Years 1-2 Spanish Syllabus
Years 1-2 Syllabus
Years 1-2 Band Level Description
In Years 1 and 2, Spanish language learning builds on each student’s prior learning and experiences with language. Students continue to communicate and work in collaboration with peers and teachers through purposeful and structured activities involving listening, speaking and viewing. They interact in Spanish to share information about themselves and their immediate environments using play-based and action-related learning. In informal settings, they use local and digital resources to explore Spanish-speaking communities in Australia, Spain, Central, North and South America and diverse locations. They continue to receive extensive support through modelling, scaffolding, repetition and reinforcement.
Students recognise key words and phrases, imitate language gestures and pronunciation, and use modelled language to communicate with others. They transition from spoken to written language and apply their knowledge of the Roman alphabet. They create simple imaginative and informative texts that may include pictorial representations, words and short statements. They collaborate and respond to spoken, written and multimodal texts that may include conversations, songs and rhymes, picture and story books, animated cartoons, films and performances. They notice that languages contain words which have been borrowed from another language, and that there are similarities and differences between Spanish language and culture and their own.
Years 1-2 Achievement Standard
By the end of Year 2, students use Spanish language to interact and share information related to the classroom and themselves. They use cues to respond to questions and instructions, and use simple formulaic language. They locate and convey key items of information in texts using non-verbal, visual and contextual cues to help make meaning. They use familiar words and modelled language to create texts.
Students imitate the sounds and rhythms of spoken Spanish. They demonstrate understanding that Spanish has conventions and rules for non-verbal communication, pronunciation and writing. They give examples of similarities and differences between some features of Spanish and English. They understand that language is connected with culture, and notice how this is reflected in their own language(s) and culture(s).
Content Descriptions
Interacting in Spanish
recognise and respond to modelled classroom-related greetings, instructions and routines, and personal introductions
greeting and farewelling each other according to the time of the day, and relationship to the person, for example, ¡Hola amigos! ¡Buenos días, profesora! ¡Buenas tardes! ¡Hasta mañana, señor!
participating in regular class routines such as stating the weather, the day and date, how they feel and making announcements, for example, Hace calor. Hoy es lunes 26 de Julio. Estoy contento. ¡Feliz cumpleaños…!
responding to simple classroom instructions and roll call, for example, Formar una línea, A caminar, María está aquí., No está aquí.
following classroom commands and imperatives using actions, gestures, for example, siéntense/sentaos, silencio, escuchen/escuchad, recojan/recoged sus/vuestras cosas, formen/formad un círculo, todos de pie, levanta la mano, cierra la puerta
following teacher instructions such as cortar, colorear, pegar to complete an activity or build/draw an imaginary character/object using shapes, colours, body parts, for example, dibujar la cabeza …
introducing and describing themselves using modelled sentence structures and visual supports such as photos, pictures or digital images, for example, Me llamo Jorge; Tengo siete años; Tengo un/a hermano/a, Este es mi papá, Esta es mi mamá; Mi perro es blanco
using modelled statements to express likes and dislikes, for example, Me gusta Dora la exploradora; No me gusta la sopa, Me encanta el fútbol
using formulaic language to express thanks, apologies, praise and offering well wishes or encouragement, for example, gracias, de nada, lo siento, disculpa, muy bien. ¡Qué divertido!
asking and responding to questions using modelled sentences to discuss their personal worlds, for example ¿Te gusta …? Me gusta …, ¿De dónde eres tú? Soy de Australia, ¿Tienes mascotas? Sí, tengo …
requesting permission or seeking approval from peers using modelled expressions, for example, ¿Puedo hacer una pregunta? ¿Puedo ir al baño?
participate in a range of guided, play-based language activities using formulaic expressions, visual and spoken cues
participating in games or activities that involve taking turns, suggesting, making choices or swapping/matching items, for example, Vamos a jugar a pares y nones. Vamos a pintar. ¿Qué hora es señor Lobo? Es hora de correr/saltar/volar. El escondite inglés, La vaca eres tú. Me toca. Gané. Te toca. Simón dice: ‘todos a saltar’
using spontaneous expressions, phrases and non-verbal communication when playing games or engaging in activities with others, for example, ¡Gané! Es mi turno. por favor ... gracias, de nada, silencio with index finger to lips
exchanging, sorting and classifying objects and attributes by shape, colour and number, using simple question forms and affirmative/negative responses, for example, ¿Tienes un triángulo amarillo? Sí, toma. ¿Tienes un círculo rojo? No, tengo un círculo azul.
