They do NOT have to write anything to accompany the image. I saw students today who asked if they could please write something in Spanish to accompany the image! I told them it was not required. Of course, students may try to write a brief paragraph in Spanish that explains their gift. Again, the paragraph is NOT mandatory. Coming to class next Monday without a drawing, photograph, or magazine image will result in a 0 for this assignment.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Grade Five did not meet today due to the event at The Green House. We will meet on Thursday at 8:00 for our forty minute Spanish class. I would like fifth grades to make sure to bring their Spanish notebook and a pen or pencil. We are going to be writing descriptions of students' best friends. Students: Please think about a best friend you have. You may use a cousin or sister. The person should be your age, such as a classmate, or close to your age. Have an idea about what you know and would like to share about that person. We will work on the paragraph in class. It will be entirely in Spanish, so be thinking about how you will describe your friend's favorite foods, color, sport, or clothing. EX: Mi amigo le gusta el color azul. Su ropa favorita es una camisa blanca con pantalones negros. Le gustan las manzanas. If children want to bring a rough draft to school, that is fine. the only thing required, however, is to chose a best friend and know things about their favorite sport,, color, etc.
See you on Thursday!
See you on Thursday!
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Sixth Grade Only
Dear Parents and Grandparents,
Sixth graders will be taking a written exam next Monday, December 14th. They will be asked to write a SHORT paragraph consisting of at least eight sentences about their best friend. They may not use a dictionary. They can write about the same friend they described in their book. Here is an example of what the paragraph might look like:
Mi mejor amigo
Mi mejor amigo es Paul. El vive en Laurel con sus padres, sus dos hermanos, y su hermana Susan. Paul tiene once anos. El es serio, inteligente, y deportista. Tambien es ordenado. A Paul le gusta el tenis. Su color favorito es azul. Su ropa favorita es una camisa
verde y pantalones negros.
As you can see, the exam requires use of vocabulary we have learned this year and last year.
I know students will do an excellent job on this exam.
Thank you for you interest in our Spanish Language Program. I really appreciate your support and cooperation.
Miss Linda
Dear Parents and Grandparents,
Sixth graders will be taking a written exam next Monday, December 14th. They will be asked to write a SHORT paragraph consisting of at least eight sentences about their best friend. They may not use a dictionary. They can write about the same friend they described in their book. Here is an example of what the paragraph might look like:
Mi mejor amigo
Mi mejor amigo es Paul. El vive en Laurel con sus padres, sus dos hermanos, y su hermana Susan. Paul tiene once anos. El es serio, inteligente, y deportista. Tambien es ordenado. A Paul le gusta el tenis. Su color favorito es azul. Su ropa favorita es una camisa
verde y pantalones negros.
As you can see, the exam requires use of vocabulary we have learned this year and last year.
I know students will do an excellent job on this exam.
Thank you for you interest in our Spanish Language Program. I really appreciate your support and cooperation.
Miss Linda
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
K-4- We learned a new song for Christmas. Building on the students' knowledge of previously learned vocabulary, students learned the following Christmas song:
Estrellita, Estrellita, Little Star, Little Star,
Muy brillante, muy brillante, Shining brightly, Shining Brightly
La Navidad viene, Christmas is coming,
La Navidad viene, Christmas is coming,
Brilla, Estrellita, Shine brightly, Little Star,
Brilla, Estrellita. Shine brightly, Little Star. (Tune is Are you Sleeping?)
We also reviewed the days of the week and all basic questions and answers. Children took home a star they colored with the words to the song. I hope parents will sing the song with the children at home.
K-5 The class also learned the above song. We reviewed basic questions and answers, the days of the week and months of the year. We are going to begin to learn a Mexican song to sing sometime in the near future to parents--perhaps at the K-5 graduation. It is called "De Colores."
Grade 1 Students answered questions and reviewed days of the week. Children are finishing up a lesson on telling time to the half hour. Some of the children can tell time to the quarter hour. Lessons are telling time in Spanish. We had to review numbers in order to do this lesson.
