Dear Parents and Grandparents,
              K-4 continued  learning new vocabulary.  They love singing songs in Spanish.  We continued singing about animals. Everyone knows patito, oveja, vaca, caballo, and gallina from last week.  I started asking: " Quien tiene el or la____________ with an animal. The children look at the animal picture (on popsicle sticks) and say the animal. I will be teaching them to reply in Spanish, " Yo tengo el/la___________"with the appropriate animal.  We will use this form to learn future vocabulary.  Students know colors quite well when I ask them to name the color they are using to color.  We colored a spider on Monday. I walked around asking children which color they were using(in Spanish).  They need to name their spider for next week.  Some children have already done so.  The coloring activity was used to reinforce the song we learned, The Itsey Bitsey Spider in Spanish.  Children took the page home for you to sing with them.  We also learned how to say, "Me llamo_________. " My name is_________. 

1st grade added pages to their color books.  They also learned the names of the above animals.  We worked on basic questions and answers.  They have really learned how to respond to the questions with correct responses in Spanish.

2nd grade We are making flashcards in Spanish.  The cards have important basic commands, family members, places in the community, and greetings.  I am not sure if Miss Lisa has the cards in the classroom for children to study there.  Eventually, I would like the students to take them home to study.  Some of the words are:  por favor- please, hola- hello, como estas?  how are you.  Madre- mother, padre- father  hermano- brother  hermana- sister  abuelo- grandpa, abuela- grandma.  escuela- school , iglesia- church, adios- good-bye.

3rd thru 6th took their test on questions about their classes and teachers in Spanish.  I graded the papers.  Most of the students did very well.  I was surprised that some students did not appear to have studied.  All answers and questions were discussed in class two weeks ago and the questions and answers were on the blog.  Students have  a new list of five simple questions for next Monday. This is homework. Questions are:  Que clase le gusta tu amigo?  What class does your friend like?  Cuantos anos tienes? How old are you?  Como se llama tu maestra de lectura?  What is your reading teacher's name?  Como se llama la directora de la escuela?  What is the principal's name? 
Answers:  Mi amigo (or amiga) le gusta la clase de ____________.  (Class they like from last weeks' vocabulary.  Tengo _________anos.  ocho, nueve, etc. Mi maestra de lectura se llama__________)name of reading teacher.  La directora se llama La Senora Stone. We have worked on these questions for many weeks.  I am trying to add lots of new vocabulary in the coming weeks.  I do oral evaluations with students every week, but really want to familiarize students with simple written questions and answers, especially grades four, five and six.

I announced the students who will be receiving special recognition for their interest and hard work in Spanish.  They will receive their certificates on Monday.  I am planning a special recognition lunch for those students similar to the Headmistress' Breakfast.  Details to follow.

Dear Parents,
                The K-3 classes met for Spanish today.  We did so much!  We started by singing the song we learned last Friday, "Buenos Dias."  Then we sang, "Uno, dos, tres deditos."  We changed deditos for different farm animals:  caballos- horses, ovejas - sheep, and patitos- ducklings. I am thinking we will continue counting to twenty- veinte.  We'll just add toes! (deditos de pie)   We reviewed colors: amarillo- yellow, rojo-red, verde-green, azul-blue, cafe-brown, negro-black, anaranjado- orange (The children did a great job with all of the syllables in anaranjado), blanco-white, rosita- pink. 
Miss Jeanette worked with small groups of children to reinforce the parts of the body we are learning: ojos-eyes, boca-mouth, orejas- ears, nariz-nose.  We had already learned orejas last week when we sang, "Elefante." 
We concluded by reading Brown Bear, What Do You See?  in Spanish.  It is a delightful story/chant to learn animals and colors. The children not only repeated the target words, but also said entire sentences with me!   K-3 children are very eager to learn!

I look forward to meeting with K-3 students next week.  Have a great three-day weekend.
                                                     Atentamente,

                                                       Miss Linda

Dear Parents,
    On Monday, January 13th, all  Spanish classes met for the first time since Christmas vacation.  We had to review some concepts, but I was very pleased with all of the concepts my students retained over the vacation!  So many of them wanted me to ask them to tell the time in Spanish!  I don't think I will ever have to wear a watch in class again.  I would like to thank all of the parents who worked with their children at home to reinforce the concept of telling time in Spanish.  I really appreciate your interest in our  Spanish Language Resource Program. Students were eager to share their work with you at home.  I am so pleased!

