Quarter 2 Spanish 3-5

 

All classes celebrated Dِía de los Muertos, a Mexican holiday, on Nov. 1 and 2!   We had fun learning about the origins of this holiday and whether you can actually eat sugar skulls!  We also visited Sra. DeCossio’s Day of the Dead table and saw the typical decorations, food, candy and candles that are usually included in this celebration.  4^th grade saw a short video on how to make sugar skulls.  5^th grade saw a beautiful short video about the relationship between monarch butterflies and Día de los Muertos celebrations. 

3^rd grade

·       This quarter 3^rd graders are learning about how to talk about their home.  This week they drew the main rooms of their home, labeled them in Spanish and wrote about their homes.  Then they shared with partners about how many bedrooms and bathrooms are in their home, and what color their rooms are.   

·       Later this quarter, students will sketch their neighborhood and talk about the places in their neighborhood in Spanish. 

·       The students will learn about Argentina later this quarter and what types of geography, culture and foods they might encounter if they were to visit Argentina. They’ll learn about gauchos, Iguazu Falls, las Pampas and the vast diversity of geography found in Argentina – such as rainforests, Andes mountains, and the glaciers of Patagonia!

                   Link to Quizlet vocab for Unit 2

4^th grade

·       This quarter 4^th graders have learned about direction and how to find places using direction vocabulary: far, near, beside, in front of, behind.  They drew their placement in their classroom and learned how to say where different students were located in the room in relation to themselves. 

·       This week they spoke in Spanish with partners about where different people in the class are located. 

·       This week we started creating drawing their neighborhood and learning how to talk about where the places in their neighborhood are in relation to their home and school.  

·       The students will be learning about Paraguay later on this quarter and what types of geography, culture and foods they might encounter if they were to visit Paraguay.  They’ll learn about the dry Gran Chaco, the Pantanal wetlands, Iguazu Falls and Itaipú, the enormous hydroelectric plant that was an collaboration between Brazil and Paraguay. 

                 Link to Quizlet vocab for Unit 2

 

5^th grade

·       This quarter 5^th graders reviewed clothing vocabulary and added more detail so that they could describe what clothing they would wear if they were playing sports or playing with friends, skiing in the mountains, or if they were at school.    They drew people doing these activities, labeled all the clothing in Spanish and then talked with partners about what they were wearing and if they liked those activities.

·       For the next couple weeks, the students will be spending a little time on verb conjugation and learning how to form verbs and why it is necessary for writing and talking in Spanish.  We’ll be learning this in the context of what activities we do in certain rooms of our home. For example: I eat with my family in the dining room.  We prepare meals in the kitchen.  I talk with my friends in the living room.  I clean (or not clean 😊 ) my bedroom and bathroom! 

·       Later this quarter the students will get to create their ideal neighborhood, given their preferences and will use this to talk about places in Spanish.  

·       The students will be learning about Spain later on this quarter and what types of geography, culture and foods they might encounter if they were to visit Spain.  They’ll learn how Spain is where Spanish originated, some distinctions in how they speak in Spain v. other Hispanic countries, Flamenco, bull fights, the Alhambra, the importance of the Moors in their influence on language, culture, learning and architecture that they brought with them. 

                  Link to Quizlet vocab for Unit 2

Quarter 3 up-date 2021

 3^rd grade:   This quarter students have been practicing vocabulary about school and their activities.  You can ask your child the following:  ¿Juegas deporte? (Do you play a sport?), ¿Tocas instrumento? Do you play an instrument?  They learned that there are 2 different verbs for our English word “to play”, one for sports (jugar), and one for instruments (tocar).  They have also learned many of their class subjects in Spanish – Math, English, History, etc.  (matemáticas, inglés, historia, ciencias, arte, español, música) They know how to tell you if an activity is fun, boring, interesting, difficult or easy (divertido, aburrido, interesante, difícil, fácil).  I’ve introduced the idea of “verb conjugation”.  They are becoming aware that you need to change verbs depending on who is doing the action.  Yo juego, tú juegas, etc.  (I play, you play, etc.)  We’ve practiced writing simple sentences in Spanish.   Science is interesting and fun.

