Our second official chapter in the 8th grade text takes us to South America to visit Argentina. With many similarities to Texas, students might find a lot in common between our two different cultures. We will discuss healthy living and work with the verbs estar, sentirse, and tener. We will also learn how to give informal commands and use objecr pronouns.

We come back to the U.S. for chapter 8 and head to Florida. Steeped in history and with a vibrant Hispanic community, Florida is much more than theme parks and beaches. In this unit we will learn about shopping vocabulary, be able to talk about clothing, and learn the verbs costar, quedar, and the preterite or "past tense" of regular -ar verbs.

Next to the country of Haiti, the Dominican Republic is the next country we will visit. Located in the Caribbean Sea this island is famous for many landmarks and San Pedro de Macoris or Sammy Sosa. In this unit we will learn about parties and festivals and cover the preterite of -er and -ir verbs, pensar, conocer, and a new tense, the present progressive.

Our final chapter of the 8th grade book takes us to Peru. Home of extremes like the Amazon river which starts in the Andes to Machu Picchu, Peru is an ideal climax to our school year. We will review most of the material we covered this year and learn some more preterite tense verbs including those with -gar, -car, and -zar endings.