Changes

We've made some changes to this site! Scroll down to see a list of games available for your grade level and scroll down even more to see videos of some 3rd and 4th grade classes! In the future if you want to play games or print flashcards, you can click on your grade level to the right, under "Games and Flashcards".

Interactive Videos and Games for 4th Grade

4th graders: Here's a list of games to play throughout the year. Below, there are also some other options.

• Classroom commands with Cristina
• Free Rice.com Vocabulary Game

Interactive Videos and Games for 3rd Grade

3rd graders: Here's a list of games to play throughout the year. Below are also some other options.

• Classroom commands with Cristina
• Colors games from Discovery Education
• Free Rice.com Vocabulary Game

Interactive Videos and Games for 1st Grade

• ¿Cómo está el niño? How is the boy?
• Classroom commands with Cristina
• Parts of the Body with Ms. VanHemert
• Parts of the Body Review
  
• Colors and Shapes
• Numbers counting 1-100
• Numbers Quiz 1-20, then 1-100
• Family Vocabulary Games and Flashcards
• Salsa Games Website

Interactive Videos and Games for Kindergarten

• ¿Cómo está el niño? How is the boy?
• Classroom commands with Cristina
• Parts of the Body with Ms. VanHemert
• Colors and Shapes
• Numbers counting 1-100
• Numbers Quiz 1-20, then 1-100
• Family Vocabulary Games and Flashcards
• Salsa Games Website

Interactive Videos and Games for Pre-K

• Parts of the Body with Ms. VanHemert
• Colors and Shapes
• ¿Cómo está el niño? How is the boy?
• Salsa Games Website

"Doy gracias" by 3W

Around Thanksgiving 3rd and 4th Graders learned how to say "I am thankful for" in Spanish: "Doy gracias por". Watch and listen to a couple videos to hear what they are thankful for (at Thanksgiving time and always).

Then, scroll down a little more and see our 3rd grade renditions of the Christmas story. 3rd and 4th Graders, see if you can tell this story to someone over Christmas break.

¡Feliz Navidad y Dios te bendiga!
Merry Christmas and God bless you!

"Doy gracias" by 4A

3S Acts out Story of Navidad

3DZ/H Acts out Story of Navidad

Cascabel (Jingle Bells)

3rd and 4th grade students have been learning one version of Jingle Bells in Spanish. Some of our High School students helped them out by singing it for them!

K/1 Christmas Mini Book

During the weeks of 12/8 and 12/15, Kindergarten and 1st grade students will be using this mini book to learn about the Christmas story in Spanish! Watch the video below to read along with the book! Repeat each word after Señora Brouwer says it!

Campanas de Belén

Third and Fourth Grade students are learning a traditional Spanish carol (villancico), Campanas de Belén (Bells of Bethlehem)

Paco, Carmen, un pingüino, y un cerdo!

Third and Fourth grade students worked hard to learn some new vocabulary words! We had fun using the words to make silly sentences and stories in Spanish. Some students even illustrated Spanish sentences! Here are some of their drawings (see if you can figure out what the sentences mean!):

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week we begin our Thanksgiving Unit with third and fourth grades. We will learn some vocabulary to help us express what we are thankful for, and later we will create a book about Thanksgiving to send to our pen pals in Spain and Mexico. They are very curious about our American holidays! Please take pictures of your Thanksgiving traditions and foods. You may e-mail them to us, and even if they don't make it into the book we will post them on line for our pen pals to see.

Take a look at what we are learning. And, as always, you can find this vocab list under the links to "Unit Vocabulary..." on the lower right.

Story Time!

3rd and 4th grade students watched this short video in class today. It uses the new vocabulary we have been working on over the past two weeks.

¡Hola amigos en el colegio JAIME BALMES!

¡Queremos decir "hola" a nuestros nuevos amigos en Madrid!

Most of Señora Brouwer's 3rd and 4th grade students have been paired with pen-pals at the colegio (elementary school) Jaime Balmes in Madrid, Spain. Since our new Spanish pen-pals will be going to their computer lab to visit our blog this week, we wanted to say "hola"!




