El Día de los Muertos

The Third Grade classes are studying El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Spanish and Art classes this month.  They are learning how Spanish-speaking people throughout the world celebrate this holiday.

There are even many El Día de los Muertos celebrations in the United States; here is an advertisement for one such celebration in San Francisco.  (Click on image to see a larger version.)

¡Churros!

In the 5th Grade Spanish classes we have been learning to talk about our likes and dislikes with food.  One food that everyone has been interested in is churros, a dessert popular in Spanish-speaking countries.  In class we watched the first 7 minutes of this video on how to make churros, I hope that you enjoy it!

Churros con Chocolate

¡Bienvenido de nuevo a la escuela! Welcome back to school!

The 2013-2014 school year has already gotten off to a great start.  The third, fourth and fifth grade students have jumped right back in the Spanish-speaking saddle and the second graders are already able to introduce themselves in Spanish.

This year the second grade students will be getting their feet wet and having their first conversations in Spanish.  They will learn to talk about themselves, their family and the school, as well as learning about fairy tales in Spanish and making their own bilingual fairy tale book.

The third grade students will be learning to describe more about themselves, with topics including the body and clothing, and more about the world around them, including weather and an expanded family unit.

The fourth grade students will continue to expand their Spanish speaking world by learning how to talk about their homes and the town they live in.  They will also be improving their abilities to read and write, as well as pronounce, Spanish by learning the Spanish alphabet.

The fifth grade students will begin the year by learning to express their likes, dislikes, wants and needs in Spanish.  First they will be talking about foods and beverages, particularly of the Spanish speaking world, and then about after-school activities.  At the mid-year they will switch to French and cover an abbreviated list of topics from the Spanish curriculum.

I’m looking forward to a great and fun-filled year with all the MERSD elementary students!

BBC Français

The BBC also has the same games in French, geared towards elementary aged beginners.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/french/all_games/

BBC Español

Here is a website from the BBC with games geared towards elementary aged beginners.  The BBC has many fun language learning resources for older learners too, if you or an older child is interested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primarylanguages/spanish/all_games/

Mini-libros en español

Check out this website:

http://onlinefreespanish.com/aplica/lessons/minibooks/minibookmenu.htm

There are 14 mini-books in Spanish with English subtitles on topics that beginners would know.   Click on one of the 14 icons that spin around to read one of the books.

Avez-vous faim?

Are you hungry?  France is well known for the local and gourmet foods that different regions produce.  Here is a cute postcard that illustrates some famous dishes or foods that you may have heard of and the regions where they are found.

For fifth graders and their parents, I am planning on uploading all of our French documents to the 5th Grade Documents page on the right sidebar, so feel free to check them out and remember that you can find them there when it’s time to study!

¿Por qué estudiar español?

Here are a few reasons to study Spanish that I think that we can all relate to this month!

¿Qué tiempo hace hoy?  What’s the weather like today?

 

 

 

Pourquoi étudier français?

This is a pretty comprehensive list of reasons why French is still such a popular language worldwide written by a Canadian site that promotes bilingualism!

¡Propsero Año Nuevo!

¡Propsero Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year!  We have quickly gotten back to the swing of things in Spanish in the first couple weeks of school.  Each grade has jumped right back into Spanish and we are working on various projects.

2^nd Grade has started a unit on fairy tales during which we will be reading Little Red Riding Hood in Spanish and then the students will be rewriting the story in a bilingual Spanish/English book.

3^rd Grade has been working on clothing and describing the color of clothing that different people are wearing.  They have started a little book that describes the clothing that they like to wear in different situations.

4^th Grade has been studying weather and will be starting a unit on the house and home soon.  We have been watching interactive videos and playing some online games to reinforce our vocabulary.

5^th Grade finished up a unit on Activities before the break and started a short unit on weather and seasons.  We have written about what we like to do in the different seasons, as well as discussing the weather in different Spanish speaking regions of the world and comparing them to the United States.  The big news is that we will be switching to French the last week of January!  Ooh la la!