Week 5: Mi amigo el perro (1 octubre)

With the beginning of a new month, we learned a new hello song. In this song the children learn how to ask and answer how are you? (¿Cómo estás?). This song is from José Luis Orozco's De Colores CD. It is sung to the tune Frere Jaques/Where is Thumbkin? You may click here for a link to the song. Also, in the lyrics below you will notice certain words highlighted. Those links take you to the signs we use for various words as we sing the song.

Buenos días

Buenos días, buenos días
¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo estás?
Muy bien, gracias. Muy bien, gracias.
¿Y Usted? ¿Y Usted?

(*we use the second version of the sign for cómo (how))

Today we talked about dogs (los perros (lohse PEH-rrows), and with this we learned big (grande (GRAHN-deh)) and small (pequeño (peh-KANE-yo)). We practiced these words quite a bit during the "Simon Says" activities and then colored a card with a big and small dog. You might ask which is the perro grande or perro pequeño.

We sang Mami,¿Dónde está mi zapato? (lyrics listed in Week 4) but we substituted perrito for zapato, and hid a picture of a puppy under the household objects.

In most classes we read a portion of Corre, Perro, Corre. The children are familiar with most of the Spanish vocabulary in the book, and most were familiar with the story. If you are looking for Spanish books to have at home, this would be a good choice.



Today we sang Vengan a ver mi granja and featured el perro:

(again, highlighted words below link to sign we use as we sing)
Vengan a ver mi granja* que es hermosa
Vengan a ver mi granja* que es hermosa
El perrito* hace así: guau, guau
El perrito* hace así: guau, guau
O, vengan amigos, vengan amigos, vengan amigos, vengan
O, vengan amigos, vengan amigos, vengan amigos, vengan

(*we use the second version of the sign for both granja (farm) and perrito (dog))

I gave a few classes the opportunity to choose which song they would like to sing to finish class. They all chose Los elefantes. The lyrics to this song are listed in the post from Week 1.

Note: If you have a child who will attend Kindergarten in the Fall, you may want to consider putting your child's name into the lottery for the Maxwell Elementary Spanish Immersion Program. The district office is accepting applications for the lottery through October 15. If you are interested in learning about the program, you can find more information here.

Week 4: ¿Dónde está? (24 septiembre)

Now that we have a handful of songs in our repertoire, we read a book today and featured a useful phrase in Spanish: Where is ___? (¿Dónde está? (DOAN-deh eh-STAH?). We will continue to recycle this phrase in future classes, so the children will hear it (and begin to use it) in many contexts.

We had lots of "Simon Says" additions this week:
manos... (MAH-nose): hands
...arriba (ah-RREE-bah): up
...abajo (ah-BAH-hoe): down
...adelate (ah-deh-LAHN-teh): in front
...atrás (ah-TRAHS): behind
vuele (VWEH-leh): fly
abra (los ojos, la boca) (AH-brah (lohs OH-hose, lah BO-kah)): open (eyes, mouth)
cierre (los ojos, la boca) (see-EH-rreh): close eyes, mouth

We read ¿Dónde está Spot?, which is apparently out of print now, but a few are still available on line.



We sang a song about a child who loses a shoe and goes to his mommy to ask where it could be. The child asks if it is under (debajo de (deh-BAH-hoe deh) various household objects such as the chair (silla (SEE yah)), table (mesa (MEH-sah)), rug (alfombra (ahl-FOAM-bdah), lamp (lámpara (LAHM-pah-dah)). I hide a shoe (zapato (sah PAH toe) under an object and when we lift each object, the children either respond that it isn't there (no) or that it is (sí (SEE)).

Mami, ¿dónde está mi zapato?
Mami, ¿dónde está mi zapato?
Mami, ¿dónde está mi zapato?
¿Debajo de la silla? No, no, no.
¿Debajo de la mesa? No, no, no.
¿Debajo de la alfombra? No, no, no.
¿Debajo de la lámpara? ¡Sí, sí, sí!

Week 3: Friends on the farm (17 septiembre)

New "Simon says" words:
chóquela (CHO keh lah): give me five
aplauda (ah PLAUW dah): clap

The first song is a traditional chant. When we sing the "bate bate" part of the song, we pretend to stir the hot chocolate. This song is included on José Luis Orozco's De Colores CD. You can find the song by clicking here.

