Topics

Autumn 1 - 2020/21

El Sistema Solar - The Solar System

We start our school year in Spanish learning about the Solar System.

The planets

We first get familiar with the planets, how to read and say their names correctly in Spanish:

Mr. Castro

Summer 1 2020

¡Bienvenidos de nuevo a la clase de español!

I hope your Easter holidays are being an enjoyable and happy ones. This self-isolation that we are enduring (more or less) gave me the idea for the next unit for Spanish:

Household chores

Why not? I bet most of us are doing lots of these with our family. Some things might be usual tasks, some others might be jobs we have never done before. What a learning process! So, why not learning about these new routines in Spanish? Are you up to the challenge? First, the vocabulary:

Does it seem an awful lot? Just take your time, read them carefully, read them aloud, practise and keep on practising.

When you see that I put words in brackets, it means that you must look up the noun in the dictionary (try this one https://www.spanishdict.com/translation). For example: if you are looking for a drink like 'water', you put "agua" and the sentence should look like this: "Yo bebo agua" (I drink water).

Sentence structure

We will learn basic sentence structure. The focus will be:

- "Yo": it means 'I' in English. We put it at the beginning of the sentence.

- verb: we will learn a good number of useful verbs in this unit. Just use the sentences in the vocabulary regularly.

- using the dictionary: there is no better way to learn new words than looking them up in the dictionary. Be curious! I will provide as much support in this as I can . No worries! Here are some useful words:

Watch out for further updates. ¡A por todas!

Mr. Castro

Spring 2 - 2020

Clothes

This half-term we will learn about clothes. First, the vocabulary:

Check out the colour code: pink is for Feminine, and blue is for Masculine. We will see this half-term that words in Spanish have gender.

To say what we are wearing

We will start by using this sentence structure:

Here are some examples to help you understand how to make these sentences:

Also, you can say what other person wears by swapping 'llevo' with 'lleva':

Please take a look at the 'Games' section of this website. You will find games and videos to practice all we are going to learn.

Mr Castro

Spring 1 - 2020

Ready for the new half-term?

The topic is weather. We will learn how to say what the weather's like with confidence.

Our first aim will be saying: 'In (name of city) is (weather condition)'.

You might remember that 'in' in Spanish is "en". Quite similar! Just remember to read it in Spanish .

For names of cities/boroughs in Spain just have a look on this map and pick your favourite one:

Next, a quick glance on the weather conditions chart above will show you that we use different verbs depending on the climatic condition we want to state. These are:

- "Está": it literally means 'is' in English.

- "Hay": it means 'there is/are", but we will translate it here as 'is' in order to make sense for us.

- "Hace": it means 'it makes'. Once again, let's translate it as 'is'.

And this is all we need to get it right. Here you are some examples:

- En Madrid hace frío.

- En Córdoba hace calor.

- En Barcelona llueve.

But we can also make more complex and interesting sentences like:

- En Cáceres hace viento y llueve, pero en Sevilla hace sol y hace calor.

We have used two old friends: "y" (and), and "pero" (but).

We can also use the adverb "no" to make simple negative sentences:

- En Segovia hay niebla, pero en Madrid no hay niebla.

Let's use our previous knowledge to explore this new topic!

Mr Castro

Autumn 2 - 2019

Big numbers: hundreds

We did great with tens. Now it is the time for hundreds. It's very easy:

This is how we form numbers with hundreds: "hundred's name" + "ten's name" + "y" + "unit". Let me show you with an example: 246 would be "doscientos cuarenta y seis". Do you see? Not complicated at all.

And now, do some practice on your own!

At the shops - paying with euros

Now that we know numbers, we will apply this knowledge to something practical. If we go to Spain we don't use pounds but euros. In truth, both currencies are used in pretty much the same way. Just the names are different. Take a look:

Now:

- instead of pounds, we say "euros";

- instead of pence or 'pennies', we say "céntimos" (cents).

The question "¿Cuánto es?" means 'How much is it?'.

The answer will be "Son (number price) euros" which means 'It's (number price) euros'.

Here is an example:

Just make sure that you read the number correctly.

Act it out!

Phonics

Mr Castro

Autumn 1 - 2019

New classroom instructions

This first half-term we will learn and practise new classroom instructions, added to the ones that we already know:

We will use the everyday in class. Make sure that you learn their meanings well.