One of Señora Brouwer's 4th grade classes has pen pals at the colegio MARIANO JOSE DE LARRA, also in Madrid. We wanted to be sure to say "hola" to them, too!

Please be patient

Technical difficulties...

VoiceThread, one of our favorite ways of posting vocabulary videos and Bible Memory verses, may not work well if you have a lot of tabs open. If you are unable to load a Bible verse, Colors/Shapes vocabulary video, or the Espantapájaros story, please try closing a few tabs or restarting your web browser.

UPDATE: Friday afternoon, things seem to be working well! If you have any problems, let us know!

Pre-school Spanish

Some pre-school students will begin their Spanish classes next week. Each student will have Spanish once a week (20 minutes) for one quarter. Click here to see what we will be learning.

Practice Numbers, Shapes, and Colors

The following two links are great practice for learning numbers, shapes, and colors!

Count 1-100
Numbers Quiz
Colors and Shapes
Colors and Shapes Quiz

Listen to new Bible Memory Verses!

Our students are working on memorizing new verses in Spanish. Use the link below to listen to the verses in Spanish!

Bible Memory Verses

3rd and 4th Vocabulary, Song, and Verse

Click here to see what we are learning in 3rd and 4th grade! Kids, remember to teach padre, madre, hermano, hermana, or perro your new words with actions!

Espantapájaros

1st grade students at Rose Park celebrated Scarecrow Day today! As part of that, we read La Aventura de Espantapájaros in Spanish! Click the link below to read along with Señora Brouwer!

Read Along with Espantapájaros!

Demos Gracias (Let's give thanks)

Today, the third and fourth grade students learned a new song in Spanish! Click below to listen to the song, and sing along!

Demos Gracias

Last Chance for Spanish Book Orders!

Monday, October 20 is the last day to order Spanish books from Scholastic. Only Ms. VanWyk's 3rd and 4th graders received book order sheets, but anyone (Mrs. Brouwer's students, too) may order on-line. Go to Scholastic's website, click on "order books", and then enter user name "hcfles" and password "hcfles".

Scholastic's Spanish book selection is great and the prices are low. For K/1st we recommend #29, the De Colores CD, to listen to Spanish songs in the car! Some of these songs we sing in class! For 3rd/4th we recommend #69, a book called Usborne First 1000 Words in Spanish.

You may e-mail your child's teacher if the book is a gift. Remember that by ordering books you help us build our Spanish libraries!

Pictures of Srta. VanWyk's Students

Check out all our Spanish pictures!

September and October
October

1st Grade Vocab Lists

Here are the vocabulary lists, memory verses, and song lyrics for each unit in 1st Grade:
Unit 1 "Greetings"
Unit 2 "Body Parts"
Unit 3 "Colors, Shapes, and Numbers"
Espantapájaros (Scarecrow) Story
Unit 4 "Thanksgiving and Family"
Unit 5 "Christmas"
Unit 6 "Clothing and Weather"
Unit 7 "Animals"
Unit 8 "The Community"
Unit 9 "Calendar and Opposites"

4th Grade Vocab Lists

Here are the vocabulary lists, memory verses, and song lyrics for each unit in 4th Grade:

Greetings
State Symbols Unit
All About Me
Unit: Oct 27 - Nov 7
Thanksgiving Unit
Christmas
School
Verbs and Stories
Food
Clothing and Colors

3rd Grade Vocab Lists

Here are the vocabulary lists, memory verses and song lyrics for each unit in 3rd Grade:

Greetings
Map Unit
All About Me
Unit: Oct 27 - Nov 7
Thanksgiving
Christmas
School
Verbs and Stories
Food
Clothing and Colors

Kindergarten Vocab Lists

Here are the vocabulary lists, memory verses, and song lyrics for each unit in Kindergarten:
Unit 1 "Greetings"
Unit 2 "Body Parts"
Unit 3 "Colors, Shapes, and Numbers"
Unit 4 "Family and Christmas"
Unit 5 "Clothing and Weather"
Unit 6 "Animals"
Unit 7 "The Community"
Unit 8 "Calendar and Opposites"

Blog Challenge Answers

Here are the answers to the blog challenge! Felicidades to the winners!

