By CASEY NEILL
SPRING Parks Primary School took a Spanish twist this month.
The dual-campus Springvale school combined on 15 October to celebrate its new language program.
Spanish teacher Solange Parisi said the school re-introduced language studies from Prep to Grade 6 this year.
“They all have one hour of Spanish a week,” she said.
“You get to learn the greetings, the colours, the numbers… they all started off with the basics of the language.”
The language is spoken in 21 countries.
“We’ve focused on Spain, Mexico and Chile this year,” Ms Parisi said.
“Next year we’ll try to incorporate other countries.”
The Spanish day featured a sombrero-making activity and Mexican hat dance, an empanada lunch, a demonstration of Chilean dance La Cueca, a class in Dominican street dance Merengue and more.
“It was a great day, it was fun, everybody dressed up,” Ms Parisi said.
“It was such a success we’ll be doing again next year.
“At the end of the day each grade got a pinata with lollies inside.”
She said the day was about immersing students in the Spanish-speaking cultures.
“Learning another language also helps you improve your mother tongue,” she said.
“It’s being able to use a different part of your brain to learn another language and make links to English.
“This would be a third language for a lot of them as well.
“A lot of them already learn an Asian language on a Saturday – they go to Chinese school or Vietnamese school.”
