¡Hola padres!

Sorry for a late-during-the-weekend post, but I’ve been busier than usual. We had a very fun week turning ourselves into scientists. I decided to concentrate less on new vocabulary and more on useful grammatical structures, under the theme of “investigation”. Brigette came into the class on Monday and gave me a few pointers and new teaching techniques that I incorporated in this week’s classes.

The main grammar content we practiced this week was Yo tengo (I have). This is a very useful question and sentence in Spanish. We chose different topics ¿Qué ropa tienes puesta? (What clothes are you wearing), ¿Tienes mascotas? (Do you have any pets?), ¿Tienes hermanos/as?(Do you have any brothers or sisters?). These questions touch on old vocabulary and we built up on new (asking, for example, if you could chose any animal, which one would you have as a pet?, or describing specific things about what they wear, or giving information on how many older, and younger siblings they have, etc). By repeating these questions my hope is that the kids will internalize the structures without thinking about them.

We investigated and learned about things that are: suave (smooth), blando (soft), duro (hard),áspero (rough). I brought objects for the kids to pass around, feel, and describe. We then used old vocabulary (things that go in the house) to classify it and describe it under the new vocabulary. We also played outside, having a race for the kids to run to things and objects that I described to them, ie: Los niños que tengan ropa verde o amarilla, muéstrenme algo áspero y duro. (The kids who have green or yellow clothes, show me something hard and rough), and so on. We also played hot potato (to describe objects, now adding color, size, and where in the house you would find it).

Other games we played and really enjoyed were “4 questions” where the kids ask questions about objects by reading them on the board; Simon says; and interviewing and reporting (working in pairs to ask each other questions from a card and then report them back to the group).

My favorite activity was singing Tortuga Concha, the song I posted last week abot a lazy turtle. Concha’s mom asks her to do certain chores to which Concha replies “no tengo manos, no tengo pies“, (I don’t have hands, I don’t have feet). We first listened to the song and then I introduced old and new verbs, related to chores (sweep, clean, wash, etc), and recreation activities (watch tv, sing, play). I told them they would be Concha and asked them, Tortuga Concha, ven a barrer(Concha, come sweep) to which they would answer, “no tengo manos, no tengo pies“. Afterward, I divided the class in two teams and they took turns being the mom or Concha and asking and responding to chore related questions, using the lines in the song. It was an adorable moment.

Some of the stories we read were: Dazzle el dinosaurio, a book about a dinosaur who was different and saved his family’s life by using his special talent. Las verduras feas, about a girl who helps her mom build a Chinese vegetable garden. She compares her ugly vegetables to the beautiful flower beds she sees in everyone else’s lawn until the vegetables are ripe and turned into a fabulous soup that the neighborhood enjoys. Al mercado, is the story of a lady who buys animals at the market. Each one makes trouble once left alone in the house while she goes out for more. At the end of the story she decides to buy no more animals, just vegetables to feed them. The kids really enjoy the books and concentrate so much to understand and answer questions.

Please reinforce “Yo tengo” at home by simply asking your kids ¿Tienes … any vocabulary, including clothes, kitchen supplies, their favorite toys, etc, posted earlier in the year), and have them respond. You can also ask them to tell you to explain the difference between soft, hard, smooth, and rough. Remember that if you don’t know some of the vocabulary you can always see if your child does by asking them to correct you.

We will continue with this topic next week. I hope you’ve enjoyed your weekend. See you tomorrow!

Hello everyone!

We have closed the chapter on the Chef and his world. Although we had a shorter week we were able to see and do a few things. We added a vocabulary sheet to our notebooks and playedguess the word by having the kids take turns choosing an object and either saying a sentence with the chosen word or describing the object.

I also brought in new music from Mazapán, a band I used to listen to when I was little. I have already posted a YouTube video of the Caterpillar who wanted to fly. This week we heard a song about a lazy turtle who told her mom she didn’t have legs when asked to do chores around the house. When asked to join dinnertime, her legs magically appeared. We danced along to other tunes as well. Here’s the link:

19 Tortuga Concha

We played 10 questions, a game the kids really enjoy that helps them formulate sentences (with help when needed), and required a lot of effort without them knowing it. To lighten the load and take up less time, they take turns working with partners.

We also read two stories: The healthy food pyramid restaurant is the story of a restaurant that serves food according to the food pyramid standards. We talked about food groups, portions, preferences, and dislikes of the characters and ourselves. For some reason, I can´t recall the other one (!), I’ll update the title on Monday.

The kids were fidgety on Wednesday but we had great class yesterday. As a reward, they got to draw during the last ten minutes before recess. The all wrote a sentence describing their drawing or labeled it. Next week we will look into the life of scientists.

Enjoy your weekend!

Hello to all parents. This week we worked on more vocabulary related to the community helpers. On Monday, during the circle time, the students and I  we built a community with blocks while I was pointed for each structure like that: “This is a school”. I asked them, “Who works at the school?” and they answered me like that: “At school works the teacher ” or “the school bus driver. ” The same with hospitals, fire stations, and so on. We also worked on the spelling of the mentioned vocabulary through a Spanish word search puzzle that I designed for this purpose. At the end of the day we read a book about big trucks and their drivers, of course in the target language. On Wednesday, I introduced a new characters in this theme: El Cartero (The mail man) and I reinforced their vocabulary through games like “scavenger hunt”, but also we worked again on the words spelling with activities like “the hang man”. We also danced to a song related to the body parts and we finished this week reviewing each character learned during the week and the role they do in a community. We play with hoops, simulating a community, while I used a puppet as a prop to lead a dramatic delivery action. We said goodbye to the week singing a song together. Have a good weekend and I’ll see your kids next week.