Clue: Cartoon Character
Soy amarillo. Soy cuadrado. Vivo (I live) en el agua. Tengo ojos grandes. Tengo ojos azules. Tengo dedos blancos. No tengo pelo. ¿Quién soy?

Sponge Bob

Clue: Famous Teen
Soy una niña. Me gusta cantar. Tengo 15 años. Tengo pelo largo. Mi papá es famoso. ¿Quién soy?

Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana

Clue: Sports Star
Soy alto. Tengo pelo corto. Me gusta nadar rápidamente. Me gusta nadar en los Olímpicos. Yo gané 8 medallas de oro. ¿Quién soy?

Michael Phelps

Clue: Important Person
Soy un rey (king). Hablo español. Tengo 70 años. Tengo hijos (children)...dos chicas y un chico. Mi esposa se llama Sofía. ¿Quién soy?

King Juan Carlos I of Spain




Clue: Character from a Spanish Book
Me gusta montar a caballo (horse). Me gustan aventuras. Tengo un amigo, se llama Sancho Panza. ¿Quién soy?

Don Quijote

3/4 Blog Challenge!

There is a 3rd and 4th grade Blog Challenge in the sidebar on the right. Answers will be posted Tuesday afternoon (10/7). Remember, the first student in each class to figure out all 5 riddles and e-mail the answers to their Spanish teacher will win a small sorpresa!

More Vocabulary Videos

Check out THIS vocabulary video for K-1. Be sure to watch the one listed below of Ms. VanHemert, too!

Click here for vocabulary video.

3rd and 4th grade: We are working on vocabulary videos for you! In the meantime, here is a link to our list of new vocabulary words. Videos will be available very soon!!

Click here for vocabulary list

Practice "Body Parts" with Srta. VanHemert!

Kindergarteners and 1st Graders can show off their Spanish skills by naming the body part Ms. VanHemert points to before they hear it on the video! Click here to play!

Games, games, games!!

Here are some more games for you to keep practicing Spanish!!

This QUIA game practices the greetings and weather words we just finished (all levels). You need to be able to read to play the game!Quia Greetings

Also, for those of you who would like to learn a little more Spanish vocabulary, check out the FREE RICE website. This website allows you to play vocabulary games to "earn" rice that will be donated through the UN World Food Program. You can have fun, learn Spanish, and help feed the hungry all at once!

¡QUIA!

Quia (pronounced key-ah) is a website that allows teachers to create educational games for their students. We have created several games for our 4th grade classes. Visit this website and check them out!

4th Grade Quia Site

More games coming soon!

Practice "Body Parts" with South Side Superstars!

Watch the slideshow of our superstars to review and then practice body parts!

Blog Challenge Answers

Congratulations to our Blog Challenge Winners! ¡Buen trabajo! (Good work!) Here are the answers to the 4th grade challenge:

1. pájaro of Guatemala: el quetzal (seen to the right) The "quetzal" is also the name of the money used in Guatemala!

2. flor of Spain: el clavel (carnation)

3. colores of Argentina: azul claro, blanco, y dorado (light blue, white, and gold)-- the colors of the flag (as seen below)

4. animal of Puerto Rico: el coqui (like a frog, but VERY small)
5. baile de Dominican Republic: el merengue

And the answer to the 3rd grade challenge: California, Texas, and Florida have the most Hispanics (based on numbers; percentages are New Mexico, California, and Florida)

Blog Challenges!

Occasionally, we will post "blog challenges". A blog challenge is for students and parents to take what we have been talking about in Spanish class and explore a little more on their own.

This week we have blog challenges for 3rd and 4th grade. The challenge will last until Monday, September 22. When you know the answer, either e-mail the answers to your Spanish teacher, or write them down and hand them in. Sometimes, there will be prizes for correct answers, so work quickly and carefully!!

The blog challenge is posted in the sidebar to the right!

