It has been an exciting and wonderous journey in the Italian rooms this year!

❤️ OUR LEARNING ❤️

We have learned and revised the Italian alphabet; discussing the similarities and differences between the Italian and English letters and sounds. The Italian letter sounds are similar, but there are only 21 letters in the traditional Italian alphabet. Italian acknowledges the remaining 5 letters (J, K, W, X and Y) for internationally used English words, such as jeans and wi-fi.

We have enjoyed learning more about how to say different greetings, as well as strengthening understanding and pronunciation of numbers in Italian, and also working towards being able to have a basic conversation! With practise and learning new words during each vocabulary cycle, as an example, our conversations are building towards the following:

Sara: Buongiorno! Come stai?

Yusuf: Buongiorno! Sto bene, e tu?

Sara: Bene, grazie. Come ti chiami?

Yusuf: Mi chiamo Yusuf, e tu?

Sara: Mi chiamo Sara. Quanti anni hai?

Yusuf: Ho otto anni, e tu?

Sara: Ho nove anni. Quanti fratelli hai?

Yusuf: Ho tre sorelle e un fratello, e tu?

Sara: Ho una sorella e quattro fratelli.

Yusuf: Arrivederci!

Yusuf: Arrivederci!

While some students have worked on strengthening their recall and pronunciation of numbers 1-10, other students are ready to take on numbers to 100!

Students have also learned alll about the map of Italy - GEOGRAPHY - such as developing a general understanding of the continent, country, capital city and regions of Italy!

The most amazing learning has been ITALIAN GRAMMAR. Grammar contains the building blocks of all languages, as it is what helps us make sense when we speak and write. All languages have the Parts of Speech, (nouns, verbs, adjectives...) however - each language comes with its own set of rules to follow about how to use these types of words in a sentence.

Italian comes with a very different set of rules to contrast English. The BIGGEST difference and very interesting rule that students have learned about is that the Italian language has gendered words. Yes - Italian words have gender. BOOM.

A really great explanation of this strange concept is courtesy of Professor Dave Explains - as he explains different ideas about the Italian language quite well! Check him out on YouTube!

Prep students learned how to identify masculine and feminine words. Year 1 and 2 students also learned about how to pair different nouns with some of the many different ways to say THE in Italian. 3-6 students learned all about the different ways to say THE, and explored singular and plural nouns and how some words need to match the subject of the sentence in Italian. Basically, the Italian language likes sentences to flow with similar sounds, that is why it sounds so melodic 🎵. The article and adjective will often match the subject to sound similiar:

e.g. La penna rossa = The red pen

🏆 B R I S C O L A T O U R N A M E N T S! 🏆

We had so much fun with AHPS BRISCOLA TOURNAMENTS, with two each term! Twelve students were chosen by luck of the draw via a CARES ticket from a raffle box. Participants had an opportunity to compete with other enthusiastic Italian card players until the highest score won the tournament! The lucky winner received their very own deck of Italian Playing Cards.

Participants demonstrated their knowledge of Italian vocabulary by naming each card in Italian as they played. All participants showed excellent team spirit, by cheering each other on and supporting each other. Well done!

Our tournaments will continue next year - each term we will run two tournaments. Participants will be chosen from the CARES ticket entries in the raffle boxes. Congratulations to all participants this year and well done to all of our second place and first place winners.

*If you are interested in purchasing your own deck of Italian Playing cards, they are sold locally at Santino Continental Grocery store in Lalor, and they are also sold at ‘Cibo’ - the Italian Deli at Craigieburn Central, across from Coles.

❤️ A N D I A M O A L M E R C A T O ! ❤️

Students developed understanding of basic Italian grammar, building their growing Italian vocabulary through an exciting unit of work called 'Andiamo Al Mercato' (Let's go to the Market) - which is about roleplaying buying and selling different types of food at the market.

We learned how to say basic food items in Italian such as bread, meat, fish, and eggs, and extended our knowledge by learning about how to say a variety of different foods in Italian that varied market stalls and shops may sell, such as the butcher, fish market, bakery, green grocer, and deli.

Students collaborated on food item lists, prices, and shop signs. Some wrote dialogue in the form of a playscript to guide their roleplay conversations about buying and selling different food.

Each individual or group became a 'specialist' in a particular area of vocabulary, by researching new words for their market stall, and practising varied phrases that strengthened their grammar.

❤️ C A R N I V A L E ! ❤️

AHPS Carnival 2022 was a huge success! There were marvellous costumes and lots of fun! We look forward to next year's carnival which will be bigger and better! See you there!

CARNIVAL COSTUMES

Carnival costumes are open-themed - they can be anything you wish! Carnival is a celebration of life, so costumes should focus on anything happy or strange, weird and wonderful. It should be appropriate for school and nothing to do with horror. We are also encouraged to wear any culural clothes, as it is not "Italy Day" but instead, a celebration of all cultures with a focus on fun and happiness.

All students, families and staff -past and present - are invited to join in the fun!

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❤️ D U O L I N G O ❤️

Don't forget about D U O L I N G O - the free app that can be used on any smartphone, tablet or PC! Duolingo supports learning a language of your choice, through fun writing, speaking and listening games, and with encouraging rewards! It helps to build your Italian vocabulary - but you can also explore your home language, English, or another language of your choice! Learning languages improves your overall literacy skills.

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❤️ I T A L I A N C L U B 2022! ❤️

Every Friday lunchtime at 1.40pm, students are invited into the Italian room to enjoy the Italian Community Library (which has a variety of English, Italian and bi-lingual books about Italy and Italian facts, as well as picture books and folktales). There are also Italian videos and cartoons, Italian word games, colouring and writing activities, and of course - Italian Playing Cards and Briscola. Come and join in!

Buon Divertimento! (Have fun!)

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Thank you to students, families and staff for your support.

Grazie Mille,

(Many Thanks)

Signora Michelle and Signora Bec

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Mentor Teacher: Linda Starr