Dear Parents,

All of us at STAR are excited about your child enrolling in the second semester of our pilot Spanish immersion program this winter, 2008, at Palisades Elementary Charter School! We have all been working hard to improve the quality and effectiveness of our Spanish program, ensuring that it is both educational and fun!

This winter we will cover the following themes: The Family (La familia); The Home (La casa); Food (La Comida y El Restaurante); and Parts of the Body (El Cuerpo). The winter term will focus on building complete sentences, using verbs correctly in the present tense and how to combine nouns and adjectives in order to construct more elaborate sentences.

We will stress that all communication in the classroom and at home be done using complete sentences, which enables the child to originate thoughts and communicate them effectively in Spanish. We will be working on eliminating the fear of speaking, of making a mistake, and stress the importance of communicating with our emotions, and gestures, which often precede learning the actual words. It is our goal at STAR to see every student experience the excitement of rediscovering themselves through another system of sound and emotion.

We will constantly be evaluating our students’ progress throughout the term, employing visual, kinetic and aural methods that engage, excite and motivate. As we see how the winter term progresses, we will then determine which activities and grammar points to proceed with in the spring term.

Detailed Lesson Plans will be listed on the blog, with clear explanations of grammar points that you can coach at home. In addition, sample conversations are provided for practice.

Homework in the form of handouts that are to be “shared” with parents and siblings, will be provided each week, per your request. This homework is optional, yet it is an ideal way to reinforce your child’s progress, and to engage the entire family in learning Spanish! We will post an answer key when applicable on this blog page. Please take advantage of the additional activities under “Tips to Maximize Learning”. These are activities your child can do alone, or you may engage in the activity along with your child. Remember, children learn by example. Seeing someone they love…i.e. you… learning Spanish, loving the culture, the food, the art and traditions, is the best way to communicate how valuable this experience can be to them.

How well do YOU speak Spanish?