During May and June, second- and third-grade students continued developing their Spanish language skills through calendar talk, games, songs, and other engaging activities while reinforcing high-frequency words in context. I am so proud of each of them and all they have accomplished this year.

Students engaged with the Spanish story Una tortuga en peligro (A Turtle in Danger) by Profe Valentina, as well as a short video related to the story. In addition to learning new vocabulary and participating in a variety of literacy-based activities to demonstrate comprehension, students engaged in meaningful conversations about protecting our sea animals from pollution, especially plastic that humans throw into the ocean.

Finally, students enjoyed listening to Spanish stories from Aventuras in Learning and participated in several interactive activities, such as memory games, pattern games, true-or-false games, and more. These activities helped support and strengthen their listening and reading comprehension skills while continuing to build their fluency in Spanish.

Have a wonderful summer! ¡Feliz verano!

This month, second- and third-grade students worked on building their class character. Using the One Word Image (OWI) strategy, students were immersed in Spanish while creating with the language.

During this process, students chose “something” to be their character—for example, a potato, a pizza, a shoe, or a table. They then developed character traits by responding to a variety of questions. This provided opportunities to build conversational skills and expand their Spanish vocabulary. Click here to see a list of our high-frequency words and here for the Spanish questions words. 

We used different tools for decision-making to ensure equity of voice among all students. Each class also selected two artists to illustrate their character. Students were highly engaged throughout the process and excited to discover what their class character would look like.

At the same time, we wrote about our class characters, giving students exposure to reading in Spanish. It was a fun and meaningful experience! I was very proud to see how much Spanish students were able to produce at the novice level.

¡Muy buen trabajo, estudiantes!

This month, second and third graders read Episode 2 of El ratón Pablito. Students learned key vocabulary through a variety of games while reinforcing our high-frequency words (Super 7+). They also participated in several fun activities to strengthen their reading comprehension, such as true/false quizzes, reader’s theater, Blooket games, and more.

We began discussing spring and the activities students enjoy during this season. We will continue this conversation in Spanish class after Spring Break.

This month marks the beginning of our final trimester of the school year, making it a great time for our second and third graders to review class expectations; especially as world language learners; as we continue our language acquisition journey. Students led discussions about what our expectations look like, sound like, and feel like. Together, they also agreed on logical consequences for meeting or not meeting those expectations. Students are working very hard to follow them.

We briefly began building a class character that will eventually be used in a class story. We will continue developing this after Spring Break using the One Word Image (OWI) strategy, where students are exposed to Spanish while creatively building language. During this process, students will choose “something” to become the main character, and together we will bring that object to life. Stay tuned for more on this in April!

This month, second and third graders read Episode 1 of the book El ratón Pablito. Students learned key vocabulary through engaging games while reinforcing our high-frequency words (Super 7+). Soon, we will begin reading Episode 2; students are excited to continue the story! Click  here to access the Super 7+ online flashcards.

Reading this episode provided a wonderful opportunity for students to see their frequency words in context, acquire new vocabulary, and strengthen their reading comprehension skills. As we read, students made predictions, built confidence as world language learners, and expanded their Spanish vocabulary. They were excited to discover how much they could understand! Many students are continuing to gain confidence in their Spanish comprehension, and some are even beginning to take risks by using and creating with the language. After reading, students completed follow-up activities and played a Blooket game to demonstrate their understanding of the story.

In celebration of Black History Month, third grade students learned the chorus of the song “Humano” by ChocQuibTown, an Afro-Colombian band. The song raises awareness about the experiences and struggles of immigrants and refugees in Colombia. We also took a virtual visit to Colombia using Google Maps and learned about each member of the band.

Second grade students learned about Eva Ayllón, an Afro-Peruvian singer. We took a virtual visit to Peru using Google Maps and explored her musical contributions. Students also learned basic steps from a traditional Afro-Peruvian dance, along with key vocabulary and phrases from the song “Saca las manos”:

• Saca las manos (Take out your hands)

• Saca los pies (Take out your feet)

• Saca la cabeza (Shake your head)

We will continue reviewing and reinforcing our high-frequency words (Super 7+) in context. Click here to access the Super 7+ online flashcards.

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!
We started 2026 by talking about New Year traditions in Spanish-speaking countries. Students learned about the tradition of eating 12 grapes at midnight to make wishes for the new year. Each class wrote their wishes on a large paper grape, which was later placed on a display for the whole school to see. We focused on making wishes connected to our Lincoln expectations and our goals as World Language scholars. We have also continued reinforcing our routines and expectations for Spanish class.

Students had the opportunity to share the activities they did during winter break and the activities they like to do during the winter using the frequency phrase “ME GUSTA…” (I like). ¡Muy buen trabajo! (Great job!)

Students will soon begin reading the book El ratón Pablito. This book is divided into fourteen episodes that are not sequential. We will not necessarily read all of them, but from now through the end of the school year, we will read several episodes. Students are currently working on the main vocabulary from the first episode, which will help build their confidence in reading and understanding Spanish. As a result, students will continue developing confidence in their Spanish comprehension and may be more willing to take risks using and creating with the language.

We will also continue reviewing and reinforcing our frequency words (Super 7+) in context. Click here to access the Super 7+ online flashcards. 

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.