In class we use a variety of activities to learn, reading letters and dialogues, performing their own dialogues, and practicing pronunciation through reading out loud, and through asking each other questions in Spanish.  They have filled in their workbooks up through page 41.  They also did an in-class project, where they drew their classroom, labeled the objects and then wrote in Spanish about what is in their classroom.  I usually give class time to complete their Spanish homework so that they are able to ask me questions.  If they have time, I’d encourage them to practice their vocab at home by using the Quizlet app or by getting on Quizlet on a computer at home a couple times a week for about 5-10 min.  (see below!)

 4^th grade:   This quarter the students are practicing vocabulary about school and their activities, and they are building on what they learned last year, to go more in depth, and with deeper vocabulary. We’ve talked about sports, instruments, and we’ve added more activities – playing chess, videogames, reading, listening to music (jugar ajedrez, videojuegos, leer, escuchar música).  We’ve also spent more time with how to conjugate verbs.   You can ask your child, ¿Qué te gusta hacer en tus ratos libres?  (what do you like to do in your spare time?)  The students created a weekly schedule about what they do each week, and they also did dialogues for the class asking classmates what their favorite activity is in the week. 

 5^th grade:  We went more in depth with our school schedules, in how to describe our classes in Spanish and how to tell what time their classes are.  You can ask your child when they have their classes, and have them tell you the class in Spanish and at what time.  (La clase de matemáticas es a las diez de la mañana.)   They can also use more adjectives to describe their classes and their classmates.  They know how to say what classes they like and why.  Me gusta la clase de ciencias.  Es interesante.  As they are practicing describing their classes and classmates, we are going into more detail about noun adjective agreement.  This is the idea that all nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine, plural or singular, and any adjective that describes it, also has to match the noun in these aspects.  La clase es divertida.  Las clases son divertidas.   We are also practicing verb conjugation in more depth this quarter.  All of this is good preparation/ foundation for next year when many will be transitioning to learning Latin and its focus on grammar.  The students did a wonderful job creating their ideal classroom based on their favorite subject.  They labeled their classroom in Spanish and then wrote in Spanish about their classroom and their favorite subject.

Want your student to practice more Spanish at home? 

Quizlet is a great place to let them practice their vocabulary.  Students are given a vocab packet each quarter that gives them the vocab lists we are working on for that quarter.  For Quarter 3, we are working through the 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4 vocab lists. 

3^rd grade quizlet links:

https://quizlet.com/class/2644065/

4^th grade quizlet links:

https://quizlet.com/class/2644096/

5^th grade quizlet links:

https://quizlet.com/class/2644194/

 

 

Spanish Quarter 3

Jan. 8, 2020

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!  We had a great fall semester learning about family, friends, clothing, homes and our neighborhoods, through some creative drawing projects, performing dialogues for the class and interviewing classmates.  We completed Units 1 and 2 and we’re moving into Unit 3 for Quarter 3. 

3^rd grade Spanish will do a brief exploration of the country of Honduras, and then we’ll dive right into our Unit learning about cultural activities like visiting museums, pyramids and going to sports events, school classes and activities and telling time in Spanish.   The students will paste new vocab lists every couple weeks in their spirals, and they will continue to be assigned workbook pages each chapter.  Workbook pages are started in class and just need to be completed by their next Spanish class, which is on Mon. or Thurs afternoons.   During this Quarter we’ll have a total of 1 or 2 quizzes which will assess their listening skills, vocab retention and short answers.  We will also do a couple dialogues in class. 

4^th grade Spanish will do a brief exploration of the country of Mexico and then we’ll begin learning the vocab about school classes and materials you use in class; activities that are done in their spare time, and also cultural activities.   The students will paste new vocab lists every couple weeks in their spirals, and they will continue to be assigned workbook pages each chapter.  Workbook pages are started in class and just need to be completed by their next Spanish class, which is on Tues. or Friday mornings.   During this Quarter we’ll have a total of 1 or 2 quizzes which will assess their listening skills, vocab learning and short answers.  We will also do a couple dialogues in class. 