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. As you know, this week we talked about the first community helper: el cocinero (chef). We had fun talking about the job of a chef, where s/he works, what s/he needs to work, what s/he wears, etc. We also reviewed concepts we had already seen (kitchen and supplies) and added new vocabulary (food flavors). We played word games, read Un montón de tamales (A pile of tamales) and drew a scene of the story in our notebooks. We also did a vocabulary maze, and played a guessing game on the foods we like the most (describing for the others to guess).

The kids really enjoyed the indoor picnic. I brought four foods corresponding to the four basic flavors: amargo, dulce, ácido y salado (watercress for bitter, bananas for sweet, green apples for sour, and seaweed for salty). We sat down and the kids took turns asking for the supplies the needed -plates and napkins- using polite words, once we all had our food pieces on our plates we ate them concentrating on the flavors. After cleaning up we sat back in the circle to talk about which flavors we liked the most, which we did not like, and other foods that could be classified into the four flavors we learned. There was unanimous consent in that berros (watercress) wasmuy amargo y no era delicioso (very bitter and not yummy at all).

The rain was a challenge especially because the kids had to stay in all morning before their after school programs. On Tuesday they were cranky but felt better when they got to draw during their 15 minute recess. On Thursday some drew and others made paper cranes (a peace sign for MLK day).

This next week we’ll continue with the same topic. I want them to set up a restaurant, role play, and make menus. The two weeks after that, we’ll be looking into the lives of scientists and talking about the universe, dinosaurs, and bugs.

Happy and Peaceful MLK day!

Hello parents!

I hope you enjoyed the holidays and days off. This week we started talking about our vacation with an interview. It took longer than expected but the kids managed to interview each other in Spanish, write each others’ responses down, and later read them out loud to the class.

Instead of introducing more vocabulary, this week we played with what we already know. We did several vocabulary games:

- We made up words with certain given letters.

- We called out words that started with the letters of the alfabet.

- We called out words that started with the previous word’s last letter.

- We played word/meaning memory on the board. This game consists of cards with words and their definitions, these are the pairs (ex, silla -chair-, sirve para sentarse -it’s used to sit on). The cards are numbered and placed on the board. The kids called out two numbers at a time and read the cards to say if they corresponded or not. If so, they took the cards, if not, the cards were turned and the next student took his/her turn.

- Charades, a game that never gets old. Here, we practiced the sentence ¿Eres+ gerund…? (Are you + verb+ ing…?) and then the character and action that the kids were portraying.

- 10 questions. Just as in 20 questions, the kids took turns (they worked in pairs) guessing a specific word/character by asking questions. Those questions could only be answered by the rest of group who said si/no. Ex: ¿Es un animal? (Is it an animal?) Si. ¿Está en una película? (Is it in a movie?) Si. ¿Es un pez? (Is it a fish?) Si! ¡Es Nemo! (It’s Nemo) And so on…

This week we also exchanged last semester’s folders for notebooks. The kids got to decorate them while we played trivia. In these notebooks we’ll be pasting worksheets, drawing, and writing. Every so often I will send them back home for the kids show you what they’ve done in class. This will be a good time for them to “teach” you what they’ve learned in class.

Next week we will start the topic of community organizers. We will use this topic for the entire semester. The idea is to link jobs or activities to fun things the kids would want to learn about, for example: scientists (to talk about dinosaurs, bugs, etc), astronauts (universe, aliens), and so on. This week, we will start with the chef, waiter, and restaurants. We will be doing lots of role playing to learn how to order at a restaurant, etc.

Have a great rest of your weekend.

Hello parents!

I am posting the first of a few Spanish related websites you can use at home, if your child is allowed time on a computer:

1. http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/mimundo/default.htm This website has vocabulary games with a character named Carlos. Click on the world to enter. A window will open with the boy introducing himself and then several links to vocabulary in relation to different things (farm, gym, etc). Click on any of these to play with that vocabulary. This page might be harder for the little ones, who might need assistance to navigate and/or work through the vocabulary. The next page has three options:

- Pasatiempos, vocabulary games. Click on the ear to hear instructions. The kids will have to click on whatever is being said to them. For example, in the first link (¡Hola, Soy Carlos! the kids will hear about personal introductions. The game is bingo. The kids will click on the ear to hear who is introducing him/herself and click on the right box. The system will tell you if the answer is correct or not).

- Taller, is not a game, but a link to a page in which the kids can make their club card with personal information.

- Mochila de palabras, this page will take you to a review of the vocabulary seen. After clicking on the items you will hear the words. You can use this by having your child say the words or describe the picture before hearing it or repeating it afterward.

To navigate the page, on the bottom you will see different icons. The ones you will are, from left to right: (world) index, (left arrow) back, (right arrow) forward.

Also, for iPhone users, Alice has freed a duck hunt application in Spanish for kids. You can check the link here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/duck-hunt-pato-caza-espanol/id368577257?mt=8

I will post more websites soon. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

Catalina.