word searches, masks and review

Hola padres! We have had another wonderful week in Spanish! For second and third grade, I had them work on a Day of the Dead word search that contained both English and Spanish words having to do with the holiday.  They always enjoy this and it is a fun way for them to understand some of the vocabulary. We also used the week to review and catch up on the tropical rainforest vocabulary in our cuadernos or notebooks. I was so happy to see how much of the words they remembered and was glad to give them this week to catch up on writing any of the vocabulary that they may have missed the first time around. This enables us to jump right back in next week with our tropical forest lessons and add to our vocabulary lists.

We continued this week with our Spanish speaking country lessons with second grade learning about Guatemala and third grade learning about Ecuador.

For Kinder and first this week, I was excited to introduce them to our lesson on the Day of the Dead and its meaning and significance in the Hispanic culture. For this lesson, we made colorful Day of the Dead masks that should have come home yesterday and also today. The scholars really enjoyed using bright, beautiful colors and we worked some on our fine motor skills with cutting the eyes out. This can be a difficult task for them, but I am so glad to see them all tackle it with gusto and give it their best effort! They did such a great job. We also got a few minutes to review the Spanish alphabet and we played a short game of memory with the picture cards to review. Next week we will start with our first Spanish phonogram of "ch" which can be considered a letter and we will talk about how this is different from our own English alphabet. We will also start our lessons on the body parts and learn the song "head, shoulders, knees and toes" in Spanish, which is always a hit with this age group. Thank you so much for your time and please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Sra. Hamilton
ahamilton@archwaytrivium.org

project week, holidays and conferences

Hola padres! It was so nice seeing some of you at conferences! I was glad to learn that some of you read my blog and that it was helpful. I am having the teachers send the link out again in their next newsletter, so hopefully more of you are checking it out.

This week was such a great week as scholars delved into different projects in their classrooms, recited poems, performed readers' theaters and got to take part in each grades' festivities. To go along with the theme of the week, I began introducing each class to the holiday of the Day of the Dead, its different aspects and reasons for why it is important in the Hispanic culture. Of course, the movie "The Book of Life" was mentioned and I let the scholars know how much I liked the movie due to its story and beautiful and colorful animation. If your scholar hasn't gotten a chance to see it, I do recommend it. To go along with this, each class also got a chance to make some papel picado which is a fun and festive way to decorate for celebrations and holidays. Please ask them about it! I think we all enjoyed making it!

Due to the half day schedule this week, I wasn't able to have any classes with Kinder. Next week, will start their study of the day of the dead and they along with first grade will be making day of the dead masks.

Second and third grade will also be doing other day of the dead activities which will expand their vocabulary of the holiday and its celebration.

I hope everyone enjoyed this week as much as I have. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns. Gracias!

Sra. Hamilton
ahamilton@archwaytrivium.org

reading, "donde" and review

Hola padres! I am so sorry this post is late. Last week got away from me! So last week, in second and third grade we learned the names of different habitats that animals live in in the rainforest. The scholars caught on very well and enjoyed working through this as a class. We then worked on a new game called the add on game where scholars one by one give me a Spanish vocabulary word and as we go down their row, they have to tell me the words everyone else has used plus add on their own. They really enjoyed this and I felt it gave them a great way to practice what we have learned so far.

This week we are working on review as well as continuing our reading on the Panama Canal or Frida Kahlo. I love seeing the scholars excitement when I pull these chapter books out and am glad for this week do to this with them.

In Kinder and first this week we are mostly working on review with games. When we return from break, we will be jumping into our holiday lessons in all grades, mostly learning about dia de los muertos and how and why it is important to the Hispanic culture. This is an exciting time of year and I am eager to share it with your scholars. Thank you all for a wonderful first quarter, I look forward to seeing some of you at conferences!

Sra. Hamilton