Marzo, 2010             

¡Bienvendios a la Clase de Español!

What a wonderful March this will be!  I have been thoroughly enjoying three new sets of middle school classes.  Just when I thought I couldn’t love my job any more...  Every day is a delight for me.  These Onekama students are just so amazing!

Spanish 6th grade:  The super sixth graders started their third unit of the semester, La Clase (the class).  In this unit they will be able to identify if words are either masculine or feminine.  By the end of this unit, the students will be able to make there is/there are statements (i.e., there are chairs in the classroom) and answer yes/no questions in complete sentences (i.e., yes, it is a marker).  Their next unit will focus on numbers and colors.  Here the students will learn how to make sentences agree in number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine).  I love starting every day with this fun class!

  Spanish 7th grade:  The splendid seventh graders have just started learning numbers (0-100) and reviewing how to tell time and plural sentences.  The next unit for them is El Tiempo (the weather).  Not only will they learn how to describe weather conditions, but they will also learn how to conjugate present tense -AR verbs (i.e., I sing, you dance, we rest).  For the next few Fiesta Fridays the students are creating their own Mexican mascaras (masks).  I am just amazed at their creativity! 

Spanish 8th grade:  The excellent eighth graders are continuing their unit on La Ciudad (the city).  In this unit the students are learning how to give/receive directions, discuss voluntary and obligatory future actions, and conjugating verbs into the command form.  Next they will learn numbers (0-1,000,000,000) and review how to tell time.  This month they are wrapping up their Fiesta Friday investigation of Famous Latinos living in the United States.  I am learning so many new things from this incredibly intelligent class!

Spanish I: The fantastic first year students are currently working on the third lesson in unit four.  In this unit they are learning how to describe family, emotions, and conjugating -ing verbs.  We are going to try something new at the end of this unit—the students are going to tape a reenactment of a traditional Latino wedding.  I am excited about doing this with this group of students and I know they will be impressive! 

Spanish II:  The sensational second year students just started their fourth unit of the year.  At the end of the third unit, they learned the difference between the preterite tense (I slept) and the imperfect tense (I was sleeping).  Throughout unit four, the students will hone their ability to discuss things in the past.  This will include many conversational activities as well as creating a Spanish newspaper.  I really adore this class and the eagerness they have to learn a Spanish.  I could not be luckier!

As always, if your child would like extra help please remind him/her to make an appointment with me.  I am available before and after school as well as during seminar and lunch.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  I realize it may be hard to help your child with Spanish, but reviewing the vocabulary flash cards is a tremendous help in your child’s acquisition of a second language.

Hasta Luego,

Señora Naomi Kolehmainen
nkolehmainen@manistee.org
(231) 889-4251 EXT 315

www.onekama.k12.mi.us Serving Onekama School since 1997