High School Spanish Students Teach Third Graders Language

It was a fun afternoon for all as Sarah Martin’s high school Spanish 4 students visited with third graders in elementary school. The high school students read their own creative book of illustrations with Spanish words to the third graders.

“I had a really good time,” said junior Madeline Wesley. “I liked getting to be with all the kids and having the kids draw their own little fish on the back of the book. It’s just a nice thing that we did.”

The high school students and their teacher opened the session with a Spanish rhyme for the third graders and their teachers to follow along.

“They’re loving it,” said Lisa Marino, who teaches this third-grade class with Martina Marchese. “It’s a nice surprise for the kids that they are here. They were excited and were looking forward to something different during the day.”

The third graders were then separated into groups and a high school student read their book. The groups rotated until the third graders were read a book by all five visiting high school students.

“It was fun,” said third-grader Benjamin Haymann. “Even though I couldn’t understand the book, I could still see the pictures.”  

The third graders attempted to read the Spanish words in the book and did it quite well, according to the Spanish students.

“Getting to teach them the different words and showing them how to navigate through the language is pretty cool,” said Wesley.

Junior Gissel Oros added, “I enjoyed they were all really interested in Spanish. They were trying to read it for me so they could learn.”

Martin said she started this exercise about five years ago.

“Almost all of them come out of this saying it was one of their favorite things of the year,” said Martin. “I think they do enjoy the experience with the younger students.”