Dear Parents,

Concerns were raised regarding safety during our time in the backyard. This week we implemented a new strategy to keep kids busy and engaged by participating with them as hands-on overseers. After their snack, we are dividing the upper backyard area into to big delimited spaces: a play area and a sitting area. The first one is for all of those students that want to run around. Ms. LeAnna is taking care of the kids who have been playing soccer or other high-energy games by refereeing the activities; this way, the rules are clear and everyone gets to play fairly. The other section is for those children who do not want to engage in fast-paced games. These kids are being watched by Ms. Sophia in a corner area of the backyard (the most protected one from the wind) and are being given materials for art projects. Ms. Rosa has been in charge of taking students to the bathroom and seeing that they clean up after their snack time. I (Ms. Cata) have been the only one standing by to oversee everything at once in case of an emergency. We communicate with the kids in the target language unless we have to make announcements to all the kids or they get hurt. This week, we had no major issues.

In regards to recess, it takes place in the upper yard as well, but on the padded playground. Since the beginning of the school year, Ms. Sophia, Ms. LeAnna, and Ms. Rosa have had their recess at about the same time (3:10 to 3:25 approx.). Ms. Cata’s class goes out to recess at 3:30, and from there, to pick-up. This recess is free time for the children.

Homeroom teachers have agreed to let us go directly to the classrooms when the weather gets too cold or rainy.

Also, to all the parents that have not yet scheduled a time to meet with your child’s teacher, we will contact those who have shown interest. If you have not yet told us you would like to meet, please contact your child’s teacher directly, or Ms. Cata at catalina.atria@i-immersion.com

Please, do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any questions and/or concerns, including volunteering during our outdoor time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Parents,

Concerns were raised regarding safety during our time in the backyard. This week we implemented a new strategy to keep kids busy and engaged by participating with them as hands-on overseers. After their snack, we are dividing the upper backyard area into to big delimited spaces: a play area and a sitting area. The first one is for all of those students that want to run around. Ms. LeAnna is taking care of the kids who have been playing soccer or other high-energy games by refereeing the activities; this way, the rules are clear and everyone gets to play fairly. The other section is for those children who do not want to engage in fast-paced games. These kids are being watched by Ms. Sophia in a corner area of the backyard (the most protected one from the wind) and are being given materials for art projects. Ms. Rosa has been in charge of taking students to the bathroom and seeing that they clean up after their snack time. I (Ms. Cata) have been the only one standing by to oversee everything at once in case of an emergency. We communicate with the kids in the target language unless we have to make announcements to all the kids or they get hurt. This week, we had no major issues.

In regards to recess, it takes place in the upper yard as well, but on the padded playground. Since the beginning of the school year, Ms. Sophia, Ms. LeAnna, and Ms. Rosa have had their recess at about the same time (3:10 to 3:25 approx.). Ms. Cata’s class goes out to recess at 3:30, and from there, to pick-up. This recess is free time for the children.

Homeroom teachers have agreed to let us go directly to the classrooms when the weather gets too cold or rainy.

Also, to all the parents that have not yet scheduled a time to meet with your child’s teacher, we will contact those who have shown interest. If you have not yet told us you would like to meet, please contact your child’s teacher directly, or Ms. Cata at catalina.atria@i-immersion.com

Please, do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any questions and/or concerns, including volunteering during our outdoor time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone!

Although this week was cut in half, I wanted to keep you posted on what we did for Thanksgiving, or Día de Acción de Gracias. We had a few conversations regarding this day and what we celebrate. The kids told the group where they will be going this weekend. We also drew our favorite Thanksgiving dishes/foods and showed and told the class afterward.

Most importantly, the kids gave thanks for their families, friends, school, and the food. And as a group, we gave thanks to Ms. Micheli for letting us use her room for our Spanish class. The kids wrote messages and drew Thanksgiving pictures on paper which I then glued together to make one big Thanksgiving card:

Happy -and safe- Thanksgiving to all!

