Greetings parents!

This past week we learned about FOOD/ COMIDA. We used the first part of the classes to talk about our favorite meals, fruits and vegetables. We practiced phrases such as:

-          Cuál es tu comida favorita? Which is your favorite food?

-          Mi comida favorite es…My favorite food is…

-          A mi me gusta comer….I like to eat…

-          Que comiste hoy al desayuno? What did you eat at breakfast?

-          Que comiste ayer en la cena? What did you eat at dinner yesterday?

Using these questions and answers, kids learned more vocabulary about food.

The second part of the classes was playing some games. Our favorite one was “De compras en la tienda/Shopping at the market store”: each of them had a basket and had to ask for each item (fruits and vegetables) in Spanish.

Another game was trying to guess the name of some fruits and vegetables according to the clues I gave them, like:

-          Es un vegetal/fruta ….It’s a vegetable/fruit

-          Es de color…. It’s color…

-          Es de tamaño pequeño/grande/mediano…It’s small/ medium/big size.

We also had art activities where we cut and pasted color paper on coloring pages; we did puzzles and matched words with pictures.

On Thursday we finished the movie “BAMBI” and then we had a little picnic with some fruits and muffins, followed by rewards time!

Next week we’ll start to make our costumes for our big final celebration!!…please, don’t forget to send the shirt. Also, remember that on Tuesday and Wednesday we’ll have the Parents-Teacher conference.

See you all soon,

Johana.

Dear Parents,

This week I read two other picture book stories from Eric Carle- “The Very Quiet Cricket” and “The Mixed-Up Chameleon”. Those are great story books for their storyline, variety of other bugs and animals we have learned and also beautiful colors. This is a very nice package for children to learn or review Chinese vocabularies of bugs, animals and colors within a couple of interesting stories. After listening to stories, they did artistic worksheets to personalize the main characters in the story books. They love listening to stories about animals and got excited about the end-of-semester performance. Our plan is to do a small show about the origin of Chinese 12 Zodiac Animals!

After learning a bunch of plants, bugs and animals, I felt it is time to focus them back to themselves as a human being and to learn about body parts. They were enjoying playing the game “Simon says” in Chinese as well as singing a part of a cute Chinese child song named
《健康歌》(“A Song of Being Healthy”)

I may have them sing this song on a regular basis in the future to energize them.

In all, this is a relatively short but eventful week. The weather is getting warm and sunny, even though it’s quite windy. I wish you all a healthy and fun weekend!

Xiexie ^_^

Greetings!

With Monday being a furlough day, this week has been a shorter one. The intention this week was to practice sizes and action verbs. On Tuesday we had puppet time with four different dogs that were all different sizes. The children really love puppet time and continue to bring their stuff animals and toys so that I can include them in puppet time. Later we practiced writing in  our journals. The children wrote the words “cuatro perros” (four dogs) on the top of the page, then a size on the bottom, with a drawing of the dog in the middle.

Here is a list of the sizes:

Grande- large
Mediano- medium
Pequeno- small
Pequenito- tiny

Wednesday I introduced some action verbs. We sang one of our favorite songs, “Vamos a cantar,”which has a number of action verbs like:

Cantar- to sing
Leer- to read
Escribir- to write
Comer- to eat
Reir- to laugh
Silbar- to whistle
Bailar- to dance
Saltar- to jump
Roncar- to snore
Aplaudir- to clap

The children are getting comfortable with these verbs. So the next step is to have them speak it in a sentence. For example: “Yo canto” (I sing), “yo silbo” (I whistle), etc.  This was a little challenging since they are learning something new, but it will become easier. We practiced writing in our journals, using three action verbs. For example, they wrote “yo bailo” ( I dance) at the top of the page, then they drew a picture of themselves dancing.

Thursday we played an activity that was similar to a relay race. The course included two hoops, the white board, the tables and flashcards. They had to dance in one hoop, jump seven times in another hoop, write either a letter or a number that I called out on the board, crawl under the table, and run back to me to say the verb in the “I” form (e.g.- cocinar: to cook= Yo cocino). I thought it to be a fun activity that the children enjoyed.

