A change in learning environment

My elementary students are learning Spanish using a digital curriculum called QTalk. It is a symbol based language learning tool. We routinely work in the classroom learning vocabulary represented by symbols. This works great especially for students who are just learning to read. This is my first year teaching this curriculum and I have to admit that I was very skeptical. After several months of teaching Spanish with QTalk, I'm a believer. This curriculum works.

To check my student's progress, I created a scavenger hunt for sentences. I created 10 worksheets with sentences for 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade. My 2nd and 3rd grade classes are using the same book. I took sentences we had already reviewed and put them on sheets the students had to find in our playground. They worked in teams to decipher the sentences and write them down.

The little experiment was a huge success for 3rd grade. The teams were working diligently to decipher the sentences using their knowledge of QTalk symbols. One student was assigned to write the sentences while the other read the sentences out loud in Spanish. If they didn't know a symbol, they were to draw it and then find it in the book once we returned to the classroom.

Although, the scavenger hunt was successful for 3rd grade, 1st and 2nd grade struggled with the sentences. First grade's sentences were more basic in vocabulary and structure. Even still, they had a hard time writing the words. Second grade had similar issues in that they didn't know how to write the words.

Next year, I plan to repeat the scavenger hunt but I'm going to modify it for 1st and 2nd grade. First grade will receive one vocabulary word per sheet and 2nd grade will receive something similar. I'm also going to post a key to the symbols somewhere on the playground so that the students can check themselves and also know how to spell the words.