Beginning Spanish: Weeks 7-12

¡Hola padres!

We're nearing the end of first semester Beginning Spanish, and I'm so excited about how much the kids have learned!

Here is a overview of what we have done these past few weeks in the Davis Art Center...


Week 7- Pronombres personales, la familia, las direcciones y el día de los muertos

We reviewed the personal pronouns that they had learned the week before by playing Spell it!

Spelling forward

Spelling brother

  I also introduced the directions: left, right, up, down, forward and backward.  To make sure they understood it, I had them pair up and guide each other through our maze using the directions in Spanish.

The last two days were spent learning and making crafts about the day of the dead.

Coloring their masks after a quick review

Coloring their sugar skull masks

Watching a video about the day of the dead

                       

                      

Week 8- Los animales

This week they learned about all sort of animals: pets, on the farm, in California, in the zoo and in the ocean.

The first game of the week was Draw it! where i would say a color and an animal they had just learned and they'd have to race across the room to draw it before the other team.

Draw it!

Girls team

Boys team

The second game of the week was Act it out, where I would call out an animal and the kids would have to act like that animal until the next one was called.

Pájaro

Rana

Caballo

The third game was Where do they go?, where the kids would pick an animal from a pile in the middle and place them in the correct category on the wall.

On the last day, we reviewed all the animals with a PowerPoint I had been using all week and made paper bag puppets!

The kids made tigers, cats, a cow and a fish!

Week 9- Números

This was one of our short weeks and in three days the learned how to count from 1-31! First, I had them write the number out and write the number in Spanish in their notebooks. To make things more fun for them, I brought out the beach ball and had them play catch! They had to count the number of throws they did, and if the ball dropped the count started all over.

We also played BINGO, order the numbers, and Count the eggs, where I placed various colored eggs around the room and had them run around and count how many of each egg there was.

BINGO

Arranging the numbers in the correct order

Week 10- Días de la semana y meses en el año

The first day, we reviewed the numbers, colors and shapes by playing Draw it! I would say a color, shape and a number, and the kids would race to draw it correctly.

To introduce the days of the week, I played Learn the days of the week in Spanish with BASHO & FRIENDS! and had them write it down in their notebooks. To see if they learned it, I placed the days of the week in Spanish around the room.  I would then call it out in English and they would have to stand under the correct word.

I also introduced how to say yesterday was/today is/tomorrow will be by having them say the correct day at the beginning of each class.

Then I taught them the months in a year by having them associate it with their birthdays first. Then we wrote down the months in English/Spanish in their notebooks. This week, we also started the calendars they took home after the last day of class in diciembre!

Week 11- Las estaciones

This was another short week, only two days! I first had them associate the seasons with a drawing that represents that specific season.  I would first draw the tree and have them tell me what seasons they thought it was in English.  Then I would write in what it was in Spanish!

I also had the kids separate the months based on the seasons, and make a mini book with things you would find in each season. They also kept on working on their calendars!

Week 12-Opuestos

This week was all about opposites! The first day, I had them draw what their world would be like if everything was the opposite.

The next few days were spent filling out and reading through this Los Opuestos/The Opposites  book I created for them. I would quiz them throughout class asking them what the opposite of ______ was. They also finished up their calendars during the last two days of class fro the week, which turned out great!

Lastly, here is the List of terms for Weeks 1-12 which summarizes all the things they have learned in my class!


¡Adiós!

 Maestra Analy

DAC Intermediate French Weeks 5-10

Bonjour à tous!