taking part in short role-plays or skits using spoken and visual cues, props and realia such as toys, clothing, models, toy food, for example, ¿Tienes una mascota? Sí, este es mi perro. Es lindo ¿no?
contributing to class activities or projects, for example, making a birthday calendar, weather board or class pet care roster, and using familiar vocabulary, alimenta al…, limpiar, dibujar, pintar, trazar, cortar, pegar…
reciting and performing chants, songs and rhymes using gestures such as clapping or dancing to support rhythm and expression, for example, cabeza, hombros, rodillas, pies; mi cara
- using digital tools or applications collaboratively in pairs or groups to enhance learning, memory and digital literacy to encourage sharing and teamwork, for example, listening to or reading Spanish texts and matching pictures to words, tracing words on the screen, repeating words they hear
Mediating meaning in and between languages
locate, with support, key information in familiar texts, and respond using gestures, images, words and formulaic phrases
- listening for and identifying key words and phrases in a range of simple texts, using intonation patterns to assist understanding
participating in shared reading of print and digital texts such as big book stories about familiar events or contexts, for example, Los tres cerditos, El patito feo, Tico tango, using pictures, keywords and contextual clues to predict meaning and draw conclusions
- demonstrating comprehension and early literacy skills by labelling, matching, drawing, miming or onscreen pointing, clicking or dragging, for example, cutting, then gluing pictures of events in a timeline sequence, or dragging onscreen pictures to words
- recognising that gestures and body language are integral to communicating in language for First Nations Australians, and showing examples of how they are also integral to communicating in Spanish and the language(s) they may speak at home
participating in shared class stories such as La oruga hambrienta and responding to and repeating keywords, for example, Clase, clase ... Sí, sí ¿Qué pasa? ¿Qué come la oruga?, or pretending to be a character and using words, actions and phrases from the text such as ¡Tengo hambre!
listening to, reading or viewing adapted Spanish versions of familiar stories such as Los tres ositos, Los tres cerditos or El patito feo, and incorporating recurring keywords and expressions when re-enacting elements with puppets, actions or props, for example, ¡El lobo es feroz! El osito está triste.
responding to questions about people, places and objects that elicit details such as characteristics, size, colour, shape, quantity, for example, ¿De qué color es la casa …? La casa es azul. ¿Dónde está el gato? El gato está en Lima. ¿Cuántos cerdos hay? ¿Tico es grande o pequeño?
responding to spoken, print or digital texts, such as stories, rhymes, dialogues and songs through play-acting, illustrating or movement, for example, raising their hand saying ‘sí’ or ‘no’ to a question about the text or circling a favourite character
- categorising information using graphic organisers such as drawings or simple tables, for example, recording likes/dislikes, classifying animals, masculine/feminine words, fruits/vegetables, cognates/borrowed words
notice that language carries cultural meaning in classroom-related greetings, introductions, instructions and routines
recognising the cultural significance of hand gestures and facial expressions that accompany Spanish words and phrases, and that meaning can sometimes be conveyed non-verbally
explaining to others, such as friends or family, the meanings and use of simple expressions such as greetings that are used for different times of the day, occasions and people, for example, ¡Buenos días, profesora/señora/maestra! ¡Buenas tardes! ¡Buenas noches! Hola ¿Qué tal? ¿Cómo está?
noticing body language and tone when using some Spanish words, expressions and exclamations when playing and conversing with one another, for example, ¡Ay! ¡Salud! and comparing these features with English words
making class word walls or personal bilingual picture dictionaries with captions, stickers and simple descriptions to explain cultural terms and phrases such as merienda, doña, don, chicos, niños, buena onda, tomar las once
understanding that different forms of language are used with different people to show respect and familiarity and that there may be regional variations, for example, using appropriate pronouns and forms of address such as tú, usted, vos, doctor García, Doña Aura, Joselito, Amelita
Creating text in Spanish
use words, familiar phrases and modelled language to create spoken, written and multimodal texts
creating a self-portrait or short profile and using simple statements and familiar vocabulary to talk about self and the immediate environment, for example, Tengo el pelo largo. Estoy en mi clase. Mi hermana se llama Lucía. Este/a es mi mejor amigo/a. Me gusta tocar el piano/la flauta.
creating, describing or acting out the part of real or imaginary characters using formulaic language, favourite sayings and supporting pictures/models or pointing to relevant aspects as they explain, for example, El monstruo tiene ojos grandes. Mi perro tiene ojos marrones/café. Soy un zorro, me gusta el pollo.
colouring in flags from Spanish-speaking countries, adding labels or words in cloze exercises, for example, La bandera de España es amarilla y roja. La bandera de México es verde, blanca y roja., then creating their own ‘personal flag’ with favourite colours and symbols, and adding a description such as mi bandera es rosa y blanca ...
