Kindergarten: Our First 6 Weeks

I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all the new smiling kindergarten faces at Baker this year!  During the first weeks of Spanish, kindergartners have been spending time practicing routines, practicing directions in Spanish, learning new games and songs, and learning each other's names.  This can be a challenge for both amigos and profe--students are learning to say their names in Spanish, while I am working on (and have just about mastered!) learning all the new names.

Here is a brief summary of some key things we have worked on during these first 6 weeks.

• As I mentioned in a previous post, kindergartners have been practicing introducing themselves by stating their names and how old they are.  You can ask your child to share our ¿Cómo te llamas tu? song that we have been singing to help us remember how to say our names.  You can also ask your child to show ¿Cuántos años tienes? by holding up 5 or 6 fingers and saying the number in Spanish.  This week, your child will be bringing home a self-portrait with two sentences that tell their name and their age.

• In addition to practicing our names and ages, kindergartners have been busy learning how to greet each other and tell how they are feeling.  They are such quick learners that now when I see them around the building, they are quick to give me a nice, confident Hola, Profe! (Hi, teacher!).  Many are also ready to tell me how they are feeling when I continue the conversation with a ¿Cómo estas? (How are you?). This is exciting progress--in just 6 weeks, our kindergartners are able to make small talk in Spanish!

• If you are interested in talking about feelings at home, you can try greeting them at home with Hola, ¿Cómo estas? (Hello, how are you?). They should be able to give you one of three different responses:

We often practice these by giving a thumbs up or thumbs down while saying the word to reinforce what they mean.  Give it a try!

Follow Profe on Twitter!

You can see weekly tweets for Spanish classes in Kindergarten, 2nd grade and 3rd grade on my Twitter account -

@profe_vergara

Bienvenidos! / Welcome!

Welcome to my blog all about Elementary Spanish at Baker! My goal is to use this space to share what we have been working on in Spanish class and to post links to websites and materials for enrichment at home.  I'll include lots of links from Spanish vocabulary to google translate, where you can see definitions of words as well as hear pronunciations, if you are not a Spanish speaker yourself.

Here is a brief summary of how we have spent our first 6 weeks in Spanish class.  You can check grade specific posts to read more detailed information about your child's Spanish class.

In all grades, we start the year getting to know each other. This is standard September/October stuff--we just do it in Spanish. A few things that all students have been working on:

* Saying hello and goodbye

* Telling their names and ages

* Telling how they feel

* Telling the weather and the date

For 3rd graders, this is a quick review before we move on to other things; for the younger students we practice these things throughout September and October, gradually increasing vocabulary and students level of conversation with each other as they move up through the grades. We also practice following rules and directions in Spanish, which is important for getting us off to a good start together for the year.

Our most important directions in Spanish are shown below, with a graphic as a reminder of the definition. Can your child tell you what each means, and why it is important?

mira

escucha