Bluebird Wishing Trees send good thoughts out into the world

¡Hola! Spanish comes to BMPRSS

This year, Foreign Language in Elementary Schools (FLES) is back at the Bruno M. Ponterio Ridge Street School, and both teacher Jasminne Paulino and students are exclaiming “¡Olé!”

Each day, Ms. Paulino steps into the classrooms of third, fourth and fifth graders where she spends 20 minutes introducing students to the Spanish language. She brings with her a rolling basket of resources that includes everything from message boards with images pertaining to vocabulary students will be learning, a speaker for them to listen to authentic Latin music and worksheets to help them write in a new language. Occasionally, she surprises the students with some playful puppets that she uses to enhance their engagement. Among these puppets, Arturo seems to be the favorite.

Ms. Paulino takes the approach that students want to be active and engaged. To that end, her lessons usually begin with a physical warm up where she and the students stand and recite the names of their body parts in Spanish—shoulders, ears, knees etc. Throughout her interactions with students, she uses Spanish 95 percent of the time. English is reserved for providing instructions that may be challenging for students to understand.

“There’s a lot of repetition, switching up activities, playing games,” Ms. Paulino said. “Everything is meant to establish that connection so while they are not in the classroom, they are using the language as much as possible.”

The teacher is spending the first half of the year teaching students’ everyday language, with the second half focusing on units of study about Spanish speaking countries.

“Opening their minds to that level of diversity is something I love to see,” the teacher said, adding that when she informed students those different regions have a different way to say the word “cool,” the students were impressed. 

“You are giving kids a glimpse into the culture,” she said.

“Starting a foreign language in elementary school is so wonderful,” Ms. Paulino continued. “It leads into the language program at the middle school. It will change the whole K-12 world language program.”

Most of the students she is working with are not native Spanish speakers. Many of them have relatives who are fluent in Spanish, or they possess some prior knowledge of the language. Some of her students have told her they are practicing what they have learned with older siblings who are also studying the language.

“I think the trick is to make it fun, make it engaging,” she said. “I feed off their enthusiasm. It’s a lot of fun for me.”

Just a few weeks into the new school year, Ms. Paulino has seen how students have embraced what they are learning. One afternoon as she left the building after school, two fifth graders spoke to her in Spanish.

“Seeing the children this excited a month in, it makes me look forward to the rest of the school year,” Ms. Paulino said.