El otoño (The fall)

October has been such a fun month as we've based our lessons on semillas (seeds), árboles (trees), hojas (leaves) and ardillas (squirrels).  My favorite language observation was a confusion between 2 near homophones "hojas" & "ojos" (leaves & eyes).  As we began a book about leaves, I asked the kids to point to the "hojas" one pointed to the leaves in the book and the other 2 to their own pair of "ojos."


With all the rain (lluvia) we've had, we've learned a new favorite song.  It's called Que llueva (Let it rain!).  It's a fun traditional song because it describes the crazy rainy seasons of central and south america when one minute it trickles, stops and then ends in a downpour (un chaparón)!

¡Que llueva!

Magical necklaces

At the beginning of class we put on our Spanish necklaces and this changes our mouths to only speak in Spanish (of course this is most effective for the teacher).  The kids have picked up so much vocabulary that I've become more and more strict about the power of these necklaces and they surprise me and I think themselves how they can express themselves.  As I describe under methodology in the link to the right, the goal is to get the kids to use basic structures (I have, I like, There are, I need, It is...) and then they can fill these in with all their new vocabulary.

I am composing a list of these basic structures and will put it up in my next post, then I am going to have an individual report of which structures each child has incorporated into their speech.  I'm having so much fun observing how kids learn a second language!!

Edificios y casas

This month we are talking about buildings, homes and construction.  Throughout the month we will be including shapes, colors and adjectives to describe the buildings, plus fun verbs for building.  I've tightened up on the kids by not  letting them speak in English.  They are coming up with some pretty great stuff... Little M told me in English that she was almost as tall as her mom but when I told her, "No inglés,"she came up with "Yo, alta, mamá"  Not bad for only a few months into our program!

We've added some new songs....

• Asserín Asserán
• Caracol, caracolito
• Para construir (to the tune of "Mary had a little lamb")

Para construir


A mí me gusta clavar con martillo,                                  I like to nail with a hammer,
clavar con martillo, clavar con martillo.                        nail with a hammer, nail with a hammer.
A mí me gusta clavar con martillo para construir.        I like to nail with a hammer in order to build.

A mí me gusta serruchar                                                    I like to saw, to saw
serruchar, serruchar.                                                           to saw, to saw, to saw to saw
A mí me gusta serruchar para construir.                         I like to saw in order to build

A mí me gusta lijar la madera,                                         I like to sand the wood
lijar la madera, lijar la madera.                                        sand the wood, sand the wood
A mí me gusta lijar la madera para construir.                I like to sand the wood in order to build.

Edificios (buildings)

• la casa          house
• el castillo      castle
• el puente       bridge
• el museo       museum
• la fábrica       factory
• el torre           tower
• el nido           nest (bird's house :))
• la cueva         cave

Adjectives:

Es... (It is...)

• larga y corta     (long & short)
• baja y alta         (short & tall)
• grande y pequeño   (big & small)
• bello y feo       (beautiful & ugly)

Summer Lessons

I just started a last summer session and have had so much fun with my 2 little students.  We had a science lesson on Thursday and the students learned about objects that float or sink. They started by saying that the objects were "arriba" or "abajo" (above or below the water) and then categorized the items into a "flota" or "se hunde" chart.  I'm amazed at how quickly they pick up a new language while learning about science, art, nature & math.   

To anyone interested in Spanish lessons, come try a class for free during the next couple of weeks.  These young minds are incredibly absorbent  and so fun to teach!

Humor

This post is so named for el sentido de humor (sense of humor) that my little students have and testimony of the power of humor on learning.  Apparently they got tired of teasing about snack being mala when it is really buena and today they decided on their own to tease about the agua being leche.  As I teased along, I heard the sentences go from Spanglish"It's not agua, it's leche" to "No es agua, es leche"

Vocabulary progress:

Two months ago, explaining to the kids and getting them to touch the colored plates during the rainbow song was quite a disaster but we've made huge progress.  Every day after we sing El arco iris, the kids take turns handing me the color that I ask for.  Today was our best day yet-I think they can all identify the colors of the rainbow in Spanish.

