Students in Honors Spanish 3 turned classic children's stories into vibrant, traveling theatrical productions, all in Spanish. This year, the lucky audience was the fourth grade class, who were treated to creative adaptations of "The Three Little Pigs" ("Los Tres Cerditos") and "The Turtle and the Hare" ("La Tortuga y la Liebre"). Last year, they visited 2nd grade.

For teacher Elena Peterson, this annual project is a strategy for creative immersion in the language. After creating and editing their own scripts in groups, a graded performance in their own classroom, the students took their act "on the road" to the lower school—an experience of joyful sharing.

The excitement was palpable for the performers. Sophomore Parker D., who embraced his role as the Hare, noted the unique reward of performing for a younger audience. "For me, what I thought was really fun was performing for the lower school because it allowed for our emotions to get brought out. They loved it, and I could be interactive as the hare, and they knew that story, which felt really awesome,” Parker shared. He admitted that memorizing the Spanish script was the project's most challenging hurdle.

His classmate, sophomore Greta H., one of the little pigs, agreed that memorization was tough but ultimately rewarding. The groups were tasked with crafting their own scripts of the story using the past tense, sometimes with Elena adding new vocabulary to enrich the language. "The process was really fun, and definitely encouraged me to go out of my regular Spanish vocabulary,” Greta said.

The finishing touch? Borrowed costumes from the school’s Theater Department. "I feel like the costumes always make it kind of come together in the end,” Greta added. "I thought it was a really fun way to do a project."

This traveling theater troupe clearly suggests that a great way to learn a new language might just be to step into a costume and get a little theatrical!