During the month of December, we talked about family celebrations. We celebrate and embrace ALL celebrations. It is wonderful to continue building community while learning from each others' cultures during this time of the year. Students were able to share what they celebrate with their families and friends during this time of the yer. It was a great opportunity to learn from each other while showing respect and empathy.  We used the structures: "Yo (no) celebro" (I (don't) celebrate), Yo también (Me too) ¡Qué interesante! (That's interesting!), Me gusta (I like), and more. 

We also created a short Holiday story as a whole class to reinforced our frequency words (super 7+) in context. Click here to access the Super 7+ online flashcards. This is what we call "story asking or story creation" and I have modified for my younger students. Students took ownership through this process while still receiving input from the teacher.  We enjoyed choosing our main character, describing it, finding connections, making decisions as a whole group, finding a solution for the problem, and using personalized questions to make connections among us, and to keep reinforcing the use of Spanish in class. During this story creation time, we also learned and reinforce other vocabulary. Students were very engaged throughout the process while acquiring Spanish in a fun and compelling way. We will continue creating stories throughout the school year. 

We concluded our month by learning and playing a traditional Hispanic game. This game is called "La Pirinola". This is a spinning top game and it is played in some Hispanic countries such as, Colombia, Chile, Argentina and Mexico. People play this game during the holidays. Students enjoyed playing it and finding similarities and differences with a dreidel.  Through the game, students are encouraged to keep up with their Spanish by using our vocabulary bank.

This month, students learned the frequency vocabulary words/phrases from the story: "Ricitos de oro. (Goldilock and the three bears). Then, they listened to the story. While listening to the story, they were able to recognize the frequency words such as: Hay (there is/There are), Ve (sees), Camina (walks), Dice (says), Entra (enters), Sale (leaves), and more.  They were able to understand the main idea of the story. They also enjoyed the video from the Salsa Episode 101: Goldilocks and the Three Bears from Georgia Public Broadcasting. We did a clip chat with the video, in where we stopped in certain parts of the video to ask and answer questions about the story in the video and make connections with us. This allowed more repetition and reinforcement of our frequency words in context.  Students had the opportunity to act out the story while I narrated it. This allowed repetition, which is great for language acquisition. Then, students worked on follow up activities on Seesaw. Buen trabajo = Good job. 👏🏽

We also learned the main vocabulary of the song: "Yo soy una hoja" (I am a leave) while adding some gestures to establish meaning and show understanding. Then we enjoyed singing it. 

Finally, we ended this month by saying what we are grateful for by using the expression: "Yo doy gracias por..." (I am thankful for...) and using a vocabulary bank. 

This month, our second-grade students who participated in the Symbolic Monarch Migration project said farewell to their butterflies. The butterflies began their journey south, and we look forward to welcoming new ones in the spring. Stay tuned! Learn more here.

We learned about the monarch butterfly’s migration and life cycle. Second- and third-grade students were introduced to the story Monarca va a México (Monarch Goes to Mexico). We learned and practiced important vocabulary such as hay (there is/there are), es (is), va a (goes to), dice (says), vive (lives), regresa (returns), and está (is—for feelings). These words helped us understand the main ideas of the story.

Students listened to the story, demonstrated understanding by acting it out, and then set up their Aventuras in Learning platform, where they completed activities to show comprehension of the vocabulary and main idea.

We also began talking about Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) using a KWL chart (What I Know, what I Want to know, and what I Learned). We will continue exploring and learning more about this celebration next month.

I encourage my students to keep reviewing our frequency words (Super 7+ vocabulary) at home. Click here to access a set of digital flashcards.

All of our class vocabulary is introduced and reinforced throughout our lessons. Students are gradually acquiring the language and expanding their vocabulary little by little.

We have started doing CALENDAR TALK to practice and review our days of the week, months, numbers, weather, celebrations, feelings check in, fun activities students do on certain days of the week, and most important to use and maintain the target language (Spanish) during class.

We practiced our classroom objects vocabulary. Students enjoyed our game "Who has the backpack?". This is a guessing game in where students had a simple conversation trying to find out who has the backpack. Phrases reinforced in this game were: "¿Quién tiene la mochila?" (Who has the backpack?), "[Name] tiene la mochila." ([Name] has the backpack.). "Sí, yo la tengo." (Yes, Ihave it), "No, yo no la tengo." (No, I don't have it.) We also played the game Buzz game in where we list the classroom objects and using the structure: "Necesito" (I need).

We started talking about the Monarch butterfly Migration, which will be leading us to talk about Day of the Dead in November. Students in second grade will be participating in the Symbolic Migration of the Monarch Butterflies. You can find more information here. 

Soon, we will be learning the song: "Señorita Mariposa." and playing an evolution game about the cycle of the butterfly. This is a video I made for my students to tell them a little bit about the migration of the Monarch butterflies. 

Students in Third grade set up their learning platforms that we will be using during this school year: Seesaw and google classroom.  

We are and will be reinforcing and reviewing our frequency words (Super 7+ vocabulary) through the year by using different strategies and techniques. Click here to access a set of digital flashcards.

All of the class vocabulary happens simultaneously during our lessons. Students will be acquiring the language and leveling up their language vocabulary little by little.