ROJO

ANARANJADO

AMARILLO

VERDE

AZUL

INDIGO

VIOLETA

I added one little thing to our ending routine.  ¿Dónde está ...?  (Where is...?)  Today I had hid three pictures of conejos (bunnies) around the room and everyone had to find one before we did our counting and our final cheer.  Kids were so sweet to each other, being patient to not give away the hiding spots when they had already found their own.  We'll continue this everyday so that we are always looking for something new.  By the way the final cheer is ¡BIEN HECHO! (good job) and we do it no less than 3 times because for some reason the kids love it and keep saying again, again.

Just for fun:  

Just previewing some online resources for kids.  This one has a great little activity to practice colors.  If you want to try it, click here.

Moscas y arañas

Flys and Spiders-a preschooler's best friends!

We added one more song to our reportoire-The itsy bitsy spider.  The lyrics are below and you can click on the title to hear a little girl singing.

                 La araña pequeñita

     La araña pequeñita subió subió subió

     Vino la lluvia

     Y se la llevó

     Salió el sol, y todo lo secó 

     Y la araña pequeñita subió subió subió

Scavenger Hunt

It seems all kids love nature.  I thought the little girls might have an aversion to arañas and moscas but they haven't picked that up yet-YES!  In fact they were all ecstatic every time we spotted another mosca.  The 3 year olds didn't quite have the fine motor skills to circle the animals as we found them but L gave a thoughtful "hmmm" and scribbled on her clipboard like a true explorer.

• ¿Dónde está?  (Where is?)   Buscamos (We are looking for)
• una mosca (fly)
• una mariposa (butterfly)
• un palo (stick)
• una araña (spider)

More language notes: (hand washing routine)

     Jabón                       Soap
     Lávate las manos     Wash the hands
     Entre los deditos      Between the fingers
     Y encima                 And on top
     Ahora con agua       Now with water
     Y con la toalla         And with the towel

Notes from/for the teacher:  

     I have to remind myself not to force learning or expect kids to perform when I want them to.  I catch myself, after we've already transitioned out of Spanish, trying to quiz them about what we've learned-usually they aren't interested in performing.  But if one waits patiently out of the clear blue they throw something amazing at you.  
     Like this week when M made up her first original sentence. During snack time, I'd been pushing the phrase, Quiero una fresa  (I want a strawberry).  M was determined to not even taste a fresa but then the other two were chowing them down; she couldn't resist it any longer and communicated that she wanted one, "¡una fresa para mí!"  (a strawberry for me!)
     And when we were singing the color song and we were about to begin without our pointing pencils and L calls out lápices (pencils) in a worried tone.  I believe she even pluralized it without hearing it first!
     Or when my little guy asks for canela (cinnamon) at breakfast without realizing he's speaking Spanglish.  Our real goal is to play using another set of vocabulary and maybe one day the kids will realize it's a whole new language.

Just for fun:

     Have you ever done un brindis (a toast) as a family.  I learned this popular saying in Spain and just found this 30 second video on a Spanish podcast.  Try it at dinner with plastic cups full of leche.  It also explains the history behind toasting:  Originally roman, drinking was thought to include all of the senses except for hearing...so the toast was added to make drinking a six-senses experience.  Also, it was customary for the host of a party to extend a toast to ensure the guests that the drinks weren't poisened.     ¡Hasta la semana entrante!

    
    

Los pollitos (little chicks)

La canción (Song)

Post named after a new song we've been working on.  Also because my three little chicks had their first squabble-involved an unfair grab & two shrieks: Click here to listen:  Los pollitos
Kids have already picked up a lot of the vocabulary from below. Their favorite part is when I wrap the abrigo around them.

Key words:

• pollitos (chicks)
• tienen hambre (they have hunger)
• tienen frío (they are cold)
• el maíz (corn)
• el trigo (wheat)
• abrigo (coat)
• alas (wings)
• duermen (they sleep)

El cuento  (Story)

• ¡Esa mosca! (That fly!-A fly enters la ventana (window) and lands on different items before it finally leaves through la ventana.  We are going to do more with moscas next week.
  

More language notes:

• The kids know Me gusta and mala o buena. (They love to tease about something being mala (yucky) even if it is really buena (good). We've been working on quiero (I want) and I heard a few, Quiero más.

Just for fun:

I like this sesame street song Me gusta. I haven't shown it to the kids because it is mostly in English but my Kindergarten students loved it last year-might be fun to try at home.  ¡Hasta pronto!