Dale Street Mystery Skype Call

Last week one of Señora DellaMonica's fifth grade classes and one of Señora LeVangie's fifth grade classes participated together in a mystery Skype call with the help of Technology Integration Specialist Debby Fromen.  Our students had no idea which Spanish speaking country the other class was in and the other class did not know which state we were in.  Both classes had to solve the mystery in ten yes or no questions or less!  Prior to the call students were assigned to various jobs such mappers, questioners, speakers, recorders, photographers, etc.  The students were so excited to connect with this mystery class.  The call began with our students asking in Spanish if the other class was located in South America.  When the answer was no, they tried Mexico, then Europe, and then Spain.  Finally they asked if the other class was in Madrid and the answer was a resounding "SÍ"!  Working together, our class had solved the mystery in only five questions.  Everyone cheered loudly.  The Spanish class asked their questions in English and figured out we were in Massachusetts shortly after we discovered they were in Madrid.  Because the students were so successful we had time to ask some questions in Spanish to discover more about a Spanish student's daily life.  We wished the call were longer because there was such enthusiasm about asking the questions.  Our students were surprised to hear that the Spanish students attend school from 9-5 with a break in the middle of the day for lunch and play.  They were thrilled to learn that they currently share the same favorite song, "Despacito" by Justin Bieber.  They also noted differences in time and temperature.  It was a blazing 97 degrees in Madrid that day!  The students talked about favorite sports and sports teams and also noted the other class was in uniform.  It was such a thrilling and worthwhile experience for our students to connect with native speakers.  The overwhelming feedback was to do it again next year!   

The year of rooster: Chinese New Year celebration in Medfield Public Schools

This year, the Chinese New Year celebration started on Jan 28th, but it will last 15 days. The Chinese New Year is considered the most important holiday in China and in a lot of other countries. There are many ways to celebrate it. In Medfield, this is how each school celebrated it.

In the high school, students decorated the lobby near the main office. They combined traditional Chinese New Year decorations with some Medfield spirit decorations. The New Year posters throughout the school also showed people information about the Chinese New Year. In the classroom, students learned a traditional, yet still very popular Chinese board game: Mahjong. Many Chinese still play it during the New Year time.


At Blake Middle School, 6th, 7th and 8th graders made dumplings, sweet rice balls and spring rolls. Dumplings and spring rolls represent wealth, sweet rice balls represent family togetherness. All three are must-eat foods during the Chinese New Year.


The students at Dale school learned what the twelve zodiacs are, what this year's zodiac is and which song is popular during the Chinese New Year. They made some crafts of roosters and twelve zodiacs lanterns. They also sang a New Year song, called " Gongxi Gongxi" .

At Wheelock, the Mandarin students celebrated the New Year with the Chinese club. They made a great wall in the hallway, which was full of students' work. They made the terracotta warriors, Chinese painting, calligraphy and stamps.

#WLMedfield @MedfieldHS: We Love Languages!

Valentine's Day is coming and speaking of love -the World Language teachers at MHS love our languages! A recent walk during today's blocks revealed a great variety of activities, planned by our teachers for our students. Block days in the WL hallway are mostly fun, but learning is still omnipresent.

Spanish 2 students in Sra. Tasi's class were inventing their own phrases using small white boards and images shared through their ipads. Mme. Goodrow-Trach's students used props from her bag of treasures; they passed them them around the room declaring in (perfect) French -this is mine, this is yours!

                                                                              Using Quizlet Live!, students in Latin class began to review vocabulary and concepts for an upcoming quiz. Quizlet Live! is an interactive quiz game where the students compete against each other in a friendly(!) way to earn points based on their knowledge of the topic. Sra. Rodenhi's Intro to Spanish class also played three rounds of Quizlet Live! to start off the block. Later in the block, her students retold a story, using TPRS methodology. This round of visits produced some great videos -check out our twitter feed at #WLMedfield (to the right of this page) -very impressive speaking in French, Spanish, and Mandarin. In Mandarin class, students practiced a role play in pairs with Lao Shi Zhang. In Spanish 5 Honors, students are learning about Spanish-speaking cultures through films. They also practiced their own communication skills as they learned. Students were watching Motorcycle Diaries and had the chance to discuss in pairs different aspects of Che Guevara's journey. Sra. Hamilton's Spanish 2 class played a spirited round of Rock, Paper Scissors (Piedra, Papel, Tijeras). Everyone loves a good competition! Make sure to ask your children what they learned in their #WLMedfield language classes today, and follow our blog by subscribing at the top right of the page.

                                      

It's a great day to learn World Languages @BMSED

World Language classes @bmsed on 1/24/2017

This morning I had the pleasure of spending some quality time in our World Language classes at Blake. As you can see from our photos and tweets #WLMedfield, there was a lot happening. To the left is a quick visual of a few of the classes.
 I began the morning with a visit to Madame  Buckham's sixth grade French class.They were reviewing vocabulary -always important, but they were playing a game while doing so. The students were very excited and just a little competitive as they all tried to put their hands on the word that Madame called out to the group!
I then moved to seventh grade French. Monsieur Cowell started the class with the group gathered on the side of the room in a semicircle. They did a quick word scramble to get their brains starting to think in French -or as we say in the World Language arena: TL= target language. Students eased their way into the French world and recited the day, date, and year. (see a video on instagram account @wlmedfield.) Next, I walked across the hall to seventh grade Spanish. As Sra. Manning's students were finishing their TAL (trabajo al llegar or work to be done upon arrival), they reviewed some basic questions and answers about clothing: where to buy certain items and descriptions. Sra. Manning arranged the students in pairs. They then discussed and asked questions about clothing images in a prepared powerpoint on googleclassroom. Down the hall students in Sra. Batts and Sra, Boulos' class were also practicing their interpersonal speaking skills. They went shopping on line at El Corte Inglés web site. Check out tweets -a few @elcorteingles were liked (within seconds) by the large department store in Spain!
Our eighth grade classes were also busy practicing their skills. In Mandarin class, Laoshi Liu had her timer on the board and students were asking as many questions in Mandarin as they could! Sra. Manning's students worked in stations: they reviewed vocabulary, role-played a restaurant situation, and much more. Down the hall in Sra. Batts and Sra. Boulos' eighth grade class, the students were researching tipping practices. The teachers offered the "Trip Advisor" web site to the students via classroom. They researched the same Spanish speaking country that they had previously explored through a project about typical meals. Students analyzed trends and tried to guess why tipping practices were higher or lower in certain places. It was a great morning to learn a language at Blake.
For more World Language news, follow this blog, twitter #WLMedfield and instagram @wlmedfield.

Describing clothing in seventh grade Spanish #WLMedfield #wlblog #bmsed

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Learning French with a vocab game 6th grade #bmsed #WLMedfield #wlblog

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Question games I. Mandarin class 8th grade#WLMedfield #bmsed #wlblog

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