We just finished the 10th week of the TALK year! Where has the time gone? It has been quite a few weeks since I last updated. To summarize, here is a list of terms that we covered during Weeks 5-10:

Week 5: Dans la salle de classe (in the classroom):

Un crayon - a pencil
Un stylo - a pen
Un feutre - a marker
Une gomme - an eraser
Une règle - a ruler (Alee's words: "rulers are feminine because girls rule")
Un livre - a book
Un cahier - a notebook or workbook
Des ciseaux - scissors
Une feuille de papier - a sheet of paper (remember that "feuille" means leaf)
Une calculatrice - a calculator
Un sac à dos - a backpack
La salle de classe - the classroom
La porte - the door
La fenêtre - the window
La chaise - the chair
Le tableau - the board
Un(e) élève - a student
Un professeur - a teacher

Week 6: La famille (family):

Ma famille - my family
Ma mère/maman - my mother/mom
Mon père/papa - my father/dad
Mon frère - my brother
Ma soeur - my sister
Ma soeur jumelle - my twin sister
Mon cousin - my (boy) cousin
Ma cousine - my (girl) cousin
Ma grand-mère - my grandmother
Mon grand-père - my grandfather
Mon oncle - my uncle
Ma tante - my aunt
Le fils - the son
La fille - the daughter (also means girl)
Le petit-fils - the grandson
La petite-fille - the granddaughter
Le neveu - the nephew
La nièce - the niece

Week 7: L'Halloween (Halloween):

During Halloween week, we covered a whole bunch of Halloween terms and started introducing a few candy-making words. The majority of the Halloween terms I covered in class can be found in this video, which I showed about twice a day EVERY single day that week. By the end of the week, the kids (at least the ones who always showed up on time) could almost sing along! It was an interesting experience. The kids started complaining on the second day, but I stuck through, and by the end, they started treating it as a joke! Play it for your kids and watch the expression on their face!

Here are the lyrics and their translations. The colors words are the ones I made sure to cover in class.

Les sorcières sortent le soir; les fantômes aussi / Witches go out at night; ghosts too.
Le ciel est tout noir, et les nuages sont gris. / The sky is pitch black, and the clouds are gray.
Est-ce que tu as peur des méchants esprits? / Are you afraid of the mean spirits?
Ô Monsieur, oui oui oui oui oui! / Oh sir, yes yes yes yes yes!

C'est l'Halloween, c'est l'Halloween, hé!
C'est l'Halloween, c'est l'Halloween!

Pendant l'Halloween, tu peux être ce que tu veux. / During Halloween, you can be what you want to be.
Un tigre féroce, ou un serpent bleu. / A ferocious tiger or a blue snake.
Il se fait tard; rentres-tu à la maison? / It is getting late; are you going home?
Ô Madame, non non non non non! / Oh madame, no no no no no!

C'est l'Halloween, c'est l'Halloween, hé!
C'est l'Halloween, c'est l'Halloween!

La lune, elle est pleine; le hibou, il crie. / The moon, it is full; the owl, it screeches (or yells).
De toutes les branches pendent des chauves-souris. / From all the branches hang the bats.
Est-ce que tu as peur de cette nuit? / Are you afraid of this night?
Ô Madame, oui oui oui oui oui! / Oh madame, yes yes yes yes yes!

C'est l'Halloween, c'est l'Halloween, hé!
C'est l'Halloween, c'est l'Halloween!

During Halloween week, we also did two games of Halloween tag, in which a skeleton stands immobile in the center of the room, telling the rest of the class that "I am a skeleton" (je suis un squelette) or "we are skeletons" (nous sommes des squelettes) in French and then asking them to cross over if they are witches, ghosts, spirits, or pumpkins. While crossing the room, they have to act as if they were the object that they were representing.

Week 8: Les contraires (opposites):

Admittedly, Week 8 was not much of a success. On the bright side, after a couple of unintended "monkey in the middle" games, I think they now know June, July, and August (the months they've never previously been able to master) extra well! Here are the terms I tried to cover that week. The adjectives would be used without the portion in parentheses when describing a masculine term, while the portion inside the parentheses are added when describing a feminine term.

