| SEMESTER 1 | |
| This semester, students started with a few basic facts: What is Spanish? A LANGUAGE. How do you say Spanish in Spanish? “¡Espa-ÑOL!” How many languages in the world are there? Seven thousand! How many Spanish-speaking countries are there? Twenty-one! And perhaps most relevant to our second grade curriculum: are 50 pesos the same as 50 dollars? NO! You see, the first semester of second grade is spent building a class town. Here, students sign up to work at various businesses in a town. This is an extension of first grade, as “center work” becomes associated with a specific locale. For example, students can choose to work at the bank (quiero trabajar en el banco/ I want to work at the bank); buy items at the supermarket (quiero comprar XXX al supermercado/ I want to buy XXX at the supermarket); color in the museum (quiero colorear y dibujar en el museo de arte/ I want to color and draw in the art museum); take trips around the world by building airplane seats with the classroom chairs (quiero construir un avión [aeropuerto] y volar a España/ I want to build an airplane [airport] and fly to Spain); and so on and so forth. The more creativity, the better! Students’ interests shine here and the play-based, student-agency environment fosters a highly engaging learning environment. Not only that, there are myriad opportunities for follow-up questions in the target language: Is the bank open or closed (abierto o cerrado)? What materials do you need to color? Markers and paper (marcadores y papel)? Is that for sale (se vende/for sale)? Where is your money (¿Dónde está tu dinero?)? Students even make paper wallets one day to stash all of their cash in, and talk a little bit about currency conversions (pesos vs. guaraníes vs. colones vs. euros). As the town continues throughout the bulk of the first semester, mini conversations are introduced to begin and end lessons, in order to grow their vocabularies even further and explicitly address trickier words (e.g., oye/hey vs. hoy/today). Sample conversation: Hola, ¿cómo estás?/ Hi, how are you?/ Estoy bien, todo bien. / I’m good, it’s all good./ OYE, ¿sabes qué? / Hey, you know what? / HOY es martes / Today is Tuesday. (No es lunes/ It’s not Monday.) Es obvio./ It’s obvious./ ¿Hablas español?/ Do you speak Spanish? / Sí, yo hablo español-NOL/ Yes, I speak Spanish. To end class, students enjoy “surprising” their teacher by lining up before she arrives: ¿Está aquí? ¿Todavía no? ¡Lo hicimos!/ Is she here? Not yet? We did it! (there’s a dance that goes with the last part) This extends itself to telling a classic second grade story: Bob the Beetle, in which “Sé que puedo volar” (“I believe I can fly”) becomes #ASongThatNoOneEverForgets. #LongStory A handful of culture projects are sprinkled in with the town unit as well. Second graders learn that one of the most colorful towns in the world is in Colombia, and so take a few classes to paint tri-fold boards with bright, colorful, happy designs. They practice naming colors, teamwork, and patience, leaning into the idea that taking your time is a good thing. Second graders also learned about Mercados (Argentina), Día de Muertos (Mexico), Chocolate (Mexico), Radish Festival (Mexico), and different holiday traditions (Cuba) | |
| SEMESTER 2 Week 1: Students took a break to help out with a Lower School project about the Panama Canal–building cardboard boats and loading them up with cargo, after discussing the iconic piece of maritime history and how our stuff (toys, food, etc.) finds its way onto store shelves. They also worked on the FunSpanish app on their iPads (when yours truly was out sick) and watched cartoons in the target language (a great listening activity). Week 2: Students are currently in an “introductory” phase. They have been learning about a wide variety of topics: Tango dancing/ Argentina; Volcano Boarding/ Nicaragua; Tightrope Walking over a volcano/ Nicaragua; practicing counting to 100 by tens in Spanish (whilst doing exercises simultaneously); writing in the target language; and sharing silly stories and facts with yours truly (Quiero compartir/ I want to share; yo dije… [‘yoh DEE-hey’]/ I said…). This will all come full circle once second graders begin telling PART TWO of their “Bob the Beetle” saga: the skies will clear, and all of this seemingly unrelated material will suddenly make sense. Week 3: Students talked about how learning a language is about learning BOTH the language AND the culture–different words and expressions, different perspectives, different ways of living and looking at the world around us. Spanish has a lot of layers–like an onion!–because there are 21 Spanish-speaking countries, which includes more than 400 million people! They learned about how some people in Mexico still make a special type of paper their ancestors used, called amate (“ah-MAH-tay”), and saw the fascinating process in a video HERE (from 1:56-4:38). They also colored authentic designs along with the different flags of Spanish-speaking countries (with the sub). Week 4: Students practiced giving the weather report in the target language, and then returned to CHAPTER TWO of their “Bob the Beetle” story. Recap: The monster Fluphball goes back to his home planet, realizes that family is more important than stuff, and that he doesn’t need the jackets. He sends his collection of jackets to Bob, who also doesn’t need so many, and sells the collection on Amazon. He becomes very rich and buys a Volkswagen Bug (this is a joke, since Bob is a beetle…) with the money, but is sad because it is raining and he doesn’t like the rain. He starts crying, and an entire lake forms with his tears. Poor Bob! Second graders also reviewed the names of the Spanish-speaking countries on the second Floor Map. Week 5: Students practiced giving the weather report in the target language, and extended this to create their own “Class News Show” in Spanish. The problem is, no one is ready! The newscasters haven’t finished putting on their makeup or fixing their hair, someone gets a phone call on live television, everyone wants more coffee, and the director keeps yelling, “Cut!” even though he can’t really stop the show. On Friday, second graders continued with the news show, suddenly realizing that it was a show within a show–now students are both on tv and inside their Bob the