Middle School: Spanish & World Languages

Listed below are the descriptions for Spanish and World Language courses for grades 6 through 8 at St. John School.

Sixth Grade

First Semester Spanish:

  • Culture Focus: Spanish-speaking communities of the United States
  • Vocabulary: Greetings, dates, weather, afterschool activities, foods and beverages, describing yourself and others
  • Grammar: Subject pronoun, gustar with an infinitive, definite and indefinite articles, noun-adjective agreement

Second Semester Spanish:

  • Culture Focus: Mexico
  • Vocabulary: Daily schedules, telling time, numbers to 1,000, describing classes, describing location, expressing feelings, reflexive verbs
  • Grammar: Present tense of regular verbs tener, ser, estar, jugar and ir, present tense of regular verbs

Exploratory World Languages:

  • Chinese
  • German
  • Latin
  • French
  • Italian (elective)

Seventh Grade

First Semester Spanish:

  • Culture Focus: Puerto Rico
  • Vocabulary: Meals and food, asking questions, family, age and birthdays
  • Grammar: Verb gustar with nouns, review regular and irregular verbs, possessive adjectives, comparing people or activities

Second Semester Spanish:

  • Culture Focus: Spain (field trip to Nelson Atkins Art Museum with Spanish and Art classes)
  • Vocabulary: Clothing, shopping, places, events, transportation, restaurants
  • Grammar: Stem-changing verbs, direct object pronouns

Exploratory World Languages:

  • Latin
  • French
  • Italian (elective)

Eighth Grade

First Semester Spanish:

  • Culture Focus: Ecuador & Chile
  • Vocabulary: Describing a house, household items, furniture, ordinal numbers, planning a party, chores
  • Grammar: Ser versus estar, review of stem-changing verbs, more irregular verbs such as dar, decir, poner, traer and venir, affirmative tú commands

Second Semester Spanish:

  • Culture Focus: Dominican Republic & Spanish-speaking communities in Lawrence area (field trip to Kansas City)
  • Vocabulary: Sports, staying healthy, parts of the body, daily routines, shopping, ordering
  • Grammar: : Preterite of regular verbs, preterites of ir and ser, present tense of irregular verbs saber and conocer, present progressive tense

Exploratory World Languages:

  • Chinese
  • German
  • Italian (elective)