Grand(e)/petit(e) - big/small
Loin/près - far/near
Sur/sous - on/under
Chaud(e)/froid(e) - hot/cold
J'ai chaud/j'ai froid - I am hot/cold (literally "I have" but that's French...)
Fermé(e)/ouvert(e) - closed/open
Long(ue)/court(e) - long/short
Plus/moins - more/less
Vide/plein(e) - empty/full
Heureux (heureuse)/triste - happy/sad

Weeks 9-10: Les parties du corps (body parts):

La tête - head
Les cheveux - hair
Les oreilles - ears
Le nez - nose
La bouche - mouth
La langue - tongue (the same word in French as for language)
Les sourcils - eyebrows
Le front - forehead
La joue - cheek
L'oeil - eye (singular)
Les yeux - eyes (plural)
Le cou - nose
Les épaules - shoulders
Le bras - arms
Les doigts - fingers
Le ventre - belly
La jambe - leg
Les pieds - feet
Les orteils - toes
La queue - tail (because we've had a monkey theme in this class)
Les ailes - wings (because, as Chloe reminded us, turkeys have wings)

We did some pretty cool activities with body parts these couple of weeks. First, the kids drew and labeled body parts, cut them out, and taped them together to form interesting-looking creatures. Here are a couple of the end results of this activity.

This past week, we started the week off by celebrating Chloe's 9th birthday. Some of the words we learned pertaining to birthdays were joyeux anniversaire (happy birthday), un cadeau (a present), un gâteau (a cake). We also played a game of pin the body part on the turkey, which most of the kids seemed to enjoy. I used this opportunity to not only have them practice the body parts, but also to give directions. Words we covered to this purpose included à gauche (to the left), à droite (to the right), tout droit (straight ahead), plus haut (higher), and plus bas (lower).

Some other games that we did included go-fish with body parts and some other vocabulary words that the kids have had trouble with over the past couple of months. In playing this game, I also got them to ask rudimentary questions like est-ce que tu as (do you have). Some of the other common expressions that I am trying to encourage them use on a regular basis include je comprends/je ne comprends pas (I understand/do not understand) and je sais/je ne sais pas (I know/do not know).

We had another piece-together body part game, which made use of preexisting flashcards:

Over the past weeks, I began incorporating "mountain tag" (monter la montagne), a game that the kids enjoyed from Kristine's beginning class, into the curriculum, typically on Fridays. In this game, the kids line up on one side of the stage area and attempt to cross to the other side if they match whatever criteria I list. I stand in the middle and tag them as they cross the room. Whoever gets tagged joins the tagger. I started off with simpler phrases and gradually progressed to more complicated forms such as "montez la montagne si vous avez un crayon dans votre sac à dos" or "si vous avez une soeur qui joue au foot."

In December, we are only scheduled to meet for about a week and a half. I plan to use this time to incorporate the Christmas holidays into the lesson plan and to take a day to also celebrate Alee and Corrie's birthday. In the mean time, the best way that I have found to really internalize the French language is to listen to music. When we listen to songs, we gradually learn the lyrics, and even though we may have no idea what they mean in the beginning, when we do hear them in real life, we begin making connections. Sometimes these connections are all we need to start incorporating the phrases we hear into our own repertoire.

Have a great Thanksgiving holiday! A la semaine prochaine!

DAC Beginning French November Update

Hello Parents!

It's been a little while since I've posted, and in that time your kids have continued to blossom! We had a good time with Halloween and learning a number of vocabulary words & French Halloween traditions, as well as playing games.

In the most recent weeks we have worked a lot on animals of the farm, zoo and sea, the days of the week/months of the year/seasons. We've been having a lot of fun watching videos and working on pronunciation, all while playing games and making their French learning experience as fun as possible.

Here is a list of animals we worked on!

Les Animaux (Animals)

Les animaux de la ferme (farm animals): (pronunciation in videos provided)

le poulet/la poule (a chicken)
le coq (a rooster)                                                    This video is really good for learning the animals
les poussins (chicks)
la chèvre (a goat)
le cochon (a pig)
le dindon (a turkey)                                                This video was a hit with the kids! (Animal sounds)
le cheval (a horse)
le chat (a cat)
le chien (a dog)
le mouton (a sheep)
l'âne (a donkey)
le canard (a duck)
la souris (a mouse)
la vache (a cow)
la grange (a barn)


