Spanish
Kindergarten
Kindergarten students are introduced to the Spanish language through play, movement, songs, stories, and interactive activities. The focus is on building confidence, listening skills, and a love of language learning.
- Listening and Comprehension: Students learn to recognize and understand common classroom commands, greetings, colors, numbers, weather expressions, and high-frequency vocabulary through repetition, visuals, and movement.
- Speaking: Students practice simple words and phrases such as greetings, introductions, expressing feelings, counting, and identifying familiar objects. They participate in basic conversations through partnering with other students and whole-group activities.
- Movement and Songs: Music, movement, and Total Physical Response (TPR) activities help students connect meaning to language. Students sing songs, act out vocabulary, and participate in movement-based games.
- Culture: Students explore Spanish-speaking cultures through stories, celebrations, traditions, and authentic materials from around the Spanish-speaking world.
- Play-Based Learning: Through games, role-playing, and hands-on activities, students develop language skills while building confidence and curiosity about learning another language.
1st Grade
The foundational skills developed in kindergarten are expanded in first grade through increased vocabulary, communication, and opportunities to use Spanish in meaningful ways.
- Listening and Comprehension: Students continue developing their ability to understand spoken Spanish through stories, conversations, songs, and classroom interactions.
- Speaking: Students participate in simple conversations about themselves and familiar topics such as family, food, weather, school, and personal preferences. They begin using complete phrases and sentences.
- Reading Readiness: Students start recognizing familiar words, phrases, and simple sentences connected to classroom vocabulary and themes.
- Interactive Learning: Students engage in partner work, role-playing, games, and collaborative activities that encourage communication and problem-solving in Spanish.
- Culture and Connections: Students continue exploring the diverse cultures of Spanish-speaking countries through traditions, music, and celebrations.
2nd Grade
Second-grade students build upon their language foundation by increasing their vocabulary, comprehension, reading skills, and ability to communicate in Spanish.
- Listening and Comprehension: Students demonstrate understanding of spoken Spanish through stories, conversations, videos, songs, and classroom activities.
- Speaking and Communication: Students use more complete sentences to describe people, places, objects, and experiences. They engage in conversations, answer questions, and share information using learned vocabulary and structures.
- Reading: Students read familiar words, phrases, and simple texts while developing strategies for understanding meaning in context.
- Grammar and Language Structures: Students begin applying foundational grammar concepts through authentic communication, including common verbs and sentence patterns.
- Collaboration and Critical Thinking: Through Building Thinking Classrooms activities, games, and collaborative challenges, students use Spanish to solve problems, explain their thinking, and work with peers.
- Culture and Global Awareness: Students deepen their understanding of the Spanish-speaking world by exploring traditions, geography, celebrations, and daily life in various countries.
By the end of second grade, students have developed a strong foundation in listening, speaking, reading, cultural understanding, and confidence in using Spanish for communication.