| SEMESTER 1 | |
| This semester, students started with the basics: What is Spanish? A LANGUAGE. How do you say Spanish in Spanish? “¡Espa-ÑOL!” Why are we learning Spanish? Because we live in CHILE now! Kindergarteners were immediately introduced to my Floor Map, and chose “where” they wanted to live in Chile each day–the beach/ la playa, the mountains/ las montañas, the desert/ el desierto, or an island/ una isla off the coast. They used a token to mark their house/ casa location on the map/ el mapa, and thus began the adventures! As they moved geographically north through South America, students would stop in each Spanish-speaking country to do a project. For example, after two quarters, kindergarteners have done projects on the following: Coffee Filters (Chile), Southern Lights (Argentina), Punta del Este (Uruguay), the Bottle Dance & Ñandutí Lace (Paraguay), Salt Flat (Bolivia), Rainbow Mountain (Peru), Galápagos Islands (Ecuador), Street Art & Encanto connection (Colombia), and Roller Skating (Venezuela). They also told a quarter-long saga about my stuffed animal duck, “Pato” (duck), which tied all of the vocabulary and culture projects together nicely. You can listen to it HERE. To build in mental brain breaks between the country culture projects, students were introduced to Center Work. The Spanish class routine rotates every other lesson–(more or less, dependent on holidays and whatnot)–in that some days are Project Days (per country), and other days are Center Work. On the latter, students can continue with the same country project from the day prior, or pursue another interest. Currently, open centers [aka sight words] include: colorear/ to color [relevant coloring sheets], jugar [‘who-GARR’]/ to play [with cars or stuffed animals], construir/ to build [with Hotwheels ramps or dominoes or cards], volar/ to fly [paper airplanes], pintar/ to paint [fingerpaint on the whiteboards & make a print], and hablar/ to talk [with their friends]. They sign up verbally with me re: what they want to do; however, unlike in other classes, students can switch centers as frequently as desired in Spanish–because the more they switch, the more they have to practice speaking the target language! Every once in a while, kindergarteners practice writing “¡Hola!” plus a sight word in the target language. Some students will change four times in a day, just to keep talking with me, while others will stick with one center (e.g., painting), but go more in depth and learn the names of the paint colors, or say, “¡Mira!/ Look!” when they want someone to look, or request “más papel, por favor” (more paper, please), etc. The goal is an immersive, experiential environment; and students have done a great job this semester! | |
| SEMESTER 2 Week 0: “Pato” tried to teach students about Panama, but he thought there was actual pan (bread) there, which led to a good deal of, err, discussion. Learn more next week! Week 1: Students learned more about Panama: some painted the Panama Canal, while others brought “shipments” of apples, pineapples, and bread across the room by boat. On Wednesday, kindergarteners reviewed their class story so that they can begin telling Chapter Two in the near future. Week 2: Students took a Center Week break from culture projects. They practiced both writing and saying words they know in the target language–such as jugar (to play), colorear (to color), pintar (to paint), hablar (to talk), limpiar (to clean), trabajar (to work), construir (to build), and volar (to fly)–and then putting those words into action, that is, into a memorable context. Week 3: Students learned about Costa Rica from Josie’s mom. They saw beautiful photos of the rainforest and beaches, learned about the currency, participated in a surf lesson, painted Morpho butterflies, and had the opportunity to sample Costa Rican chocolate. Thank you so much for coming in to share your knowledge! On Wednesday, kindergarteners reviewed the Spanish-speaking countries in South America; began CHAPTER TWO of their “Pato” (duck) saga; and practiced writing more center sight words. It is exciting to report that students’ comprehension skills are getting quite good at this point in the year. Great work! Week 4: Students practiced jumping on and naming Panama and Costa Rica on the Floor Map, and also learned that there is a monstruo/ monster at the beginning of CHAPTER TWO of their class story with Pato (duck). The story hasn’t looped around quite yet to Panama, but it will! A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post describing one of our lessons–[and then promptly got laryngitis and everything came to a screeching halt]–so if you were curious what a class with Pato looks like, feel free to read the article here. I mean, you can read this while you’re on the edge of your seat waiting to find out what happens in CHAPTER TWO, of