I feel like I haven't posted an update in so long! Many classes are in the middle of different projects that I haven't been ready to display yet. Grade 3 at Hope Valley is working hard on their weather reports for the Spanish-speaking country that they have been assigned. Mrs. Zonfrilli's class is moving along really quickly. Mr. Fanning's class has had a few hiccups along the way, including snow days! I am really excited to complete this project. The students have done an amazing job researching their countries, writing their forecasts, and memorizing their lines. As each group presents their project, I am recording it and adding it to a video that will have all of the presentations for each Spanish-speaking country and each student. Check out the picture below of the editing process. In it, Austin and Shawn are shown in front of a hurricane, the weather that they chose for Nicaragua. Kindergarten at both schools recently made portraits that look like they are from Picasso's Cubism period in which people or objects appear to be broken up and put back together abstractly. Below is an example of a painting in the style of Cubism. Mrs. Abbott's class is now using an app called Chatterpix to make their picture look like it is talking while the student describes its face. The students are learning body parts in Spanish so this ties in with the curriculum while adding a bit of art and technology to the mix! I am hoping to be able to display the final product here soon. Fourth graders at Hope Valley and third graders at Ashaway have been writing pen pal letters back and forth to each other. They were very excited when we first exchanged letters! I have also been in contact with a teacher in Spain and the fourth graders sent their letters to her class as well. We are not-so-patiently awaiting their response! First graders just finished their unit on shapes and are moving on to family. They are also learning about families with their classroom teachers (and shapes, too, actually!). We read a story in English called "Families are Different" about a Chinese girl who is adopted and feels different until she realized that every family is different. I will be teaching the typical family words like mom, dad, brother, sister, grandma, grandpa, dog, and cat in Spanish. But some students may want different words like stepmom, stepdad, great grandma, nephew, fish, etc. I will teach them whichever words they need. However, I do draw the line on pets at some point... that always tends to get out of hand! They also know that they can talk about their own family, like how many brothers they have, but they don't have to. Second, third, and fourth grade are currently learning about professions. Keep in mind that this is actually the second grade curriculum, but since this is only the third year of the program, it will be another 2 years before we teach the actual grade 4 curriculum. This year's second graders will be the first class to have started the program in kindergarten and will go potentially to grade 12! In learning about professions, the students are also learning how to be polite in Spanish-speaking countries. The words tú and usted both mean "you" but tú is only used with peers, friends, people your age, and some family members. Usted is used with adults, people you just met, and people with jobs that require respect such as police officer, doctor, teacher, etc. Depending on the country, usted is also used to show respect toward elders, including parents and grandparents. In Spain, tú is used more frequently than some other countries. I hope you all enjoyed your snow days! Remember that students can always check out the Spanish website here for games and activities to practice their Spanish when we are not in school!
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La Autora¡Hola! My name is Dori Carpenter. I teach K-4 Spanish at Hope Valley and Ashaway Elementary Schools in the Chariho Regional School District. I began teaching high school Spanish in 2010 and have been teaching at the elementary level in Chariho since 2014. I studied Spanish and Secondary Education at Providence College and The University of Salamanca in Salamanca, Spain. Archives
November 2017
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