Spanish Lessons Overview
Hola! My name is Kirsty Vera and I am the Spanish teacher at St John the Apostle Primary School. Many of you know me already, as my children have attended and currently do attend the school. I also work in the Library on Wednesdays as Admin support. I have been teaching Humanities and Languages (Spanish, Italian and ESL) for more than 15 years, from all levels of schooling - Kindergarten to year 12!
As we wrap up Term 1, I thought it would be an opportune time to talk a little about what we have been learning in Spanish this term.
All students in Grades 3-6 have attended a one hour lesson of Spanish each week in the special Spanish classroom. Here we say our school prayer in Spanish and then greet each other and the teachers in Spanish. We have learnt how to introduce ourselves and how to express our feelings. The children are all very enthusiastic during Spanish class and it’s so lovely to hear little voices call out, “Buenos días, Señora Vera” throughout the day!
Grades 3 and 4 have also looked at the Spanish festival of Carnaval, celebrated at the start of Lent and made their own mascara de carnaval or Carnaval mask. They also learnt about some of the artwork of Spain’s famous painter, Pable Picasso and had a go creating their own Picasso-inspired abstract art. You can see some of their great work below.
Grades 5 and 6 have been testing their Spanish skills through Bingo and Kaboot games and have spent some time creating their own dialogues to present to the class.
Foreign Language learning is mandatory in the Australian Curriculum, however here are 10 reasons why learning a foreign language is important:
Learning a language…
- ...improves your grasp of English
- ...enhances your confidence
- ...gives you a wider understanding of world affairs
- ...widens career/job options
- ...improves international relations and communication
- ...makes travelling easier and more enjoyable
- ...connects the world and promotes peace
- ...helps you make new friends all around the world
- ...shows you are open minded and tolerant
- ...boosts brain power
You can help your child by asking them to teach you some greetings or introductory phrases which they have learnt this term. The students will be bringing home a “Diccionario” or Dictionary which they themselves have been working on and you can discuss this with them. They should be very good at correcting your pronunciation! Ask him or her to explain to you about Carnaval or Picasso’s Blue period, or ask them to list some of the 22 countries that speak Spanish! They might even like to explain to you what a cognate is.
The Easter holidays are the perfect time to practice Spanish - you can do this via an app such as Duo Lingo or Babbel, by watching short songs or language clips (appropriate for children) on Youtube (Spanish Playground is one of my favourites), or even by borrowing Spanish language books from the public library.
Each and every one of our students can learn a language, and just as we didn’t rush their language development as babies, we have to be patient in the second language classroom. I’m looking forward to Term 2 where we will be diving into a range of topics and themes in Spanish.
¡Hasta luego!
Kirsty Vera
Spanish Teacher