Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Colores y formas: El otoño

As the Moms Day Out classes focused on colors and shapes in October, I reviewed colors and introduced shapes within the context of the changing seasons.

Because October is a month mixed with warm and cool mornings, we have begun talking about the weather. We do a chant to ask/answer what the weather is for the day:

¿Qué tiempo hace afuera, afuera? ¿Qué tiempo hace afuera hoy? (Hace is pronounced "AH say")
(It's cold: "Hace frío"; It's hot: "Hace calor"; It's windy: "Hace viento".)

In talking about colors, we looked at leaves one day and did leaf rubbings using fall colors like brown (café), green (verde), yellow (amarillo) and orange (anaranjado).

We also sang the classic song, "De colores" and talked about the colors of the objects mentioned in the song and some of the words. The children enjoyed the part of the song that includes three animals and the sounds they make in Spanish:
Canta el gallo, con el kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri kiri. (The rooster sings "kiri, kiri, kiri...")
La gallina, con el cara cara cara cara cara cara cara (The hen, with her "cara, cara, cara...")
Los pollitos con el pío pío pío pío pío pío pi (The chicks with the "pío, pío...)

Here is the version of the song we sang:



There are many other versions available.

Los caballos

To celebrate the WEG competitors in town and parallel the curriculum across the Mom's Day Out classes, the vocabulary, songs and games were related to horses (and some other farm animals) for the last few weeks of September.

We played a lot with little horses, making them jump ("¡salten!"), run ("¡corran!"), turn around ("¡den la vuelta!") sleep ("duerman"), and in some classes the students made them fly ("vuelen"). Along with the commands, we talked a bit about the horses' colors and features.

We also sang a song about lots of farm animals called, "Vengan a ver mi granja". If you purchased the Whistlefritz CD last year, you have this song. We used sign language as we sang some of the words:
Vengan a ver mi granja que es hermosa (repeat)

Click here for a sample of the song, or to download it if you do not have it already and would like a copy:



We also read the book Salí de paseo. Students held stuffed farm animals as we "found" them in the book. This book has recently been for sale for a few dollars in the discounted children's book section at Joseph Beth. You can also find it here:



Finally, I introduced a new song that the kids have loved called "Bailar rápido, bailar tranquilo." The song has just a few phrases, which say, "I like to dance, I like to dance slowly. I like to dance, and I never want to stop":

A mí me gusta bailar,
me gusta bailar tranquilo.
A mí me gusta bailar,
Y nunca quiero parar.

This song is set to a salsa beat. I taught the children the basic dance step for salsa, and many of them picked it up easily. The song repeats multiple times, getting faster with each round. It is a very fun song and a great way to expend energy! The song comes from a CD that is filled with songs that expose students to the beat and instruments of Latin music. It is available through the Spanish Scholastic book order. If you would like a copy, let me know and I will place an order for you.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Welcome back!

I am so excited to have the opportunity to work with the children at Mom's Day Out this year, and I have been especially thrilled to watch last year's students pick up where we left off in the Spring. The children are doing great!

This year our vocabulary, songs and books coincide directly with the themes for the classes. I am also linking to Bible stories or Bible verses that apply to our topics. We started the year by learning some basic commands and by learning how to talk about our friends. Here are some of the songs and activities we have done:

"Hola, amigo"
This comes from the Dr. Jean CD.
Hola, amigo (we wave to say, "hello friend")
¿Cómo está Usted? ("how are you?")
Estoy muy feliz de verlo a Usted. (We draw a smile on our faces, point to our eyes, then point to a friend to say, "I'm very happy to see you.")
Salude su vecino (wave to a neighbor)
Boogie para abajo (wiggle to the floor)
Dese un tope (give two little bumps with our hips)
y de la vuelta (do a spin)


"Yo tengo un amigo que me ama"
I learned this song at a Vacation Bible School in Mexico. It's a very easy to learn and fun to sing. Most of the children can already sing along with me. It says, "I have a friend who loves me; His name is Jesus." The lyrics are:
Yo tengo un amigo que me ama, me ama, me ama
Yo tengo un amigo que me ama
Su nombre es Jesús.

