NAME:
Señora Claudia Olea
SCHOOL:
St. John Catholic School
CLASS:
Spanish (Español)
I was born in Santiago, Chile, so I grew up speaking, playing, singing and
even dreaming in Spanish. The first time I came to Lawrence I was two years
old. I didn't move to live permanently the United States until I was
seventeen. I have a husband named David and three daughters. Two of my
daughters are at our school this year!
One of my main goals is to make learning Spanish fun. I like to use art,
stories, music, games and connections to real places and people to learn and
practice our Spanish.
Preschool to third grade-
This semester in primary level Spanish class, we are heading for adventures,
heroes and villains with our theme of fairy tales! We will learn a song about
the Puss in Boots (El gato con botas), count mattresses with The Princess and
the Pea (La princesa y el guisante), see how big the vines grow in Jack and
Beanstalk (Juan y los frijoles mágicos), and blow the house down with The
Three Little Pigs (Los tres cerditos). Second and third graders will continue
on their noble quest to learn to read and write in Spanish. It will be a
semester full of games, songs and happy endings… in Spanish!
Fourth to fifth grade-
Each semester in fourth to fifth grade Spanish class, we will study a
different country to make the Spanish language come to life. These are some
examples of how we’ve done that in past classes:
• In Spain we studied 400 years of Spanish art from the classic masters
Velázquez and Goya, to modern day geniuses like Picasso and Dali, and right
up to modern times with fashion designer Agatha Ruiz de la Prada and
sculptor/photographer Cristina Iglesias. We also learned about the Spanish
soccer team that won the World Cup.
• In Mexico we made our own calendar and hieroglyphs inspired by the
Aztec calendar. We studied the murals that famous artist Diego Rivera
made of Tenochtitlan and Aztec markets nearby. Then we turned our own
classroom into an Aztec market and traded food and other goods.
• In the fall semester we explored Perú. This country was once the
heart of the Inca empire. We learned about the ruins of Machu Picchu, the
Inca Trail and the Inca system for recording numbers. We worked on a research
project and photo story about Andean instruments. We also got a glimpse of
life in modern-day Lima.
• Our current country is Chile, where Señora Olea was born. Chile is a
long, skinny country that goes all the way from the driest desert in the
world in the north to the tip of South America near Antarctica in the south.
In between there are more than seven thousand miles of beaches, volcanoes,
glaciers, ski resorts, fishing villages, and the capital Santiago with 7
million people. Easter Island is also part of Chile with its mysterious
moais. So pack your bags and get your passports ready. ¡Vamos a Chile!
Sixth Grade-
Our middle-school students are ready to take it to the next level! We will
have Spanish and World Languages three times a week as we continue learning
Spanish in a cultural context. We will listen to pop and rock music from
Latin America and Spain, work on special projects such as self-portraits,
and advance our grammar knowledge with the Spanish textbook ¡Buen Viaje!
In addition, we will have guest speakers throughout the year who will
introduce us to the other languages offered in the local high schools:
German, French, Latin and Mandarin Chinese.