Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Winter 2013

!Hola!

Let me begin by apologizing that some accents are missing and the upside down question mark and exclamation point are rightside up throughout this post. I have a new computer and all the codes except for é have apparently changed. I will try to figure out the new codes and fix the errors in this message soon.

We have started 2013 by featuring animals and the weather. We have been singing a very fun past-favorite of the Moms Day Out children, Quién Soy Yo. They listen to an animal sound and then have to guess "Whom am I?" (?Quién Soy Yo?). Then they have to act like that animal by walking like an elephant, scratching like a monkey, singing like a rooster, roaring like a lion, trotting like a horse, etc.


 We are also singing Los Pollitos (hopefully you got to see the little chick finger puppet your child brought home.) In this song, the little pollitos say "pio, pio, pio" when they're hungry (cuando tienen hambre) and when they're cold (cuando tienen frio). The hen (la gallina) looks for corn and wheat then feeds it to the chicks (les da la comida), then offers them her wing as a coat (les presta abrigo). At the end the chicks go to sleep (duermen los pollitos). This song is short and very catchy. I hope that if you play a little your child will sing along; most of the children were singing at least parts of the song by the end of the first day I introduced it.




We will also read Froggy se viste
as we talk about weather and related clothing:


...and feature a few songs about the seasons starting with winter (invierno) and going from there with primavera, verano, otono):

As we transition from animals and weather we will revisit parts of the body with Digo si, digo no

Just to recap and post the songs that many of you said your children were singing throughout December, here are the songs we learned to finish 2012. I mainly use Christmas songs that are culturally significant instead of translations of our Christmas songs, although we did do a Spanish version of Feliz Navidad just because the kids knew feliz from other songs and activities and it's a song many can already sing, so it is fun for all. I use this version, again, because it's all Spanish:




We also did Campana Sobre Campana, ringing bells as we sang. By Christmas break the children would ask for the campanas (bells) using the Spanish word.






Burrito Sabanero is a very catchy tune, and one that many of the children would sing to by Christmas. It's about a child riding a little donkey (burrito) into Bethlehem (Belén) to see Jesus. He says, "if you see me (si me ven), I'm on the way to Bethlehem."





Probably my favorite Spanish Christmas song is called Peces en el Rio. It's about how life probably went on as usual when Jesus was born... Mary was just doing laundry, brushing her hair, just being a mom. But the fish (peces) in the river were swimming wildly because they knew God had come to earth.