Muzzy throughout the years

The Muzzy series video is the most requested activity in elementary Spanish class. Students enjoy it year after year and never seem to tire of it. For me, it is a way of evaluating progress. In grades K-3 we view the video several times per year. In the beginning, students start to sing the songs, emulate the language and make connections from the repetition and picture clues. Soon, students start to comment on words they know. When they can write students keep track of words they recognize and they are inspired to grow their lists by learning more. By grade 3, students are fully understanding story-lines and are explaining them to younger students.They are proud of their accomplishments. 

Ruin presentations Spanish II

Lines of Nazca

Spanish II is presenting projects this week on ancient ruins. Doing research, giving presentations and peer review are important skills but even more valuable for our class is how it helps students make memorable connections to Latin American countries. This is the beginning of the mind maps they will draw upon to create personal maps by heart in the spring.  

Calendarios in 2/3!

The 2/3 class is applying their Spanish vocabulary to create calendars for 2014. Along the way they learn to set up a calendar (in English and in Spanish), how dates are expressed differently and cultural differences in holidays and celebrations. Why do we start a calendar on Sunday? How do you know which day comes first on the next month? Why are there more days in some months than others? Why don't Spanish calendars have the 4th of July as a holiday? Why aren't days of the week capitalized in Spanish when we do that in English? So many answers to discover...

Ancient Ruins

Spanish II students are working with partners to prepare research projects on some of the ruins in Latin America. Presentations will include: Chichen-Itza, Teotihuacan, Lines of Nazca, Tiwanaku, Copan, Tikal, Machu Picchu and more. Students are becoming pros at finding quality resources, sifting through difficulty archaeological info, citing resources and learning more about the history of those countries where Spanish is primarily spoken today. Students will share the information they have learned using power point presentations in Spanish for real-life context.

Monarchs have arrived in Mexico!

Not just those from our class, but the actual live Monarchs. They were delayed this year, but the K/1 students have been following the journeynorth blog and we were able to view pictures of students in Mexico sharing their evidence of the arrival to the small villages there. We look forward to following the Monarchs more this spring!

4/5 class

4/5's are creating nature posters using vocabulary from recent unit. These posters will serve as the backdrop for puppet shows they will perform in Spanish.

Dia de los Muertos: Calavera Poems

Spanish III students researched famous figures in Latin America and then created odes to them for Day of the Dead by writing typical Calavera poems and crafting niches with skeletons and foil metal work. Students in Spanish I and II selected topics that bug them to personify and grades 4/5 create skeleton figures just for fun!

Jose Limon- Dance artist and choreographer

Julio Tello- Peruvian Father of Archaeology

Tito Puente - Musician

Evita Peron - 1st lady of Argentina

Pet dogs - they can be such loves and a pain all the same!

Dia de los Muertos

On the 2nd of November children throughout Latin America will be celebrating Day of the Dead with their families. The 2/3 class has been busy researching this tradition. From the Aztec rituals to the current influence of Halloween through TV shown in Mexico students are exploring how the celebration is changing and how it is alike/different from our rituals of remembering loved ones and . This week, all students will be taking part in a cultural study surrounding this important part of Latin American culture. Students in K/1 will look in on the Monarch butterfly's arrival to Mexico through Journey South, 2/3's and 4/5's will experiment with skull mask making, and the middle school will be writing Calaveras poems and creating funny skeleton figures that are popular representations of this unique celebration. Spanish III students have additionally been researching famous Latin American figures and will be working together to make create a typical Day of the Dead altar in class using their figures so that they can teach younger students more about the significance of this custom.

Last week in class...

Our class Monarch on it's way to Mexico!

From Parker to Mexico!

K/1's are tracking the Monarch's flight to Mexico. We sent symbolic Monarchs that we made to a school in Mexico and come springtime they will send us back Monarchs too!

4/5's On a Bear Hunt

The 4/5 Class has been studying vocabulary to describe animals. They showed off their new words with other students in the chant "Going on an Oso Hunt" for assembly! Using Spanish to replicate songs in English helps students to see the parallels between the language and to improve fluency and intonation.  

4/5 Students are exploring new ways to study vocabulary for describing animals! Pictionary, 20 questions and more! After finishing written paragraphs describing their favorite animals and studying vocabulary they are becoming confident speakers. They are asking super questions like: Como es? Que color es? Es peludo? Es omnivoro? Es grande? Tiene patas? It's exciting to be the first one to guess correctly!!! 

Off and running! Here is a quick update on what's happening in Spanish classes so far this fall:

• PreK 3 and 4: Having a blast playing with the Prek's in full immersion! I've been visiting the 4 year old class during free play on Tuesdays and Thursdays where I speak only in Spanish. At first some kids were hesitant and others excited to meet "The Spanish Lady", but they are beginning to see me as one of their playmates and are now trying to communicate with me in Spanish while teaching me some English words too! I have also joined in for Muddy Boots Club every Friday with both the 3's and 4's. Last Friday kids enjoyed learning words for campfire and roasting marshmallows as we pretended we were on a camp out! They also loved to direct me (in Spanish) in and out of the trees and forts that were left from summer camp. It is looking to be a successful start! 
• K/1's have been studying La Oruga Hambrienta (The Very Hungry Caterpillar) by Eric Carle. We listened to the story in Spanish and now students are learning to act out the story in the language. Next week we will be making monarch butterflies to send to Mexico and in the spring we are expecting to receive back a set from them! 
• 2/3's are learning numbers and playground words. We've been working with the online PBS Kids Spanish program Noah Comprende, to build our vocabularies and next week we will be looking forward to practicing some of our new words while directing each other in Spanish on our own playground.
• 4/5's are studying animal words and learning to describe them. I have been so impressed that they are already writing short paragraphs in Spanish with no help or dictionaries! Later this week we will play 20 questions guessing animals in the language and will learn the popular "Bear Hunt" song to perform soon at assembly! 
• Spanish 1 is doing research on Spain through a virtual trip project. They have to work in groups within their budgets to create a trip plan, itinerary and more! We are also practicing using our new Spanish names and identities!
• Spanish II is a big one this year (by Parker standards!) but it's not stopping us! Former students are preparing lesson plans to teach the newer students and today everyone made hilarious skits using greeting words in the language. The students have really been working together! 
• Spanish III just finished the first part in a PBS documentary series called Latino Americans and learned about the early foundations behind the racism that still exists against Mexican in the U.S. Tomorrow we are all looking forward to planning a student run Spanish radio segment that will be a new addition to assembly this year.   

Looking forward to first full week of classes! Be sure to check class pages on side link for assignments and updates!

Back online!

Finally back online after resolving a long tech issue! Check back in September for current class updates.