- matching bilingual captions/labels to images of First Nations Country/Place locations in their local area or elsewhere in Australia
using secure digital tools to create informative multimodal texts such as e-books, animations, videos, voice overs or captions, labels, speech bubbles and onomatopoeic sounds for pictures of familiar topics of interest, for example, on a picture of a dog, el perro hace guau
adding bilingual captions or speech bubbles to a photographic display or newsletter article about a class event or experience such as sports day or excursion, for example, Los animales de la granja! Los animales salvajes. Estamos/haciendo deporte. Vamos al zoológico. Hoy es Harmony Day / Teachers’ Day, Celebrando los sanfermines
making bilingual greeting cards for celebrations such as Día de Reyes, Día de la Madre, Día de tu cumpleaños, using greetings, for example, Feliz día de la Madre, Feliz cumpleaños or Feliz día del Maestro alongside equivalent English greetings where culturally appropriate
using key words and phrases to describe aspects of a video clip, photo story or excerpt from a television program in spoken and written texts such as Barrio Sésamo, for example, Elmo es rojo. Elmo tiene los ojos grandes. Elmo corre. Elmo repite.
substituting words to create alternative versions of well-known stories, songs, characters or rhymes, for example, El granjero McDonald tiene una granja to La granjera María tiene un canguro or El granjero Rodríguez or substitute the caterpillar with a snake in La serpiente se comió 3 empanadas to create an alternative story of La Oruga Hambrienta
labelling Spanish-speaking countries on a map and creating descriptions using modelled language, for example, Chile está en América del Sur. Es muy largo. México está en Norte América. España está en Europa.
becoming familiar with the sounds of the alphabet in Spanish, noticing that there is an additional letter when compared with English, ñ
imitating Spanish sounds such as j in viaje, ñ in niño, ll in calle, and rr in carro
recognising that some sounds in Spanish do not exist in English and vice versa, so they may be challenging to pronounce, for example, La letra erre, la ere
recognising and applying Spanish vowel sounds and vowel consonant combinations
identifying additional consonants and digraphs in Spanish such as ñ, ch, and the pronunciation of double consonants such as ll and rr, and experimenting with the positioning of the tongue when producing these sounds
Iistening to familiar vocabulary and identifying h as a silent letter, for example, hola, hermano, hoy, and comparing words beginning with h in Spanish and English, hola and hello, jirafa and jelly
noticing that statements and questions have different intonation, for example, ¡Fernando no está! ¿Fernando no está?, ¿María tiene cinco años?
developing pronunciation, phrasing and intonation skills by singing, reciting and repeating words and phrases in context, for example, marching to a tune or beat
experimenting with sounds in onomatopoeic words, such as those related to animal sounds, for example, pío (cheep), quiquiriquí (cock-a-doodle-doo), miau (miaow), guau (woof), and actions, for example, bum, cataplún
recognise that the Roman alphabet and features of language are used to construct meaning in Spanish
- differentiating the alphabet used in Spanish from other alphabets or scripts, for example, those represented in languages used within the class
using numbers for simple ideas, for example, telling the time to the hour, expressing age and dates, and playing games, Qué hora es? What’s the time, Mr Wolf?
noticing that the personal pronoun can be omitted in Spanish, for example, Me llamo … can be used instead of Yo me llamo …
noticing that adjectives usually follow nouns and are used to describe the colour, size, shape or characteristics of a person, place or object, for example, la casa grande, la pelota gris, la silla amarilla, un auto azul, una mesa cuadrada, una niña alta
noticing endings of simple verbs, for example, comer, bailar, hablar, correr, jugar and caminar, and using them in modelled and formulaic expressions such as Yo hablo español. Yo juego al fútbol.
