¡Nuestro programa de español!

Bienvenidos familias, amigas, y amigos! Welcome family and friends! We have been having so much fun in our Spanish class playing games, singing songs, and writing in Spanish.

Often, I connect the target language instruction to existing classroom themes which in turn makes the learning more relevant to the leaner. Our 3’s/4’s have been busy learning colors, animals and days-of-the-week. In the Cardinals’ class, the children are learning animals and colors. They each have chosen a particular animal and flashcards have been created to reinforce the learning. Along with the auditory, the children have been exposed to the written form  as they practiced writing their chosen animal’s name and its color.

 The Catbirds have taken quite an interest on Eric Carle’s popular book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” So, it only made sense to read them the Spanish version, Oso Café, Oso Café, ¿Qué ves ahí? Flashcards have been created for all the characters in the story and the children are beginning to learn how to say them in Spanish.

To compliment the Owls’ interest in schedules, we have begun to learn the days of the week and terms such as hoy for today and mañana for tomorrow. To help introduce these concepts, we read Ann Whitford Paul’s funny tale, Mañana Iguana. Make sure to ask your child what happened when Iguana wanted to plan a fiesta. Hilarious!

In the other grades, children are wrapping up a study on the body parts with much focus on the facial features. Games have been played and songs have been sung to reinforce the learning. To culminate the study, each has been asked to create their own self-portrait using natural skin tone colors. To start us off, we read Katie Kissinger’s book “Todos Los Colores de Nuestra Piel - All the Colors We Are.” Stay tuned to see the finished product hanging in our newly modeled Spanish classroom.

 

September 15 through October 15 marks the National Hispanic Heritage Month. This is a time in which Americans are encouraged to celebrate the profound influences of Hispanic cultures in our country. In honor of this, we have included Minuto de Herencia Hispana (Hispanic Heritage minute) during the morning or afternoon routines for each class and grade level. The idea is to take a minute and share facts about various notable Hispanic people, historical events, holidays, and other cultural information. We have begun by reading a poster per class time of notable Hispanic people that are posted around our classroom. These are the ones we’ve read so far. Ask your child about their contributions:

Roberto Clemente

Dr. Ellen Ochoa

César Chávez

Adina De Zavala

Gary Soto

Judy Vaca

 

Hasta nuestra próxima noticias (until our next news), ¡Adiós!