Beetle story! Week 6: Students practiced calculating sums in the target language; answering true/ false questions (cierto/ falso); and signing up for center work without using visual aids. They took a moment to talk about the rich variety of Spanish accents throughout the Spanish-speaking world, focusing on the “ll” sound (‘yah’, ‘shah’, ‘jah’, dependent on the country), and transferring this to words they know (lloviendo/ raining; me llamo/ my name is; pollo/ chicken). Finally, they added the canta y no llores (sing and don’t cry) famous lyrics to their Bob the Beetle story, to encourage Bob not to cry (Bob is crying because it is raining and he doesn’t like the rain). On Friday, second graders practiced their News Show again. We are hoping that Bob likes their News Show so much that he stops crying. Poor little guy! Week 7: Students practiced naming all of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries on both of the Floor Maps. They also continued adding in the target language (isolating numbers out of sequence), 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. Shoutout to Dr. M for bringing this song to my attention! The latter is a Spanish classic. Note that it is El baile del perrito, not burrito as some students initially thought! Week 8: Students had a great discussion on Monday about what it means to “learn Spanish”. Learning Spanish includes reading, writing, listening, speaking, and understanding words, as well as learning about the sports, art, music, and traditions in each of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries. There is a lot of territory to cover! What about food? Is that part of culture? Yes! Second graders made a connection to Mexico with their classroom ‘fried cricket tasting’, and took a minute to look at lunches from around the world. On Tuesday, they returned to the first Floor Map (South America), and built hiking sticks (out of the HotWheels ramps) to “climb” the Andes Mountains. Last but not least, they practiced using Voy a… and Vamos a… (I’m going to/ we’re going to…) in meaningful contexts (e.g., Voy a colorear con mis amigos/ I’m going to color with my friends; Vamos a cantar y bailar/ we’re going to sing and dance). They tidied up my room at the end of class to the Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa song. Week 9: Students located Guatemala on the Floor Map and then learned about the sawdust carpets that people make there during Lent (leading up to Easter). They are BEAUTIFUL creations, and second graders spent two days making their own chalk version of a carpet in the courtyard. HERE is a video of the process. The emphasis in class was on taking our time and not rushing the process, for the purpose of creating something beautiful together. Of course, we also listened to Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa on the Bluetooth while we worked. Week 10: Students only had one class this week, due to conferences, the Easter Break, and their field trip. On Friday, they learned that they will be watching the fourth grade SPANISH PLAY soon, and were introduced to some of the characters. They also reviewed their [very silly] class News Show, and added a commercial break. Week 11: Students returned to calculating math sums in the target language (isolating numbers out of sequence); answering true/false questions (cierto/falso); and mastering the Floor Map–all as warm-up exercises to begin class. They were also introduced to the Spanish Wordle, and continued rehearsing their News Show. On Friday, students learned more about the fourth grader’s Spanish Play, which they will attend next week. 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 last week, so combined with their Spanish vocabulary base, they understood a great deal and thoroughly appreciated the show. When I asked them on Friday about their favorite parts, they couldn’t wait to share (compartir/ to share)! They also worked on the Spanish Wordle together as a class. Click HERE for Semester Updates. Week 13: This week, students learned a Spanish card game [isolating numbers out of sequence], and got so into it that they played for an entire class period! They also worked on the Spanish Wordle again as a class, and tried to set up Duolingo accounts with their school emails for next year (this is a work in progress). Click HERE for Semester Updates. Week 14: This week, students logged minutes for the school Reading Log by reading books in Spanish and recording words they recognized at the start of class. They did a great job with this! Next, they did a one-minute exercise where second graders could only say words they knew in Spanish while talking to their friends, which encouraged more reading and utilizing classroom resources (e.g., my bilingual word signs). They also did a listening activity on Monday, watching Bluey in Spanish, and then returned to center work, which they were very excited about! Another day, we went around the table and I asked a series of pointed questions (different and differentiated for each student), which they were all able to answer. This was great to see and linguistically empowering for second graders (“Wait, I do understand!”/ Espera, yo comprendo!!). Week 15: This week, students explored Spanish songs from the entire year on the Spanish Songs Playlist I created for them. This way, they can listen to their favorites all summer long! They also reviewed the Spanish-speaking countries in South America (a few are working on capitals), and went through their class drawer of papers (#decluttering). On Friday, they tried to log in to their Duolingo accounts again. Week 16: Second graders logged into their new Duolingo accounts and completed a lesson, in preparation for third grade Spanish. Several practiced leading the class independently, asking about the weather and then playfully ‘calling out’ anyone who was intentionally being silly (e.g., “¿Qué tiempo hace afuera?/ What’s the weather like outside? Está nevando/ It’s snowing.” “Cierto/ true; falso/ false”). As a mnemonic device, they said “SEE-yah later” to their chairs, because “silla”–(yet another word with the tricky double “ll”)–or chair in Spanish, is pronounced “SEE-yah”. If students are bored over the summer, please direct them to the Spanish Songs Playlist. |
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