¡Diviértense! (Have fun!)

New Songs!

As we begin new units next week, Sept. 22, we'll be learning lots of new songs! Check out the Favorite Songs link to the left, or use these shortcuts!

K-1 Body Parts
K-1 5 Senses

3rd and 4th grade songs coming soon! Keep checking the Favorite Songs Link!

Luis, Paco or Jorge?

¡Hola somos Luis y Paco!

Two of the most popular "helpers" in our FLES program are Luis (Pine Ridge) and Paco (Rose Park). They're here in Holland because they are studying at Holland Christian HS as exchange students. Obviously Luis and Paco are twin brothers from Argentina, but what about Jorge? Are the twins really triplets with Jorge, the movie star? Or is one of the twins doubling as Jorge the actor?

Keep watching the blog for more information on these two (three?) popular puppets and our other FLES "helpers".

Cultural Events

We have LOTS of great cultural events going on in the Holland area this week. Hopefully, you have time to make it to one or two!

Tulipanes

Tulipanes is a Latino art and film festival downtown Holland. While many of the films are geared toward an older audience, there are plenty of other family friendly activities!

Food Booths in Centennial Park
Try something new like tamales from Taco Fiesta or sopes from Margarita’s!
When: Fri 11-11, Sat 11-8, Sun 12-4

Lucia Gonzalez, Storyteller
Mrs. Gonzalez was born in Cuba and has also lived in Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, and Miami. She collects folktales from the Spanish-speaking world and tells them in English in order to pass them on to English-speaking children.
When: Friday, 4:15, Centennial Park
Friday, 6:15, Park Theatre
Saturday, 11 am, Centennial Park
Saturday, 1:30 pm, Park Theatre

Flamenco
Flamenco is the passionate music and dance of Spain. Costumes, guitar music, hand clapping, and intricate footwork combine to make a spectacular show!
When: Friday, 6:30, Centennial Park

Giant Piñata
Come see a traditional Mexican piñata in the shape of a six-pointed star. Children will WATCH as it is broken. Then, they will be able to pick up treats and small gifts.
When: Saturday, 10am, Centennial Park

Faith and Worship Celebration
The bilingual worship service will be in English and Spanish. Pastor Tomás Ivans of Esperanza Covenant Church in GR will lead the service. A children’s choir from El Puente (Zeeland Christian-Holland Christian Spanish Immersion school) will be participating in the service.
When: Sunday, 3pm, Centennial Park

**With the exception of the food booths, all of the activities I have listed are free to attend. For more information, including a complete list of activities, please visit:
www.tulipanes.org


¡Viva México!

Join us in celebrating Mexico’s Independence Day! Holland Christian High School and Love In the Name of Christ of Allendale will be sponsoring a family oriented celebration. Come join us to sample authentic Mexican food, play games, hit piñatas, learn about Mexican culture, and get to know some of your West Michigan-Mexican neighbors!

Tuesday, September 16th
6:30-9:00 PM (Come when you can, leave when you must.)
At Rusk Christian Reformed Church
10354 92nd Ave. Zeeland 49464
No Charge!

Mini Vocabulary Lesson: Try it out!

Your student will be learning many new vocabulary words this year! While all students learn differently, (some love to practice saying new words as often as possible, others prefer to listen and let it all soak in) occasionally, it will beneficial to review at home.

Rather than just sending home a list of vocabulary words, I hope to keep you all up to date with "Vocabulary Videos". These videos have several advantages:

1. Both parents and students can hear the correct pronunciation of the words.
2. The video provides visual cues through pictures and actions.
3. I am able to add subtitles to the videos so that parents and/or older students can hear and see the word at the same time.
4. The videos will present the vocabulary words in a complete Spanish sentence. Many language experts agree that learning vocabulary in context is more beneficial than simply memorizing lists.

Click HERE to view the mini lesson.

Please let me know if you experience any technical difficulties!

A new year is on the way!

Check back often for updates on what's going on in Preschool, Kindergarten, 1st, 3rd, and 4th grade Spanish!