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:
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
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
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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