Upper School Spanish News - January

“Practical life activities make up one of the most important areas of Montessori education, helping with order, concentration, coordination, and independence.” - Maria Montessori

Cultural - Cooking

Students from Lower school 3 and Upper School 1 and 2 made sopaipillas. They rolled the dough, cut shapes, and grated oranges, lemons, cinnamon and nutmeg. They took turns frying the sopaipillas, and the best part was eating them. Muy buenas!

Students also made tortilla de patatas, Spanish omeletes. They peeled lots of potatoes, grated onions and garlic, and made a batter out of eggs. The hardest part was turning the tortilla upside down. They did it!

“As soon as children find something that interests them, they lose their instability and learn to concentrate.” Maria Montessori

We wrote Spanish stories and put on a play using puppets.

Students work with vocabulary cards and make their own sentence books in Spanish with words or pictures. After our sopaipillas cooking lesson, students asked for the receipt so they could write down the ingredients and draw pictures describing how to make the sopaipillas.

Students are happy to have extra Spanish lessons.

“Do not tell them how to do it. Show them how to do it and do not say a word. If you tell them, they will watch your lips move. If you show them, they will want to do it themselves.” - Maria Montessori

Learning How to Tell Time - We wrote a sequence of what we did from the time we woke up until the end of the day.

“Help me to do it myself” - Maria Montessori

Writing – Students understand and use parts of speech in the context of reading, writing, and speaking.

Before students start working with a Spanish workbook, they work with concrete materials to prepare them for using abstract materials like workbooks.

“While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about it” -  Maria Montessori

After Winter Break, students had the chance to share what they did during that time. They used the irregular and past tense of the verb ir - to go

“Building Handwork into culture will not provide the children with opportunities to explore and create, it will give them control of their environment.” - Maria Montessori

Handwork- Students love handwork! Sewing machines are out and ready for those who like to sew.

This student designed and sewed her own doll dress!

Students made a beautiful pillow and gave it to their guide Christy’s daughter.

Gracias,

Maria Asunción