During the month of December, Spanish Immersion students in third and 4th grade 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 year. It was a great opportunity to learn from each other while showing respect and empathy and reinforcing our communicative skills in Spanish. 

We continue talking about our daily schedule, feelings, classes, weather, likes, dislikes, plans for their winter break, sharing agreements, disagreements, etc while reinforcing our frequency words and structures in context. This allows us keep building up students' proficiency level and confidence with the target language. This activity easily leads us to do Write & Discuss in where students practice their writing skills as well. 

Later, we did a clip chat: "El gato 🐈 de Simon-Santa Claws." Students watched a short clip and then they paired up with a classmate and had some time to shared with each other what they saw on the clip. We took advantage of this opportunity to share our pet experiences during the holidays, especially for those who have "gatos" (cats). If you would like to watch the short video we used for the clip chat, click here. 

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 sheet.

In our Spanish immersion classes, students in fourth grade finished sharing their dialogues and students in third grade are still taking turns sharing their dialogues while we continue working on other activities. The priority for students in Spanish Immersion is build up their conversational skills and reinforce their writing in Spanish. 

This month we did a clip chat. Students practiced and reinforced the frequency words: Hay (There is/There are), Quiere (wants), Tiene (has), Puede (can), Escucha (listens) , galleta (cookie). We used these and other vocabulary words in context while narrating the story in the short video. We personalized the story from the video so students were able to share about their experiences, likes, and dislikes. In case you would like to see the short video, click here. Maybe you could ask your child to narrate what happens in the video in Spanish first and then in English. 

We did a Write and Discuss activity about the clip chat and students were challenged to create with the language by using Spanish vocabulary, phrases, and sentences that they know. 

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

In our Spanish immersion classes, we continue to prioritize conversational skills and have started doing some writing in our journals as well.

Students practiced a simple dialogue about what they do during the week. Then, working in pairs, they used the original dialogue as a model to create their own versions. They were challenged to add more details and information to make their dialogues more personal. Finally, they presented their finished work to their classmates using puppets.

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.

In Spanish immersion classes, we have been prioritizing our conversational skills through CALENDAR TALK. Students have had opportunities to interact with each other in Spanish by asking and answering questions, interviewing each other, and being active participants during discussions. Students worked on a Hexagon project to share about their favorites and sharing more about themselves. 

We are starting to use our Spanish notebooks for some writing exercises. We set up our goals for the first trimester and talked about how we can keep ourselves accountable in order to achieve our goals. Students familiarized themselves with Spanish proficiency levels and how they can level up. 

Finally, we set up our learning platforms that we will be using during this school year: Seesaw and google classroom. 

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.