Spanish
Extended Day and Junior Level
Students are exposed to languages other than English at all levels and across the Montessori curriculum as part of cultural studies. Formal language instruction is initiated in Extended Day with weekly lessons. Junior Level students receive lessons three times a week.
Children are receptive to language acquisition at an early age, and the program seeks to inspire and excite younger students through active learning, music and body movement. Songs composed for the purposes of language acquisition provide children with vocabulary, proper pronunciation and a comfort level with Spanish that create natural transitions to the spoken language, whether used to narrate or to converse. Memorization in the context of a song is fun, and serves the children well as they progress in the program. Acting is another tool used in the early years of language instruction. The process of constructing and acting out a scene incorporates creativity and body movement, while placing words and phrases in a larger context and encouraging expressive and purposeful speaking. Puppets and stuffed animals may also serve as characters of these Spanish theatrical efforts.
Movement is a particularly useful tool in many Spanish lessons. Spanish songs or phrases may form the verbal structure for a dance routine or sports game. In warm weather, for example, you might find a group of intent students jumping rope in rhythm to a Spanish song they are singing.
In addition to participating in these Spanish activities, Junior Level students are exposed to written language. We begin to read simple sentences and texts in Spanish and incorporate phrases and sentences into creative work such as drawings or photo collages of families, pets and familiar environments. At every level of the early Spanish curriculum, the emphasis is on the beauty and joy of language, the child's natural abilities and her desire to describe and communicate with the world around her.
Upper Level
The Upper Level Spanish curriculum presents language through the study of Spanish geography and history. Students learn about Spanish culture in the context of the built and natural environment - landscape and regions, rivers and mountains, cities and monuments. At the same time, attention is devoted to the refinement of pronunciation and inflection. The experience of making new sounds leads to a comfort in speaking and expression in a second language.
At this level, grammar and language pattern study are added to the work of vocabulary building, verbal expression and pronunciation emphasized in the Extended Day and Junior Level Spanish classes. Each lesson begins with the pronunciation or singing of words. Chanting is the tool used to introduce and solidify knowledge of new vocabulary.
With the knowledge and tools gained through cultural and grammar study, and verbal and vocabulary exercises, students begin to engage the Spanish language as a tool of communication, through conversation, reading and writing.
The Elizabeth Ann Clune Montessori School of Ithaca
120 East King Road, Ithaca, New York 14850
Phone: (607) 277-7335, Fax: (607) 277-0251, Email:
