Wrapping up T2

8th grade Spanish students worked on two MovieTalks this week, "La Receta del Amor" (Love Recipe) and "Oktapodi" (The Octopi). Movie Talks are divided onto reading/writing comprehension activities, or oral/listening/speaking activities. We aim to work on one of each kind every week during this unit.

7th grade Spanish students have continued working on their Conjugation slideshows as well as various activities in class to help them utilize these skills. These projects will be due next Tuesday and presentations will take place on that day.

6th grade Spanish students will be starting their Spanish-speaking country projects this week. This unit will focus on hispanic cultures and how colloquial Spanish changes from country to country. We will also reflect on how each country observes their own unique practices and that while these countries may share a language, in come cases, they share little else. We will compare different regions and explore WHY these places have some cultural similarities, and why they have some differences, and how an American traveler can successfully interact with these cultural differences.

Spring has sprung!

8th grade Spanish students are in the midst of their "MovieTalk"unit. This consists of watching short clips of silent films and adding language to the storyline. Students have done two MovieTalks orally, and one in writing. We will continue this into next week.

7th grade Spanish students are working on their Conjugation slideshows. They must create 10 slides of AR, ER, and IR verbs for a grand total of 30 slides. Much of the conjugation is embedded in daily oral conversation, but this project aims to keep them in the target language more often and helps them to create more comprehensible writing.

6th grade Spanish students had their test on "Animales" this week. We played several learning games to prepare them for this exam. If your child is unhappy with his/her grade, he/she is invited to make up the exam anytime before March 26th.

Staying on Schedule

8th grade Spanish students have begun their MovieTalk unit. They first animated short that we have given Spanish dialogue is "Paperman" and the second is "Destiny." Both shorts are silent and we ask questions and give answers in Spanish as a whole class in response to what transpires in the cartoon. This unit will include 5 MovieTalk shorts that they will be quizzed on in 2 weeks. There will be an oral and written component to this assessment.

7th grade Spanish students have learned to conjugate ER/IR verbs in Spanish and were given the rubric to start their Conjugation project. This project has a presentational component at the end and the reading and writing components are included in the slideshow they have started to create.

6th grade Spanish students are reading stories that feature many of the animals they are learning in class. Each story's setting is a new place, a farm, the jungle, the arctic, the forest, etc. They are using many of the skills they have learned this year to follow and respond to these stories as well as acquire new vocabulary.

Marching into March

6th grade Spanish students engaged in a ¿Quién es? activity this week (a "Guess Who?" type game in Spanish that centered around Animals). Students are using their knowledge of body parts, colors, numbers, and descriptive words to understand and describe animals they are familiar with. For example:
"Este animal es un tipo de gato. Vive en Africa. Tiene rayas negras y anaranjadas. Es muy feroz." (Answer: El Tigre).

7th grade Spanish students have been learning AR verb conjugation. They have learned the melody "Conjugation Back" to help them recall their endings. They have learned a Spanish game called "La Lucha" that has aided in their comprehension and completed an AR verb conjugation puzzle. Being able to accurately conjugate is essential for being comprehensible in another language. Next week, they will learn ER/IR verb conjugation so they can start speaking in richer sentences.

8th grade Spanish students completed their gallery walk this week. They also watched clips from the film "Sweet 15." We will be begin MovieTalk this coming Monday. Please encourage your children to hand in their projects if they have not done so already. Projects will not be accepted any later thank Monday, March 10th. Thank you and have a great weekend.