Les animaux du zoo (zoo animals):

l'ours (a bear)
le lapin (a rabbit)
le loup (a wolf)
le serpent (a snake)                                                This video has good pronunciation help
la tortue (a tortoise)
le singe (a monkey)
la girafe (a giraffe)
le panda (a panda)
l'éléphant (an elephant)
le tigre (a tiger)
le zèbre (a zebra)
le lion (a lion)
le panthère (a panther)
le chameau (a camel)
le coyote (a coyote)
le léopard (a leopard)


Les animaux de la mer (sea animals):

le dauphin (a dolphin)
le pingouin (a penguin)                           This video has good pronunciation help (& more words)                     
le requin (a shark)
la baleine (a whale)
la méduse (a jellyfish)
le crabe (a crab)


I gave the kids coloring pages and we did some counting and coloring activities to bring everything together. They really enjoyed the animal noises video and I promised I would send it to you parents so they could watch at home. I hope to continue to pull from the animals throughout the rest of the time we are together, as it is a fun subject and one they will remember as they grow up.

Here is what we worked on this short week. Some of these words had already been mentioned, they are now learning them formally. They wanted to know how to sing the Happy Birthday song, which we will be learning tomorrow, but I felt that in order to sing the song they should know how to say when their birthday is, or what the date is!

Les mois de l'année (The months of the year):
JANVIER                                            L'HIVER ( WINTER )
FÉVRIER
MARS
AVRIL                                                 LE PRINTEMPS ( SPRING )                HERE is a video 
MAI
JUIN
JUILLET                                             L'ÉTÉ ( SUMMER )
AOÛT
SEPTEMBRE
OCTOBRE                                         L'AUTOMNE ( AUTUMN )
NOVEMBRE
DÉCEMBRE


Les jours de la semaine (The days of the week):
LUNDI
MARDI
MERCREDI                                           This video is just a simple song
JEUDI
VENDREDI
SAMEDI                                             This video is how I learned the days of the week in my first
DIMANCHE                                                         French class! (More difficult, but catchy)


OTHER IMPORTANT VOCAB

Aujourd'hui = today
Demain = tomorrow
Hier = yesterday
Prochain(e) = next 
Dernier(e) = last 
Préféré(e) = preferred / favorite

(Examples)
Aujourd'hui c'est jeudi le 13 (treize) novembre.
Demain c'est vendredi le 14 (quatorze) novembre.
Hier c'était mercredi le 12 (douze) novembre.

Le mois prochain est décembre.
Le mois dernier était octobre.

Mon jour préféré est vendredi.
Mon mois préféré est décembre.
Ma couleur préférée est bleu.


If you have any questions at any time, I am always available by email, or come in and see me before class. Things are continuing to go very well and I really look forward to coming in each morning to see what the day has to offer.

Merci à tous, et à bientôt!
Rachel Martin

Beginning Spanish-Birch Lane Elementary

¡Hola padres!

I wanted to share with you a glimpse of what we have been doing in Spanish class. Your kids are brilliant and have learned so much in these few weeks. Some of the things they have learned are: greetings, commands, numbers, colors and shapes, the alphabet, school supplies and this week they will learning about body parts. I will share with you the vocabulary words they have learn so you can practice with them at home, maybe ask them what the words mean. The more practice the better they will dominate the language, so please encourage them by practicing with them!

Greetings:
Hola, ¿como estas? buenos dias, buenas tardes, buenas noches, adios

Commands:
Levantate, sientate, ¿puedo tomar agua? ¿puedo ir al baño? silencio por favor, escuchen, hagan un circulo

Spanish alphabet and new letters:
ch, ll, ñ and rr 

Colors and shapes:
azul, morado, rosa, verde, anaranjado, rojo, amarillo, negro, gris, plateado (silver), dorado (gold), café (brown) y blanco (white)
círculo, triángulo, rectángulo, cuadro, esfera, trapezoide, corazón y diamante

School supplies:
tijeras, pegamento, lápiz, libreta, lapicera, libro, marcadores, colores, sacapuntas y carpetas

Números:
uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez
Once, doce, trece, catorce, quince, dieciséis, diecisiete, dieciocho, diecinueve, veinte
Veintiuno, veintidós, veintitrés, veinticuatro, veinticinco, veintiséis, veintisiete, veintiocho, veintinueve, treinta.

