August Spanish News

Elementary Spanish

Bienvenidos a la clase de espaňol!  Welcome back everyone!  We are looking forward to another fun year learning about Spanish language and culture.  

The first weeks of school we will concentrate on T.P.R. (Total Physical Response) which is often used for commands or verbs. I may say “La clase se sienta” and the class will sit down.   As you may remember, this method uses group activities to enhance our learning of vocabulary and grammar. T.P.R. also helps students gain confidence and have fun with Spanish. They will work with new vocabulay and practice using the words they know.  T.P.R. uses movements, games, and group participation.  Our goal is to find out the students’ abilities and comfort levels with Spanish before building on that foundation.  In the beginning, the children will have a Silent Period. We don’t force the students to produce the language. The goal is comprehension.

Personalization is a very important part before we start T.P.R.S. We ask simple questions about the children's likes and dislikes and then add that information to our stories.

After we work in a story, the children reenact it by drawing the sequence of the story.

Another group will add some words to the story.

T.P.R.S. (Total Physical Response and Stories).

Starting in October, Upper Elementary will begin our pen-pal program. We will be working with an organization called ePalsGlobal Community that collaborates with the Smithsonian Institute, National Geographic, Microsoft, and other well-known 

sponsors.  We will correspond with two schools, one in Spain and one in Italy. Our 

students will write in Spanish and the other school's students will write in English.  We will also correspond through Skype.  Discover what happens when students in Spain and the United States pair up to find out about each other’s culture through food and traditions 
surrounding their cuisines.

Make sure you look at the Spanish posts on the Abintra blog every month. You don’t want to miss any pictures or activities that we are working on in each class!

Maria Asunción