Big numbers up to 100

We expand our number knowledge. Are you ready?

All numbers from 30 to 100 follow this structure: "ten's name" + "y" (and) + "unit". For example: 57 would be "cincuenta y siete". Piece of cake!

And now, do some practice on your own!

Act it out!

Our brand new section. And we love it! Crazy short plays to help us learn more Spanish in a funny way. This half-term is:

Practise makes perfect!

Phonics

These are the phonics for this half-term:

Remember the action when practising it. Also, note that the change in spelling doesn't imply a change in pronunciation. The "u" is a silent letter. Here are the words we are seeing this half-term:

Mr. Castro

Summer 1 - 2019

We will be learning pet names, plurals and their rules, the use of verb "tener" (to have) in a sentence, and describing pets.

If you noticed, these animal names have different articles depending on their gender: Masculine has "el", Feminine has "la". Both mean "the" in English.

Now, take a look at this sentence:

It translates as "I have got a (pet) called (name of the pet)".

Here, we use the indefinite article "a" that in Spanish take these two singular forms: "un" for masculine, "una" for feminine.

This is a very simple and easy structure to follow, so practice and master it!

Spring Term

We have two main topics this Spring Term: Family and Animals.

Family - Los Simpson

We will learn about the family with the most family in the world: The Simpsons!

Just remember that Bart can be either "hijo" (son) or "hermano" (brother) depending of the point of view you see him. Same goes for Lisa ("hija" and "hermana"). Keep it in mind and don't get confused.

Introducing the family

We will pretend to be a Simpson family member so we will introduce our "new" family from that point of view (we will be either "hijo" (son) or "hija" (daughter)).

The patter that we will follow to introduce each member is:

First, we must write "Hello!" in Spanish.

Next, "Me llamo" + (name).

After, we must say who is that person (i.e. father, mother, sister, dog, etc.).

Then, how old is that person: "Tengo + (years old) + años".

Lastly, we write "Goodbye!" in Spanish

Watch out for the inverted exclamation mark ("¡") at the beginning of the word. This is a Spanish thing. We always put an inverted exclamation mark at the beginning and a regular one at the end. Interesting, isn't it?

Time

We will learn and practice times in Spanish as well.

It means: "What time is it?"

When we want to say 'o'clock' in Spanish we follow this structure: "Son las" + hour.

Rule breaker!: when it is 1 o'clock we say "Es la una". Why? Because 1 is singular, and so need to be the verb and the article. Keep it in mind.

We add the words "y media" after the hour. Same rule breaker for 1 applies here.

The structure is: "son las" + hour + "y cuarto" (careful with the spelling. Don't get confused with number 4).

For quarter past 1 is "Es la una y cuarto".

We add the words "menos cuarto" after the hour. Same rule breaker for 1 applies here as well.

Animals

These are the pet animals that we are going to learn this half-term. Make sure that you read them correctly. Can you do it?

Autumn 2 - 2018

Ready for the new half-term?

The topic is weather. We will learn how to say what the weather's like with confidence.

Our first aim will be saying: 'In (name of city) is (weather condition)'.

You might remember that 'in' in Spanish is "en". Quite similar! Just remember to read it in Spanish .

For names of cities/boroughs in Spain just have a look on this map and pick your favourite one:

Next, a quick glance on the weather conditions chart above will show you that we use different verbs depending on the climatic condition we want to state. These are:

- "Está": it literally means 'is' in English.

- "Hay": it means 'there is/are", but we will translate it here as 'is' in order to make sense for us.

- "Hace": it means 'it makes'. Once again, let's translate it as 'is'.

And this is all we need to get it right. Here you are some examples:

- En Madrid hace frío.

- En Córdoba hace calor.

- En Barcelona llueve.

But we can also make more complex and interesting sentences like:

- En Cáceres hace viento y llueve, pero en Sevilla hace sol y hace calor.

We have used two old friends: "y" (and), and "pero" (but).

We can also use the adverb "no" to make simple negative sentences:

- En Segovia hay niebla, pero en Madrid no hay niebla.

Let's use our previous knowledge to explore this new topic!