course… because I’m not telling until next week! Week 5: Students only had one class, due to the winter break. Kindergarteners made this a review day: they jumped on and named Panama, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua (“knee-car-agua”) on the Floor Map, and retold part of their class story. In CHAPTER TWO, Pato is running because it is nighttime and he’s afraid of the dark and the monsters. When we ask him [Pato] what he wants to eat (a song), the monster answers that he would like a hamburger, please! Pato wants a taco, but mostly because he likes the song, “It’s Raining Tacos” in Spanish. The monster eats a hamburger and Pato eats a taco–no, wait, TEN tacos! In the morning, Pato asks the monster if he can help him find the door to Ecuador, as Pato really wants to go there! Why, Pato? “Because there are sneezing iguanas there!” #TrueStory ASIDE: It is incumbent upon me to mention that in the slideshow, the monster and Pato have bunk beds. So there you go! CHAPTER TWO is off to a wild start! Week 6: Students extended the sneezing iguana discussion this week to learn that “Achoo!” in Spanish is “¡Achís!”, and in some regions, people say, “Salud, dinero, amor” (healthy, money, love) each time someone sneezes–one word per sneeze, to clarify. Anyway, after Pato has explained to the monster Fluphball that he needs to find the door to Ecua-DOOR so that he can visit with the sneezing iguanas there, Pato wants to provide a visual and flips through the tv channels. He stops to watch Bluey in Spanish, then listens to a song that says salud-dinero-amor in the first seven seconds, and finally gets to the sneezing iguanas. Fluphball obviously wants to come along for the ride because the iguanas look pretty friendly, albeit a bit gross with the flying boogers and whatnot. (Is anyone reading this?!) They also jumped on Spain (España) on the Floor Map, to make a connection with art class and Salvador Dali.  Above: Pato on the bottom bunk and the monster Fluphball covertly occupying the top bunk. Week 7: Students only had one class this week. They listened to and voted on their favorite of two Spanish songs: Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa OR El baile del perrito (the dance of the little dog/ puppy). The former is a song from Chile that used to be played at children’s birthday parties in the 2000s, but recently made a comeback on Tiktok. The latter is a Spanish classic. They also practiced writing Spanish sight words; many seem to really enjoy this! Week 8: Students took turns “swimming” or making a running jump from Panama and Costa Rica on the Floor Map to land in España (Spain)… where it happened to be “raining” (me misting kindergarteners with the squirt bottle). Next, they sat at the tables and learned that in our class story, the monster Fluphball and our hero Pato travel en route to Ecuador. In the airplane (avión), Pato wants to sleep, but Fluphball wants to party. ¿Fiesta o siesta? (Party or nap?). That is the question. Students took turns answering which they felt more like doing in the moment. After the plane ride, the characters have to take a train–(we paused to watch a short video about crazy train rides in South America)–and Pato takes a siesta/ nap, but has a pesadilla/ nightmare about a quesadilla. Oh no! All of this tied in nicely with their rhyming words unit in their regular classroom. Later, they signed up for center work and tidied up at the end of class to their favorite song, Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa (me gusta/ I like it). Week 9: Students were very into the “extreme trains” that they saw last week (link HERE), and as a result, took a mini introductory course in Train Driving 101 this week. You see, my tables are on wheels and have stopper tabs, which I call “los frenos” (the brakes). When you put up los frenos, the tables move… and when you sit on the tables and they move, we call this “el tren” (the train). Now, Train Driving and Train Riding requires a great deal of responsibility, consideration, and spatial awareness, so I do not allow just any class to do this. A class has to earn it and prove that they can handle the responsibility. Anyway, we make a conga line with yours truly leading and ask, “¿Adónde vamos?” (Where are we going?). While we are marching, I sing a song and then I stop and ask–visibly impatient– “¿Ya llegamos?” (are we there yet?