Summit School of Ahwatukee Spanish teachers Richard Cordova and Elsa Conti write about what their students are working on.

Preschool

The Spanish curriculum is developmentally appropriate and relevant to the children's class activities and daily life. Many of the songs, activities and conversational phrases are integrated into the preschool day.

Kindergarten

Amigos read their mini-book titled Mi libro de la clase y de los colores (My Class and Color Book) and read Corduroy in Spanish on the smart board. They identified, wrote and practiced numbers from 1 to 10 and learned the "Números" song while dancing.

First grade

Children practiced body parts vocabulary as they created a puppet and played lotería (bingo). Illustrating and labeling "cosas de la clase" on the smart board was fun.

Students read a bilingual story of Skippyjon Jones, the Tortillitas poem and sang "El Chocolate." Phrases of the month: Hola! Me llamo and ¿Puedo ir al baño?

Second grade

Children chose classroom items to research in Spanish/English dictionaries for proper translation, and completed a word search activity. They added to "Verbos de Acción" (action verbs) books, with sentences including "Me gusta ... bailar, cantar, saltar, visitar, comprar." They practiced the poem "Mariposa Linda" and the song "Los Pollitos".

Third grade

After a video of the story of "Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos" (Friends of the Orphans), students made a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting their lives with those of the children in the orphanage in Central America.

Fourth grade

Students presented their wild animals and adjectives PowerPoint projects in Español. Using the smart board, they reviewed numbers from zero to 100 in Spanish.

Phrases of the month: Hola, ¿Cómo estás? ... Muy bien / Así-así / Muy mal.

Fifth grade

Fifth-graders visited preschool book buddies to read books in Espanol to their little friends and help them with a Spanish activity. Mayan research projects were presented. Students reviewed demonstrative adjectives and took turns creating sentences beginning with Este, esta, estos and estas.

Sixth grade

Students began to learn the verb "ser," with adjectives. Working in groups they learned what sports and hobbies they like, using the information to create a chart in Spanish. Students presented their Spanish knowledge to the entire student body, in the bi-weekly educational school morning meeting, ending with the song, Guantanamera.

Seventh grade

Students enhanced vocabulary by learning to describe a famous person in Spanish. They visited their reading buddies in first grade to practice reading and speaking skills.

Eighth grade

Students learned the use of indirect object pronouns and revisited stem-changing verbs (o-ue and e-ie). Students are practicing Spanish composition in preparation for high school entrance tests.