making connections between articles and the end of words to understand that Spanish nouns have a gender, using a range of props and visual cues such as fruit la manzana or shapes la estrella
observing gender in patterns of naming, for example, Julio/Julia, Patricio/Patricia, and noticing and using singular masculine or feminine forms of nouns and adjectives such as el plátano delicioso, la canción chilena
observing that days of the week and months of the year are written with lower-case letters, except at the start of sentences
learning the structure of simple affirmative statements, for example, Tengo un perro. Me gusta beber jugo de naranja. Gloria come verduras, and expressing simple negation in formulaic expressions, for example, No tengo mascotas. No me gusta el jugo de piña. No es un perro.
identifying basic punctuation marks such as inverted question marks and exclamation marks in modelled expressions
using y to list more than one item, for example, mi gusta el perro y el gato.
recognising and using definite and indefinite articles with nouns, for example, la mesa, una mesa; el niño, un niño
recognising that Spanish sentences have a similar structure to English sentences, for example, Vivo en …, Tengo un perro
recognising the use of tilde in subject pronouns and using some pronouns to identify people, objects or animals, for example, Yo, tú, él, ella
using singular possessive adjectives such as mi casa, mi hermano, tu amiga, to show ownership, for example, este es mi lápiz
notice that Spanish has features that may be similar to or different from English
observing features of familiar types of texts such as stories, greeting cards and nursery rhymes, for example, the use of the story-starter Érase una vez … and comparing it with English
understanding that most Spanish words ending in -o are masculine and most ending in -a are feminine and that there is no grammatical gender in English
noticing plural forms that are similar in English, for example, perros, niños, ojos
noticing there are cognates in Spanish and English, but the pronunciation may be different, for example, nación – nation, estación – station, hospital – hospital, animal – animal, cereal – cereal
creating an identity card that contains parallel personal information in Spanish and English, for example, nombre/name, apellidos/last name(s), edad/age, Mis amigos son … /My friends are …, Vivo en … /I live in …, tengo ... /I have …, and noticing similarities and differences in words, order and structure
comparing how Spanish words commonly used in Australian English are pronounced by speakers of Spanish and English, and reasons for variation, for example, poncho, tacos, burrito, chocolate, tapas, paella, chorizo
noticing the differences between punctuation marks in Spanish and English, for example, inverted exclamation and question marks at the beginning of sentences
identifying that the noun comes before the adjective in Spanish as opposed to after the adjective in English, for example, perro grande, ojos bonitos
recognising words in Spanish that are borrowed from other languages, for example, canguro, email, chat, beicon, Panfleto
Understanding the interrelationship of language and culture
notice that people use language in ways that reflect cultural practices
identifying terms and concepts that can be used to help understand and discuss culture, for example, symbols, national costumes and emblems, family traditions and ways of life
locating Spanish-speaking communities on a world map, with support, and understanding that Spanish is the national language of 21 countries and that culture varies greatly among these places
recognising that Spanish is an important and influential world language, spoken in different forms in many countries of the world including Australia, and that variations of words and expressions exist, for example, la banana or el plátano, marrón or café
exploring symbols and languages used by First Nations Australians and by Spanish-speaking communities in a range of contexts, for example, identifying the colours of flags in Spanish and discussing what the colours represent in English
noticing aspects of the lives of children in Spanish-speaking communities and Australia, as represented in print and digital images, video clips and stories, for example, ways of playing games and socialising, diet/food, routines, ways of interacting with others
comparing their own ways of communicating and making meaning, including using any other language(s) they may speak
identifying formal and informal language use between people in different contexts and situations, for example, pronouns and forms of address such as tú, usted, señor(a)
noticing expressions and terms they may hear or use in Australian English that reflect lifestyles and culture, such as terms associated with greetings, food, the land and sports, for example, ‘g’day’, ‘ta’, ‘barbie’, ‘sausage sizzle, ‘brekkie’, ‘backyard’, ‘billabong’, ‘footy’
identifying themselves as belonging to different groups such as family, community, class or peer groups, for example, Yo soy Australiana y Chilena, Soy un niño/una niña. Estoy en la clase B, and representing these relationships through drawing pictures, adding captions to photos or digital text creation
discussing how colours or animals can represent different meanings and identity across cultures, for example, blanco in Chile represents the snow of the Andes whereas in Peru it is the colour of ‘peace’; or El Salvador’s iconic animal, the Torogoz