Intermediate Spanish- Week 1 and 2

Hola, parents! 
My name is Cynthia, and I am the new intermediate Spanish teacher at the DAC. I plan to update  my blogs to keep you all up to date with the topics we are covering in class and everything that we have learn so far. Also, I will provide helpful links every once in a while if you would like to give your child extra practice. The first two of weeks, have been great. Getting to know your children has been amazing and appreciate your children's patience as we get the hang of things. The first week we had the beginning and intermediate class together just to evaluate their levels and see what they already know. My class knows quite a lot already, which I could not be any happier. So far, we've covered greetings, commands, colors and shapes. 

First week:

The first day we had a picture day. Analy, the led teacher made out a picture frame and we took everyones picture. We plan to do this again, at the end of the year.

Introduction phrases (“my name is ___, I am ___ years old, I am from___”

Actividades: Los estudiantes hicieron “self portraits” con las frases indicadas

-Jugamos con estas frases jugando con una pelota. Cada estudiante le tiraba la pelota a otro estudiante y tenia que escoger un frase para decir

-Introducion de (Hello, goodbye, good morning, good afternoon)

-Introudion de commandas ( Sit down, raise your hand, make a circle, how do you say?, no entiendo, I am sorry,  can I go to the bathroom)

Activadad: Jugamos Simon Says 

For Mexico's independence day we had the students do an art project that reflected Mexico culture

Viernes- Jugamos jeopardy para repasar todo la materia del la semana. Hice tres diferente categorías (con puntos cada tarjeta) con preguntas. Les pregunte como se decía ciertas cosas en español. Por ejemplo, (cuando te le levantas que es lo primero que le dices a tu papas?- Buenos dias) Divide los estudiantes en 2 groups y los deja usar  los “buzers” para responder. Los ninos/as se divirtieron mucho con el repaso ya que también hubo un pequeño premio para los ganadores.

Second week:

 Reposamos el vocabulario de la semana pasada

-Introducción de colores básicos (red, orange, yellow, green, blue

-Actividad: Los estudiantes dibujaran objetos/cosas del color indicado 

-Introducción de figures ( Square, rectangle, triangle, circle, pentagon, octagon, hexagon, rhombus, diamond)

Actividad: Los estudiantes hicieron sus propias figuras con “contruction paper” para jugar. Puse las figuras en el piso y ya les decia cual figura pisar. El que no tenia una figura, esta fuera del juego. Los niños de divirtieron mucho con esta actividad ya que se estaban moviendo  y aprendiendo a la misma vez.

Activity: I had the students made an art project with the shapes that we covered . They all had the cut the shapes, color them and had to describe the shape in spanish/or say something about the shape .

The students had so much fun playing race with shapes. I had all the shapes put up in the wall and I had them race. I will called out a shape and whoever will bring up the card with the correct shape got a point. 

DAC Intermediate French Weeks 1-2

Bonjour à tous !

My name is Jade, and I am the new intermediate French teacher at the DAC. I plan to update this blog frequently to keep you up to date with our class. I will also provide links to videos and songs if you would like to give your child some extra practice.

The first couple of weeks are always the toughest, and I appreciate you and your children’s patience as we get to know each other. The topics covered in beginning and intermediate French are similar, so one of the challenges for me has been to evaluate their levels to see what they already know. Most of the kids have decent pronunciation and word recognition. Unaided production and complete sentences are more difficult for them, however, and I will seek to target these aspects further in the days to come.

So far, we've covered greetings, commands, colors, and shapes. For greetings, I especially tried to target the ones they do not already know, like à bientôt. The kids were also introduced to basic commands while combining with the beginning class in a game of Simon says, and I took it a step further with my own group by differentiating between the singular and plural forms and by adding the verb épeler (to spell) to the list. The kids are not interested in relearning the alphabet in its entirety, so I will be working it into other lessons, either by asking them to spell out words in French or by playing hangman, which they seem to enjoy.

This week, we worked on colors and shapes, and I am pleased to say that by the end of the week, most of the kids have demonstrated decent mastery of these words. To facilitate the learning process, I showed two videos in class. Here are the links:

Les couleurs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaaSprb0IXk

Les formes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xb_QzaqxmA

The great thing about the color video in particular (aside from the catchy tune and the odd cartoon man) is that it differentiates the feminine and masculine forms of the color adjectives by pairing them first with the noun voiture (feminine) and then with camion (masculine). This differentiation is something that most of the kids understand but have not been able to put into practice, so it's great to introduce something that would expose them to these forms naturally.

Another color video with more advanced vocabulary, French lyrics, and the translation:

To conclude, here is a list of some of the words we covered over the past two weeks:

Greetings: bonjour, bonsoir, bonne journée, bonne soirée, à bientôt, à tout à l'heure, à plus tard
Commands & Questions: levez-vous (lève-toi), levez la main (lève la main), asseyez-vous (assieds-toi), sautez (saute), dites (dis), répétez (répète), calmez-vous (calme-toi), épelez (épelle), comment dit-on
Colors: rouge, orange, jaune, vert(e), bleu(e), violet(te), marron, blanc(he), noir(e), rose, foncé, clair
Shapes: un cercle, un carré, un triangle, une étoile, un rectangle, un cube, un cylindre, un cœur, un croissant, un losange

Overall, these two weeks have been a process of discovery, both for me and for the students. It has been fun to see their individual personalities emerge little by little, and I will use this to our common advantage by formulating my lessons plans in a way that works best for each of them. If any of the children voice any comments, concerns, or opinions (both good and bad) at any point in time, feel free to let me know either via email or by leaving a comment here as I am always seeking ways to improve!

Merci bien!