Besides our lesson plan, the kids have dance rehearsal for the final performance in the end of May. Little by little the dance is coming together and I am doing my best to incorporate all of the kids’ movement ideas. Be sure to ask your child about the banana song!

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

Hello everyone,

This week we became super heroes! It was a great way to engage the kids into reviewing everything they have learned this year. We started by reviewing famous super heroes and talking about them, and which ones we admired: the Green Lantern, Superman, Storm, etc. I introduced the kids to my personal favorite, Cheetarrah, from the 80′s Thundercats (Oh!, anyone remember this?) We worked on the project all week. The kids drew superheroes in costume and wrote and then read what their names were, where they lived, how old they were, if they had likes and dislikes, etc.

On the second day, we talked about super powers, which fit in great with expressing wishes, want, and things that you can and can’t do. The kids got a kick out of the flashcards I brought and talked about known super heroes that had them, or not. Then, they chose which super powers their heroes would have for the Missions during our class yesterday.

On Thursday everything came together. The kids made costumes out of clothes and construction paper and we set out to play our game. I (Melania, leader of the famous League of Superheroes) called them all to the Warriors Mountain located in the Lower lands for an emergency meeting. There, the super heroes found out that King John the Bad had kidnapped the last Blue Horse (Skyrocket), guardian to the rings of power to take them away. Our mission was to work together and travel through the Kingdom of McKinley following this vile king’s footsteps, and save the horse and the world. First, we set out to fight horrible beings in the Ocean of the 33 Monsters. The super heroes that could breath under water were able to keep the rest safe. From there, we entered the McKinley mountain, we were only able to get there with the help of those who could fly. Then, we went towards the Forest of Lost things where we fought a terrible fire that almost destroyed us all, but balls of water and ice saved the day. We then headed to the land of Robots where we had to change the weather in order to find the Giant Twins who told us we would need to travel down the Yellow River towards the Swamp of Ruin. Thanks to our force fields we were able to make it to the Castle of Cannibal Dwarfs which was (luckily) empty. From there, we flew to the land of eternal darkness where King John, and his sidekicks Toad and Snake lived. Silently, we rescued Skyrocket. Grateful, the last Blue Horse gave the League of Superheroes the Rings of Power to be protected for all eternity.

The World is safe again!

Good evening New Tradition parents,

              It definitely feels good to be back and practicing our Spanish again! This week is a short week so I wanted to use it as a transition point in moving towards FULL immersion with the students. Thus far, they have done very well in communicating with me in the target language but we’ve occasionally had to speak in English to give directions for a game/activity and address some behavioral issues. Thankfully, the class is doing very well in terms of class conduct and have really been on their best behavior as of late. Improved behavior combined with the knowledge the class has acquired will now allow us to practice our conversational skills.

              On Wednesday, the class made flashcards that can be used at home to help them review what they have learned in class along with some artwork; I was SO impressed with how much the class has improved in describing their artwork. By the end of the semester, I bet that the class will even be able to tell me the stories behind their artwork in Spanish! We also spent a lot of time on Wednesday playing a new game called Leon (lion) in which we use the colored ”safety zone rings”, la carce (jail), and the leon (Ms.Joanna the lion) to put a twist on traditional “Simon Dice.” I (the leon) say either directional commands for the children to respond to (caminar=walk, rapido=fast, despacio=slow, saltar=jump, brincar=hop, corer=run, manos ariba=hands up, manos abajo=hands down, a la esquierda=to the left, a la derecha=to the right, bailar=dance, para=stop, adelante=foward, atras= back) or I say different types of animals for the children to imitate (gato=cat, perro=dog, pajaro=bird, vaca=cow, rana=frog, tigre=tiger, oso=bear, pato=duck, pez=fish, mariposa=butterfly, caballo=horse, conejo=rabbit) but as soon as I say Leon, I turn into a lion and they must run to the safety rings before I catch them or go to la carce (they can also be heroes and tag their friends out of jail). This game really helped the children review a lot and also have a lot of fun, perhaps a little too much fun!

