PAGE
Spanish: Beginners-Third Grade Sra. Maria Valladares To set the stage for each Spanish class, the students recite a 'salutation song' continued with drills of vocabulary and the numbers; all accompanied by the proper sign. This will encourage the students not to think English to Spanish, but visualize the word and say it in Spanish. We are constructing a story about how turtles, birds and butterflies go up or down, get big or little, go fast or slow when kittens or puppies pursue them. The class is very interactive. Our next song is the Spanish rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.� In the second week, the 1st through 3rd graders were given an introduction to a story about a little boat in a BIG ocean. The story was also accompanied by a song. This lesson was comprised of their personal illustration of a boat on the crest of a wave, while ocean creatures swam all around. From their illustrations, I constructed the vocabulary words. They were given the opportunity to actually taste canned octopus on a cracker! Another project, for this grade level, is making a 'passport' booklet with lots of personal information. There's a different page for each piece of information. The students will know how to say their name, age, color of eyes, color of hair, their favorite color, favorite dessert, and the month of the year they were born. The goal is to be able to say this in complete Spanish sentences. This lesson is ongoing as the students acquire more vocabulary. A dialogue is continually being built with questions such as; "How are you?, What is your name?, How old are you?", etc. as the students pretend to be in the playground and they run into each other. They are learning to ask and answer in complete sentences. They know various answers to the set of questions. Now we are working on the Spanish alphabet with their personal illustration of a word that goes with the letter as well as the sign for it. By Veteran's Day, I am planning on teaching the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag in Spanish.
Trying octopus for the first time!
Sra. Maria sharing octopus with the class.
20