Review week/This week
The seventh week was review week, we reviewed the topics we had learned since the beginning of the school year until now. This week as mentioned before we will be learning the body parts, here are the vocabulary words for the week:

cabeza, hombros, piernas, rodillas, pies, cuello, manos, brazos, ombligo, ojos, nariz, boca, orejas, cabello, dedos, uñas, estomago, codo, tobillo.

Well that's it for now, please don't forget to practice with your kids at home. Thank you for your time ¡hasta luego!

Maestra Elisa

Intermediate Spanish- Week 3-6

¡Hola, papas!Just wanted to update you all again with the material we have cover in class and give you an update on how the class is going. I can't believe that we are already in week 7th of Spanish class, but I am pleased with what the kids have learned. I will again put all the vocabulary words we have covered, so you can practice with your kids anytime!

    I recently, started a point/star system, in which the students get a stars for coming on time, for participating, showing good behavior and take out starts away for disruptive behavior. At the end of the week, whoever has more stars gets a prize from the prize bag. So far, this system has worked well and every student has been participating. Also, I started to do a point system/star where is the teacher vs. the students. The only way they can a star if the whole class is participating and paying attention if not, I will receive the star. If the students get more stars than the teacher, they will get the chance to pick a fun activity/game they want to do at the of month or they will be a delicious treat for them.

    Here is a quick recap of the class: Everyday  for the first 4-5 mins of class I always do review with them of the words we have learn so far. I usually make flashcards of each word to put up in the board for the kids to come up, say the word in spanish and write in english. They also started to write all their vocabulary words in the journals at the of the week so they can keep track on what they have learned.

Week 3:
      In week 3, we focus on the Spanish alphabet. By now, it seems like all the kids know their alphabet, which I couldn't be any happier. I introduce the alphabet with a spanish song and went over each letter with flashcards and pictures. The first two days or so, I had them create their own picture alphabet book, which came out great. (Part one was tracing the letter. Part two writing words that begin with that letter and lastly draw a picture that began with that letter)Having them think of words that began with that letter was a bit of challenge, but I was able to introduce a lot of new vocabulary words ----->new words that they learned 

For review for week 7: We played a game of Snakes of Ladders using the alphabet by making the game life size. (I put all the letters spread out in the floor in the form of the board game). The kids had to role the dice and walk to the letter. Standing on the letter, they had to say the letter in Spanish, the sound it made and a word that begin with that letter. The kids absolutely enjoyed it!

                                                                                                 

 

Alfabeto                                                                                

Link to alphabet song/sounds of letters : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8MlEtSdJx0  

Other activities that has help them remember the alphabet:

- Game of bingo with the alphabet 

- At the of the week we played another game, which the kids enjoyed. I cut out the letters and put them all around the studio floor. I had the students move around/dance while music was playing. (They all seem to love the song called "Voy a Vivir"- by Marc Anthony) which some of them know part of the lyrics now. Once the music called, they had to step on a letter and tell me either the sound it made or a word that began with that letter. 

Week 4: Synonyms and antonyms -Sinónimos y antónimos

-We spent the whole week learning synonyms and antonyms.

Vocabulary words:

Pequeno-Grande: Small/Big

Alto/bajo: Tall/Short

Afuera/Adentro : In/Out

Caliente/Frio: Hot/Cold

Rapido/Despacio: Fast/Slow

Limpio/Sucio: Clean/Dirty

Feliz/Triste: Happy/Sad

Arriba/ Abajo: Up/Down

Dia/Noche: Day/Night

Joven/ viejo: Young/Old

Cerrado/Abierto: Close/Open

Vacio/lleno: Empty/Full

Activities/Games:

-The kids had the chance to make collages using these words. They had to write the opposites words or either draw/paste a picture that explain the two pair of words.

