This month, students in Kindergarten learned about Frida Kahlo, a famous Mexican artist. They created their own self-portraits and took them home. Here are some of the Spanish high-frequency words we reinforced during this unit: Soy (I am), Es (is), Vivía (lived), and Vivo (I live).

Students in first grade reviewed what they learned about Frida last year. They reinforced high-frequency words such as Soy (I am), Vivo (I live), Me gusta (I like), Tengo (I have), and Quiero (I want) while sharing information about themselves and comparing their lives to Frida's. They also worked on a book about Frida to take home.

Later in the month, students learned the song "Cinco calabazas" (Five Pumpkins) to reinforce vocabulary related to feelings and numbers. Then, we read the story "Los sentimientos de Frida" (Frida's Feelings) and practiced the word está (is, used for feelings) and the question ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?).

Students are really enjoying singing along to feelings songs from Super Simple Español and 1,2,3 Andrés. Please enjoy listening to these together at home!

Finally, we began discussing Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead) and will dive deeper into this celebration in November.

This month, we took time to get to know each other. I introduced myself by sharing some fun facts about me in a very interactive way. Students had to guess whether the information I shared was true or false. Depending on their answer, they had to do a specific movement, such as running in place, dancing, or jumping. It was a fun activity that allowed us to learn more about one another while getting up and moving!

Later, students created and colored their name tags and drew one or two things they like on the back of their cards. This allowed me to get to know them better and gave us a useful tool to use during future class activities.

We read the book Qué nombre tan bonito (What a Beautiful Name) by Fun for Spanish Teachers to celebrate our names as an important part of our identity.

Students enjoyed the “¿Cómo te llamas?” song, and we practiced the dialogue by introducing ourselves to one another during class. We also used a traditional rhyme game to say our names: “Manzanita del Perú, ¿cómo te llamas tú?”

We have been acquiring, practicing, reinforcing, and using our feelings vocabulary during our self-check-in time at the beginning of class. Students are learning words and expressions such as MUY BIEN (very well), ESTUPENDO (great), MARAVILLOSO (marvelous), CANSADO/A (tired), HAMBRIENTO/A (hungry), and NO ESTOY MUY BIEN (not very well) by singing our feelings song. Click here to listen to the song.

Students have also been enjoying singing our Spanish greeting song. You can enjoy the song here. It is so much fun to hear them singing it in class!

We have also started CALENDAR TALK to acquire, reinforce, and practice the days of the week. Click here to learn the hand motions for the days of the week, and here to listen to our days-of-the-week song. During Calendar Talk, we also practice the months of the year, numbers 1–30, weather, birthday celebrations, and more.

Soon, we will start learning about the famous Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. This unit will help us reinforce our feelings vocabulary while also learning more about this important and influential artist.

All of this class vocabulary is introduced and practiced naturally throughout our lessons. Students are continuously acquiring, practicing, and building their Spanish vocabulary little by little. It is wonderful to see them becoming more comfortable using the language and participating in Spanish!