Quarter Update, 22-23 (PK)

The Spanish Cave
Term
1This term, students in PK3 & PK4 began with daily language warm-ups outside of my classroom. (This is the official “English/ Spanish/ Spanglish” zone, as opposed to the “Spanish-only zone” inside my room.) Here, students focused on memorizing basic phrases, such as: yo hablo español (I speak Spanish); yo hablo inglés (I speak English); and separating English and Spanish words (rojo/ red, hola/ hello, etc.). Before going in each day, everyone puts their hands in a circle– akin to a sports huddle– and we say, “¡Vamos!” all together.

Inside the classroom, students take a seat and I ask them, “¿Cómo estás?” (How are you?). We act out little scenarios- what would make you triste/sad or enojado(a)/ mad? Are you feliz/ happy right now? ¡Yo tengo frío! (I’m cold!), etc. For PK3, this is all new; for PK4, this was an easy vocab review to start the year. Next, students listen to a song (Encanto; Los solecitos; Rompe Ralph; Con un beso gigante; ¿Te Gusta El Helado De Brócoli?; ¿Te Gustan Los Milkshakes De Lasaña?), and either dance or pretend it’s naptime– the “Solecitos” song!

For the first month at this point in the lesson, students would meet on the carpet and do some sort of science experiment together. This was anything from levitating a ping-pong ball with air from a hairdryer (caliente/hot), to submerging temperature- actived white spoons into ice cubes and cold water so that they turned blue (frío/ cold), to melting crayons (PK3), to miniature baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring volcanoes in a bowl (PK4).

Here, the two grades diverge a bit: PK3 takes “car rides” across my room in the teacher chair on wheels (coche/ car; rápido/ fast), and pretends to go to the beach/ la playa or jungle/ la selva; while PK4 taps into this fun every once in a while, but mostly chats with Pato about his latest adventure. In fact, PK4 recently helped color Popsicle sticks to build a barco/ boat for the stuffed animal duck, and we are all on pins and needles to find out where he is going. He has packed… everything, so it must be a long trip! Gracias for a great term. *For more info, please read Car Rides to the Jungle (PK3).
2This term, students in PK3 & PK4 spent the first few minutes of class outside, examining the colors they were wearing with a “fashion focus”–wow, una camiseta azul con zapatos negros, qué guapo!/ a blue t-shirt with black shoes, how handsome!–and so on and so forth. PK3 also showed me all of their scrapes and scratches each class, after I told them a Spanish rhyme that many Hispanic mothers say to their children when they get a boo-boo: “Sana, sana colita de rana, si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana” (heal, heal, little tail of a froggy, if you don’t heal today, you will heal tomorrow!).

Next, students continued with the routine of putting their hands in the middle and saying, “¡Vamos!” all together. Both grade levels also continued with a Q&A inside, discussing how they were feeling–more vocabulary was added this quarter (¿Cómo estás?/ How are you?; ¿Cómo te sientes?/ How are you feeling?; ¡Cuéntamelo todo!/ tell me everything!; [estoy/ I am] feliz/ happy; triste/ sad; enojado(a)/ angry; tengo hambre/ I’m hungry; tengo frío/ I’m cold; cansado(a)/ tired; bien/ well; mal/ bad; enfermo(a)/ sick; emocionado(a)/ excited; ¿por qué?/ why?).

Both PK3 and PK4 began learning La araña pequeñita (The Itsy Bitzy Spider) around Halloween, in order to collaborate with the art teacher: in art class, students worked on artistic spider creations, while in Spanish class, we gesture-sang the song, and I “spritzed” students with a mist water bottle when it started raining at those lyrics (está lloviendo/ it’s raining!)!

PK3 also listened to a few songs each lesson, oftentimes with the opportunity to vote on their favorite (the list is growing: Encanto; Los solecitos; Rompe Ralph; Con un beso gigante; ¿Te Gusta El Helado De Brócoli?; ¿Te Gustan Los Milkshakes De Lasaña?; Contando del 1 al 20; Pocoyo: Ven a la carrera; Chumbala Cachumbala; Feliz Navidad; Cascabeles). PK4 listened to some of these as a review from time to time, but tended to use this time to extend the Q&A above instead. We talked about casas/ houses and sitting on the techo/ roof–wait, what if it is snowing?! are you inside or outside of the house? And where is Pato?!)–and general chitchat. Here, the fork in the road appeared.

PK3’s “car rides” across the Spanish room evolved to “train [and bus] rides”, or students paying me fake Spanish money to sit on top of the table on wheels as the assistants and I pushed them across the room, with either train sound effects or Las Ruedas Del Autobús (The Wheels on the Bus) playing in the background (¡Espérame!/ wait for me!). We took rides to the playa/ beach, montañas/ mountains, and selva/ jungle again, adding small variations each day. Sometimes, we would go for a picnic with the fake food, but there would be a tormenta/ storm! (thunder and rain sound effects on my board) Other days, students would push themselves around on pieces of cardboard [their “coches/ cars”] and then “go through the car wash” (under a table with blankets, as I spritzed them with the spray bottle! Ha! Another day, we made a huge house out of paper and tape (grande/pequeño [big/small]; más, por favor/ more, please). Students also got to paint a couple of times, to practice their colors and switch up the routine.

Meanwhile… PK4 took a different route. They had started building a Popsicle stick barco/ boat for Pato during the first quarter, and wanted to know where he was going. It turned out that he was headed to España/ Spain–and, of course, students all wanted to accompany him there. For pics and details of this adventure, click HERE. When everyone finally arrived in Spain, there was so much to see and do! PK4 students made Spanish abanicos/ fans out of folded paper; visited La Alhambra, a famous fortress there; paid for everything in euros (dinero/ money from Spain); built casas/ houses out of chairs and blankets; painted a castle blanco y negro/ white and black; colored toros/ bulls, Spain’s national animal; and listened to Paso Doble music. As the term progressed, we started adding more destinations. On Día de Muertos, we listened to Chumbala Cachumbala and they colored papel picado and calaveras from México (“MAY-he-koh”). When the World Cup started, we spent a week playing fútbol/ soccer, and I painted their hands with the flag colors of the teams playing. Students would “take the bus” (my table on wheels) to various Spanish- speaking countries, and/or “fly” there, by drawing the flag colors of Spain, Mexico, or Argentina on paper airplanes (so everyone knew where they were headed!). Gracias for a great term!
3This term, students in PK3 & PK4 continued adding on to their daily routine. While they worked with a similar pool of vocabulary as the first semester, the difference was that students were encouraged to start producing more language. PK4 students took the reins and asked one another ¿Cómo estás?/ How are you? (instead of yours truly at the beginning of class), and PK3 students could not touch anything in my room unless there was a por favor/ please attached to their sentence. “Teléfono, por favor” (telephone, please); “Maestra, where is Pato?“; “I want to do arte“; “Are we taking a siesta?“; “Can we do the barco/boat?”; “¡Otra vez!” (again); “HELP!! There’s a cucaracha!!!” [this was outside:)] It may not seem like much, but this is where proficiency begins.

Students were reintroduced to Pato, my stuffed animal duck–because they all attended the fourth graders’ Spanish Play in February, which is based on Pato; and I needed them to have some background information! He lives in a drawer of my desk, so whenever students sing, “Where is Pa-to, where is Pa-to/ ¿Dónde está?, ¿Dónde está? / Dime, por favor; dime, por favor/ Tell me, please; tell me, please”, we knock on the door of his casa/ house–and we never know what we’ll find. Do you think he is awake or asleep? Will he be grumpy? Most days, he is very happy to see everyone! One day, he had had a nightmare, so students learned about Worry Dolls (Guatemala). PK4 spent a lot of time making their own Worry Dolls to bring home.

Worry Dolls definitely became a “thing” for a while as a result, and so when PK3 traveled to Puerto Rico by boat (to visit a tiny coquí frog named Carlos, a friend of Pato), we brought along the dolls so that no one would be scared during the trip. Note that there was also a lesson on being scared, where we talked about monstruos/ monsters, and we made up a game where students tooks turns hiding under a manta/ blanket and I said, “AHHH!! A MONSTER!!” and they thought it was hilarious. Then they hid under the tables, and I pretended to be the monstruo. How silly! Anyway, on the [cardboard] boat ride to Puerto Rico, PK3 went “fishing” with a plastic fishing pole, saw dolphins and heard ferry fog horn on the boat (on Promethean board), were capitans of the boat driving, used toilet paper rolls as telescopes, and even found some tesoro/ treasure (aka gold glitter, where my room turns into a veritable fairyland for a week).

