Dear Parents, 
       Happy New Year!  Here is a look at what activities took place in Spanish classes last Friday and yesterday. 

K-3  Children began their study of Spanish by learning several songs in Spanish.  I will be introducing basic questions and answers in Spanish to the children in the following weeks.  The children were very interested in learning colors.   I also read a story in Spanish with primary language support as needed.  Picture books lend themselves  to language development because of the colorful visuals. 

K-4  We are continuing our study of weather terms.  The terms accompany gestures to indicate what the words mean; e.g, arms around the body for "Hace frio,"  shaking a shirt collar for "Hace calor,"  Fingers making a downward motion for " Esta lloviendo." 

K-5  Students also reviewed weather terms, sang known songs, and reviewed the days of the week as well as simple questions in Spanish. 

1st  Students began a number sheet to complete as homework since we will not be meeting next Monday due to the Martin Luther King holiday.  Miss Connie said she will most likely work with the children to complete the assignment and collect it for me.  I really appreciate all that Miss Connie  does  to support second language acquisition. I couldn't make such wonderful progress in language learning without the help of St. John's wonderful staff. 

2nd  Students reviewed responding to basic questions in Spanish.  We needed to do an intensive review since students have been away from Spanish for a couple of weeks. I did not assign homework, but asked students to think about how they will respond to questions in two weeks. I will be sending home a list of questions and responses for students to study in two weeks.  

3rd  Students completed an interactive lesson involving asking classmates to answer a question in Spanish about what they like to do in their free time, waiting for the response in Spanish, and recording it on a paper.  Students have examples to use as their model for the homework which is to record the responses of at least ten family members, friends, or make-believe people when asked what they like to do. I added "make-believe" responses when some  students said they do not know ten people to ask and have a small family. I encouraged them to ask teachers and Miss Stone for possible responses as well.  The question can be asked and answered,  of course, in English unless parents siblings, or friends understand Spanish. Students will translate the responses into Spanish. They have a sheet.  They can do this.   Some students said they want to write fifty sentences!  I did not discourage them, but ten are the minimum amount due on January 26, our next Monday class meeting. 

4th, and 5th   Students have the same assignment described above under "3rd ."  They also need to add ten (minimum) or more responses to their list.  Every student completed at least seven responses in class.  I will leave copies of the directions with Melissa if your child was absent on Monday.

6th   6th grade has the same assignment listed above under "3rd."  However, they have an additional list of conjugated verbs to study for a test on January 23rd.   

Have a great week.  

Miss Linda