Spanish Enrichment @ Home LOGS!! *** CHANGES for 6th and 7th grades

FIFTH GRADE POST CLICK HERE!

Hello 6th and 7th grade parents! This post is for YOU!

I have been playing with the idea of introducing other ways for students to do their logs. I still have about 25-30% of students not turning in logs, and their main excuse is that they forget to write their logs. Starting MONDAY 11/14 students will come into class and immediately open their Chrome Books to their ONLINE SPANISH ENRICHMENT LOG. This will be their DO NOW! (Warm-Up) assignment while I take attendance. 

Students are still encouraged to keep a notepad where they are jotting down their daily activities, as they will still continue doing logs but these will be done in class the first 5 minutes everyday.  

Another issue that was brought up by students was the fact that parents signatures would not be easy. Well, like I told my students, I am going to trust that we have honest students that take their studying seriously and I am trusting that they do not need parent supervision for this assignment. But, like I said before, I encourage you to keep asking your child about Spanish EVERY DAY! 

My goal is that they practice Spanish for fun! Everyday exposure to Spanish will help them retain what they are learning much better! Click HERE to read some benefits of learning a foreign language!

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at agrimaldi @ westlakecharter.com

What Are We Doing in 5th Grade Spanish!?

Hello 5th Grade Spanish Parents!
This week is a weird one for Spanish. I will only be seeing your child one time this week and for a shorter period. Last week we worked on a Slide Show about their EMOCIONES/Emotions and kids had fun with it! I had a few students not complete this assignment and I encourage you to please ask them to show you so that this assignment gets completed!

We will be practicing saying how we feel in class using their Slides Presentations and these need to be finished in order for them to participate!

Please continue to support your child with their DAILY SPANISH ENRICHMENT @ HOME- They have to practice Spanish 15 minutes everyday!! Click HERE to read about the Daily Spanish Enrichment.

7th Grade LA LOTERIA PBL~UPDATE!

Hello Westlake Parents! This post is specifically for 7th grade parents.

We have been working since September 28th on our big PBL project and students had many class blocks to work as a team. This assignment was well planned for students with specific dates on when the different parts of their projects and when they needed to be completed.

On October 24th we had our last in class time to work on this project. They were reminded of their project on a daily basis through Google Calendar, emails and just me telling every time we met about when this was due and clarifying any questions they had.

The date has come and I have many students that DID NOT complete their part on their project, therefore making other students work twice as much to be able to finish the GROUP project. This assignment needed to be COMPLETED in its entirety by 10/31/2016. NO INCOMPLETE grade will be given.

Every student had access to their GOOGLE CALENDAR and their GOOGLE CLASSROOM with specific due dates. If you should have any further questions don't hesitate to communicate with me.

Week of October 24th, 2016

¡Hola familias de Westlake Charter! This week we have a lesson on "El Día de los Muertos/Day of the Dead" we are studying this holiday as part of our Culture standard. Grades 5th through 7th are doing different activities.

***I have asked students if their religion does not allow for them to study this holiday to let me know about it and I have an alternate assignment for them to work on. 

5th Grade

We have a presentation about Day of the Dead and key vocabulary. They will be working on a small "Ofrenda/Offering" during class time.

6th Grade

Our sixth graders are still working on their altars. Make sure you are asking your child to tell you what part of their altars they are working on.

7th Grade 

Seventh grade students are also going to be having a lecture and creating a poster for their offering. 

 

What Are We Doing?

Our 5th grades classes are working on MI MOCHILA (My Backpack) They are learning how to ask what is in a backpack, and telling what is in their backbacks! We are doing this in full conversations! We are taking the vocabulary they have learned through the years and using them in full sentences now!
Ask your child to show you these notes and practice with them!!
Here is a FUN VIDEO about backpacks and what we have in them! Kids love this video!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our 6th grade students just started working on a PBL TODAY!!

We are studying CULTURE in our 6th grade class and we are starting our Day of The Dead lesson (if you want to know more about Day of the Dead click HERE)!
Students are creating their own altars (If you want to know more about what an altar is click HERE).
There is a timeline to follow so don't feel like everything needs to be done today!!
Part 1- Person chosen for Altar (October 19th)
Part 2- Likes and Favorites of person chosen (October 21st- Will work on this during class and due before 10pm)

Part 3- Bring Box- Shoe box or a bigger cardboard box if working in teams of 2-3 (October 24th)
Part 4- Continue working on Altar and begin Video/SlideShow (October 26th)
Part 5- Continue with video-slide show with pictures about person's favorites and likes (October 31st)
Part 6- Presentation and showcase (NOVEMBER 1st)

Check out your child's calendar for these dates!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our 7th grade students are working on a PBL!

They are creating LOTERÍA GAMES using vocabulary they have learned through-out the years. This LOTERÍA games will be used for our Spanish game during the Olympic Triathlon! They have completed several parts to their PBL.

Part One- Vocabulary list (Individual) DONE!

Part Two- Vocabulary LOTERÍA CARDS (Individual) DONE!

Part Three-  LOTERÍA TABLES Due October 31st

Please ask your son/daughter what they are working on and ask them to show you their progress!