The signs we use as we sing are:
"amigo" (friend): click here to see the sign
"me ama"(loves me): we give ourselves a hug
"Jesús" (Jesus): click here to see the sign

You can download it or just listen to a sample here:



We have done a little bit of descriptions of our ourselves and our friends. We started with how our faces are similar:
Yo tengo dos ojos (I have two eyes)
Yo tengo una nariz (I have a nose)
Yo tengo una boca (I have a mouth)
Y estoy muy feliz (I am very happy)

We sing that quick rhyme to the same tune as a very fun song about hair color. The part the children are learning says:
Cabeza, cabeza (we pat our heads to the beat; this line says, "head, head")
La cabeza tiene pelo (the head has hair)
Pelo, pelo, pelo en la cabeza (hair, hair, hair on the head)
A veces es ______(a different hair color is mentioned each time)
A veces la cabeza no tiene pelo. (Sometimes the head has no hair)

This song is worth a quick listen. My kids love to sing and dance to it at home.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Pinta ratones

Today we read another book about colors-- another wonderful one for a home Spanish library. Actually, you ought to look at the public library for this book and others I have listed on this blog. They have a nice collection of bilingual books, especially at the Village Branch.

The featured book is Pinta ratones, about some white mice who get into primary colors of paint and eventually mix paints to make new colors.



Each child got to select two primary colors of playdoh to mix and see what new colors we get. Another opportunity to have the children practice language by asking for colors and talking about what colors they make.

el camaleón

Many of the children know the colors in Spanish now, so we can read books that incorporate the colors and they can talk about what they see on the pages. This week we read another wonderful book that is another I recommend adding to your Spanish library. Some of the vocabulary is a little more advanced, but the vibrant pictures and sweet story make this one very fun to read. The chameleons in this book express some emotions, so I was able to introduce "está feliz" (he is happy) and "está triste" (he is sad). We had fun making the faces for these emotions, but I wouldn't expect your child to remember these words yet. This is vocabulary we will learn next year!

We did an activity where a chameleon changed color according to clothes the children were wearing and colorful foods we have used in recent lessons. Many of the children could look at a yellow lemon, for example, and tell me that the chameleon would be turning "amarillo." It thrills me to hear the children answering questions in Spanish. And their accents are really good!

Here's the book we read:

Me gusta comer como un arcoiris

To continue to recycle the colors and return to food vocabulary, over the past few weeks we have read the following books and sung the following new song. As always, each week I incorporate at least one past song that the children love ("un elefante" and "tengo hambre").

We have read some really fun books the past few weeks. If you are adding any Spanish books to your collection, these are some must-haves:

We have read la oruga muy hambrienta before. This time we counted how many pieces of food the "oruga" eats each day and emphasized the colors of the food.


A sembrar sopa de verduras is wonderful. It is basic language but very rich, and the children love acting it out:




Our new song the past few weeks was about eating the colors of the rainbow:
Me gusta comer como un arcoiris (repeat 3 times)
Como todos los colores.
(I then say a color and a child's name, and he/she looks for a piece of food that includes that color.)

Comer (koh-mair) means "to eat," so when we say that word in the song, we pretend like we are eating. Arcoiris means "rainbow," and we do the actual ASL sign for that (view it here). Sometimes we will also do a thumbs-up for me gusta, which means "I like ___".

Some of the color words are long and very different from English, so to help with learning the colors, I have an action I now do for each color. Often when a child can't remember the word, if I do the action, the word will come to mind (this is especially true with anaranjado).

rojo (ROE-hoe= red): slap hands on legs twice, as you say each syllable
anaranjado (ah-nah-dan-HA-though=orange): 5 claps, one clap as you say each syllable
amarillo (ah-mah-DEE-yo=yellow): hands on hips, wiggle hips from side to side
azul (ah-SOOL=blue): ASL sign for blue
verde (VAIR-day= green) : move flat (horizontal) hands back and forth\
morado (moh-DAH-though= purple): make an ASL sign for "v" with both hands and touch fingertips together
blanco (BLAHN-koe= white): ASL sign for white

Thursday, April 22, 2010

el arca y el barco

The children love the song "Noé hizo el arca." Even the youngest will sing "arca" with me. Today we sang about a small boat.

This gave us a chance to return to words like grande and pequeño (big and small) and to review numbers up to seven. In the song about the small boat, we learn a synonym for pequeño: chiquito. Your child probably brought home a little boat on a popsicle stick. We used that little boat to sing this traditional song called El barquito. You can hear a sample of it here:


If you purchased the José-Luis Orozco CD earlier in the year (see below), El barquito is the third song.


The song is about a little boat (barco chiquito) that can't sail because it is so small. Seven weeks pass and it still can't sail. The lyrics are:

Había una vez un barco chiquitito (repeat 3 times)
tan chiquito, tan chiquito, que no podía navegar.
Pasaron una, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete semanas (repeat 3 times)
y el barco tan chiquitito no podía navegar.

There is another verse that we did not sing this week. We may add it later, but it is linguistically more complex and doesn't include very much practical vocabulary.