Dear Parents,

Concerns were raised regarding safety during our time in the backyard. This week we implemented a new strategy to keep kids busy and engaged by participating with them as hands-on overseers. After their snack, we are dividing the upper backyard area into to big delimited spaces: a play area and a sitting area. The first one is for all of those students that want to run around. Ms. LeAnna is taking care of the kids who have been playing soccer or other high-energy games by refereeing the activities; this way, the rules are clear and everyone gets to play fairly. The other section is for those children who do not want to engage in fast-paced games. These kids are being watched by Ms. Sophia in a corner area of the backyard (the most protected one from the wind) and are being given materials for art projects. Ms. Rosa has been in charge of taking students to the bathroom and seeing that they clean up after their snack time. I (Ms. Cata) have been the only one standing by to oversee everything at once in case of an emergency. We communicate with the kids in the target language unless we have to make announcements to all the kids or they get hurt. This week, we had no major issues.

In regards to recess, it takes place in the upper yard as well, but on the padded playground. Since the beginning of the school year, Ms. Sophia, Ms. LeAnna, and Ms. Rosa have had their recess at about the same time (3:10 to 3:25 approx.). Ms. Cata’s class goes out to recess at 3:30, and from there, to pick-up. This recess is free time for the children.

Homeroom teachers have agreed to let us go directly to the classrooms when the weather gets too cold or rainy.

Also, to all the parents that have not yet scheduled a time to meet with your child’s teacher, we will contact those who have shown interest. If you have not yet told us you would like to meet, please contact your child’s teacher directly, or Ms. Cata at catalina.atria@i-immersion.com

Please, do not hesitate to contact us directly if you have any questions and/or concerns, including volunteering during our outdoor time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

The warm festival is just outside of the door. In this golden season we enjoy the happy times with family and friends.

Our new class started just three months ago, I want thank all the parents from last year and this year for all of your support.

These two weeks (only 6 days of class), we learned about the Thanksgiving food that will be on the dinner table. We are also learning to give thanks, in Mandarin, to the things we appreciate and the people we love.

Our most recent lesson included this collage of vocabulary words with pictures. They not only learned how to speak it, but were also introduced to the characters. Some of the vocabulary is pretty difficult, so if you have a chance, please 1. Ask them to speak all the words on the collage to you. 2. Try to ask them what each character is without showing them the picture. You can even cut them and have them match character to image. 3. For a bigger challenge, have them try to copy or write some of the characters by memory.

Here is the collage, enjoy the nice Thanksgiving weather and have a great holiday!

（click the picture to see the bigger version）

Hello to all parents!

I want to start this blog by congratulating Ms. Dolores, the first one in our group to fill up her behavior chart. She was treated to a delicious Mexican dinner with her dad to celebrate. I would also like to congratulate Ms. Yoshimi and Ms. Zaya for filling their charts the next day. Their rewards are well deserved! So what were we up to this week? Here are some of the highlights.

- On Monday, after talking about our weekends, I introduced the Circus theme to the class. Even though it is scheduled to be seen the week after Thanksgiving I considered that we could move on and go back to what we’ve seen in the past few weeks as we go along. We made a list of all the animals and circus acts. Finally, we made a team effort by drawing each part of a clown’s face on the board while blindfolded. It was funny to say the least. Each student was told the body part they had to draw and then the class gave them instructions: arriba, abajo, a la izquierda, a la derecha, un poco más, ¡bien! (up, down, left, right, a little more to the…, good!) This is what we ended up with:

- We also drew and wrote about our favorite part of the circus. You will get to see their awesome works of art when I show their folders in the P/T meetings. We read them to the class afterward.

- We had a vocabulary challenge between the clock and the group. They made a list of 30 words starting with the letters in E-L- C-I-R-C-O. They were able to do it within two minutes with no problem and got stickers. I challenge you to do the same 

- What the kids enjoyed the most was watching Dumbo in Spanish. We watched a bit of the movie each day and talked about it before and after. While watching the movie I asked questions and many of them interpreted what the characters were saying with no problem at all. We had an issue with the tv and couldn’t watch the very ending (which is the best part!). The kids got to learn what Ms. Cata looked like when she was extremely frustrated and did their best to console me. I promised I would post a YouTube video link of the last 7 minutes of film. We also did a Hang Man game to figure out one of the best lines in the last part of this clip:

PERO NUNCA VI, NI ESPERO VER A UN ELEFANTE VOLAR.

We sang  along with the movie.

Enjoy your weekend.