Reluctantly, I woke up from my humble deep sleep.
Until my heart was filled with content as I remembered today was transition day! Would my excitement turn into nerves! I was really elated but felt anxious as I knew no-one at the school. Although my nerves started to kick in, I enjoy learning new languages so that put me off my nerves a bit, As I was getting ready to leave school ,I started to wonder what languages we would be learning “Probably French or Spanish ” I said Cautiously I walked onto the creaky grey floor of the luminous yellow bus to begin our excursion.

Finally we arrived at St Margaret’s the big walls looked very frightening but I loved the entrance because it looked old fashioned. As I entered the huge grounds of St Margaret’s I was astonished. I knew it was big but I never noticed the atrium was colossal. Soon our Spanish teacher accompanied us up to the Spanish classroom. I knew it was Spanish straight away as my classmate Alejandro is fluent in Spanish and talked to Senora Wallace and Senora Murphy like it was English. The unusual classroom had tables and chairs in rows which is very different than what we have. Their smart board is also much bigger than ours which I prefer because it is much easier to present power point presentations. Soon we got spilt up into two groups and my group went into a different classroom. Our first assignment was to learn some Spanish weather phrases which I really enjoyed. While I was writing down some phrases, I heard a peculiar noise and was soon told that it was the bell for next period. Curiously I walked to the dinner hall to find two tables waiting for us to have lunch.”Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” Previously that buzzer rang for a new period, but was it for that time? I took back my words as a mob of starving wolves (or so that’s what they looked like) ran down the stairs as if a huge piece of raw meat was wanting for them. Overall lunch was a brand new experience which was not to enjoyable but had its likes and dislikes. After our lunch, we played some cool Spanish weather phrases games and then it was time for us to leave the colossal, majestic building. I really enjoyed the first day but it was very weird…

“Ahhhh” another transition day was ahead of the bright blue sky and I was filled with glee. This time I felt very confident as I got to know the school a lot last time. Instead of my excitement turning into nerves this time my nerves turned into excitement. (Which I think is much better) Curiously I entered St. Margaret’s for the second time and I was wondering what assignment we would get, not noticing just how big that ‘assignment ’ was. We had to create a Spanish forecast. I got in a group with Lewis and Kayleigh (who didn’t show up) which made me very nervous. Lewis and I agreed that we would be able to do the presentation just the two of us, which we managed very well. Our country was Valencia so we had to do a lot of research for Valencia. After we got all our information it was our lunch and I was very hungry. When the buzzer buzzed I knew that the “wolves” were coming so I was not bothered at the slightest. After our lunch Lewis and I started to make our script and planned out how we would present our forecast. It was as if an hour flew by because I felt I started when we had to go. After another day of transition I felt almost like I had stayed at St Margaret’s for a month!

“Yippeeee!” It was the last day of transition and I felt distraught that it was the final day but filled with joy and nerves as Lewis and I were presenting our forecast. For once I quite enjoyed the bus journey because I had our presentation to look forward to. Senorita Wallace and Senorita Murphy led us up to the Spanish room for the last time and taught us some tongue twisting vocabulary. Vocabulary work really helped me as I really had to read quite a lot for the forecast. After practising our vocabulary I had a tasty lunch (so did the wolves) and went back to the Spanish room. After watching other groups perform it was our turn. I felt very nervous as we were being filmed but kept my confidence going and completed our forecast! Lewis and I were very pleased and we felt like we just climbed Ben Nevis. Soon all the groups were finished a…. Please walk to the closest fire exit in orderly fashion beep!” it was a huge shock and I could not believe my eyes when there was a fire as we were about to leave!”
What a way to end my transition …..