In some classes we reviewed a few pages of Corre, Perro, Corre (Go Dog Go) both because there is a scene where the dogs are on a boat (barco) and because we went to see the English version of that play at the Lexington Children's Theater last week.

I have begun to do signs for the children outside of the context of our songs to see if they know the Spanish words just by seeing the sign. Try this sign and see if your child says mis amigos or this one to see if he/she says, ¿Cómo estás? If not, it is fine because we have stressed receptive skills this year. Try again in a few weeks and see if he/she can do it. It will come!

Animales y partes del cuerpo

Repaso

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Noé y el arca: el arco iris

Today we sang our song, "Noé hizo el arca" and reviewed the short picture book about Noah's ark that we read last week. As we read, I asked the children questions about the weather (¿qué tiempo hace?, pronounced, "keh tee-IM-poeh AH-seh?") and asked what animals they could identify in the book. At the end of the book, of course, a rainbow appears over Noah's ark, so this week we worked with the colors of the rainbow. We have done colors intermittently throughout this year, especially with books like Go Dog Go. Whenever the children color a picture they will take home, I talk to them in Spanish about they colors they are using. Many of the children can tell me that red is rojo (ROW-hoe) and that blue is azul (ah-SOOL). Today we practiced:

azul (ah-SOOL): blue
blanco (BLAHN-koe): white
rojo (ROW-hoe): red
violeta (vee-oh-LEH-tuh): violet/purple
amarillo (ah-mah-DEE-yoe): yellow
anaranjado (ah nah dahn HA dough): orange
verde (VEDH-deh): green
rosa (DDROE-sah): pink

We sang a song that goes through the colors in that order. We played simple games as we sang the song, such as moving from one color square to another according to the color we identify in the song.

The children also colored a page with a rainbow on it. We will continue to practice those colors as throughout the rest of this year.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

el arca de Noé

Many of our songs and activities have revolved around weather and animals, so this week we did a preview to a few weeks of activities related to Noah and the ark.

This week I used a picture book to tell the story to the children in Spanish. Because many are familiar with the story and most are familiar with the vocabulary (and because they have pictures to go along with the story in Spanish), the children can understand easily.

Before introducing the book, we talked about the weather for the day. We always do this by looking at pictures of weather and doing a chant (¿qué tiempo hace afuera afuera? ¿qué tiempo hace afuera afuera hoy?) The children say "sí" or "no" to identify the weather. Our options are:

hace sol (ah-say SOLE): it's sunny
nieva (nee-EH-bah): it's snowing
llueve (yoo-WAY-vay): it's raining

This is a good segue into a story about sunny days that turn to lots of rain! As I read the story, I asked about the weather throughout. I also asked the students what animals they see, and asked them to identify ones that they cannot yet recall in Spanish.

We sang a song about Noah's ark and the animals:

Noé hizo el arca, arca, arca
Noé hizo el arca y su familia se salvó.
Noé hizo el arca, arca, arca
Noé hizo el arca y el agua se subió.
Entraron los elefantes
Entraron los leones
Entraron los patitos...

At the end of the song, when we sing, "entraron los...", we are singing about how each animal entered the ark. The children make the noise and/or movement of the animal as we sing about it.

Next week we will stress the rainbow, talking about the colors and singing songs about it. We may even do a simple scripture verse in the preschool class!

Yo me llamo...

A few weeks ago my family met a native Spanish speaker. I chatted with the man for a bit and mentioned that my kids are learning Spanish. The man turned to my daughter, Lauren Clay, and asked her what her name was (in Spanish.) Eventually she sang him the Buenos Días song or something, but we went home and talked about how to ask and answer about names so that she can engage in a little bit more conversation next time we meet a Spanish speaker.

This year I have really worked on receptive language, focusing productive language to the children singing along with the songs we do each week. Most of your children can respond to the language they have learned this year. They can show me big and small when they hear "grande" and "pequeño." They can point to most animals and the older children can point to colors when they hear them. Lately I have made some of our songs more conversational so the children recognize them as dialogue if they have an opportunity to talk with someone in Spanish (especially the "Buenos dias, ¿Cómo estás?" song.) I have also been encouraging the children to find opportunities in their day to use certain phrases that they have learned (like saying, "¡me gusta!" when they like something.)

I do hope your children finish this year with a few useful phrases ready so they can have a very basic exchange with a Spanish speaker. So over the next few months, we will be working on some simple one-liners such as:

yo me llamo (yoe meh YAH-moe)= my name is...
por favor (pour fah-VOUR)= please
gracias (GDAH-see-us)= thank you

We have done some "please" and "thank you" already, but this week the kids heard "me llamo" for the first time. We did a little chant:

"Yo me llamo Shannon. ¿Cómo te llamas tú?"

