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Spanish
The Spanish program at Oak Hill aims to integrate the Spanish language and culture throughout the environment. We focus less on the teaching of grammar and more on the development of listening and speaking skills and on cultural awareness. Students acquire the language through careful listening and repetition, achieved by visuals, games, songs, storytelling and physical activities.
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Children have fun learning songs, finger plays and rhymes in Spanish. |
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Children are encouraged to participate by listening and repeating the Spanish words. |
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Movement activities help children associate their experiences in class to new vocabulary, pronunciation and expressions. |
The goal is for the ear to get used to the "sound" of Spanish. The children are training their ears to the Spanish language, especially in the younger classrooms. By the time the children reach Junior High, their brains are ready to acquire the language in a more formal study.
It is not expected that all children will become bilingual, or even fluent speakers. Rather, early exposure to another language creates a facility for understanding and speaking it, as well as greater ease in later study. It also creates an early consciousness of culture.
Our teacher, Gema Nelson, has studied several successful Spanish programs at Montessori schools across the nation. and works with the Oak Hill staff to design and implement the Spanish program here. Her goal is to find the most appropriate and effective way to integrate Spanish into the Montessori curriculum.
Oak Hill Montessori is an independent non-profit school accredited by the Association Montessori Internationale (AMI).