PK4 students had gone on a similar trip to Spain during the first semester, but they had more agency this term and were allowed to choose the Spanish- speaking country destination each day; however, unlike PK3, PK4 tended to prefer air travel over water and liked to build class airplanes, either out of chairs or with paper (avión/ airplane). Students always “rested up” before a trip (la siesta/ nap; Los solecitos), which is a whole routine in itself: here, we pretended the sidewalk was really hot (hace calor!!) and “ran inside” to the carpet, where I sang three lullaby songs to help them rest: Estrellita; Te amo, me amas; and La araña pequeñita. They tend to want stuffed animals/ animales de peluche and mantas/ blankets, so there is ‘preparation’ before we get settled and turn off the luces/ lights. Naturally, Pato would get scared (tengo miedo/ I’m scared), so we put Worry Dolls under his pillow and took turns passing around three flashlights to take away his worries. PK4 loved the flashlights! We also watched La primera luna llena de Gatita (Kitten’s First Full Moon) during naptime.

Then, off to the day’s adventures! PK4 wanted to “walk” their pet stuffed animals, so we attached yarn as leashes to them, and would leave my classroom and go downstairs to the “bus”–(sitting on the stairwell, with me “driving” and complaining about the heavy traffic, lol)–and then walk all the way to the playground and play there and walk their pets for a minute or two before we had to go back. Phew!

While the primary goal for PK3 this past term was to start producing language of their own volition in meaningful contexts, the overarching goal for PK4 was more about independence: we would have class “roundtable” discussions, talking about what activities they were interested in pursuing each day. We would vote on ideas, and it was fascinating to watch how some would translate what I was saying to their friends, when they didn’t understand something. Things are happening in Spanish class, for sure! Gracias for a great term.
4This term, students in PK3 settled into a daily routine that we coined, “Backwards Day”, mostly because we did a lot of familiar activities, but… well, backwards! Let me paint a picture of this: we started with our siesta/nap, where I sang our three lullabies (Estrellita, Te amo, La Araña Pequeñita; plus Los solecitos) as students stretched out on the carpet with blankets and stuffed animals and the lights off; then we ate breakfast (Tengo hambre song); pretended to brush our teeth, wash our faces, took a ducha/shower–me squirting their hair behind a cardboard partition with real water from a squirt bottle–and went to school in a bus or car (whoops, go back and get your mochilas/ backpacks!).

Next, we listened to a song on the way to school (Las Ruedas del Autobús; or sometimes Frozen), took turns “driving” with sombrero-hat steering wheels; and did “work” at school (coloring, markers, etc.) upon arrival. And finally, the bell would ring at the “end of the school day”; if the class cleaned up on time, they would get a turn sounding the Tibetan bell. Sometimes, we would say that it was “Saturday” and make cardboard-couches with blankets and watch cartoons (Pocoyo- Más ruido; Pocoyo- Hora de dormir; Pocoyo- Las mil puertas); or go to the market to buy groceries for the week. There is always a lot of music every class, with either yours truly singing or audio/ visual on the board in the background.

To clarify, this was **ALL NARRATED IN SPANISH**, which means that students latch onto and pick up different words each day. A favorite song for both PK3 and PK4 was Con un beso gigante.

Students in PK4 tapped into this “Backwards Day” routine from time to time, but would extend it in different ways. For instance, “going to school” in PK4 was not in a car or bus, but instead, we walked down the hallway and then “suddenly realized” we were really late to class, and therefore had to take the shortcut through the jungle to get to school. I narrated in Spanish about monkeys and tigers and crossing the river (we got our feet wet), and basically let our imaginations take hold of the journey. When they arrived “at school”, they used familiar vocabulary to describe what they wanted to do (e.g., barco/boat; avión, avioncito/ airplane, comida/food, mantas/blankets, casas/houses, arte/art, agua/water, mapa/map, maracas, abanicos/ Spanish fans, colorear/ to color, rápido/ quickly, más grande/ bigger, dinero/money, etc.

Students in PK4 were exposed to the names of several Spanish-speaking countries throughout the year, and by the last term, were introduced to the Floor Map, and practiced jumping on the countries they knew (Argentina, Mexico, [Guatemala], Cuba, Puerto Rico, Spain/ España).