                  On Friday we are going to listen to some music, dance a little, and play some more games so we can review what we’ve learned in a fun, expressive way.  The class will also make a few more flashcards to take home along with their homework. The flashcards are a great tool and can be implemented with the word list that I handed out last Wednesday, but if you’ve misplaced the word list, just let me know and I’ll be more than happy to bring some additional copies. As for next week, we will also be incorporating music and art to make our transition of 75%  to 100% Spanish smooth and enjoyable. Again, thanks for reading and have a great week. Adios!

Ms.Joanna

Hello parents,

I apologize for such a late post but I have had a very busy last few days. We had a great week with a bit of rain but lots of fun things to do. I brought the movie A bug’s life in Spanish for the kids to see. We had been talking about nature and little critters a couple of weeks ago so it was perfect for them to practice what they had learned. We watched a bit of the movie every day. The kids recognized some of the bugs and understood (and sometimes even translated) the dialogue quite easily, even though a few had never seen it.

We also talked about shapes around us. We walked through the school finding different shapes in everyday objects and places at the school. The kids had a worksheet to track what they saw and where and chose to either draw or write the name of the objects. We were detectives doing investigative research and a lot of fun. We sat down to talk about our findings and compare notes. We also played a few image recognition games including the flyswatter game, which never fails to make learning and drilling vocabulary fun and noisy.

The good behavior felt ball jar was filled for the second time this year on Tuesday so we dedicated Thursday to an Easter Party. The kids were given the option of coming to class in costumes or pajamas. We decorated eggs and then talked and described them in our circle time. Afterward, we stepped outside to enjoy the good weather and our Easter party. I brought bran mini muffins and orange juice for the kids. We sat together and the kids took turns asking for cups, napkins, their muffin of choice and some orange juice. Then we talked a little about what we’d be doing during the long weekend and we wished Emmett an early happy birthday. It was a great afternoon. Starting tomorrow, we will be designing our very own super heroes!

Please make sure to print and send the form I sent you via email if you want your child to continue in the Spanish after school program next year. Also, be sure to RSVP to the invitation sent out for our end of the year performance and potluck. We will be preparing our act starting tomorrow and I hope it turns out as planned.

Enjoy your week and see you tomorrow.

Hello parents,  Happy Easter!

This was a very special week, because we were getting prepared to celebrate Easter: learning new vocabulary and making many art projects related to it, like the  Easter bunny, Easter eggs, games and of course: chocolates!

Besides the Easter theme, we talk about our emotions…yes, at the beginning of the class we took 5 minutes to talk about how we were feeling before starting the class. So I asked them “Como te sientes hoy?/How do you feel today?” and they learned expressions like:

-          Me siento cansado: I feel tired.

-          Me siento feliz: I feel happy.

-          Me siento aburrido: I feel bored.

-          Me siento confundido: I feel confused.

-          Me siento enfermo: I feel sick.

-          Me siento enfadado: I feel ungry.

-          Me siento muy bien/muy mal: I feel very well/very bad.

The children answered this question using these answers, and then I tried to go further asking “ Por que?/Why”  and they did using some of the words we have practiced. The main objective with this activity was to encourage them to talk more about themselves and have a more personal time to start the class in a more relaxed way. Some of them totally enjoyed the time to talk and talk about themselves…other said just simple and short phrases; but at the end, little by little are getting accustom to try to talk in Spanish.

The art projects for this past week were: a mobile with Easter bunny and Easter eggs, different animals made with wooden sticks, paper and markers to represent different faces and emotions and Easter drawings. Also we watched a movie: Bambi. We did not finish it, so we probably will be seeing it during the next week.

On Thursday we had our rewards day! We decorated some Easter eggs, had a “mini” egg hunting time and played with the parachute. That was a lot of fun!!!

Next week, on Tuesday April the 26th I’ll be sending with your children the forms for enrolling in the program for the next school year. Also as you all know, we’ll be having the i-Immersion potluck and performance by May 18^th, and in order to prepare our act, I’m requesting to send me an old t-shirt that your child can use to make our custom for that day.