Spanish Enrichment @ Home

Students can benefit from studying Spanish outside of the classroom. Currently our students are required to be exposed to Spanish outside the school environment so that they can expand their Spanish even more. 5th Graders are required to be exposed 15 minutes everyday and 6th through 8th graders are required to be exposed for at least 20 minutes. Now, I need to make it very clear that these 15/20 minutes are not at all confined to a book and a desk. Students can do many things to expose themselves to the language. They need to see these minutes of language exposure as something fun! Something that is part of their daily lives!! During classtime, our 6th class put their brains together and came up with a list of many things they can do. I hope that by having this list available to see here it is easier to manage this time they have for Spanish.

Things to do for Spanish Enrichment @ Home:

1. Duolingo
2. Once a week you can play a game system by changing commentaries to spanish
3. Speak spanish to someone that already knows Spanish
4. Pandora ( Spanish Radio Stations) /Spotify/Google Play/ Apple Music  

1. Musica Latina
2. Pop Latino
3. 5 de Mayo / Samba
4. Rancheras
5. Baladas
6. Románticas
7. Mariachi
8. Salsa
9. Folklorico
10. Juan Gabriel
11. Marc Anthony
12. Intocable

5. Youtube

1. Señor Jordan
2. Videos of songs in spanish
3. Kid friendly: Minecraft en Español
4. Butterfly Spanish
5. Spanish pod 101

6. Netflix/Hulu/Shows/movies

1. Movies in spanish and english subtitles
2. Show in spanish and English Subtitles

8. Regular TV in spanish (Univision, Telemundo)

1. Soccer games in Spanish
2. La Voz Kids
3. Novelas

9. Señora Hernandez’s games online Mrs.Hernandez Website

10. Finish classwork

11. Study for test

12. Go to library and get spanish books

13. Label things around your house or room

Use post-it notes to label things around the house.

14.Teach someone some spanish words

15. Study culture from a spanish speaking country

16.  Look up recipes in spanish

• You can make something from a spanish speaking country

18. Practicing writing in spanish

19. Memorize songs

20. Radio Stations

• 92.1
• 94.1
• 99.9
  

21. Google Translate
22. PODCASTS

• News In Slow Spanish
• Coffee Break Spanish
• Learning Spanish for Beginners
• Finally Learn Spanish
• Spanish Survival Phrases

BIENVENIDOS/Welcome to the 2016-2017 School Year

¡Hola y Bienvenidos a la clase de español de la Señora Grimaldi en la escuela Westlake Charter!

I am very excited for the new year and eager to get working with all of your children. I have another website with class syllabus and all the Google calendars for my Spanish classes. Feel free to add your son/daughter to your Google calendar!

You can get to that page by clicking HERE!

If you need to contact me, you can do so through email. 

I try my very best to respond within 24 hours.

agrimaldi @ westlakecharter.com

Our main focus this year is COMMUNICATION!! We need to have our students using all the amazing Spanish they already know! We are continuing with our daily Spanish Enrichment time at home! ALL students are to practice Spanish EVERYDAY!! This is necessary if we want our students to actually begin using the language! Yes, even on the weekends! This should not be a burden but rather a FUN time for kids to be exposed to the language!

They can do many things for their Spanish Enrichment time. 

Some of the things they can do are:

• Spanish Enrichment @ home is to be done EVERYDAY for 15 minutes a day (5th) and 20 minutes a day for the rest of the grades. Students will keep a log of their time and what they do. There are many activities students can do to practice their Spanish, for example:
• Watch TV in Spanish
• Hulu and Netflix can be changed to Spanish voice (not all shows do this)
• Duolingo 
• Listen to a Spanish radio station
• Listen to Spanish music on Pandora, some radio stations to look for:
• Baladas
• Rancheras
• Cumbias
• Mariachi Fiesta
• Pop Latino
• Anything that exposes them to the Spanish language!

We can have our students using Spanish for everyday scenarios, but if they do not practice DAILY.... it might not happen! I NEED YOU! You, THE PARENTS/GUARDIANS to help me out! We can do this! We can have our kiddos using Spanish, but it is not going to happen if WE don't work together!

LET'S DO THIS WESTLAKE FAMILIES!!!

¡¡¡SI SE PUEDE!!!

WE CAN DO IT!!!

TIP #1

I am going to be sharing many tips that will help your child fill those learning gaps in Spanish!

®Thomas Cook

TIP #1

Download APPs! One of the things we have to do for our kids is to find FUN ways for them to practice Spanish. DUOLINGO is a FUN and EDUCATIONAL app that kids are already familiar with! 

Watch this informational video on what DUOLINGO is and how it works!

Kids 5th through 8th can sign in with their google accounts from school! 

As a teacher I am able to see their progress!

If you have an ITunes account you can search the PODCAST 

sections to subscribe to Spanish lessons!

Here are some examples:

Spanish For Beginners

More Spanish

There are many more!!

Listening to Spanish!

One of the BEST ways you can practice your Spanish is LISTENING TO IT! Our Westlake students have been taking Spanish for many years and are very knowledgable of vocabulary! Listening to Spanish news is an awesome way to put that vocabulary to use!!! 

Grab a piece of paper and a pen and listen to Spanish news and write words down that you know!!! Do this for 5 minutes and see how many words you hear that you know! Keep doing this and you will notice that you will write MORE and MORE words down!

Here is the link to CNN en ESPAÑOL! 

I also placed a direct link on top for easy access!!

Learning Spanish on YouTube~ El Señor Jordan

How many times have you searched YouTube for Spanish lessons? Look no MORE!

El Señor Jordan on You Tube has many MANY amazing videos that throughly explain Spanish lessons! 

LEARNING SPANISH WITH EL SEÑOR JORDAN