FRENCH CLASSES LEARN ABOUT "EUROVISION"

Ms. Kefaliakos's French classes had a great time learning about the Eurovision Song Contest, which had its grand finale on May 17th. This was a perfect topic for French class since French is one of the show's official languages. Students learned about the incredibly popular European show that features original songs that are performed live. Winners are determined by a combination of jury and public votes. Ms. Kefaliakos also shared information about the show's history, purpose, and popularity. 

WORLD LANGUAGES WEEK 

POSTER CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Congratulations to this year’s winners of the annual World Languages Poster Contest. Participants created original posters based on the theme “Languages Unite Communities”.

Our third place winner is Chloe Auyeung, our second place winner is Mia Zampella, and congratulations to our first place winner Joseph Solorzano-Ruiz. The winning posters will now move on to the district-level contest.

Thank you to all of the students who submitted their beautiful artwork!

See the winners and their posters below.

1st Place

2nd Place

3rd Place

World Languages Week 

March 3-7

The World Languages Department is once again holding its annual poster contest in honor of World Languages Week. This year's theme, "Languages Unite Communities", allowed students to develop their own creative perspective about the power of speaking other languages and understanding other cultures. Contest winners will be announced on Monday, March 10th. The winners will advance to the district-level contest. Thank you to our World Languages teachers for encouraging students to participate in the contest! 

Once again this year, student volunteers read morning announcements in their native language or the language they are currently studying. The announcements shared fun facts and cultural information.  In class this week, world language teachers shared an "Around the World" slideshow that focused on having students "visit" important cultural sites in various countries. Students also participated in a trivia contest. Students who answered the trivia questions correctly were entered into a daily raffle for a prize.

Also this week, we would like to highlight Ms. Kefaliako's student junior Wyatt Baxter. Wyatt's own passion for studying languages was featured in an interview with junior Mark Oladipo. The topic of the interview is the celebration of world languages in the life of the students. Wyatt, who was inspired by Junior Red Riendeau and her respective research paper on linguistics, actually created his own (!) language called “Yetübinamed”. See the inteview below to learn more about this fascinating topic.

Thank you to Ms. Maldonado and Ms. Dand for reating the slideshow that teachers used each day in class. A special merci, grazie, gracias, and xié xiè to our student participants and volunteers and to the World Language teachers for their help in making the week a success!

Scroll down for photos!

INTERVIEW

P.S. I Love You Day 2025

To recognize P.S. I Love You Day, students in French, Italian, Mandarin, and Spanish classes created  "kindness message" murals. The messages, written in a variety of languages, are meant to brighten the day of as many students, faculty, and staff as possible. See pictures of the murals below!

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is one of the most important celebrations in Chinese culture as it marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year.  The holiday lasts 15 days. In Chinese culture, there are twelve animals that represent the different years, and each year is associated with a specific animal. This year is the Year of the Snake. 

In class, the students learned about the culture surrounding the snake. Students also participated in a variety of activities to celebrate the holiday. They made crafts and wrote greetings to decorate the hallway, watched a Chinese New Year television program and other videos about new year traditions and customs. Students ate dumplings, learned the stories of Nian and the zodiac, and practiced both character writing and calligraphy using brushes and ink. 

A special thank you to our Mandarin teachers Dr. Chen and Ms. Han for planning these wonderful Lunar New Year traditions for their students. 

See pictures below!

新年好 

Mandarin Students Celebrate Chinese New Year!

Dr. Chen’s Mandarin classes have been celebrating the Chinese New Year. This celebration is also known as Lunar New Year or Spring Festival, and it is the most important festival in China. Each year the New Year is associated with an animal sign according to the zodiac cycle, and this year is the year of the Rabbit. 

To celebrate, Dr. Chen's students wrote their well-wishes for a good year and shared them with one another in traditional red envelopes. The students tried some Chinese snacks and had the experience of writing Chinese calligraphy using traditional brushes and ink. The classes will also be hosting an after-school event during which students will learn to make their own dumplings. 

Scroll down to see pictures of the students working on their red envelopes and calligraphy!

FRENCH STUDENTS RECOGNIZE 

NATIONAL FRENCH WEEK

Every year National French Week is a celebration of the French language during November 6-12, 2024?

This year, Ms. Kefaliakos's French students explored numerous fun facts about French, which interestingly enough is spoken by more than 320 million people around the world. This week Ms. Kefaliakos featured two eleventh graders; Abigail Trinkus and Alexa Addonizio, in presenting us with some fun facts about La Francophonie. Take a look below at the video and photo below. Enjoy!

WORLD LANGUAGES HONOR SOCIETY

On Tuesday afternoon, the World Languages Department held its annual Honor Society Induction Ceremony. Congratulations to the newest members of our Chinese, French, Italian and Spanish Chapters. It was wonderful to see so many of our students recognized for their achievements in their language classes. The Master of Ceremonies was Hailey Sofia. We had a beautiful rendition of “Sorge il sol? Che fai tu?” performed by Elizabeth Ramos. Kyle Park, Nate Botta, Hannah Levine, and Daniella Knigin also gave beautiful recitations of poems in the language they are each studying. It was a lovely afternoon of honoring our language students.

Scroll down for photos!

¡Buen Provecho!

In Ms. Maldonado's classes, students ended the Buen Provecho unit with a fun cultural food party. Students were invited to share dishes from Spanish-speaking countries or their own cultures. Each student contributed a recipe and ingredients written in Spanish, all of which were compiled into a Spanish-language recipe book for each class. The book was filled with different cultural dishes from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, Colombia, Italy, Ireland, Israel, India, Honduras, the Caribbean and many more! 

The event fostered education about diverse cuisines, lively conversations, and enjoyment of cultural music. Students were excited to try new foods and learn the recipes! It was a fantastic and enriching conclusion to the Buen Provecho unit. 

Thank you to Ms. Maldonado for planning this activity and to all of the students who participated!

Mandarin 2H & 3H Students' Cultural Experience

9th and 10th grade students in Ms. Han's class had a unique experience this week in class. During the food unit, they had the opportunity to practice speaking in Chinese in simulated restaurant scenarios. Ms. Han also added a cultural component to the lessons by sharing information about popular Chinese foods. As a special activity, students acted out ordering a milk tea from "server" Ms. Han and actually received one to try!