Crew Review: Classical Academic Press; Song School Spanish

by ohiosarah on February 19, 2013

It’s a brand new review year for me, as part of the TOS Crew, and what a pleasure it is to be back and starting with such an awesome product! Classical Academic Press’ Song School Spanish – with both the teacher’s book and a student book with an included CD, Classical Academic makes teaching a foreign language fun and exciting as well as easy. Song School Spanish is geared for grades K through 3rd, however I’m using it with my 1st, 3rd and 5th graders (they will all be moving up a grade level in April).

Conejo and Turtuga will guide the children through the text as they learn Spanish vocabulary and some simple grammar by a number of activities. Music, chants, drawing, word searches, word finds, worksheets and more will have them enjoying Spanish. The children will learn greeting words, family, people, manners, pets, numbers, colors, seasons and more in the 31 lessons in the book – a great Spanish curriculum for an entire year by doing one lesson a week. Review is built in after every couple or so lessons, this really helps in the child retaining the information as they progress through the book.

In the lesson there are dotted words that are great for the beginner or not so strong writer – I know both my 1st and 3rd grader appreciate these dotted words, as it makes it great for my beginner as well as my large letter writer to keep all the letters where they need to be. Each chapter includes a song and/or chant or two, which the children enjoy as some of the songs want to make you get up and dance and move – further engaging the mind as they learn their new words (I’ll admit, even I sometimes dance along!). The chapter lesson is then presented and then there are a variety of activities to do, one such may be to draw a picture of the child’s face and have him complete a sentence such as “Estoy _________________” using his vocabulary words such as bien, triste, and feliz. The review pages do not contain dotted lines so one thing I allow my 1st grader to do is to dictate his answers to myself or his sisters and we write them in for him.

The softcover, bound student book sells for $24.95 and includes a song/chant CD Rom that includes 44 tracks. The vocabulary and phrases are all put to song or chants that makes it fun and engaging for both parent and child. You can listen to some sample tracks at the Classical Academic Press site. Another nice feature when you purchase Song School Spanish is the extras located on Headventure Land which has online games, videos and readers that will give more interactive instruction and immersion into using their Spanish.

The softcover, bound teacher’s manual includes the full student text with answers and with more information for you, the parent, in how to teach and explain Spanish. This is great if you are including, like I am, an older child who may or may not know Spanish – the extra notes will allow you to explain to the older child a little more in depth such as using el, la, los and las. In the back of the teacher’s text are extra review pages for each chapter, this is great for a child who is loving Spanish or who needs more review but does so by making it fun for the child. Permission is granted on page 85 of my manual to make copies for your family of the review pages 86 through 126 – as long as it’s not for more than one family, classroom or for resale. The teacher’s manual sells for $24.95 and will make the job of teaching Spanish easy and enjoyable.

I’m sure you may be wondering how did we use it? How did I implement it for a 5th grader? Well….. here is how I broke down each week’s chapter:

Monday: go over the vocabulary/words to learn, listen to the songs or chants, review the words and listen to the songs again if the children desire.
Tuesday: go over the words to learn, listen to the songs/chants, do page 1 of the worksheets, listen to songs again.
Wednesday: same as Tuesday just doing another worksheet page.
Thursday: same as Tuesday and Wednesday finish the worksheets and do any review that may be needed.
Friday: we don’t do school on Friday.

As for my oldest, who has had Spanish before I have her help my son do his writing on his worksheets, she sings the songs and participates in the puppet shows as well as helping me teach Spanish. So while it’s not geared for 5th graders going into 6th, it is possible to have them help with the lessons and participate even though mine finds the worksheets too young. Overall, all my children really enjoy using Song School Spanish and using Classical Academic Press’ curriculum makes them want to continue learning this language – which is useful as more Spanish speaking peoples arrive in the United States. You may want to see what others said by visiting the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.

Disclaimer: I recieved a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with FTC regulations.