Autumn 1 - 2018

¡Bienvenidos! Are we ready to learn more Spanish this year? Here are the topics for Autumn 1:

Instructions and Classroom Routines

We already knew these ones from last year, but we have many more to come! Check them out:

Can you work out their meaning just by looking at the pictures? Some of the are tricky? Don't you worry! We will see then in class one by one. By the end of the year you will know them all by heart

The especial one for this half-term is:

"Can I go to the toilet, please?" A very important question indeed! Just don't forget the actions.

Big numbers till 1000

We already learned numbers till 31 last year. Now it is time to explore tens and hundreds. You will see that it is easier than it looks. Step by step. First, the tens:

Pay attention to colour code. There is an action attached to each colour.

Now, the hundreds:

It is very important that you remember your Spanish phonics. Check the phonics table from time to time and practice.

And finally, numbers including hundreds, tens, and units:

All numbers from 30 to 100 follow this structure: "ten's name" + "y" (and) + "unit". For example: 57 would be "cincuenta y siete". Piece of cake!

And, what about hundreds? Very simple: "hundred's name" + "ten's name" + "y" + "unit". Let me show you with an example: 246 would be "doscientos cuarenta y seis". Do you see? Not complicated at all.

And now, do some practice on your own!

Telling the time

This half-term we are going to learn the basic reading of time in Spanish, that is: o'clock and half-past.

When we want to say 'o'clock' in Spanish we follow this structure: "Son las" + hour.

Rule breaker!: when it is 1 o'clock we say "Es la una". Why? Because 1 is singular, and so need to be the verb and the article. Keep it in mind.

We add the words "y media" after the hour. Same rule breaker for 1 applies here.

Mr Castro

Spring 1

Parts of the body

We are coming back to this topic so we can start giving more detailed descriptions. Here's a quick recap:

We will see new parts of the body. They will be added here as we see them in class.

Word order

In Spanish, the order of words in a sentence is a bit different. To start with, adjectives come after the noun. Let's see a quick example:

The eyes are red = Los ojos son rojos

The pattern for plurals is : (article) + (noun) + son + (adjective).

For singular: (article) + (noun) + es + (adjective).

The head is yellow = La cabeza es amarilla

Word agreement

In Spanish, words must agree in gender (masculine / feminine) and number (singular / plural). So, if a noun is masculine and singular, the adjectives and articles used must be in masculine and singular too.

For instance:

"Cuerpo" = body - masculine and singular

How do we say 'the body is red and small'? Let's see:

First, the article must be masculine and singular: 'El'.

Next, the noun: 'cuerpo'.

Thirdly, the verb: 'es'.

And finally, the adjectives: 'rojo y pequeño'.

Therefore: 'El cuerpo es rojo y pequeño'.

We will do this many times in class during the whole Spring term.

Plurals

We will see plurals for the first time. Don't worry! It's easier than you think. Here's a simple rule:

"If the word ends in a vowel, we just add an -s".

That way the colour "rojo" would be "rojos".

There are more plurals but we will see them as they appear in our lessons.

Mr Castro

Autumn 2

Hola de nuevo. This half-term we are going to learn simple descriptions using colours and shapes.

First, a quick reminder on colours:

Do you remember the actions for each colour?

Shapes

We will say simple descriptions following this structure:

"El / La" + (shape name) + "es / no es" + (colour Masculine or Feminine).

In order to do it correctly we must make sure that we put the right article before each shape name. In singular, there is one for Masculine and one for Feminine:

But, how do we know if a word is either Masculine or Feminine? Well, there is a general rule:

Keep in mind that this is not a strict rule, so it just apply to most cases. Exceptions happen every now and then. But this applies very well to our shapes. So, what happens with "cruz" (cross)? "Cruz" is Feminine, therefore: "La cruz".

"Es" means 'it is', and "no es" means 'it isn't'.

The last aspect to know is word order. In Spanish we put the noun first, followed by the articles. The other way around! So while we would say in English "red circle", in Spanish is "circle red":

Mr Castro

Autumn 1

¡Hola Year 3s! Welcome back!

It is time for us to start a new school year with lots of exciting things to do in Spanish.

This is what awaits us this half-term:

Meeting and Greeting

Last year we learned how to say 'My name is...' in Spanish. So now it is time for us to ask the question 'What's your name?'. To enhance our conversation skills, we will use the also the question "¿Y tú?" which means 'And you?'.