KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS
I'm sending out an "Hola" to our Kindergarten members of the St. Theresa Catholic School Family! Our Kindergarten students are enjoying the delights of playing in their new language. We are counting objects as well as describing them in greater detail than in last year's level. We are playing with puppets who happen to be bi-lingual! We are listening to both traditional and modern stories in Spanish. We will be doing some singing, dancing, and playing games in Spanish as well.
FIRST GRADE STUDENTS
Our First Grade students are working with portions of the learning system called Viva el Español. They will be working their way through the first level (Level A) during the first half of the year. We will be reviewing the numbers 1 to 30, all of the basic 12 colors, members of the family, and common expressions and commands which will be used in the classroom. During the second half of the year, the children will begin to play with the written form of the language. They will be writing very short guided stories about their favorite animals, their families, and their homes.
SECOND GRADE STUDENTS
Our Second Grade students will be working in the "Viva el Español" Learning System, Part B. During the First and Second Quarters, we will be covering vocabulary for items, people and expressions used in the school setting. We will then move on to learn about the verbs "tener", "estar" and "ser". In the later part of the year they will be working their way through several specialized units to better expand on their written forms of the language in addition to expanding their oral facility with the language.
THIRD GRADE STUDENTS
Are you "listos" (ready)? The Third Grade students are beginning to work in the Spanish textbook, "Converso Mucho". They will work their way through the first half of the book in third grade and the second half of the book in fourth grade. They will begin with common expressions used in conversations, Then we will move on to talking about things and people in the classrooms. We then will move on to numbers, asking for and telling telephone numbers, as well as how to do math problems in Spanish. We will learn the rules regarding masculine and feminine nouns and articles in Spanish. Then we will concentrate on the pluralization rules as well.
FOURTH GRADE STUDENTS
Fourth Grade students are not only "Listos" (ready), but they are "En fuego" (on fire). We, too, are continuing to work in the Spanish textbook entitled, "Converso Mucho". We are doing a very quick steady review of the materials that we covered from this book in third grade. Then we are moving on into all new material. We will cover all of the materials in the third grade students information box above, as well as the use of many other new verbs in both the present tense and a quick introduction into the present progressive tense. We will learn about pluralization of nouns and adjectives.
FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADE STUDENTS
During the First and Second quarters our students will be working in their textbook called, "Spanish is Fun". The first chapter deals with basic nouns and adjectives. It teaches the students that some of the words are identical in both Spanish and English. It also shows them that some of the Spanish words are quite similar to English words. We also learn about the sentence structure of Spanish. In Chapters Two and Three the students begin to read entire short stories in Spanish about families and schools. They will be able to answer short comprehension questions about those stories. They then will learn the rules about how to make both articles and nouns in their plural forms. We then will move into the chapter which teaches them about conjugating AR ending verbs in the present tense. Then come the Repaso Tests which will let me know if they have mastered the materials taught in the first four chapters. Later on in the year we will be moving on to the chapters dealing with numbers, math operations, money, telling time and reading time schedules. Then it is on to the conjugation of ER ending verbs and a second round of Repaso Tests. Finally we will move on to the chapters dealing with the specific uses of the verbs SER and ESTAR and the conjugation of IR ending verbs, and vocabulary dealing with time measurements.
SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS
Seventh grade students are using a textbook which is also used at the high school level at a few of our local schools, entitled "En Español". This is a textbook which covers large amounts of vocabulary, fine tunes their grammatical understanding of their new language, and also gives them historical and cultural lessons. I will be expecting the students to create large numbers of flashcards which hopefully they will review on a regular basis to maintain a large vocabulary in their new targeted language. Tests will occur as we come to the end of each new chapter.
Tests are usually about 50% Spanish to English and 50% English to Spanish at this grade level. Full sentences and paragraphs to be translated are common in these exams. In addition, there will be written exercises during the lessons on grammatical and language development portions of the chapters.
Students are encouraged to play Quia games from my page on the STCS website. Not only will that help to keep their vocabulary and grammar points fresh in their minds during the year, but also will allow them to accumulate bonus points which can be applied to their grade point average for the quarter. In addition, I commonly will tell the students that a particular extra assignment or activity in the book is not required for homework, but it can be completed for bonus points.
EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS
A cordial welcome has gone out to my "Angels" in the Eighth Grade. They will be working at a very fast pace all year ...... however, we especially will be working the students with special vigor in the Second, Third and Fourth Quarters.
At the start of the Eighth Grade program we have to refresh their previously learned knowledge from the past years and then move on to new materials. The major emphasis in the First and Third quarters will be on their oral skills. Students will be preparing and presenting short speeches and skits in Spanish. They will use a textbook and additional materials for graded question and answer sessions. A heavy emphasis will be placed on the reading and writing skills during their Second and Fourth Quarters. We will be using their Seventh Grade textbook to review the present, present progressive and simple future tenses. We will then move on into the simple past tense and full future tenses. We are also trying to prepare them for the Spanish Proficiency Exams that some of the local high schools offer for those students who would like to try and place into an advanced version of the First Year classes. Some students even try and test out of the First Year course and move into a Spanish Two level course. I have reserved Tuesday mornings, starting in January, from 7:35 until 7:55 for the Eighth Grade students who would like to put in some extra effort for those exams.
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