5^th grade Spanish will begin with a brief exploration of El Salvador, and then we’ll go in greater depth about vocabulary of school classes and some unique aspects of school life in Hispanic cultures.  We’ll also go in more depth about how to tell time in Spanish and we’ll spend some time learning some new verb conjugations and translating Spanish passages into English.  They will have a couple quizzes over the quarter to assess their vocab, listening skills in Spanish and verb conjugations.  

VOCAB LEARNING and SPANISH HOMEWORK:

Students can be learning their vocabulary through studying the vocab lists I send home, through https://quizlet.com/ACCSpanish345 or through flashcards.  A good goal is to review the current words 1-2 times per week for about 10 min, and to periodically review previous lists from the current quarter.  The lists for Quarter 3 will be labeled:  3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4.  

The workbook pages will be p. 33-46 (These are not assigned all at once, rather 1 or 2 pages every week. )

Quiz for 4th and 5th Grade Fri. 9/13

4^th grade – Quiz Fri. 9/13 on Family vocab – includes a listening, writing about their family in Spanish, answering a couple questions in Spanish and fill in the blank section.  Students should study Vocab 1.2, focusing primarily on the Family vocabulary.  They should also study their study guide.  One way to study would be to use their vocab list and see if they can translate the study guide into English (this would test their understanding of the vocabulary). Students should bring their Spanish materials home to study.

5^th grade – Quiz Fri. 9/13 on Family vocab – includes a listening, writing about their family in Spanish, answering a couple questions in Spanish and fill in the blank section.  Students should study Vocab 1.2, focusing primarily on the Family vocabulary.  They should also study their study guide.  One way to study would be to use their vocab list and see if they can translate the study guide into English (this would test their understanding of the vocabulary).  Students should bring their Spanish materials home to study.

3^rd grade --- Students should be studying their family vocab words, 1.2, and have WB p. 5-10 completed by now.  We will be making a family tree and writing sentences about their family on Thurs.  9/12.

Learning about Peru, Nicaragua and Bolivia

¡Hola!                                                                                       26 agosto 2019                                                                                                                                                                     

All the grades enjoyed learning about different cultures this past week: 

• 3^rdgrade learned about Machu Picchu, llamas and the Andes Mountains and Amazon rainforest/river in Peru.
• 4^th grade learned about Nicaragua and the Mosquito Coast on the east side of Nicaragua along the Caribbean, and about the active volcano, Concepcion, that is found on an island in Nicaragua lake.
• 5^th grade learned about how most of Bolivia is on a high plateau of 12,000 ft and how Bolivia has 2 capitals, La Paz and Sucre.  They also learned about the salt flats of Salar de Uyuni and Lago Titicaca – see if they’ll say the name of the lake for you!

They finished their studies about these cultures by completing a crossword about their country for homework.  They were also asked to continue bringing their Spanish folders home this past week so that they could keep reviewing their Spanish pronunciation of the alphabet and the words we’ve been reviewing in the spiral.  They have also been encouraged to see if they can spend a little time on Quizlet, for their grade level.

Students should now have all their Spanish materials: a folder, a spiral, 3x5 cards with clip and they just received their Spanish workbooks this past week.  Many already completed their homework for next class. ( 3^rd – p.5   4^th – p. 5    5^th – p.5)     All students received the Vocabulary 1.1 list which is glued in their spiral.  This is review vocabulary about how to greet and say goodbye to someone.  Students practiced their Spanish out loud by greeting each other with partners.  We’ll move pretty quickly through this vocab and then start on Family vocab 1.2 later this week or early next week. 

*The 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 refer to the Unidad (Unit) and Semana (week) that we are in.  So we are in Unidad 1, Semana 1 .  Then we will move to 1.2, and so on.  This is how I organized the Quizlet files to correspond to the vocab lists they receive.

