Dear Families of St. James Day School, I can’t believe the end of the school year is already here. I want to thank you for the continued support of your children’s education here at St James Day School. I have seen your children grow and start to learn another language, and it has been a joy to see how far they have come.

Sincerely,

Maria Perri

Dear Pre-Kinder students,

As we come to the end of our school year, I want to tell you how proud I am of you. You are bright, outgoing, and expressive, and I hope you have had some fun learning Spanish. You have learned vowel sounds and the words for various colors, shapes, and numbers. Among many other things, you have also learned Spanish through songs.

I also want to thank your parents for their support of your education at St. James Day School. 

Have a super summer!

Maria Perri

Dear Kindergarten students,

I’m impressed by how bright and intelligent you are. During Spanish, you learned songs, names of some colors, numbers, and shapes. You also learned the alphabet and some vocabulary. I hope that you continue to love learning Spanish.

Also, please thank your parents for their support of your education at St. James Day School.

Have a great Summer!

All the best,

Maria Perri

Dear third-grade Students,

I can’t believe the end of the school year is almost here! I want to thank you for being such a great group of bright minds and personalities. Despite all of the challenges of learning Spanish, you always wanted learning to be fun, and you really generated some musical vibes. Whether you learned a new song, vocabulary, or numbers in Spanish, you were always keen to dance to the music. Keep your good spirit into the summer, and I will see you next year. 

I also want to give a big shout-out to your parents for being so supportive of your education here at St. James Day School.

Have awesome Summer

Sincerely,

Maria Perri

Dear fourth-grade students,

Where has the time gone! I can’t believe you will be going into fifth grade next year. I will miss you!  I know learning Spanish was a little harder for you this year. As a fourth grader, your learning abilities have grown. Learning Spanish was more intense and at a higher level this year than in previous years. You went beyond to demonstrate reading, writing, and speaking in Spanish in front of people, and I applaud you for that! I hope your desire to learn Spanish doesn’t stop here. As we would say in Spanish, ¡El cielo es tu límite! (The sky is your limit!)

I also want to thank your parents for their support of your education here at St James Day School.

Have a wonderful Summer!

¡No es un adiós sino un hasta luego! (It’s not a goodbye, but a see you later!) 

Maria Perri

Dear Second- grade students,

As the school year comes to an end, I want you to know that I’m proud of you. This year, you put into practice what you learned in previous years. I’m beyond impressed with your development in reading and writing in Spanish. Please continue to learn Spanish.

I also want to thank your parents for their support of your education at St. James Day School. 

Have a blast, summer!

All the best,

Maria Perri

Dear first-grade students,

I know that Spanish was a little harder this year than last year. You not only learned to identify the names of colors, numbers, and shapes, but also were encouraged to write short sentences in Spanish. I’m impressed by how much Spanish you learned this year, and I hope that doesn’t stop here. 

Have an awesome Summer. 

Sincerely,

Maria Perri

As the end of the year fast approaches, we will try to fit in as much practice of listening, reading, and writing as possible. These students are great and I am grateful to be their Spanish teacher.

Students have learned about the alphabet, colors, shapes, some numbers, and more. Now that the students are more familiar with this Spanish vocabulary, they can tell you what the names of some letters, colors, shapes, and numbers are in English. 

Learning about the different celebrations in America is one way to learn about your own culture, other cultures, and the costumes of some Latin American countries.  These students had fun learning about it.

In Spanish, we have learned about the differences in the seasons of the year. We also learned the names of the months in each season.  After learning about the seasons in Spanish, the students wrote about their favorite season. 

In February, we celebrated Grandparents’ Day with fourth-grade students singing a song in Spanish. The students did marvelously! 

Among many other things, we also learn how to say "Happy Valentine’s Day" in Spanish (Feliz Día del Amor y la Amistad). 

Grandparents Day Video

I remain excited about the work of my students. Their confidence amazes me, and I am proud of them. They love music and singing some songs in Spanish. Also, they love dancing! They stand up and dance when they hear the rhythm of a song. 

I’m proud and happy to see that my students are eager to participate in the classroom. They are excited but in control of themselves when they come to the front of my classroom to read their assignments. Students develop skills whenever they pronounce aloud the months of the year, days of the week, colors, and numbers in Spanish.       

The students and I are starting 2026 with enthusiasm. This week, we reviewed some basic Spanish words corresponding to numbers, colors, shapes, and the alphabet. We are looking forward to having more fun learning Spanish. We are also getting ready for Grandparents Day!

Our main focus for the last couple of weeks has been on building vocabulary. Students have learned, for example, the names of shapes, colors, and holidays. One way to remember vocabulary is by participating in various activities. Although learning vocabulary in Spanish can sometimes be challenging, it is also rewarding to learn new words. Students learn, for example, the word for snowman (muneco de nieve) by making a snowman. Yet another example is a wreath (guirnalda); the students had a lot of fun making their wreaths. 

¡Feliz Navidad y Próspero Año Nuevo!

Have a wonderful holiday season! 

For this special holiday of Thanksgiving, students read a book called "Gracias, the Thanksgiving Turkey" by author Joy Cowley. The book describes how a gift from a father to his son was both adorable and loved by everyone in the family and by people in the city.  Gracias, the Thanksgiving Turkey book was fun to read, and it also contains some familiar Spanish words for students to practice, such as abuelo, abuela, tía, amiga, amigos, hijo, loco, and more, including the word "GRACIAS!" After the students finished reading the book, they made a paper turkey. It was fun! 

Other students learned the vocabulary about the parts of a turkey and colored a worksheet of a turkey. They had fun learning Spanish!

¡FELIZ DÍA DE ACCIÓN DE GRACIAS!

The fourth-grade students had a very successful presentation of Piñatas today. These students have been working on building their piñatas as a fun way to further their Spanish vocabulary.  I’m so proud of these students!

Fall has already arrived, and Halloween is not far off. To celebrate the Fall Season, we learned the names of some colors and the word for pumpkin (calabaza) in Spanish. Students colored, cut, and made a crown from a paper pumpkin. They had fun!

 These past few weeks, we learned about personal pronouns and the differences between “tú”, ”usted”, and “ustedes” in Spanish. Personal pronouns are used before verbs to tell who is doing the action in Spanish, but you don’t always have to use them. The ending of the verb tells us who is doing the action. For example, yo visito= visito, tú visitas= visitas, nosotros visitamos= visitamos.

In Spanish, there are three ways of saying “you”:

Tú  (casual) - used it when “you” represents a person who you speak to by their first name.  

Usted (formal) - used it when “you” represents a person who you speak to with a title before their name, such as Dr., Mr., Mrs., Doctor (Dr.), Señor (Sr.) Senora (Sra.)

Ustedes (you all) - used it when “you” represents a group of people, no matter their age or if they have a title before their name.

Students are learning how adjectives are used in Spanish and how the consonants are pronounced in both languages. 

Some students are preparing for their piñatas projects while others are learning how to conjugate verbs. The younger ones are learning how to pronounce the vowels in Spanish.

STUDENTS ARE BACK AND READY TO LEARN SPANISH. DURING THESE FIRST WEEKS, WE HAVE LEARNED SOME RULES, DRILLS, CLASSROOM PROCEDURES AND A LITTLE MORE. 

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

For Mother's Day, the students wrote some special words for their mothers in Spanish. 

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!