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!

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!

Week 13: ¡Saque la lengua!

This week we reinforced the parts of the face and added a few new words, mainly dientes (dee-IN-tehs: teeth) and lengua (LEHN-gwah: tongue). Try saying, "saque la lengua" (SAH-keh lah LEHN-gwah!) and see if your child sticks out his/her tongue! For the children who are still early in their spoken-English production, you might see if they can identify other parts of their face by asking "DOHN-deh eh-STAH...
...lah nah-REES?" (la nariz=nose)
...lah BOH-kah?" (la boca= mouth)
...ehl OH-hoh?" (el ojo= eye)
...lah oh-DEH-hah?" (la oreja= ear)
If your child is especially verbal, point to different parts of his/her face and see if he/she can tell you what the word is in Spanish.

We sang a song today to reinforce the word lengua and to support a lesson you are probably teaching at home: Make sure your tongue doesn't say bad things! This song is based on Psalm 34:13. In Spanish, this verse says "Guarda tu lengua del mal, y tus labios de hablar engaño." We sang the song a couple of times (the second time through we held our tongues.)

This song is on a CD by Steve Green (Click here for more info). It's been out a good while, but it is one of our favorites. Each song on this CD is a scripture in Spanish, sung in very simple language.