Second Grade

Second Grade Spanish@WE

Units of Study

Unit 1- La escuela!

We start our first unit, which reviews the calendar, numbers, classroom objects, the alphabet (with a focus on vowels) and describing people and places in the school. We sing and create games to help in our learning! We begin our unit by reading Así vamos a la escuela. Then students research other modes of transportation in other Spanish speaking countries. My goal is they can post these along with a descriptive sentence to the SeeSaw app for publishing and sharing.

Unit 2- La comunidad!

Vamos a la Plaza de Decatur y Puebla, México!

Students first review known and familiar places surrounding Decatur Square (la plaza). We talk about our favorite places to go in Decatur. Mi lugar favorito es.... Then, we use Google Maps to virtually explore the center of the city of Puebla, México, a beautiful, old colonial city south of the capital. We find the oldest known biblioteca (library) in the Americas- la Biblioteca Palafoxiana, and take a trip through 360 degree photos! We play a game to tell how to get to specific places using the cardinal directions (norte, sur, este, oeste) and maps. We study map keys and symbols and other vocabulary related to maps (cuadras- blocks; calles- roads). Students use the Google Map of Puebla to identify the places in the community and illustrate their own mini map of Puebla. Then, they write a simple description of their map to tell about their places. We wrap up the unit by learning about the different jobs held by people in our community and the community of Puebla and tell where they work. Students make a community helper puppet and practice reading a short description to identify key vocabulary.

Unit 3- La Familia, las mascotas y la casa

Second graders ask and answer a lot of questions about the family members. ¿Cuántos hermanos tienes? ¿Cómo es tu familia? ¿Tu familia es grande, mediana, o pequeña? After building our background knowledge, students will persevere through the writing process to create a short description of their family members using adjectives. Students will publish their writing in a creative way, like a comic. We then look at the home and identify the parts of the inside and outside of the home and compare our homes to homes in Mexico. Students put together a file folder game, which allow them to participate in several games and other speaking activities with partners and small groups to review vocabulary for places in the home, objects in the home, actions that do in the home, and family members. Students start writing frases locas, or crazy sentences. These are sentences that are grammatically correct, but the content makes them crazy! For example, one student wrote, El bebé está en la tina en el techo de la casa. The baby is in the bathtub on the roof of the house! :) We will next talk about and describe our families using adjectives.

We sing:

La Casa Loca por Basho

Former students works:

Unit 4- La comida! Mexicana! Mmmmmm...

For a culminating activity in our Mexican food unit, students learn of the process and ingredients for making traditional corn tortillas. We then make them and tast them with a bit of queso in class!