/ [“yah yay-gah-mohs”]). Finally, we get so impatient that we decide to take the train. And pile on… and students can sign up for “conducir” (to drive) as a center. And then we play with words and ideas, as play is a huge part of my teaching philosophy. Are you taking a siesta/ nap on the train?? Do you want to color (colorear) on the train? Where are we going? Mexico or Peru?! Etcetera, etcetera. Week 10: Students continued “train riding” and “train driving”, playing with different ideas of which center activities they could do on a train. As requested, HERE is the link again of the “extreme trains” video they saw. Kindergarteners also chose “to swim” (nadar) or “to jump” (saltar) to Spain (España) on the Floor Map. Last but not least, students spent a few minutes talking about how they learned their first language: just like a baby, it is okay not to understand every word in Spanish class: listening is what’s most important. You will absorb much more than you realize this way. Week 11: This week, students located and jumped on Guatemala on the Floor Map, and talked about how we are going to send our solar eclipse glasses to children there (following our eclipse), so that they can see an eclipse in August! On Wednesday, they “rode trains” again, colored and painted, spoke lots of Spanglish, practiced writing their sight words, and watched a Pato video (I made a few years ago). HERE is the link, in case they want to watch it again at home. Spoiler alert: it turns out that our dear, sweet Pato has an evil twin! Oh no! Next week, kindergarteners will learn about the plot for the fourth grader’s Spanish Play, and then attend the show on Tuesday. The play is an annual school event, with a brand new plot each year. Click HERE for Semester Updates. Week 12: This week, students attended the Spanish Play (an annual event put on by fourth graders–and all about Pato). They had reviewed the plot in detail on Monday, so combined with their Spanish vocabulary base, they understood a great deal and thoroughly appreciated the show. When I asked them on Wednesday about their favorite parts, they couldn’t wait to share (compartir/ to share)! Click HERE for Semester Updates. Week 13: This week, students reviewed their class story about Pato, and were introduced to a new character–Rosie the Pig! (a teacup pig who wears red boots and saves Pato from a quesadilla that is chasing him in his pesadilla/nightmare) They also received glitter “tesoro” (treasure) for their amazing 20-minute long sustained attention during our storytelling part of the lesson. Kindergarteners are awesome! Click HERE for Semester Updates. Week 14: This week, students focused on center work and added minutes to the Reading Log by reading more of their Spanish story together as a class. While many memorize the sentences (which is perfectly developmentally appropriate), some kindergarteners are actually reading the words now in Spanish! Amazing! They also practiced saying, “¡Chévere!” (cool!/ “CHEH-bear-ray”) in meaningful contexts. I did hear a few arguments about whether you say “Mexico” or “MAY-he-koh”, too, which we will clear up next week (both are correct; one is the English pronunciation, one is the Spanish)–aside: but my Master Plan to grow Little Linguists is working, if that’s what they’re arguing over, mwahahaha! Anyway, there has been a tremendous amount of spontaneous Spanish output in my classroom recently, which is REALLY exciting!! Week 15: This week, students practiced a dance from Mexico. Why Mexico? Well, in the nightmare/ pesadilla where Pato escapes from a gigantic quesadilla–(who wants to eat him)–on a flying piglet named Rosie, Rosie takes him to Mexico to dance. But you could probably see that coming, right? LOL! Students also wrote their favorite Spanish sight words, and used so many words!! aloud in meaningful contexts during center work time–both with their peers as well as yours truly. Gradually, over the course of the year, kindergarteners have begun to realize that they get “much faster service” when they speak to me in Spanish (as opposed to English). “Could you make me a paper airplane?” [I dawdle, yawn, walk extra slowly, can’t find the paper, etc.] “Avión, por favor (airplane, please)” [I spring into action, practically sprinting across the room, and they have a paper airplane within seconds! I proceed to bombard them with questions in Spanish about where they’re traveling, but the point is made.] So much of language-learning is about confidence, so getting students to the point where they are asking for basic materials in Spanish without hesitation (or even better, very dramatically–POR FAVOOOOOOOR!!!!) is a huge deal. For your reference, HERE is the Spanish Songs Playlist again. Week 16: Students talked about the pronunciation difference between Mexico (English) and México (“MAY-he-koh”/ Spanish) to resolve a class argument–you are all correct! It just depends on which language you are speaking! They also reviewed their dance again. On Wednesday, for Spanish Teacher of the Day, kindergarteners either colored or played a game of fútbol (soccer) with their classmates. One class even painted their cheeks with the colors of the Mexican or Argentine flag! They listened to Vamos, vamos, Argentina, and had a great time! |
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