Chocolate
uno, dos, tres, CHO
uno, dos, tres, CO
uno, dos, tres, LA
uno, dos, tres, TE

chocolate, chocolate, bate bate el chocolate.

Our featured song this week is about a beautiful farm with lots of animals. You may notice that some of the animals have a slightly different sound in Spanish than in English; for example, instead of "cockadoodledoo," in Spanish the rooster says, "kikiriki". José Luis Orozco includes this song on his De Colores CD. Click here for that version. The version we prefer at our house is from Jorge Anaya's Whistlefritz CD. Click here for that version.

Vengan a ver mi granja
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa
Los pollitos hacen así: pio, pio
Los pollitos hacen así: pio, pio
O, vengan amigos, vengan amigos, vengan amigos, vengan
O, vengan amigos, vengan amigos, vengan amigos, vengan

(We change the animals that we include and the order based on the theme for the week and which animals the students select.) In addition to singing about each animal, the children do the sign (ASL) for each one as well.
La vaquita hace así: muuuuu
Los perritos hacen así: guau, guau
Los gatitos hacen así: miau, miau
Los patitos hacen así: cuac, cuac
Y los puercos hacen así: oinc, oinc
Y el gallo hace así: kikiriki

Week 2: Lots of singing (10 septiembre)

In addition to the songs from week one, this week we added a few new words and songs.

We added a new action to "Simon says":

baile (BAIY-leh): dance

We also added a song about Juanito dancing. First he dances with his pointer finger (el dedito (deh-DEE-toh)), then he dances with his foot (pie (pee-YEH)), etc. The children act out the movement as we sing about each part of the body. José Luis Orozco has a version of this song on his Diez Deditos CD. You can find that song here.

Juanito cuando baila
Juanito, cuando baila,
baila, baila, baila.
Juanito, cuando baila,
baila con el dedito.
Con el dedito, ito, ito.
Así baila Juanito.

Juanito, cuando baila,
baila, baila, baila.
Juanito, cuando baila,
baila con el pie.
Con el pie, pie, pie.
Con el dedito, ito, ito.
Así baila Juanito.

We will sing this song often, adding body parts such as the knee (la rodilla (row-DEE-yah)), head (la cabeza (kah-BEH-zah) that correspond to the theme for the week. You can find a similar version here.

Week 1: Getting to know each other (3 de septiembre)

1. Each day we begin with a hello song. For September, our song is "Buenos días, mis amigos." We sing this one time as it is written, then replace "mis amigos" with each child's name.

Buenos días, mis amigos
Buenos días, mis amigos, buenos días
Buenos días, mis amigos, buenos días
Buenos días, buenos días
Buenos días, mis amigos, buenos días.

2. Each day we do a "simon says" type of activity where I say an action and the children do that action. This week the actions included:

salte (SAL-teh): jump
dese la vuelta (DEH-seh lah VWEL-tah): spin
siéntese (see-EHN-teh-seh): sit down
levántese (leh-VAHN-teh-seh): stand up
toque la nariz (TOE-kay lah nah-REES): touch your nose

3. The children love this elefante song about an elephant who gets on a spiderweb and sees that it holds him up, so he calls another elephant to join him... and then another... and then another. We have a silly spider (araña (ah-RAHN-yah)) that pops out of a flower and we add elephants to a web as we sing the song. José Luis Orozco has a version of this song on his CD De Colores. You can find it here.

Un elefante
Un elefante se balanceaba
sobre la tela de una araña
como veía que resistía
fue a llamar a otro elefante...

(dos elefantes, tres elefantes, cuatro elefantes)

Incidentally, many of the songs we will sing this year, including Los Elefantes, are included on this album. I often just download one or two songs from various artists, but this is one album where most songs are easy to follow and engaging for children.





4. We finish each class with a goodbye song:

Adiós
Voy a decirles adiós a mis amigos
Voy a decirles adiós a mis amigos
Voy a decirles adiós, Voy a decirles adiós
Voy a decirles adiós a mis amigos

As with the hello song, we replace "mis amigos" with each child's name in the second round of the song.