Lento-Rapido,  Frio-Caliente,   Grande-Pequeno 

                                                                                     

-We also played a memory game, which the kids enjoyed while it also worked to test what they knew. (The cards were faced down and they had the find the two pair that matched. However, they were able to keep the pair if they knew what the word meant in English.

 

Memory game/Review of words

-Another activity:(Race with Synonyms and antonyms) Each student was giving a small white board to either draw the synonyms/antonyms words or write it down. In this game, I called out a word and whoever wrote it or drew the picture with the word that went together receive a point. 

Race with Synonyms and Antonyms

The last game we played with the words was another race game. I posted all the words in the wall and pictures that describe the word. I had two kids go against in where they needed to run to the wall to see who could find the correct word/picture first that matched with the word I called out loud. Ex) HOT-  they needed to look for the word Cold.    

Review: At the end of the week for review I had them go up to the board, pronounce the words and match it with the pair by connecting the word to other side of the board with a dry marker.

Week 5'-6

In week 5, we focused on learning different school supplies and things around a classroom

Here is the following words:

Lapiz-Pencil

Papel-Paper

Escritorio-Desk

Silla- Chair

Puerta: Door 

Ventana: Window

Day two:

Mesa- Table

Pen-Pluma

Borrador-Eraser 

Cuaderno-Notebook

Libro-Book

Tijeras: Scciros

Day 3:

Calculadora- Calculator

Regla- Ruler

Sacapuntas:-Sharpener 

Crayones: Crayons

Mochilla: Backpack

Globo- Globe 

    Mapa-Map                                                                       

Activities/games:

“Around the Room” worksheet.  In the two different worksheet, they copied the Spanish word for the classroom objected picture. Second they wrote the spanish words from above next the English words.

- Game: Again we played a game of Jeopardy using the school supplies/classroom objects, since the kids are always asking to play that game. I put the kids into teams and they had sound buzzers to answer the questions (For example "Como se dice Pencil en Espanol" -Lapiz. Each team was giving points if they answered the question correctly.

Jeopardy game with school supplies

-We also, played a game of bingo using the words that we learned. By playing bingo the kids get the chance to hear the words over and over,  which it helps them remember.

-Fun friday game: 

we played a game to review called "Que hay en tu mochilla?"- What's in your backpack?" (I had the kids use their backpacks to play this game) I had two kids go against each other and had them be on opposite side of the room. Every time I called a school supply in spanish, they had look in their backpacks to see if they had the supply I was looking for. The first one to find it and put inside the basket that was in the middle of the class room got a point. This game gave them the opportunity to review the words and move around. The kids loved this game!!

                                                  Look at their excitement! lol 

Week 6: Body parts

In week 6, we focused on learning different body parts. I was happy that by the end of the week mostly all the kids knew all the words we covered. I wanted to cover body parts, since Halloween is around the color, which would be a nice transition into next week for Halloween/Day of the Dead.

Here is the following words we learned

Cabeza-Head

Brazos: Amrs

Manos-Hands

Piernas-Legs

Pies- Feet

Hombre-Shoulders

Pecho-Chest

Rodillas: Knee

Ojos-Eyes

Oreja-Ears

Narriz-Nose

Labios-Lips

Boca-Mouth

Dientes-Teeth

Cuello- Neck

Dedos-Fingers

Ceja- Eyebrows 

Codo- Elbow 

Espalda- Back

Tobillo-Ankle

Mueca- Wrist

Cintura-Waist 

Activity: Worksheet- The kids had the chance to draw the parts with the given body part words next to it.

Link to body parts review:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTrFeTDdXqU

Activity/ game: We played a memory game using the words and pictures that I made for them. The students had to match the body part word with the correct picture, but the only way they were able to keep the pair was if they could tell me the wold in English.

                                                                                                                                                                    Activity/game: For review I put all the body pictures in that wall and the kids needed to tape the body part word with the correct picture. 

Activity: We spend the last 2-3 day working on art project that involved them tracing their own bodies. They had the chance to work with each other, paint their outlines bodies with paint and label all the body parts they learn, The kids really enjoyed doing it since they though it was pretty cool thing to have.