Sohaib

As soon as I stepped on that bus I started to think would I like Spanish? I had heard that we were going to do Spanish because Gregor had told me at football training. Suddenly, we were there.
While everyone was thinking what it would be like inside, I already knew because I had been to a basketball transition and a meeting. When we walked in the doors Mrs Wallace and Mrs Murphy were there to greet us.
Alejandro, my friend came from Spain so he was having a conversation in Spanish with Mrs Wallace. Then Mrs Wallace showed us to the classrooms then we got split into groups. I went with Mrs Wallace. Then we sat down and Mrs Wallace told us to write our names on a piece of card like this, me llamo…..
Mrs Wallace explained what we were going to do over the next three weeks and that we were going to learn Spanish. On the last week we were going to be doing a weather forecast. We started learning some of the weather phrases and we started learning how to pronounce some of the basic words in weather like “hace” is said “athe” instead of “hathe” as the “h” is silent. In Spanish “v” is pronounced “b”
The next thing we learnt was the basic weather phrases like hace sol- sunny, hace frio – cold, hace calor – hot and hace fresco – cool.
Once we had learnt the weather phrases we learnt chicos and chicas were boys and girls as we were about to do a competition. Mrs Wallace picked Ben to go out of the classroom then she told us how to play. One of us had to do a signal then we would change weather phrases because there were weather phrases on the board and each time they signalled we would move to the next weather phrase. Then Ben came back in and Alejandro had been chosen to do the signal. Alejandro’s signal was to nod his head. Ben had to work out why we were changing to the next weather phrase. So we started.
After we had said every weather phrase Mrs Wallace stopped and asked Ben if he knew why we were changing it. Ben didn’t know so we started again. After we had said all of them again Mrs Wallace asked Ben if he knew it yet, and Ben thought it was Alejandro but he didn’t know what the signal was. Mrs Wallace told Ben that it was Alejandro and the signal was him nodding his head.
After that we went for lunch. We went down to lunch 10 minutes before the year 1 and 2’s came so we could get tables together and we weren’t spread out. The after 10 minutes the year 1 and year 2’s arrived. When the year 3 and 4’s came down the year 1 and 2’s went. It was hard to hear each other as everyone was making so much noise. Next Mrs Wallace came to take us back to the Spanish room.
We played a game with boys versus girls. There were pictures on the smartboard and when Mrs Wallace said a phrase in Spanish you had to tap the right picture first. If you tapped it first you would get a point. After Alejandro and Rebecca played me and Iman played. Then we went to Mrs Murphy’s room and we were told that next week we would be split into groups and make the scripts for our weather forecast. We then went back to the bus to go back to St Nicholas.
It was the day again, they day we had to go back to St Margaret’s. I was a bit nervous and excited about who would be in my group. We got on the bus again to got to St Margaret’s. When we got there Mrs Wallace and Mrs Murphy were there to greet us again. We went to Mrs Murphy’s room at the beginning again. We were split into groups. I was with Alejandro and Aimee then we were told where we were to do the weather forecast for. Everyone else was told where to go but Mrs Wallace thought it would be nice if Alejandro picked somewhere his family was so Alejandro picked Majorca. Then we all went into Mrs Wallace’s room and searched for weather in the places we were given. We researched and took notes until lunchtime. We went down for lunch at the same time as last time. It was noisy again. Mrs Wallace came to get us again. We started writing our scripts and drawing maps and making stuff for our forecast. I was drawing the map because Alejandro was writing the script and Aimee drew weather symbols. Then it was time to go so we got back on the bus and before I knew it we were going to St Margaret’s again. I was so nervous this time because we were going to do our presentation. Aimee and I were trying to persuade Alejandro not to go first the nafter 5 groups had gone, it was us. I was a bit stutter on my words but I think I did alright. When we were about to end the fire alarm went off so we quickly got everything and went out. Euan and I were saying it would be terrible if you were in PE because it was freezing. After a few minutes we went on the bus. When we got back Lewis and Sohaib won.
Alexander

Our task is to research the climate in a Spanish-speaking city or region, then write and prepare a weather report for that particular area.

Regions/Cities
Asturias (Northern Spain)
Andalucia (Southern Spain)
Bogota (Columbia)
Mexico City (Mexico)
Santiago de Chile (Chile)
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
Quito (Ecuador)
Valencia (Eastern Spain)
Majorca (Balearic Islands)

I experiment with new language, working out the meaning of words and phrases using vocabulary I have learned so far.
MLAN 2-11c