For the Spanish Teacher of the Day, students talked more about Argentina, and then built the Andes Mountains by stacking plastic cups nearly up to the ceiling. Some also colored montañas/ mountains. One of the last days of the quarter, students played a matching game, where we took out ALL of the fake money, and found and organized the currency of the countries they knew. They had fun looking at the bills, and even got to take a few home. Gracias for a great year!

QUARTER SUMMARIES will be posted here at the end of the term. Until then, this page will be a scrambled egg mess of notes.

August

Objective: acclimating to daily routines, expectations, and an immersive Spanish environment!

  • Welcome!: intro to daily routine and general overview. We will tell a semester-long story in Spanish, adding only a sentence or two each day. The words in the sentence will be reinforced via class activities; games; songs; videos; and more. NOTE: On the first day, PK3 students visited my room and got accustomed to the space. Formal lessons begin next week. We compared English and Spanish as languages, and then sang a song about going places “¡Vamos!” (let’s go!).
  • The Car: review- English vs. Spanish. Sing going places song. Practice following directions. Color in a picture of a car. Paint with crayons. Listen to a song in Spanish. (lesson flowed beautifully and was much more organized than it sounds here!)
  • Ping-Pong Ball!: review- English vs. Spanish (two quick claps, and I change languages!). VAMOS!, hands in center. Transition inside. How are you today? Happy, sad, angry. Practice following directions. Hairdryer and ping-pong ball- caliente/hot. Sing going places song with car rides. VAMOS! Line up.
  • Blue Spoons!: review- English vs. Spanish/espa-NOL (two quick claps, and I change languages!). Rojo/red. Azul/blue. VAMOS!, hands in center. Transition inside. How are you today? Happy, sad, angry, (cold). Practice following directions. Repeat hairdryer and ping-pong ball- caliente/hot. Ice cubes and temperature- activated spoons. Sing going places song with car rides. VAMOS! Line up.

PK4

  • Welcome Back!: intro to daily routine and general overview. We will tell a semester-long story in Spanish, adding only a sentence or two each day. The words in the sentence will be reinforced via class activities; games; songs; videos; and more. NOTE: On the first day, PK4 students visit my room and get accustomed to the space. Formal lessons begin next week.
  • The Return of Pato: intro to daily routine and general overview. As per usual, Pato (my stuffed animal duck) has something up his sleeve, involving a miniature beaker, miniature spoon, miniature funnel, and a whole lot of vinegar, baking soda, and food coloring. Uh-oh…
  • More Science: review- English vs. Spanish. Sing ‘Where is Pa-to?’ song. How are you today?! Pato blows them all kisses (we try not to eat too many). Practice following directions. Watch song in Spanish (from Encanto). Transition to carpet. Science experiment repeat/extension lesson from yesterday (at students’ request).
  • I’m Cold!: review- English vs. Spanish (espa-ñol!). How are you today? Tengo frío (I’m cold!). Took blankets and danced to song from Encanto and Rompe Ralph. Sing ‘Where is Pa-to?’ song. Transition to carpet. Ping-pong ball with hairdryer (caliente/hot). Ice cubes (frío/cold). Temperature-activated spoons (azul/blanca). ¡SORPRESA!/ Surprise!
  • Swimming Pool: review- English vs. Spanish (hablo espa-ñol!). How are you today? Tengo frío (I’m cold!). Took blankets and danced to song from Encanto and Rompe Ralph. Sing ‘Where is Pa-to?’ song. Transition to carpet. Review: Pato, blue volcano science experiment is not a swimming pool! Hairdryer and ice cubes: will the agua/water be hot or cold? Traveled outside to faucet to fill 5-gallon bucket with water for Pato to jump into. We also splashed a bit, too. 🙂 Watered the plants. Came back. Lined up. SORPRESA!/ Surprise!

September

Objective: begin to work on verbal output, increase speaking confidence in the target language.