I chanted along with each child (in most cases, I chanted for the children) and we went around the room to ask each child his/her name. We did the same with the animals we have been using in class. (You may have seen the paper that the children colored with each of the animal names on it.) We will continue to play with this chant so that the phrase is easy to remember.

You might use the animal paper to see which ones your child can point to when hearing the name:

el avestruz (ehl ah-veh-STROOS): ostrich
el elefante (ehl eh-lay-FAHN-tay): elefant
la jirafa (lah hee-DAH-fah): giraffe
el loro (ehl LOE-doe): parrot
el mono (ehl MOE-noe): monkey
la zebra (lah SAY-brah): zebra

We sang the elefante song, a favorite among most of the children. Click here for a sample of that song.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

La sorpresa de Nandí

This week we built on the words we learned on Valentine's week.

We read a wonderful book, La sorpresa de Nandí, about a girl who is carrying a basket of fruit to a friend, but on her way to her friend's village, various animals steal pieces of fruit. This book is a perfect culmination and extension of many concepts we have been using in Spanish this year: lots of animals, fruits and "me gusta". This book is hard to find, but it's a great one to add to a collection if you can get it:



the animals we reviewed/learned this week were:
el elefante (ehl ehl-eh-FAHN-teh)
la girafa (lah hee-DAH-fah)
el avestruz (ehl ah-veh-STROOS)
el chivo (ehl CHEE-vo)
el mono (ehl MO-no)
el loro (ehl LO-do)

We also chanted a little Latinamerican poem:
Naranja dulce (na-DAHN-hah DOOL-say)
Limón partido (lee-MONE pahd-TEE-doe)
Dáme un abrazo (DAH-meh oon ah-BRAH-so)
que yo te pido. (keh YOE teh PEE-doe)

It basically says, "sweet orange, half a lemon, give me a hug when I ask for it." Since we practiced hug (abrazo) last week, and we read about fruits in our book this week, this rhyme reinforced lots of concepts. Plus, it is a tender rhyme to say with a child.

te quiero

¡me gusta!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Week 16: azul el sombrero, verde el sombrero

Today we continued to talk about clothing, this time being more intentional about learning some of the names of specific pieces of clothing. Your child probably brought home a colored picture of some articles of clothing:
el sombrero (el som-BDEH-doh: hat)
la camiseta (lah kah-mee-SAY-tah: shirt)
los pantalones (lohs pahn-tah-LOAN-ehs: pants)
los zapatos (lohs sah-PAH-toahs: shoes)

We reviewed/introduced colors today as well, to help us read Sandra Boyton's Azul el sombrero, verde el sombrero:



This is a fun read, easy to understand even if you don't speak any Spanish.

We also sang a few songs from the fall semester: "Mami, ¿dónde está mi zapato?" (See week 4), hiding an abrigo (ah-BREE-go: coat), and a sombrero (soam-BDEH-doh: hat) in addition to the zapato. We also sang the song "Los pollitos" (See week 9) because the mother hen (gallina) gives her chicks abrigos when they get cold.

We are meeting twice this week because we missed the first Thursday of the month due to nieve. See you Thursday!

Week 15: ¡el invierno!

Winter is here! We have already had great opportunities to learn new vocabulary with a winter in full gear. This week we learned the word "la nieve" (lah nee-EH-veh:snow) as we talked about the weather and introduced the book for the week, Froggy se viste.



This is a fun book about a frog who gets dressed to go outside to play in the snow, but each time he makes it outside he realizes he has forgotten to put on a different piece of clothing. This was our first look at vocabulary for clothing. We did a short activity to classify if different pieces of clothing belong in the invierno (een-vee-AIR-no: winter) or verano (veh-DAH-no: summer). As I read, the children acted out putting on various pieces of clothing (for example, when we pretended to put on gloves (guantes: GWAHN-tayhs), we said, "zoom, zoom," just like Froggy). Most of the Spanish today was intended to be input only, but your child may have responded with "¿qué?" when you called for him or her this week. Especially in the older classes, we practiced responding with "¿qué?" (kay: what?) like Froggy responds to his mother when she calls for him.

week 14: feliz navidad

This week we acted out the Christmas story. Throughout the Fall we have learned many vocabulary words that were useful in the story: burro (donkey), cama (bed), niño (child), tienen sueño (sleepy), etc. We also marched to a traditional Christmas song from Venezuela, El burrito de belen:



This song has a fun rhythm. Be sure to listen to the sample! It is a good one to play while you bounce your child on your lap (as if the child is riding on a donkey).

This has been a fun semester. I'm looking forward to lots of new, fun Spanish activities after the holidays!