I’ll be assigning workbook pages for homework.  Often the students can complete most of the homework in class;  the students should be writing which workbook WB page is due in their agenda.  They should write it in, even if they already have it completed.  I would also recommend they get in the habit of bringing their Spanish materials home most days, so that you can review vocab with them, see what they’re working on, and to be sure they are completing their workbook pages.  They should also get in the habit of keeping all Spanish materials in the folder and not separating them, as we use most materials in every class.

As always, if a student would like extra help, they are welcome to come see me during Lyceum. They just need to ask their homeroom teacher for permission to come. 

Let me know if you have any questions,

Sincerely,

Sra. Watne

tonguetwisters and quizlet

¡Hola!                                                                                                9 agosto 2019

We started the week in Spanish by learning a new “trabalengua”/ tonguetwister and by introducing ourselves to our classmates. Me llamo…  (Mucho gusto.)

3^rd grade – Pepe Piña pica papa. Pica papa Pepe Piña.

4^th grade – Amarillo es el patito, Amarillo es el limón, Amarillo es el pollito, que sale del cascarón.

5^th grade –  Pancha plancha con cuatro planchas.   ¿Con cuántas planchas Pancha plancha?

We finished the week by getting our Spanish materials ready for the year while listening to beautiful classical guitarist, Andrés Segovia.  All the students set up their Spanish folder, spiral, and flashcards.  In the spiral students glued an overview of what they will learn in Spanish this year, suggestions for how to succeed in learning a foreign language, alphabet and introductory materials. 

Their Spanish workbooks will be passed out to them the week of Aug. 19^th. We will start Unit 1.1 that week.  This next week we will continue reviewing and then we’ll start to learn about a Hispanic country toward the end of the week.  (Perú 3^rd, Nicaragua 4^th, and Bolivia 5^th.)

I gave “quizlet” and “spiral” for homework for next class. They are simply to show you their materials, and to try and access the quizlet website and hopefully login.  

It is a helpful fun tool for learning Spanish.  https://quizlet.com/ACCSpanish345  

I look forward to working with your students to help them have a great year in Spanish!

Let me know if you have any questions,

Sincerely,

Sra. Watne

Welcome back Archway!

Dear Archway Parents,                                                

           

¡Hola!  Welcome back from the summer.  I hope all of the scholars had a wonderful summer and are ready for an exciting year of Spanish!  

For those of you who don't know me, I am originally from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  From my youth, I’ve enjoyed learning about other cultures.  I earned my BA in Spanish Secondary Education at Grove City College in Grove City, PA.  Following college I had the opportunity to live in Mexico City for over 2 and a half years teaching English as a second language and working with cross-cultural teams that came to Mexico to volunteer in various ways.  Through this experience I was able to more fully develop my Spanish.  I’ve continued to speak Spanish over the years and have enjoyed more visits to Spanish-speaking countries like Mexico, Chile, Peru, and Costa Rica.  I hope for many more visits to these places and more in the future!

I taught Spanish at the high school level for 3 years before raising my children, and then at the elementary age the past 2 years at Archway.  I am excited to continue sharing my appreciation for different cultures and the Spanish language with our Archway students this year.  It’s been a delight to see how much the students at the elementary level are capable of learning – in their accurate pronunciation, vocabulary, and overall structure of the language! 

In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my husband, Jamie, and our 4 children, Ana, Bjorn, Daniel and Caleb,  camping, cooking from scratch, reading for fun, practicing my classical guitar, being part of our church community, gardening, and hiking, especially in the Southwest winter months! 

I look forward to getting to know you and your children this year as we explore the Spanish language together!

Sincerely,

Sra. Watne

vwatne@archwaychandler.org                          

480-855-6474  Ext. 5143

Blog: http://accspanish345.blogspot.com/

https://quizlet.com/ACCSpanish345                                   

Spanish class

3^rd grade – Mon/Thurs. afternoons

4^th grade – Tues/Fri. mornings

5^th grade – Tues/Fri. afternoons