I hope everyone has had a nice, relaxing holiday and enjoyed a lot of time with family and friends. We are getting off to a fast start this semester. 
In Kindergarten, we will be learning winter vocabulary, shapes, and body parts in Spanish. The kids will even get to dress me up like a snowman. It is sure to be tons of fun. 
In first grade, we are going to be reading a new book called "Go Away Big Green Monster" and learning more body parts and colors. 
Our second grade we are reading another Eric Carle book called "From Head to Toe". We will be building upon the body parts vocabulary that we have learned in kindergarten and first grade. Plus, we will even get to learn more animal words! 
Coming up: we will start working on our calendar and the alphabet in all grades. 
Remember, check our newsletters and website to see what is happening in class!

Wow! Our first 9 weeks has flown by. I cannot belive that we have already learned so many things in our Spanish classes. 
In kindergarten, we are reading "Oso Cafe" (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Eric Carle). We will be learning our animals and colors in Spanish. Our culture focus in kindergarten is Mexico, and we will be learning about Dia de los Muertos (a holiday in Mexico where families honor their loved ones who have passed away). 
In first and second grade, we are starting "El Artista que Pinta el Caballo Azul" (The Artist who Painted a Blue Horse by Eric Carle).  We will be learning more colors and animals, plus reviewing some that we have previously learned. In first grade we have been studying Spain and we recently learned about Christopher Columbus and his journey to America. Our 2nd grade culture focus is Central America. We learned about the Dominican Republic and how baseball is very important to the country. We will soon be learning about Puerto Rico. 
As always, please check our newsletters and website to see what we have been learning in class. 

I hope everyone has had a great summer. I know I sure did. It is always too quick though. There are always so many things I try to plan and get ready for the next school year over the summer and I always run out of time. Our year has gotten off to a great start. Here are a few things that we have already learned. 
In kindergarten, we have started learning our greetings and how to say boy and girl in Spanish. Our students have also started learning how to introduce themselves in Spanish. In first grade, our students have started reviewing their introduction that was learning in kindergarten. We are working on getting everyone, new and old students, all caught up and on the same page. In 2nd grade, we are adding to our introduction. Our students have also started learning some new classroom vocabulary words. Our first words were tijeras (scissors), papel (paper), and piedra (rock). We have had some pretty fun games of rock, paper, scissors over the past week. 
As always, please check our website, twitter, and tackk newsletters for updates on what is coming up. If you have any questions feel free to contact me! 
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The year has flown by and our students have had tons of fun learning Spanish. Each day, they are surprised by just how much they know. The classes are receiving their portfolios, which is a summary of the topics that we have covered this year. Ask your child to tell you about the pages and what they have learned. We are so excited about next year and we are already planning some fun activities. I cannot wait to see your my sweet students in August!
​Enjoy your summer!!! 

September has been an awesome month in our Spanish classes! The kindergarten students learned about Mexico and they can sing a new good morning song called "Buenos Dias!", our first grade learned their numbers from 1 - 20 and even counted as high as 50 in Spanish! Second and third grade has had a fun time learning their alphabet in Spanish. They have been playing lots of fun games to help them learn the letters and their sounds. September has been filled with lots of fun and games in all of our classes. The coolest thing I have noticed lately are the connections that my students are making. They are realizing not only that they do know a lot of Spanish, but also that they are able to take words that they already know and either pick them apart or add to them to make new words that we are learning. I have had so many of my kids come up to  me and say that they have seen different things in Spanish in their daily lives. That connection is what is so important to me as an elementary foreign language teacher. When our students make these connections it becomes meaningful to them. It sparks that love and interest for learning inside of our students. Happy learning y'all! Plus, it is fall! That means lots of exciting things are going on! Its always fun when we can cheer for our favorite team or spend time with our families.

We have had an awesome first few weeks in Spanish at Mill Creek, Columbia, and Pre-k.
The kindergarteners have learned how to say the greetings hola and adios, our 4 classroom rules which are ojos (eyes on me), boca (mouths closed), oreja (listening ears), and manos (hands in your lap). They love singing songs and learning new words through rhythm. Ask a kindergarten student what levantanse or sientense means and they will probably tell you by singing the sit down or stand up song.
First grade has been working on good review of things that we learned last year. They have also learned our classroom rules and they even go to start working on their portfolios for this semester. I cannot begin to describe how excited they were when I showed them their new portfolio. It is so exciting to see them excited about working and learning in Spanish.
Second and third grade has had fun learning a new greeting in Spanish. We learned how to say "Que te pasa?" which is like asking what's up or what's happening. And then they learned how to say nothing in Spanish which means "nada". They also worked on our rules and our introduction words like our verbs and greetings that they learned last year. We even took a few minutes to talk about o/a endings in Spanish and how the adjectives have to match the nouns they describe in gender and number. Whew! That was pretty deep stuff.
I love seeing all of my students in the hallway greeting me by saying hola or buenos dias. It love hearing my students practice their Spanish. The big smiles on their faces when they realize they have said something correctly mean so much to me!

Welcome back to school everyone! I know I am looking forward to a new school year and all of the awesome things we have planned for Spanish class.

Just a few things have changed this year. First, I will be at Mill Creek, Columbia, and the Pre-k center this school year. I will miss my kiddos from Horizon but I am excited about meeting new students at Columbia. As always, feel free to email me with any questions that might come up during the school year. My email address is bspowell@madisoncity.k12.al.us.

I hope everyone has a wonderful start to the new year!