​Because we love singing and playing, we have been learning Spanish by doing those things! This week, kindergarteners have been learning more about our well-known friend Mateo’s routines. He explained how he wakes up, goes to school, and what time he goes to sleep - just like us! We also learned a new song called Báte, Báte Chocoláte - we sang, danced, and learned about the yummy chocolate we eat including where it comes from and its process to become a finished product.
 
Second graders sang and danced to the Rosalia song “Yo por ti, tu por mi,” in which students learned some articles and possessive pronouns in first and second person singular. They also learned where the Spanish language comes from, including that its parent language is Latin, which it shares as a parent language with Portuguese, French, and Italian. We also practiced our Spanish song in order to be Winter Concert stars! 

This week the students worked on strengthening their skills with speech, pronunciation, and songs that will be performed at the Winter Concert. Since our goal for Spanish class is to learn the language so it comes to them more naturally, just letting ourselves go through the playing of games and singing of songs has been a great way to achieve that goal. The key is to have fun while we learn, which will certainly speed up the comprehension process. Kindergarteners played bingo which you can see in the pictures! In our personalized bingo game, we continued to strengthen our knowledge of the numbers and colors, as well as the fun characters through the stories we have read in class! Practice and repetition are a necessary routine in class. It is also important to introduce technology in this learning process, where the students mastered their iPad skills by playing additional games that focused on color. We also practiced our reading skills by dragging the word towards each corresponding and matching color! This was something the students truly enjoyed and excelled in.
 

Second graders worked on our Spanish song which we will be singing in the Winter Concert. Vocabulary and vowels have already been a big focus of the class, and we are now seeing it come more naturally to the students by playing karaoke in class.  They are a very talented group of students!  Some of our students choose to challenge themselves by singing solo, as taking strategic risks is something we stress in class as an important step in mastering the language. Those who chose to sing in groups were also given positive feedback in their decision to collaborate with one another to reach the end goal, which is to learn and improve on the Spanish language as a team. Following this exercise, we focused on how Spanish, Latin, Arabic, and other ancient cultures shaped Spanish language and culture. It is critical to not only understand how to speak and understand Spanish, but to know where it derives from and how it has been influenced over the centuries

Kindergarten students learned all about the about the singer Celia Cruz, and how she came to the US from her native Cuba, bringing her local salsa music with her. We played various instruments such as maracas, tambor, and clave along with her songs, which you can see in the video. We focused on vocabulary like instrument names and the Spanish words for "born," "bird," "Cuba", "singer," and "dancing." Afterwards, in a one-on-one conversation with Señorita, students discussed the topics and details they had just read.
 
Second graders focused on history this week by learning where the Spanish language comes from and how it became one of the most spoken languages in the world. We learned that it comes from the Latin language, and due to Columbus and his expeditions sponsored by the Catholic kings, arrived in Latin America where it originated a rich exchange of culture, foods, and animals with Europe. Students were interested to learn how our modern-day culinary interests are influenced by some of Columbus’s discoveries that shaped our diet, like potatoes, corn, and chocolate. We discussed  related verbs like "travel" and "discover," animals such as "horse" and "pig," and vocabulary of food and countries, among others. By the end of the week, we assessed our knowledge by completing a questionnaire about the history they learned in class. It was great to see such a strong grasp of classroom content!