Sra. Gott
K-6 Spanish
Email: lgott@sainttimothyschool.org

My SchoolNotes

I teach Kindergarten through 6th grade Spanish.  Kindergartners have Spanish class one day per week.  1st through 6th graders have Spanish class two days per week.  Fourth through sixth grade classes are taught "todo en espanol" (all in Spanish).

Class Schedule
KA	Tuesday
KB	Tuesday
KC	Tuesday
1A	Wednesday and Friday
1B	Wednesday and Wednesday
2A	Tuesday and Thursday
2B	Tuesday and Thursday
3A	Wednesday and Thursday
3B	Wednesday and Thursday
4A	Monday and Friday
4B	Monday and Wednesday
5A	Monday and Thursday
5B	Monday and Wednesday
6A	Wednesday and Friday
6B	Tuesday and Friday

Communication:

The best way to communicate with me is via email.  I regularly update my SchoolNotes site with test and quiz schedules and current vocabulary by grade level. 

Curriculum News (2/22/07)

The following site details the Foreign Language curriculum in the Diocese of Arlington.   

http://205.242.12.144/offices/schools/documents/ForeignLanguageCurriculum.pdf

I meet with Kindergarten 1 class meeting per week for 20 minutes.  We learn greetings, pleasantries, members of the family, numbers, shapes, colors, parts of the body, weather, animals, parts of the house, plus prayers and songs. 

I see the First Graders  twice per week for 20 minutes/class.  We review the above, plus vocabulary for books (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Dr. Seuss, and other familiar books), prayers and songs. 

In Second Grade we begin to use a workbook.  We drill on all the above, but expand with longer sentences, and they begin to write the words that they've learned well.  In our textbook, we begin to discuss nouns and gender/adjectival agreement, singular and plural.  Our Social Studies curriculum focuses on Mexico.  We meet twice per week for 20 minutes/class.

In Third and Fourth grades, we continue in our workbook series, with expanding our vocabulary to telling time, saying the date, clothing, etc.  Our third grade culture unit focuses on  Explorers and maps of the Spanish speaking world, while fourth grade studies the California Mission Trail.  Fourth grade vocabulary continues to expand.  We meet twice per week for 30 minutes/class.  From third grade on, the children have Spanish homework.

Fifth grade studies South America in their Social Studies curriculum.  I focus on the Maya and Aztec.  We begin conjugating verbs in a formal, systematic plan. The benefit of formally introducing Spanish grammar is that it reinforces their English grammar!  Vocabulary continues to expand, including money, higher numbers, etc. through our workbook series.  We meet twice per week for 40 minutes/class.

Sixth grade meets twice per week for 45 minutes/class.  By now they are very comfortable with Spanish verb conjugation and we drill with activities, and continue to expand our vocabulary through our workbook series and unit studies.  Our culture unit is Spain.

Our workbook series is Let's Learn Spanish, Hayes School Publishing, 2003, Grades 2-6.  After 6th grade, the studies are well prepared to begin a formal textbook at a Spanish (High School) Level 1.  The goal is for the students to text into Spanish Level 2 when entering high school.  Throughout our grades we begin each class with prayer (in Spanish of course), and in grades 4-6 I try my hardest to speak in Spanish Only. Their pronunciation is beautiful, and there does not ever seem to be hesitation or embarrassment about using their Spanish.  Our environment is compassionate and welcoming, and they are eager to use their language in class.

We have not had challenges with new students coming in to our school with no Spanish.  Since we review each year on old vocabulary, they seem to catch right up!  With all classes we play games, and sing songs to make it fun.  I also use some sign language to give the students a motor-sensory tool to link to the Spanish words.

Translations

Numbers to One Million