April 2022
Abril 2022

Congratulations to June Schroeder, the state-wide winner of the World Language Poster contest!! I am so happy for June and so proud that one of our Richmond students won for the whole state! See below for updates on the last trimester of Spanish classes for each grade.

Grade K: We are learning body parts. Recently we talked about Picasso and cubism. Students drew their own faces in Picasso's style of cubism and we labeled the body parts on the face.

Grade 1: We have been working on likes and dislikes with various activities. As a final project, students will share two activities that they like and two that they don't like with the class. They will use a drawing that they are making of the activities.

Grade 2: We are working on clothing and will be doing a project on it where students will complete a dialogue with a partner and share it with the class. The dialogue will include different items that they are wearing and the colors.

Grade 3: Grade 3 students have been talking about food. We know how to say a lot of different foods, as well as food items from different Spanish speaking countries. We will be finishing the food topic by drawing a meal on a paper plate and sharing it with the class.

Grade 4: We are getting to the end of our Capibara Con Botas book. Only a few chapters to go! But we took a brief pause to write pen pal letters to students in SPAIN! We will be finishing our letters and mailing them out soon after vacation. We look forward to receiving letters back from our pen pals in May!

¡Felices vacaciones!
Enjoy your April vacation!

-Sra. Carpenter

March 2022
Marzo 2022

Grade 4 students have completed their posters for the World Language Poster contest! The winners were Alivia Woodmansee, Mya Anderton, Mason Caruso, Norah Tyler, and June Schroeder. Congratulations! I will keep everyone posted on if any of them win at the state-wide level!

Our student teacher, Srta S, is moving on to finish out her student teaching at Mount Pleasant High School. Her last day with us is March 10. She will be missed!

See below for updates on each grade as we move into trimester 3:

K: We are starting on body parts!
1: We have begun talking about likes and dislikes with activities!
2: We are currently learning clothing!
3: We started talking about one of my favorite topics... food!
4: We are at around Chapter 10 of El Capibara con Botas. Only a few more chapters to go before we finish reading this entire chapter book in Spanish!

February 2022
Febrero 2022

¡Hola a todos! My name is Srta. S and I am the new student teacher for Sra. Carpenter, and have been working with the students to help teach them Spanish! Although February is a short month we have a lot of fun things plan and have been doing many exciting things!

Grade K: We are continuing with our greetings and learning new ways to describe our emotions, counting up to 10, and learning some brand new colors!

Grade 1: We are counting up to 20 confidently, learning numbers up to 39, and learning how to say the days of the week and months of the year!

Grade 2: We have just finished up weather, looked at the weather in some Spanish-speaking countries, and are starting with clothing. We are still counting up to 39 as well!

Grade 3: We are finishing up animals and their body parts and then we are going to move on to numbers up to 100, and continuing with our reading comprehension! 

Grade 4: We are making our way through Capibara con Botas, and are also working on our posters for the RIFLA poster contest! Posters are due by February 16th if they want to be considered for entry into the competition. We are also going to use our Soy Yo to talk to a native Spanish-speaker!

¡Saludos! 

January 2022
Enero 2022

December flew by! Students in all grades enjoyed learning about how the holidays are celebrated in Spanish-speaking countries. But now that we are back from vacation, we are getting right back into the swing of things. See below for what each grade is working on.

Grade K: We are counting up to 10, continuing colors, and soon we will be learning body parts!

Grade 1: We are counting up to 20 and learning days of the week. Soon we will learn likes and dislikes.

Grade 2: We are finishing weather and will be moving on to clothing. We are also counting to 39.

Grade 3: We are continuing to talk about animals but are adding reading comprehension to our list of Spanish abilities! We have read an article in Spanish about howler monkeys. We will be practicing counting into the 60s and eventually to 100.

Grade 4: We are about halfway done with the book El Capibara con Botas. In the next month or so we will also be entering a statewide World Language poster contest! More to come on that soon!

**I will have a student teacher joining me from January 18-March 11. Welcome Srta Staradumsky!**

December 2021
Diciembre 2021

November flew by! After learning about the day of the dead, we switched gears and spent the month focusing on vocabulary. See below for what each grade has been working on.

Grade K: We have learned the colors of leaves and are starting to work on counting up to 10. We continue to practice greetings, and have added feelings to our greeting words. Muy bien - very good, bien - good, más o menos - ok, mal - bad.

Grade 1: We have learned a LOT of ways to express how we are feeling. Most recently we added tired, bored, angry, excited, nervous, and sick. We have also been practicing numbers up to 20.

Grade 2: We began the year by focusing on seasons. We have recently been talking about weather and the types of weather that we see in each season. We are currently making a weather and seasons book!

Grade 3: We have learned a lot of animal words this year. Now that we know the animals well, we have begun to talk more about where they live, what body parts they have, and what they can do. In trimester 2, we are going to incorporate more reading activities. Third grade is where we really start to add reading to our Spanish abilities!

Grade 4: Classes have read 5 chapter of El Capibara con Botas and seem to really be enjoying it! Nine more chapters to go! We also started talking about interrogative words so that we can do more Question and Answer activities.

We only have a little over 3 weeks before the winter vacation. We will continue to work on the topics above and will also talk a little about the holidays. Many people in Spanish-speaking countries celebrate Christmas, but, just like here, that is not always the case. When we talk about the holidays, I will explain how they are often celebrated in Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, etc, while also remaining sensitive to the fact that not all families celebrate in the same way. 

