World Cup Fever!

This year, for the very first time, the FIFA World Cup was held during winter, allowing our students to join in the fun before the term ends. Among the 32 nations in FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, six were Spanish-speaking countries: Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Argentina and Uruguay. World Language students were excited for the opportunity to connect the World Cup with their units of learning in Spanish.

Students learned about the first World Cup held in Uruguay in 1930, as well as interesting facts about Qatar 2022, such as the fact that this is the first time there are six female match officials who made history as the first women to officiate a men’s World Cup. Or the fact that for the first time in tournament history, teams from all six continents reached the World Cup knockout stage. Or the fact that an African country has made it to the semi-finals.

A highlight for students was to learn the name, country, age and field position of star players such as Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Neymar (Brasil) and Lionel Messi (Argentina). Our youngest Spanish learners have been practising colours with the countries’ flags and learning key Spanish vocabulary with the numbers of the World Cup. Year 5 and Year 6 students, whose language skills are more developed, are learning the names of countries in Spanish, their capital cities and their spoken languages. Using the future tense, students were also able to talk about the dates and times of different matches. They could voice their opinions and make predictions about the scores. As the tournament progressed, they practised the past tense to talk about results whilst comparing them with their predictions. Year 3 to Year 6 students extend an invitation to the Primary World Language building to visit their World Cup Expo!