K-4  Students learned a new song: Uno, Dos Tres Deditos. (Little Fingers) We changed the words to gatitos (kittens), and ovejas (sheep).  We will be adding other farm animals in two weeks when we meet again. 
We also reviewed questions in Spanish, including, Que dia es?  What day is it?  We also read a story about winter, El invierno.  We know the four seasons in Spanish.  Invierno, Primavera, Verano, y Otono.  I am going to read a story every week now in Spanish to the students.  The children  have acquired enough Spanish to understand simple picture books which, of course, have many brightly colored illustrations the children can  use as picture clues. 
 
K-5  Students also learned the new song described above with the addition of farm animals. We will be learning the names of animals in the coming weeks.  We reviewed colors and all basic questions in Spanish.  We also reviewed the months of the year and days of the week. I am so proud of K-4 and K-5 students'progress in Spanish. 

1st grade  Students played the game, " Quien tiene?"  Who Has It?  I distributed different classroom objects, such as, pencil, eraser, books, paper, pencil sharpener, etc.  Each student had to answer in a complete  Spanish sentence when asked, "Quien tiene?"  We also began to classify objects as "grande" (large), or "chico" (small).  We reviewed days and months as well.
Students are completing a color book with Miss Connie in their classroom. 

2nd Grade  Students played the game described above.  They wanted to review telling time in Spanish.Actually, many students said they continued studying telling time during vacation.  It made me so happy to hear that!  My second graders really love Spanish class. I want to thank all parents for their continued support and cooperation. 

Grades 3,4 5 and 6.  Students will be taking a quiz in two weeks.  They will be required to answer five questions in Spanish in written form.  All students copied the questions and completed their answers in class. I checked the answers to make sure they have correctly spelled sentences to study. Their homework is to study their responses for the exam on January 27.  I distributed new spiral notebooks to students who did not have their Spanish notebook. They MUST bring the notebook to class.  We are really at the intermediate level in Spanish now.  There will be lots of written work from now until May.  Students need to be prepared for class with their notebooks and pens or pencils. 

Questions:  Que clase te gusta mas?  Como es la clase?  A que hora tienes la clase? Quien ensena la clase?  Tienes mucha tarea en la clase?  ( Students have questions with accents and the  question marks Spanish requires).   What is your favorite class?  How would you describe it? What time do you have the class?  Who teaches the class?  Do you have lots of homework in the class? *

Vocabulary Words  Adjectives to describe the class are: buena, infomativa, excelente, divertida, interesante.  Good,  informative, excellent, fun, interesting.  Classes are: physical ed. , computers, Spanish, reading, math, history, art, music, science, language.  Educacion fisica, computadoras, espanol, lectura, matematicas, historia, arte, musica, lenguaje. 

6th grade also began to conjugate "ar"  verbs in Spanish.  The model verb is "hablar." 
Yo hablo, tu hablas, el/ella/ usted habla, nosotros hablamos, ellos/ellas/ Uds. hablan.  (To speak).

Possible responses:  Me gusta mas la clase de lectura. La clase es excelente, interesante, y divertida. Tengo la clase a las nueve y media.  La Senora Bowers ensena la clase.  Tengo mucha tarea en la clase.  (mas has an accent on the a.  Educacion fisica--accents on the o and first i in fisica.
We are right on track with our pacing plan in reading, writing, and oral language.  I need to work more on students' knowledge of the culture and history of Spanish-speaking people.

Que tengan un buen fin de semana.   Have a great weekend.

Dear K-3 Parents,
             We had our first Spanish class this morning.  What fun it was!  The students learned several songs in Spanish.  We reviewed colors and learned how to respond to the question,"Como te llamas? "  "What is your name?"  Me llamo____________.  My name is_________.   Double "l"  is pronounced like the English "y."   ("Me" sounds a little like "may" in English, but it is said quickly). 

We learned Buenos Dias - Good Morning.
                   The tune is Are you Sleeping? 

Buenos dias, buenos dias,                 Good Morning, Good Morning, How are you? How are you
Como estas? Como estas?                Very well, thank you, very well, thank you.
Muy bien y gracias,                           And you? And you?
Muy bien y gracias,
Y usted?  Y usted?


We also learned a song about the elephant.  The melody is the same.

Elefante, elefante,                                     Elephant, elephant,
Muy, muy grande,                                    Very big, very big.
Muy muy grande.                                      Two  large ears,
Dos orejas grandes,                                    A long trunk,
Una trompa larga,
No le tengo miedo,                                     I am not afraid of you,
No le tengo miedo.                                             "

I look forward to our next class. In a future post, I will explain the approach I like to use to teach language acquisition.  It is called The Natural Language Approach to Second Language Acquisition.

Thank you for your interest is our Spanish Language Program!

                               Atentamente,

                               Miss Linda