Thank you so much.

Johana.

As the 3rd week under the theme of “Spring 春”， we learned a few more words of commonly seen bugs and also did a cool origami of dragonflies. I am glad to see children are enjoying hands-on activities and can’t wait to take their works out the classroom to show off.

As Easter is approaching, “rabbit” is for sure become the focus. I found an interesting book about a trouble-maker bunny. Children were very attracted by the plot of the story and observe carefully the animals and plants on the pictures they learned. I encouraged them to recall as many vocabularies as possible to get stickers.

We made the best use of the small plastic plates into cute bunny heads. They were very creative to ask for the pipe cleaners in my material box to add whiskers to the bunny head! Can you find your child in the following picture? ^_^

Easter eggs are also children love about this holiday. Each of them got one big plastic Easter egg and a small one to decorate with stickers. They need to ask me in Mandarin to get the exact stickers as well as eggs of colors they want. For sure, they got chocolate eggs and gummy candies as reward.

Wish you all a wonderful Easter weekend!

See you next Tuesday~

Hola New Tradition parents,

             We learned a lot of different things last week, so I tried to make this week a little more fun and decided to focus on animals (animales). Considering that the class seemed to really like Easter (Tasqua), rabbits (conejos), and colorful eggs (huevos colorados), I thought that it would be enjoyable for the children to combine their study of animales with Tasqua! On Monday we did a few worksheets that involved matching, using vocabulary, and lots of art. We also did a lot of other crafts that included creating an Easter collage and a drawing our favorite animals.

              There are obviously many different species of animals, but since we”re beginners here, we only focused on the most common types of animals and household pets (gato=cat, perro=dog, pez=fish, pajaro=bird, pato=duck, conejo=rabbit, rana=frog, vaca=cow, caballo=horse, abeja=bee, oso=bear, leon=lion, rata=rat). Today the class did a worksheet that asked them to draw a specific number of a particular type of animal and also did some riddles about pets. After recess today, we reviewed color and basic commands with the aid of our handy-dandy parachute (which was a huge and I mean HUGE success). The parachute proved to be a great way to get some energy out and really learn in a more dynamic and fun manner. We concluded our class today with our Easter projects and a little Easter surprise from me.

              As you may know, I will be away this Friday and teacher Johanna will be substituting for me (I reminded the class of this as well). I gave her some supplies and our basic lesson plan for Friday which will conclude our lesson on animals. I omitted “El Doctor” this week because there was so much to cover in animal vocab and describing animals that I felt that we could put it off until a little later; plus the kids seemed to really enjoy saying the animal names in Spanish. Next week will be a little short with the furlough day and all, but we will be focusing on common expressions (and possibly some advanced greetings), expressions in music (through songs and chants), and will also begin practicing for our end of the year show. I hope this has been helpful and that you all have a wonderful remainder of the week. Adios!

-Joanna

This week was dedicated to simple sentence building and word recognition in Spanish. We have been practicing the alphabet and writing simple sentences like “me gusta” and “me duele”. For example, we played the sentence writing game where I had words written on several cards and the child was asked to arrange them correctly. 
The child was given both a fruit and a card with a body part, then asked to build two different sentences using the correct verb and tense.

(Spanish grammar lesson for my parents)
As I had talked about in my last blog, the verb doler, (to hurt), reflects the object instead of the person. Gustar (to like) functions in the same way.
In English we say, I like the strawberry.
In Spanish we say, Me gusta la fresa.
If it is plural, the verb has to relate to object. 
I like the strawberries= Me gustan las fresas.

We did activites that related to “me gusta” like play do, drawings, puppet time, goldfish & journal writing. Another exercise was to write out letters on little squares, scramble them, then rearrange the letters to spell words. This was a bigger project, but I thought it to be beneficial. It is also an activity that you can do with your child at home. You have a simple phrase in Spanish. They cut out little squares, write one letter for each square, then arrange the squares to form a sentence. Easy breezy.

I am happy with the progress of the children, and even more amazed by how bright they are, how easily they pick things up.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading.