Español en primera infancia / Spanish in Early Childhood

Our early childhood Spanish program engages students in a fun, natural, and age-appropriate way. Students acquire Spanish with a combination of music/chants, games and literature. All pre-kindergarten classes follow an emergent curriculum approach, which means that themes, projects and studies most often come from the ideas and interests of the students. This approach provides the opportunity for each class to learn additional Spanish vocabulary that connects with their homeroom theme of study, making the learning more meaningful.

To complement the Cardinals’ study of “Building,” the students have been learning the Spanish vocabulary for geometric shapes. We first began by reading Scholastic’s book, Figuras Geométricas / Geometric Shapes. This book helped present the words for geometric plane shapes such as círculo, triángulo, rectángulo, cuadrado, rombo and óvalo. To help reinforce newly introduced vocabulary, the students played many games such as matamoscas (fly swatter) and ¿Qué falta? (What’s missing?). Additionally, the students were invited to get into groups of four and work together to make a shape, dictated in Spanish, using their bodies. Great fun!! After learning the vocabulary for 2D geometric shapes, the students were introduced to the words that describe some basic 3D shapes such as cubo (cube), esfera (sphere), and pirámide (pyramid).

The Catbirds have been learning what it means to be a friend in their their thematic of study of “Friendship.” Therefore, to connect with their interest the students have been listening to stories related to amigos y amigas. One fun tale was that of Claire Masurel titled, Un gato y un perro / A Cat and A Dog. This story revealed that although at first they did not get along, cat and dog soon learn that in order to solve problems they need to learn to work together. After the story, the students were introduced to the chant that is sung to the tune of “Ten Little Critters”:

Uno (1), dos (2), tres (3) amigos

cuatro (4), cinco (5), seis (6), amigos

siete (7), ocho (8), nueve (9) amigos,

dies (10) amigos son...

And, to connect with the Sparrow’s theme of study on “Weather,” the students have been learning vocabulary that describes the four seasons (e.g., otoño (fall), invierno (winter), primavera (spring), verano (summer) as well as some basic weather words such as frío (cold), calor (hot), viento (wind), lluvia (rain), nieva (snow) and a few others. To reinforce the vocabulary, chants have been sung and many games of matamoscas (fly swatter) have been played with both the small and big swatters (their favorite!).