During this month, third grade students read the first episode of the book El ratón Pablito, and fourth grade students read the first chapter of La familia de Federico Rico.

Working with these texts provided students with a wonderful opportunity to see their high-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 strengthened their Spanish literacy skills.

They were excited to showcase their language creativity by writing questions about the chapters to create a Gimkit game. Students wrote true/false questions, fill-in-the-blank questions, and WH-questions. I am very proud of them for this great accomplishment! Click here to acces a set of the Spanish question flashcards available online.

In celebration of Black History Month, third grade students learned the chorus of the song Humano by ChocQuibTown. 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.

¡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 continue working on their conversational skills and have begun focusing more on their writing skills as well. This allows them to continue building and improving their Spanish proficiency. We also took time to set both class and individual goals for the second trimester. Students reflected and created personal Spanish goals, and we will continue tracking our progress throughout the trimester.

Both third- and fourth-grade students will soon begin reading books in Spanish. To prepare, we are reviewing frequency words and learning new vocabulary that will help students become successful Spanish readers.

Third grade students will be reading the book El ratón Pablito. This book is divided into fourteen non-sequential episodes. First, we will read together as a class. Then, students will work in small groups to read different episodes and share their learning with the whole class.

Fourth grade students will be reading the book La familia de Federico Rico. This book is also divided into several episodes about Federico’s family. Similar to third grade, students will work in small groups to read an assigned episode and then share about it with the class.

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.