¡Noticias del aula de español!-
News from the Spanish classroom!

In our 2nd and 3rd grade classes we have begun calendar talk where we look at the month and learn about one another through birthdays or other events. We also started to talk about Hispanic Heritage Month which begins on September 15th and runs through October 15th.  Students did an excellent job listening, responding to questions, and sharing back what they learned about each other & Spanish history content.

Below are paragraphs from each class. Each one is a retelling of our conversation and gives us a chance to play some games with comprehension. It gives the students a chance to revisit the content in a different context, to check for understanding of vocabulary and to match question words with appropriate answer phrases. We use this type of written review often to support literacy and audible comprehension of Spanish.

Students did an excellent job in our comprehension activity and then applying those terms to a three part comparison so they can make direct connections to their own pets, or the pets of someone close to them. We will continue our comparisons between the two places beginning to look at foods, geographic zones and indigenous cultures and languages. 

Third grade students learned how to make this traditional Peruvian dish starting with preparing potatoes for the base and then more! 

Then we learn safe kitchen etiquette and began the preparation of La Causa.
I describe it as a mashed potato tower or a potato sandwich. 

Students worked to decipher the meaning of our new tongue twisters with image supports, reminders about cognates & listening to others ideas.

Check them out below and give them a try at home!

Look at our 2nd and 3rd graders from last year working with good manners phrases and scenarios for matching. 

Check out past adventures in Spanish language-culture exploration

Anaya Latin Dance

All our students took classes with our special guests Anaya Latin Dance with thanks to the Alaska State Council of the Arts. This grant was awarded to Inlet View in August and put into place with support of our Inlet View PTA. This was a wonderful community collaboration here are some fun pictures and videos of our joyful exploration of Cuban dance and culture with Ciro and Liz Anaya. 

Thank you letters from our 3rd graders. 

We worked together to reflect on our experience including what we enjoyed, what we learned, what further questions we have and what we might like for future dance classes. The Spanish phrases we used to create these letters are me gustó, yo aprendí, me pregunto and la proxima vez. Students chose what felt true for their experience from our class brainstorm list and after writing they practiced reading their work to peers and listening to the work of their classmates as well. This was a big confidence builder for students as they realized they could already begin to build sentences with support. ¡Muy bien hecho!

Take a look at some of the cool projects from years past!

 ¡Canciones Para Cantar y Disfrutar!

Barajas de España y el juego BURRO

To finish out the 1st Quarter of the 2021-2022 school year students learned about these beautiful playing cards first designed in the mid-18oos! These cards, barajas españolas, are from Spain and used to play 100s of fun games. We learned a simple one called BURRO. We compared it to games we know from our culture and the set of cards we see most commonly used for playing card games in our culture. The students were very observant and had good attitudes when playing with each other. Ask your student, "¿Cómo jugamos a BURRO?" -How do we play BURRO?

Native Speakers tell us about, una cosa, one thing. 

For those of you who saw the DuoLingo story of Una Cosa during your class Zoom meetings this might be easier to follow. Even if you didn't the speakers all do a wonderful job speaking clearly and calmly. 

Hover over the top left link labeled Beginners where you can select various speakers from around the Spanish speaking world.  Watch each short clip and enjoy! The related vocabulary list is a link to the far right of the page. 

This is a proficiency listening exercise from the University of Austin- don't be intimidated, you've got this!!

 ¡Trabalenguas son divertidas!

These are some simple and yet challenging tongue twisters that we will begin to work on later this year. If you want to start to 'work your tongue', as the literal translation of Trabalengua says, please go ahead watch these videos, read these words and have fun learning a little extra.