¡Hola Familias!

We can't believe we are already at the end of October! The first couple of weeks of school have flown by! We have wrapped up our celebrations unit with a final assessment on making plans. Students practiced the skills necessary for inviting friends to do something and accepting and declining invitations. For any assessment we take, students are welcome to revisit the skills with me or by doing individual practice at home and retaking it if they are looking to improve their score.

This week we have started our unit on The Day of the Dead, a Mexican celebration that honors the lives of deceased family and friends. On Friday students will receive a project assignment where they will need to research an influential(deceased) Hispanic person and create a replica of an authentic Mexican ofrenda for this person. For this project students will need a shoe box and other craft supplies - most times very little items, if any, need to be purchased. Students may use print-outs and things found around the house!  Please ask your child to show you the examples on google classroom as well as the rubric. This project is due  Friday November 3rd for Orange, Blue and Black class and Thursday November 2nd (Día de los Muertos) for Purple Class. 

We are offering an extra credit opportunity for those who are able to attend the Dead of the Dead festival that is taking place this Saturday October 28th at Taza Chocolate in Somerville and document their experience with pictures and/or video.  There will be tacos, tamales, face painting and more!  Here is the link for more info: https://www.tazachocolate.com/blogs/news/7th-annual-dia-de-los-muertos-block-party-at-the-taza-factory. Leigh went last year and it is a fun, family-friendly celebration! 

In addition to this extra credit option we've attached our goals sheet which has other options for those who can't attend this event :) 

As always, please let us know if you have any questions.

Best,

Katherine and Leigh 

Link to Goals sheet: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cuShmPfHXWaWrT-j_dgCwIoJZIv1xKi2dGMyeVBXr1E/edit?usp=sharing

¡Bienvenidos a la clase de español 2017-2018!

¡Hola familias!

Welcome to our 8th Grade Spanish Blog. We do our best to keep this updated throughout the year to provide you with information about what is happening in our Spanish classes!

We are wrapping-up our first unit, “Celebrando Cumpleaños where the students have reviewed concepts from last year through learning and talking about different types of parties including day, date, time as well as decorations and gifts included at these parties. Students will be describing their perfect party in an assessment at the end of the week. Students will also be learning how to extend, accept and decline invitations before the unit ends.Please do not hesitate to ask them to share their new knowledge with you!

We also had special visitors from Guatemala in some classes on Friday the 29th. These visitors were university students from Guatemala who were staying with families in Wayland while on a music tour of New England. They will be performing in 8 schools across New England in the next three weeks. Students interacted with the visitors in class through playing games, having short conversations and working on a reading assignment. It was an incredible experience and students did an amazing job interacting with native Spanish speakers who spoke little to no English.

We will soon be beginning a unit where students will learn about the cultural celebration of the Day of the Dead. Students will learn the history and practices of this celebration, watch the movie The Book of Life and research and create an altar for an important deceased Hispanic person. The project will not be assigned for another few weeks and we encourage you and your student to email us if you have any questions about the project.
We have gotten the year off to a great start and are looking forward to continuing a great year with your students. We look forward to seeing many of you at Back to School Night on Thursday!

Un saludo cordial,

Kathy DeLima and Leigh Netcoh 

8th Grade Spanish Teachers