5th Grade World Language

Mandarin: 5th graders continue to build their vocabulary and their skills with speaking, listening, reading, and writing alongside the acquisition of cultural knowledge. Students learn and apply vocabulary in several areas, including larger numbers, times and dates, daily activities such as going to school and doing homework, family members, pets, occupations and personal interests. Projects and interactive activities are a regular part of class, and students construct and present dialogues about common daily activities, create presentations for each other, interview family members, record videos of their own speaking, write and give away books to family members, pull meaning from movie excerpts with subtitles off, and more. They continue to hone their listening skills for the sounds and tones of Mandarin, and they read, speak, and listen frequently in class. Students in 5th grade practice typing in Mandarin through choosing the correct characters, and they use learning strategies that include flashcard practice, making and sharing presentations, note-taking, and study guide review to prepare for oral and written assessments. Students even learn to ask questions about their own learning using Mandarin. 

Spanish: 5th grade Spanish is filled with engaging projects and increasing interaction in the target language as students continue to build their skills with speaking, reading, writing, listening, and cultural awareness. Students learn and apply vocabulary and grammar in several areas, including how to make things, families, school, classes, classroom features, personal activities, numeracy, telling time, and how to describe people and their attributes and personalities. Students study the present tense of verbs ending in -ER, and also the verb SER.  Projects and interactive experiences help students comprehend spoken language, use correct pronunciation, and gain skill and confidence with initiating and sustaining conversations, discussions, and interviews. Students are taught in Spanish and are encouraged and expected to speak in Spanish daily in class. Highlights include introducing themselves to the class with personal videos, learning to write a polite email to a teacher, comparing and contrasting Spanish speaking cultures around the world, solving math problems in Spanish, sharing food and cooking projects, designing murals to celebrate diverse Spanish-speaking historical figures, and designing ofrendas to honor family members as they learn to celebrate dia de los muertos. They begin to write paragraphs and continue to experience interactive storytelling to develop their listening and speaking skills. 5th graders participate in our annual Flag Assembly in which each student shares about the Independence Day of a Spanish-speaking country at a special all-school assembly.