El Dia de San Valentin

This past week the students have been enjoying Valentine centered activities that incorporated preciously learned skills,  Third grade created cards in which they wrote sentences with conjugated    -AR verbs.  While first and second grade made positive heart puzzles with the phrase "Me gusta" and newly learned valentine vocabulary. While fourth and fifth grade students tested their listening skills to complete the lyrics of Fonseca's Te Mando Flores.

Spanish Day

Our first annual Spanish day was full of fun activities for our students.  They created crafts, watched a few acts and listened to a story. I am so thrilled to have the opportunity to do Spanish Day, but of course it would not have been possible without the wonderful volunteers.  A special thanks to those moms who worked the day of and behind he scenes to get everything perfect.

El dia de los muertos

El día de los muertos...

The students learned about the Mesoamerican rooted tradition of celebrating life and death. After discussing the history and meaning of the holiday they enjoyed creating crafts to take home.

 

 

We are finishing up and moving on

Kindergarten- We began our parts of the body lessons.  We talked about our main outer body parts.

The kinder class has learned two songs and labeled their parts of the body.  I am very impressed by their willingness to learn and curiosity.

First Grade- Is learning about places, people and the importance of their jobs in the community.  We made an anchor chart to help us remember all of these.  

Second Grade-  Landforms, ecosystems, animals, and much more.  We began this week by learning the names of 5 landforms and created a fun way of reviewing them.  

One of the second grade students (Charlie) has done a magnificent job at illustrating and completing his vocabulary review assignment.

Third Grade- Finished the last of our phonics!! The students will receive a copy of all the Spanish syllables learned.  

Fourth Grade-Finished the last of our phonics!! The students will receive a copy of all the Spanish syllables learned.  

Third and fourth should be bringing this home soon.  It is just an extra reference for when they begin to read in Spanish.  It was a long 3 lessons of pure phonics but i think it will help us out in the long run!! Way to go third and fourth grade.

Fifth Grade- Spanish Conquistadors and Explorers.  We reviewed Columbus, De Vaca, Pineda, Coronado and Cortes.  The students created a foldable to jot down important facts about these explorers.

New Spanish Review/Homework Folders

This week the students took home a review/homework folder. These folders will be used as a study aide that will include their current vocabulary lists and other ongoing vocabulary such as months of the year, days of the week, numbers, and colors.   

Inside the folders there is a list of suggested Spanish homework assignments.  The recommended number of assignments is two per week.  

These folders are to stay at home and updated with work that comes home with two hole punches at the top.

I have also been made aware of a couple of pages that need to be resent or updated because of illegibility or it was in English as opposed to Spanish.  I will be getting those out to everyone and putting them here on my blog as well, so if you would like to print them put please feel free to do so.    

I hope this answers a few questions but please feel free to email me at anytime or comment on the blog if you have any questions or concern, if it’s not clear to you it may not be clear to others.  

En la clase de español

We are making tons of progress!  The students and I have been working really hard to create some great projects and have fun learning Spanish.  Here are some examples and a snippet of what we are doing in our class time.  

Kinder-  Pets, pets, pets!! We are learning about a special part of the family...our pets!! 

First-  Along with our morning song, first grade is learning new greetings and farewells in Spanish to use them with their friends.  

Second-  Continuing descriptions of illustrations we are reviewing positional words in Spanish by adding on to our personal illustrations and creating an anchor chart to practice.  

Third/Fourth-  Phonics in Spanish.  Learning 9 letters and sounds, which include the vowels and 4 consonants.  We are also learning to listen to beginning syllables on Spanish words that will later help us read and write in Spanish.  

Fifth-  This week fifth grade is being introduced to workstations which will include Read to Self, Listen to Reading, Working with Words, and Work on Writing all in Spanish.  During this time I will work with small groups to improve their reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills.

Whats been going on?

Kinder- Has been learning about family.  This week they made a family portrait and labeled family members in Spanish.

First- Created "Un océano amigable" by listening to "El Pez Arco Iris," discussing and then using their Spanish vocabulary to decorate a fish that depicted being a good friend.  

Second- Practiced their adjectives through an interactive whole class activity and then applying their knowledge of adjectives to draw a picture and label.

Third/Fourth/Fifth- Continued to discuss how to listen and follow instructions in Spanish.  We also discussed the need to begin to use their Spanish as much as possible in the classroom.  Greetings and farewells were introduced and will be continued next class time.  

Until next time!! Please feel free to contact me via email at anytime at abrandon@houstonisd.org.