Feliz dia das Maes! Feliz Dia de las madres!

This post is dedicated to all the moms who read and support our efforts to bring foreign languages into their homes and enable us to do that!
Being a multilingual mom has been a challenge for me and has proven to also be very rewarding at the same time. I have been walking my son through learning two languages while building up his native language and some of my efforts have being successful, others not so….Mother’s day should be celebrated all year , but I try to bring a special meaning at this time of the year!  I hope you try and enjoy some of my suggestions!!!
My son loves music, so we always hear music in Spanish and Portuguese….I still laugh when I hear him sing, tomo guarana, such de caju, goiabada para sobremesa!!! He blasts this song out on his iPod

speakers!!http://letras.terra.com.br/jorge-ben-jor/594602/

We also read some books, I try to read some of the books I am using in my classes and some in Portuguese as well!

We play his favorite game: mela mela tin, where we rub our noses agains it each other and then bang heads ( softly) sometimes he prefers not so softly, LOL, boys!  I make ovinho ( eggs for breakfast) on Saturday and he and daddy cook on Sunday for me!

He likes rock and fast paced music, so I like showing him some j-lo and Ricky Martin songs and dancing around the house, have not done that this week! And reading is a must!

I read this one last night, Quiero a mi mama porque:

http://astore.amazon.com/easylearn-20/detail/052547248

I wanted to change the way we celebrated Mother’s day this year, so my team started spinning wheels and we came up with a super fun class! Hope you can use some of these activities in your classroom or at home!

We start with matching game, cards printed with family member’s pic and name in Spanish.Then we  use similar cards to place in a family tree and each student places cards which correspond to their families. Other copies of the cards are placed on children’s back and they pass the ball, when music stops, they need to tell who the family member that student has on their back, who they are? Quien soy yo??? The others answer eres….

We colored a mother’s day page which I am placing here as a free gift to all moms and teachers who follow our blog.

We watched a great video and the older ones had to tell us what family members were missing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c89nmoBd9Qk

We also sang bingo tune for my version:

Te amo mama, mucho, mucho eres mi mama!

Amo a mi mama! Amo a mi mama, amo a mi mama, Yo amo a mi mama!

We also read this book, they love hearing about Emma’s family! There’s a version without the read along and this one has the read along!

http://astore.amazon.com/easyleacom-20/detail/1931398585

Enjoy and Feliz Dia de las madres!

EasyLearn Languages Claudia Krusch

Multilingual Mom, CEO and Language Expert

Dear Readers,

Researching good activities for earth day, April 22nd, I did not find out anything I really liked so I worked on some different ideas and totally outside la caja!

I think the vocabulary list should be:

Tierra – Earth, Sol- sun, Nubes- Clouds, Lluvia-Rain, Planta- Plant, Arbol- Tree, Flor-Flower and Aire- Air.

I showed some of my classes those things in their school playgrounds and they had a first hand experience of how to embrace, take care and appreciate madre tierra.

We played Pasa La Tierra game with blue and green small Plastic Balls, where they would pass the oceano y la tierra (which came from coloring page below, which they colored ocean blue and land green). They also alternated between pasa el ocean ( blue Ball) y vivo en la tierra ( green ball).

Earth Day Coloring Page

I also talked about recycling with older ones!

I showed this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2J2B6P7XZU&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL9243D527AFB56CD8

Also have a nature board where children added some items, placed some animals on their habitat, they had a lot of fun!

Share if you like our activities and if you use at home or in your classroom!  Your opinion is very important to us!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages

Saludos!

Looking for new activities to do using the Spring theme, it came to me to use a mural as a backdrop after we teach the new vocabulary or verbs associated to vocabulary learned in previous years by children who have been with us for a longer period of time!

We gave them the vocabulary by talking about season changes and:

Memory Cards with words – Primavera- Spring, Nube – Cloud, Lluvia- rain, Cesped- grass, Flor- flower, Arbol- tree, Mariposa- butterfly.

We also used the book Pedro Conejito to talk about spring words

We gave them stickers and asked them to draw on our wall and table mural, depending on age, they loved it! Some of the pictures are shown here!

Try and let us know how it was, we would love to share your picture!

Today we started from ages 14m-9 year old students and I wanted to share some of the amazing results! Check it out!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages

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Dear Readers,

Think about Easter in South America is to think about food! Thinking back on so many Easter meals at my parent’s home! The most fun part was not the egg! In Brazil, they are ginormous! LOL Check it out!

Link to purchase one:

http://www.brazilianshop.com/BSHOP-32614-Ovo-de-Páscoa-ao-leite-Garoto-Sortidos—750g-#23

It was all about sitting and eating ALL day! O dia todo! My family makes seafood dishes and yummy appetizers and desserts! My favorites listed under my pinterest account:

http://pinterest.com/easylearn/food/

Moqueca de Camarao ( shrimp stew), Farofa de manteiga (Cassava Flour with butter and onions and eggs), Vatapa ( bread pudding made from bread, cashews, dried shrimp and other ingredients), white rice and more! Sooo good! Tao bom!