Students can count from 1-50 in Spanish (with help).
Grade 2-We are finished with our unit on time. Most children can tell time to the quarter hour in Spanish. I am going to finish the students' clocks and distribute them to each child next Monday so they can practice telling time at home in Spanish.
Grade 3 We finished our take-home clocks. The hands on the clock need to be reinforced, if possible at home. This is only for the students whose clock hands were glued together with too much glue and not enough backing! Next time, I will bring a stronger backing for the clock hands. Some of the clocks need to be finished at home. Please have children Bring paper plate clocks back to school on Monday for an activity. Homework is to practice telling time in Spanish using their paper plate clock to indicate different times. It is an oral homework activity.
Grade 4 Students completed time unit by answering questions from last week about specific times
they do certain activities. They had a list of five questions to answer and needed to study the responses for homework last week. Each student read a sentence and its response and was given an oral grade on the assignment. They need to complete their paper plate clocks at home and practice indicating different times and responding verbally. This is an oral homework activity.
Grade 5 presented their shoebox project. They did an excellent job with this project. Thank you very much for making sure the boxes got to school on time. there is no written homework assignment.
Grade 6 presented their books about their best friends. I can't tell you how pleased I am with the students' work. I am thinking about compiling all of the stories into a literary journal and distributing copies to each student. It may have to be after Christmas, but I think the students would benefit from seeing their work published in this manner. There is no written homework.
Thank you for your continued support and cooperation in our Spanish Language Program.
I really appreciate it.
Miss Linda
Estrellita, Estrellita, Little Star, Little Star,
Muy brillante, muy brillante, Shining brightly, Shining Brightly
La Navidad viene, Christmas is coming,
La Navidad viene, Christmas is coming,
Brilla, Estrellita, Shine brightly, Little Star,
Brilla, Estrellita. Shine brightly, Little Star. (Tune is Are you Sleeping?)
We also reviewed the days of the week and all basic questions and answers. Children took home a star they colored with the words to the song. I hope parents will sing the song with the children at home.
K-5 The class also learned the above song. We reviewed basic questions and answers, the days of the week and months of the year. We are going to begin to learn a Mexican song to sing sometime in the near future to parents--perhaps at the K-5 graduation. It is called "De Colores."
Grade 1 Students answered questions and reviewed days of the week. Children are finishing up a lesson on telling time to the half hour. Some of the children can tell time to the quarter hour. Lessons are telling time in Spanish. We had to review numbers in order to do this lesson.
Students can count from 1-50 in Spanish (with help).
Grade 2-We are finished with our unit on time. Most children can tell time to the quarter hour in Spanish. I am going to finish the students' clocks and distribute them to each child next Monday so they can practice telling time at home in Spanish.
Grade 3 We finished our take-home clocks. The hands on the clock need to be reinforced, if possible at home. This is only for the students whose clock hands were glued together with too much glue and not enough backing! Next time, I will bring a stronger backing for the clock hands. Some of the clocks need to be finished at home. Please have children Bring paper plate clocks back to school on Monday for an activity. Homework is to practice telling time in Spanish using their paper plate clock to indicate different times. It is an oral homework activity.
Grade 4 Students completed time unit by answering questions from last week about specific times
they do certain activities. They had a list of five questions to answer and needed to study the responses for homework last week. Each student read a sentence and its response and was given an oral grade on the assignment. They need to complete their paper plate clocks at home and practice indicating different times and responding verbally. This is an oral homework activity.
Grade 5 presented their shoebox project. They did an excellent job with this project. Thank you very much for making sure the boxes got to school on time. there is no written homework assignment.
Grade 6 presented their books about their best friends. I can't tell you how pleased I am with the students' work. I am thinking about compiling all of the stories into a literary journal and distributing copies to each student. It may have to be after Christmas, but I think the students would benefit from seeing their work published in this manner. There is no written homework.
Thank you for your continued support and cooperation in our Spanish Language Program.
I really appreciate it.
Miss Linda
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