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.

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!