  • Drama- Paper: Daily routine, espa-ñol (outside). ¡Vamos! ¿Cómo estás? Acted out words dramatically, if you took the paper from me I would be…. happy/ sad/ angry/ etc. Song- Encanto. Dance time! Hairdryer at the carpet, caliente/hot and frío/cold.Where are we going? The beach? I sing, vamos a la playa, vamos. Car rides there. Is the agua at the beach caliente o fría? Is that the train? Time to go! Line up at door.
  • Beach or Jungle?: Daily routine, espa-ñol (outside). ¡Vamos! ¿Cómo estás? Q&A inside. Acted out words. Song- Encanto and Los solecitos. Dance time! Hairdryer at the carpet, caliente/hot and frío/cold. Where are we going? The beach or the jungle? I sing, vamos a España, vamos. Car rides there. Is that the train? Time to go! Line up at door.
  • Picnic, Day 1: Daily routine- yo hablo español (outside). ¡Vamos! ¿Cómo estás? Q&A inside. Most are pointing now; I am providing the verbiage. Song- Los solecitos. Nap time! ¡Otra vez! Again! Good morning! We should have a picnic! Let’s go! Do you want sopa? It’s caliente/ hot! Oh no, there’s a storm! (rain and thunder on board) Quick, get in the car! ¡Suban al coche! (chairs in a row) Where should we go (to get out of the storm)? Vamos a la selva. Let’s go to the jungle. Car rides there. Red light/ green light. Is that the train? Time to go! Line up at door.
  • Picnic, Day 2: Daily routine- yo hablo español (outside). ¡Vamos! ¿Cómo estás? Q&A inside. Most are pointing now; I am providing the verbiage. Song- Los solecitos. Nap time! Jobs for lights and board today. ¡Otra vez! Again! Good morning! We should have a picnic! Let’s go! Do you want sopa? It’s caliente/ hot! Oh no, there’s a storm! (rain and thunder on board) Quick, get in the car! ¡Suban al coche! (chairs in a row) Where should we go (to get out of the storm)? Vamos a la selva. Let’s go to the jungle. Car rides there. Red light/ green light. Is that the train? Time to go! Line up at door.
  • Red/Green Lights: Daily routine- yo hablo español (outside). ¡Vamos! ¿Cómo estás? Q&A inside. Song- Los solecitos. Nap time! Jobs for lights and board today. ¡Otra vez! Again! Good morning! We should have a picnic! Let’s go! Do you want sopa? It’s caliente/ hot! Oh no, there’s a storm! (rain and thunder on board) Quick, get in the car! ¡Suban al coche! (chairs in a row) Where should we go (to get out of the storm)? Vamos a la selva. Let’s go to the jungle. Car rides there. Red light/ green light activity today. Is that the train? Time to go! Line up at door.

PK4

  • The Boat, Day 1: review- English vs. Spanish (hablo espa-ñol!). How are you today? Tengo frío (I’m cold!). Took blankets and danced to song from Encanto and Rompe Ralph. Sing ‘Where is Pa-to?’ song. Transition to carpet. Pato wants to go in the water but doesn’t know how to swim and doesn’t want to get wet. How about a boat/ barco, Pato? Students colored in Popsicle sticks and used tape to put them together. Will continue with this next class. Lined up. SORPRESA!/ Surprise!
  • The Boat, Day 2: review- English vs. Spanish (hablo espa-ñol!). How are you today? Tengo frío (I’m cold!). Took blankets and “slept” during Los solecitos song. Sing ‘Where is Pa-to?’ song. Transition to carpet. Students colored in more Popsicle sticks and used tape to put them together. We have two sides of the boat now! Will continue with this next class. Lined up. SORPRESA!/ Surprise!
  • The Storm: Daily routine- yo hablo español (outside). ¡Vamos! ¿Cómo estás? Q&A inside. Song- Los solecitos. Nap time! Jobs for lights and board today. ¡Otra vez! Again! Good morning! We should have a picnic! Let’s go! Do you want sopa? It’s caliente/ hot! Oh no, there’s a storm! (rain and thunder on board) Quick, pack up the food! Where should we go (to get out of the storm)? Everyone huddled under the tables, as if it were their “house”. Phew, the storm is over! And we have time to work on our boat/ barco for Pato. YAY! Colored Popsicle sticks (fine motor). End of class, ¡SORPRESA! Surprise!
  • Class Story, Day 1: review- English vs. Spanish (hablo espa-ñol!). How are you today? Estoy cansado(a) (I’m tired!). Took blankets and danced to song from Encanto and Rompe Ralph. Sing ‘Where is Pa-to?’ song. Transition to carpet. Students colored in more Popsicle sticks and used tape to put them together. We start our first class story of the year. Lined up. SORPRESA!/ Surprise!

October