November 2021
Noviembre 2021

This past month, students have enjoyed discussing the Mexican and Central American holiday, The Day of the Dead (El Día de los Muertos). The Day of the Dead is a holiday on November 1 and 2 that honors and celebrates our ancestors. While this is a somber topic, it is actually a happy holiday. The celebrate with food, singing, parades, etc because they believe that the spirits of their loved ones are with them on the Day of the Dead. The movie Coco (on Disney Plus) does a wonderful job depicting the Day of the Dead. Take a look at some student work below.

  

October recap

Kindergarten: Students have started learning colors. We began with red, green, and yellow, and are adding orange and brown. Ask your child if they know how to say them!

Grade 1: Students continue to practice feeling words. We have now learned a lot of feelings! We are also practicing our numbers. How high can your child count in Spanish?

Grade 2: We were practicing seasons and days of the week and are now moving on to weather! 

Grade 3: Students continue to practice animal words. We have talked about where different animals live and what they do (who swims? who runs?). Soon we will be practicing our reading as we read articles about different animals in Spanish.

Grade 4: All classes are starting the month of November having read at least two chapters in our book El Capibara con Botas. Students are very excited to hear what is in store for Carlos as we continue reading!

Hasta luego, 
Sra Carpenter
[email protected] 

October 2021
Octubre 2021

¡Hola!

By now, students in third and fourth grade have added themselves to Spanish Google classroom, and students in kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd have received an invite from me to join. If your child is ever looking to practice their Spanish at home, there are resources in Google Classroom including songs, videos, notes sheets, and more. I will be adding to those resources as we move throughout the curriculum. We will occasionally use Spanish Google Classroom in class, but I prefer to practice our speaking, reading, writing, and listening, without technology when possible. Assignments on distance learning days (possibly including snow days!) will also be posted in Google Classroom.

Below is an update about what each grade is working on in class!

Kindergarten:
Students have learned the words/phrases "hola, "amigos", "amigo", "amiga", "me llamo
, and "adiós". They have also seen the words "buenos días" (good morning), "Buenas tardes" (good afternoon), and "buenas noches" (good night) in a song we've been singing. Students have listened to a story entirely in Spanish and have drawn a self-portrait with "me llamo" (my name is) written on it. Soon we will be learning the colors rojo (red), verde (green), and amarillo (yellow)

Grade 1:
Students are reviewing the feelings "muy bien", "bien", "más o menos", and "mal" and are beginning to learn new feelings words. They are beginning to practice counting up to 20 as well. 

Grade 2:
Students are learning the seasons in Spanish. They are hear in this song we've been singing in class. We have been reviewing calendar and counting each class as well. Soon we will focus on days of the week.

Grade 3:
Students are enjoying learning about animals in Spanish! Here is the list of all the animals we will be learning about this trimester.

Grade 4: 
Students are beginning to read the story El Capibara con Botas. This book is one of the things I missed most when I was moved to the middle school last year. It is so cool to see the students progress through the story and to see the satisfaction that they feel when they complete it by the end of the year. The book has 14 chapters and is 37 pages long... all in Spanish! It is about a capybara named Carlos who can't swim like normal capybaras. Ask your child if they can tell you a little bit about capybaras. They are pretty cool animals!

¡Adiós!
-Sra. Carpenter

September 2021

Dear families,

My name is Dori Carpenter and I am your child's Spanish teacher this year! I have taught Spanish at all levels from K-12 and have been here in the Chariho District since the elementary program started in 2014. Last year I was temporarily moved to the middle school, but I am so excited to be back in the elementary schools! This year I will be at Richmond Elementary School on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and at Hope Valley Elementary School on Thursdays and Fridays. Students will continue to have one Spanish class per week (if you recall, they took Spanish twice a week until last year). If your child is new to the district and hasn’t had Spanish before, don’t worry. I will help them get caught up and you will be surprised at how quickly most of them will catch on. I have strategies to help them feel comfortable in this new class and the other students in the class will serve as interpreters. That is fun to observe. 

I try to speak Spanish as much as possible in class, always making the language comprehensible with images and gestures. This is best practice for learning a language. Through storytelling, songs and lots of listening activities, students will gain confidence to begin speaking in Spanish. We will also learn about how children in Spanish speaking countries live; some parts of their daily life is just like ours and others very different!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any concerns and I love it when you share how your children are using their language outside of the classroom. This Elementary World Language website also has resources that you may want to access, including some of the songs we sing in class. This year, students will also be part of Spanish Google Classroom which has songs, videos, notes, and activities that are useful. If you would like to be added to Google Classroom as a parent, let me know!

Cordialmente,
Señora Carpenter
[email protected]

10 Things Spanish Teachers want Parents to Know

(Adapted with permission from Spanishplayground.net)
1. Your child is learning Spanish. S/he knows more than you realize.

2. Language is more than words. We want to connect kids to the people, cultures and history behind the words they learn.

3. Spanish is not a foreign language. More than 40 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish at home and we believe learning a language is important for kids. We also understand cultural identity is complex. We will support all home cultures in any way we can. 

4. Learning a language is a lifelong process. Mastering a second language requires many years of consistent exposure and practice.

5. There is a method to the madness. Really! It is a methodology, in fact. Sometimes it looks like fun and games but it is carefully structured language input. 
6. Language teachers (like all your teachers) work really hard. Every word we say to our students is the content we are teaching so we interact intentionally. Each word is an opportunity! 

7. We appreciate your help. Any contact with Spanish helps your child learn. We will recommend songs, apps, books and ways to work Spanish into your daily routines. 

8. The benefits of learning Spanish go beyond the language. Learning Spanish develops vocabulary in English, confidence and an understanding and appreciation of community and the world. 

9. We know there is more to your child’s life than Spanish. We care about your child. If there are things we need to know to help her learn, please tell us. 

10. Learning Spanish is worth the work. Your child will thank you.