Spanish Academy students receive a unique curriculum
designed for foreign language acquisition delivered 100% in Spanish. SA curriculum is tailored to age appropriate learning goals, including mastery of life skills and motor skills, reading, math, science and social studies. Monthly themes are presented and experienced in the classroom and in nature.
Music from 18 Spanish cultures presented in the curriculum. Wooden instruments collected from around the world are used by students. Art projects are based on monthly curriculum themes. Students have free time for guided and independent art expression.
We celebrate the differences in our world's cultures. Through holidays, studying history, geography and art, we explore the amazing human potential for creativity. We study and investigate traditions around the world and create fun art projects to reflect our new cultural awareness.
Our primary objective is to teach students to speak, sing, read and write in Spanish in a fun and lively way. Children naturally absorb a second language early in life and with great ease. Studies show that children who are introduced to a foreign language at an early age generally score higher on IQ tests and succeed in academia. Our students become excellent candidates for the Spanish Immersion Public School, Puesta del Sol, located in Bellevue, Washington.
Students learn to respect each other, teachers and all living creatures. Students are given responsibilities in the classroom and learn to be accountable for their actions. SA students learn to think independently and make decisions based on good values. The ratio of students to teacher is low. This low ratio allows for a more creative and stimulating curriculum to inspire and nurture leadership in our students. Weekly, if not daily, students in elementary grades are encouraged to teach preschoolers with teacher supervision. Students are eager to teach letter sounds in Spanish, to demonstrate how to write letters, to read favorite stories in Spanish, and more. Elementary age students become internally more confident as a result of teaching the younger students. Our preschoolers squeal with delight as they learn from kids just a bit older than themselves.
Students interact with nature and animals daily. They feed, pet, clean and care for the miniature farm animals, including the sheep, mini horse, chickens, and bunnies. Students take nature walks winding around our pond with ducks. Then they climb up a mountain and run back down to do it all over again. Students excavate and dig, build bridges and waterways in our designated digging site.
Each year, Spanish Academy students perform a Christmas Concert singing Christmas songs in Spanish and give gifts of home-baked goods and school made gifts. Students are excited to help mom and dad make cookies and brownies to share with the elderly. At school we take all the sweet and special-baked goods and wrap up colorful plates of delicious treats for the group we perform for. We also make scarves for the elderly and students help us cut the scarves to perfection. After our recital, students are taken with a teacher or their mom or dad to pass out all the carefully prepared bountiful gifts. This is one of the most precious occassions in our school year. To see families with small children connect and interact with the local senior center is truly meaningful and heartfelt, not only for all of us, but for the people we touch in the community.
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