Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Chapter One Summer book club

Summer has begun. And in Arizona that means sun. Lots of it.

🌞  Hace calor. Hace mucho calor. ¡Hace  un montón de calor!

This summer, my middle school students are reading a novel ~ en español.
¡Qué chèvre! 😎

We are reading Brandon Brown Quiere un Perro by Carol Gaab.

I have a small class of students I teach once a week in my home. During the school year, our class was 10 students in various grades from first through sixth. The class is based on the TPRS method. This method, which bases its methods on research of first language acquisition and applies it to a natural yet carefully constructed approach to learn a second language, is so impressive. Students are engaged and build proficiency though comprehensive input and storytelling. The class is creative, memorable and fun. Most importantly, this is Spanish that "sticks."

Five of my students will be middle schoolers next year. Two will be entering into a traditional Spanish class. My class both exposes learners to high frequency language as well as prepares them, giving them confidence to communicate in the language. Since it takes a different approach than traditional textbook Spanish, it is a wonderful path to the journey of language learning.  Since we only meet weekly it is simultaneously a great preparation and a great supplement to a traditional classroom setting. En español todo es posible ~ ¡lo hacemos juntos!

Today we read chapter one in the novel in Spanish. We summarized the main ideas and discussed what pets the students have, want or neither have not want (en español- por supuesto). We added to our cuaderno a dictionary section and a grammar section.

I will try to insert the chart we made:




Monday, November 9, 2015

Mini cuento

this link you take you to our you tube channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xEua8ttkxI

I put the script for the story on there so your child can hear and practice good pronunciation.

The story is about a big fish who is very hungry and a little fish who is nervous he will be eaten by the big fish. A cat arrives at the house.  The cat is hungry too.  He eats the big fish.  The little fish says, "Thanks."  In the end though, the cat also eats the little fish.  Poor fish!

Today in class we practiced:

Quiere- he/she wants
Tiene- he/she has
Tiene hambre - she/he is hungry
Tiene mucha hambre- he/she is very hungry
El jueves- on Thursday

We told stories in Spanish and answered questions in Spanish about Elmo and his friends and un oso quien tiene mucha hambre.  El oso quiere comer Elmo, Big Bird y Snuffaluffagus.  Al fin, el oso come Cookie Monster!  Pobre Cookie Monster!

Hasta el lunes, amigos!

Greetings song you tube link

http://youtu.be/xAo5jUuko0o

This above link should take you to the greeting song we are using in class.

Feel free to let you child listen to it in the car, at breakfast, or whenever you have 3 minutes to spare.

Buenas Noches 🌅 🌛

Thursday, November 5, 2015

You tube links for conversation

Many of our actions/responses that we learn along with the Spanish word/phrase are inspired by American Sign Language.

Our latest song to learn basic conversation uses these asl signs:
Hello- hola
Goodbye- adiós
How are you?- ¿Cómo estás?/¿Qué tal?
Fine, thank you - bien, gracias
Nice to meet you- mucho gusto
Good morning- buenos días
Good afternoon- buenas tardes
Good evening- buenas noches
What's up - ¿Qué pasa?

Here should be some links that show the actions:
 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1z0wuq2cLAA

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3x9pPcMbDBY&sns=fb

http://youtu.be/S40fTlJY0PQ

November newsletter


Saturday, September 19, 2015

Spanish alphabet song (military style) by Barbara MacAurthur



This is the alphabet song we will be adding to our class warm up.  Spanish is phonetic language so practicing the sounds these letters make directly impacts pronunciation.  It is possible to pronounce just about any word in Spanish once you know you Spanish sounds since Spanish words are "rule followers," not like all of our rebel "rule-breakers" in English!

Monday, September 14, 2015


We had such a great first class together!  We sang days of the week, months of the year and answered calendar questions.  We had a fun round of the "grabbit" game where students sit in a circle with an item in front of them.  The person in the middle has to try to grab the item called out before the person with the item calls out a different one.  We reviewed vocabulary using our Spanish and our actions.  We played a game of matamoscas - where students circled words on a game board competing against a partner.  We ended class with a game of Que Problema!

Reminder: try to bring in a magazine or picture or print out of a feeling face - excited, happy, sad, tired, bored, sick, furious, mad, confused, proud... We are going to use these to make posters and for conversation starters.

Hasta el lunes,
Sra. K.