| Term | |
| 1 | This term, students in kindergarten let their imaginations run wild. Straightforward, one-dimensional stories evolved into highly complex sagas, growing ever longer and more complicated from one week to the next. A new week merely indicated a new chapter! From the infamous pelefante winding up in jail week after week, to parties celebrating his release (thanks to a flying duck-reindeer), to magic tricks with disappearing marker ink, to chicken soup cooking adventures, to spinning disco-ball planets and a pato- marciano trying to adjust to the strange environment here on Earth, to crocodile encounters, pizza and popped balloons, the linguistic journey never ceases to be original. To tame the madness, students heard a scary—but “normal”—book in Spanish at their Halloween party (Bruja, bruja ven a mi fiesta). Gracias for such a fun and productive quarter! |
| 2 | This term, students in kindergarten continued creating imaginative class stories. Here, the celebrated pelefante makes the acquaintance of many lively characters (in both dreams and waking life)—from a duck with a magical cape, to a witch casting silly spells, to muttering Chinese and Russian ducks who don’t speak Spanish, and a big, bad shark who doesn’t want to share a buried treasure. Kindergarteners also chose brand new passwords, began logically stringing action commands together (e.g., freeze like ice, melt into a puddle, jump over the puddle, then swim through the water), and heard two books in the target language: The Runaway Tortilla and Cómo el Grinch robó la Navidad/How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Gracias for another fun-filled quarter! |
| 3 | This term, students in kindergarten shifted from passive to active participants in class. Instead of simply listening to stories and acquiring language (input), kindergarteners became physically involved in the stories and began producing a lot of Spanish (output). For example, after the good shark finds the treasure before the bad shark, he offers to share all of the toys/juguetes with everyone in class; therefore, students had a play day, and practiced requesting names of toys they knew in the target language. They also lined up all of their chairs in a row one day, and created a large sofá on which everyone could lounge—chaquetas/ jackets were the ‘cushions’. When kindergarteners began responding to action commands, the sofá became a train with one person ‘left behind’, shouting “¡Espérame!” (Wait for me!). Kindergarteners also played Hide and Go Seek in the Spanish Cave; read and later colored the book, Jugando a las escondidas con Zog (Playing Hide and Go Seek with Zog); received brand new, sea creature passwords; learned that Salsa is both a food and a dance; practiced opening and closing hard and soft cover books at different speeds (abre/open; cierra/close); and performed their action words all around the school—through the tunnels, in the Upper School hallways, over near the Admission’s Office, and beyond. Gracias for a fantastic quarter! |
| 4 | This term, students in kindergarten chose new sea creature passwords, and then practiced their action commands all around campus, exploring the tunnels, playground, and Upper School hallways in the target language. Integrating with their regular classroom content, students also practiced springing out of their ‘huevos’/eggs and hatching into pollitos/baby chicks. Later, they placed themselves in the chicken’s position, and imagined what it would be like inside the shell… probably dark! One day, they tried to watch a chicken/animal sounds video called Pulcino Pío, but Pato kept getting scared whenever Señorita turned out the lights. To help him overcome this fear, students taped paper wings onto glow sticks and made luciérnagas/ lightning bugs (luz/ light). Next, kindergarteners traveled to the auditorium and flew around their pink, green, and orange glowing fireflies in the pitch black environment. They also gaped at the colorful shadows on the ceiling high above and whispered, “Oscuridad” (darkness) whenever the disco ball light was turned off. Even in the darkest of dark rooms, Pato felt safe and calm with all of his friends around, and decided that darkness doesn’t always have to be terrifying. In addition, students played Spanish Bingo, Sombra/Shadow Tag, and Pato-Pato-Oca/Duck-Duck-Goose. Gracias for an amazing year. |
La cueva de español 