Valley Preparatory School Redlands California

Preschool through Pre-Kindergarten students will learn basic vocabulary through oral and visual lessons like greetings, words, numbers, colors, and parts of the body.  They will also be able to respond to their name when asked in Spanish, listen in a group setting, repeat vocabulary after the teacher, sing Spanish songs, follow one step directions, and watch sing-along videos for listening skills and proper pronunciation.

Kindergarten students will write their name, recall vocabulary learned through oral and visual lessons, sing along with tapes and videos, and learn basic vocabulary such as numbers to twenty, colors, greetings, parts of the body, and holiday words.  Students will also learn songs and games, name pictures in Spanish, and respond to simple expressions and greetings.

First grade students will review all vocabulary through visual and oral lessons and expand upon that knowledge.  They will learn numbers to fifty, more colors, more parts of the body, days of the week, months of the year, and family names using games and songs.  Students will also watch sing along videos and Spanish children's movies.

Second grade students will completely review the first grade curriculum.  They will also learn new vocabulary and expressions, numbers to one hundred, all colors, extended family members, expressions about weather, body parts, and items in the classroom.  Students will also recognize and recite the alphabet, practice proper pronunciation, spell Spanish vocabulary, recognize vocabulary in a written context, respond to oral questions, directions and commands, and copy vocabulary into a notebook.

Third grade students completely review the second grade curriculum and build upon it to learn numbers to two hundred, more items in the classroom, and food names.  Students also memorize poems and songs.  Conversational vocabulary in introduced using vocabulary the students have learned and students give short self-presentations.

The curriculum for grades four through six is an introduction to grammar.  Students begin in fourth grade by learning the differences in gender in articles, nouns, and adjectives, grammar rules, and the importance of accenting words.  Homework becomes a part of the normal homework load for all students in fourth through eighth grades.

In fifth grade, grammar skills are reinforced and expanded.  Students begin to understand how the language is structured and how they can use it to express their known needs through the usage of regular and irregular verbs in the present tense.  Idioms and common expressions are added to their repertoire as well.  They also learn the difference between the familiar and the formal manner in which Spanish speakers address one another.  At this point, all students have a grammatical knowledge of prepositions, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, possessives, and conjunctions.  All materials from previous grades are reviewed.

Students in sixth through eighth grade continually build upon previously acquired vocabulary while incorporating new skills.  Their grammar skills are addressed more intensively and their conversational Spanish becomes more fluent.  New verb tenses are introduced.  Students learn how to speak and write not only in the present tense but also in the past, future, and imperative forms.  Direct and indirect object pronouns are introduced as well.  Noun-verb agreement, noun-adjective agreement, and proper word order of well-structured sentences are developed.  At this stage, students have the ability to count up to 500 and higher.  They can introduce themselves and others while using greetings and farewells appropriately.  Students have a basic appreciation of the diversity of cultures in the Spanish speaking world.  The latter is learned through cultural videos, readings, using food and restaurant vocabulary, and other cultural facts.

By eighth grade, students' accent becomes more refined and their work becomes more mature within the framework of the curriculum.  Eighth grade students leave Valley Preparatory School with the confidence of having a very strong head start before entering high school.  Most students will start in the second or third year of Spanish in their freshman year.

Texts: Viva el Espanol, Converso Mucho - Grade 4
Viva el Espanol, Yo Converso Mas - Grade 5
En Espanol, uno - McDougal Littell, Grade 6
En Espanol, uno - McDougal Littell, Grade 7
En Espanol, dos - McDougal Littell, Grade 8