Some good words for Easter in Portuguese: Pascoa (Easter), Feliz Pascoa (Happy Easter), Ovo ( Egg), Chocolate ( chocolate), Cesta ( basket)

The best memories are all the aromas coming from my mom’s kitchen, my dad’s jokes and all the talk around the table! After all, Easter means giving and looking back, that is what ours was all about!

I hope you enjoyed my post!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages

Dear Readers,

Saludos! Easter is coming up and I wanted to share suggestions on activities we are using in the classrooms in the upcoming weeks!

Numbers – Bingo and Domino using Easter pics and dots on the other side for dominoes! We made our own dominoes on card stock paper, very easy!

Colors – Color Easter Eggs and have the child tell the colors or coloring page with them and have them name the color and learn Huevos (Eggs), other useful words are Conejo (bunny), Candy (Dulce), Canasta (basket), Easter Pascua, Feliz Pascua ( Happy Easter), Zanahoria (carrot).

I also purchased an over sized blow up carrot and the children will throw circles to fit them on the carrot! Also used for colors.

I also use some songs  like los pollitos dicen and conejito an original song I created. You can find los pollitos on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTF9bw-Cu28

I also use the book with the same name and Pedro conejito ( translation of Peter rabbit)

We are offering a free sample of one of Easter worksheets, flashcards, bingo sheets and so much more which are available for purchase at our new E-Store! Check them out at : www.easylearnlanguages.com/estore

Claudia Krusch

Easylearn Languages

Dear Readers,

We are spending the whole celebrating Dr Seuss birthday! Even though he is not a South American traditional author, his influence in the American Schools made me take the time plan a special class to celebrate his birthday! I used two books, Un Pez, Dos Peces….and Huevos Verdes con jamon both for sale at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I used the first book and planned a fish class, we went fishing with a plastic fish game with water and a bucket, they needed to go fishing and tell me the size, color and name of the sea creature, we used sea horses, alligators and crabs of different colors. We used pictures of large fish, whales and turtle in the ocean on the floor, they learned nadar, we also used speed and parar to guide movements.

We showed a video of bilingual reading of the books from youtube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ0wm1-Sr80

And the song I created: Yo soy un pea, yo soy un pea, yo soy un pez y me gusta nadar….repeat 2x and Nado rapido y despacio, nado rapido y despacio (3x), the kids loved going fast and slow.

We ate colored gold fish, they could eat the ones they could name the colors.

Can’t wait to share this and other class plans on our membership portion of our site which is currently being updated! Stay tuned!

A lot of fun!

Claudia Krusch

Dear Readers,

We decided to do our technology unit using robots, gadgets and more! I’m so excited, because I am a tech person! We are starting the vocab this week with shapes which were described on the last post and following with robot week! We will build a robot! using shapes and body parts vocabulary to make the robot!

I have decided to use, construction paper, aluminum foil, paint and elmer’s glue on a tissue paper roll to make our robots! Can’t wait to see how cool they will turn out!

Body parts used to build our robot are: cara- face, nariz – nose, boca-mouth, brazos- arms, piernas – legs, ojos- eyes, cabeza- head – vocabulary listed in Spanish!

Try the craft at home and share how much fun you had with your child!

Saludos!

Claudia Krusch

Easylearn Languages

Dear Readers,

I was looking for a fun new way to bring shapes to our classrooms and I was hit by a technology wave when I looked at a robot made out of tissue roll tube….I decided he would be the centerpiece of our class!

We start by learning shapes, then selecting shapes which will go on our robot, we will paint and glue shapes on our robot and place arms and the antenna is a glued toothpick. Can’t wait to see all the amazing robots!

Then we will use a scale I have and balance shapes, telling what shapes, colors and which side is higher and lower for the more advanced classes!

A Larger scale picture of the robot placed on the wall will serve as background while children take turns finishing that robot with shapes for body parts!!

Classes are perfect for children 4 and older!  I can’t wait to start!

If you are planning on doing some of those activities at home, here is a list of Spanish shapes: circulo, rectangulo, cuadrado, triangulo, estrella, rombo!

Enjoy!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages

Dear Readers,

Thinking about a new post for Valentine’s day, I decided to share something amazing that happened to me yesterday! I had my usual busy schedule, taught 5 classes during the day, but since the first one, my students, boys and girls, noticed my outfit, my bracelet, my earrings and complimented me….it made me think how children, starting age of 3 were being influenced by me….how much we take for granted when we, teachers, get dressed to bring knowledge to the little ones, we seldom think how much our overall presence and acts affect them!

When a 3 year old says: Ms Claudia, your earrings are beautiful! Another two girls asked me to lend them my bracelet and proudly shared them during the class…..that really touched my heart because all the effort and style or lack of…LOL I try to bring to the classroom, from my hair to my shoes, really does influence and puts a strong mark on my work, which opens the door to bring a rich foreign language experience to the little ones!

Yesterday’s experience made me think about something much deeper than just cutting papers and preparing for a class, but how much love I put in getting ready for a class, from the moment I get dressed to the moment I finish it!

This Valentine’s day I wanted to share my AHA moment, when I finally understood, teaching for me is not a job, it is an act of love and best of it: I receive a lot more love than I give and that is very gratifying!!!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!