This week, while planning for our first multilingual playdate, I started thinking about how parents feel when they need to chose a foreign language to their children and why chose at all!

I have started a research to develop a program which will give parents some easy tools to teach basics of any languages at home, even without knowing the language and the most important, making it fun!

While thinking about activities for the playdate, I decided to use colorful balls and have children kick them around the room while counting the kicks, parents will coach with a helper sheet. Lot’s of fun!

If you would like to do this activity at home, here is the vocabulary for Spanish, Portuguese and German:

Going back to our question, I think above all, you need to offer a fun experience to your child, so if one or 10 languages, which they capable of learning at the same time, you must search for a fun way to bring them into their daily playtime and not make it a chore, a duty!!!

If you do the activity at home and send us the video to: claudia@easylearnlanguages.com, we will post your video on the blog.

Have fun!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages

I’m so excited to have a new team member working on new fall activities for our locations! We are working on incorporating more Science and Math, while using the Gym locations to make our program more interactive, combining Spanish and exercise: our new Mueve Program ©!

Children will be invited to sing, dance and play games using soccer, dodge ball, monkey in the middle, hide and seek, shark and  minos and other games all in Spanish!

I know some parents have been asking for activities to bring Summer and Spanish together! We have posted some on our FB page, but I wanted to share some of my favorites here:

1) Numbers- Please make sure you had exposed the child to numbers before, taught them and this activity will bring all the joy of counting alive! Buy an oversized bubble container, blow bubbles as the child pops them and counts in Spanish! Great outdoor activity!

2) Summer vocabulary- You can use a few words to start: Pelota de Playa ( beach ball), Castillo de arena ( sand castle), Toalla (towell), Gafas de sol ( sun glasses), Palo ( bucket), Oceano (ocean) and buy a small set of sand toys, which represent some of the words above ( Target has them), buy moon sand if you don’t have a sand box or can’t do it at the beach! Have the child play and make different things as you teach vocabulary.

3)Colors-Every summer we do a different water color project at our camps, this year we used a colorful parrot. They used fingerpainting as they were painting with primary colors and telling us the colors in Spanish, they also mixed the colors while doing it, so we had a chance to go over combinations as well. Here is a list of colors you can use:

• amarillo — yellow
• anaranjado — orange
• azul — blue
• blanco — white
• dorado — golden
• gris — gray
• marrón — brown
• negro — black
• púrpura/morado — purple
• rojo — red
• rosado — pink
• verde — green

We hope you have enjoyed our activities and to see you soon checking out our news!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages

Dear Readers,

This month we decided to bring our Spring activities to the next level!

Children started this week, by contrasting the differences between winter and spring and singing a song about weather….we make hand motions and sing about lluvia(rain), sol (sun), viento ( wind) y nubens( clouds). We read a book called Primavera and they saw the trees with leaves and the bugs and birds who came back!

We also did a coloring page with  a Mariposa ( butterfly) and a flor ( flower) and the kids would color and draw on the worksheet. You can easily make it at home with coloring page drawings.

I bought a collection of bugs and bug cat and nets and we went bug hunting, saying the name of the bug, color and comparing sizes.

Off course if you child never had Spanish before and you are starting, I would recommend just doing colors for now…..

I made a memory game with pictures of bugs and they had to match and say the name of the insect, Mariquita( lady bug), Escarabajo ( beetle), mariposa ( butterfly), abeja ( bee), saltamontes ( grasshopper).

I will be happy to answer questions and send the worksheet, if you wish to have it at home!

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages CEO

This past week I shared a special class with some of my students! I used the book Buenas Noches Gorila, a book translated from English.

I showed the video of the story in English and asking questions in Spanish and they were learning animal vocabulary as the story was taking place.

Video:
Buenas Noches Gorila

I cut some squares and animals and they would place animals inside the cages

I had some animal masks and they needed to use them and act like the animals

I also googled Good night Gorilla and found some pages with activities, I printed some finger puppets which we used, they needed some prep work.

I read the actual book at the end as reinforcement of what they had seen at the video.

We sang a song called Veo Animales, I wrote the song but it’s not recorded, soon we will have the song available for purchase.

I hope you enjoyed our suggestions on how to teach animals in a creative way.

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages CEO

Dear readers,

This is a topic which I love, but I never find good ideas or nice materials to teach a great Valentine’s class or Spanish Classes in February! So this year, I decided to

innovate and I created Spanish and Portuguese classes with the Valentine Day topic which not only teach the vocabulary of a day which is celebrated in some Spanish speaking countries but also teach children to share and show friendship! Enjoy!

Today I will share my ideas for Spanish:

1) Children ages 3-5 will hold on a portion of a large tablecloth, making a sort of parachute and place a light pink ball in the middle, la pelota de la amistad! When the ball pops up, they will shout amigo, when stays on/around the tablecloth, they will shout pasa…pasa! children love to move the ball around!

2) Children will pass a soft ball,  and say Pasa, pasa, pasa mi amigo! The teacher will stop and say Amigo randomly and the child who has the ball will share it with a friend in the circle….teaches them how to share and how to be nice to friends. Songs are originals composed and written by me. Email me for words and tune.

3) I also show the snoopy San Valentin cartoon which is cute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F4kpl1kuAI

4)  We made a San Valentin card which they colored and cut. I don’t have a template to upload to the blog but you can easily make a card and have them color it.

5) Lucky charms craft- I used the marshmallow hearts on lucky charms box and they glued to a heart shape. They loved doing it! You can use paper heart or stickers as well.

I hope you enjoy my activities! Try some of them with your little ones!

Saludos Amigos,

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages CEO

This past week we worked on several themes and home and furniture was one of them!

Children would look at pictures of rooms in the house and learn their names, then we would work on a game and they would place items in each room, making vocab work easy and fun! For example, we place a sink,lavabo in the bathroom, baño.

We sang en la casa, en la casa hay….using room names

baño – bathroom

sala de estar – living room

cuarto – bedroom

cocina- kitchen

We also watched the video from Boca Beth which tours a house, the video is called La Casa, where a chicken shows children things in the rooms.

Children had to cut and glue parts of the house and make their own house., older ones had to tell me their favorite rooms, why, describe their rooms as well.

Loved sharing this subject with our little ones!

I hope you enjoyed it!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages CEO

This week was my birthday! I share this joyful time with some of my students who had the class on Friday. I promised I would share the vocabulary here! If your child had another class, please look on archive for other topics.

I hope you enjoy as much as I did!

We looked at birthday vocabulary using a bingo sheet:

Los globos – balloons

Las velas – candles

El regalo – gift

El juguete – the toy/game

We did Ispy looking for those objects in the room. We also colored a cake ( Torta) and placed candles for each child’s next birthday. Older children received some candles and had to add the amount to make the total for the amount of candles on his next birthday. We broke a piñata, ate cupcakes ( pastelitos) and reviewed tableware.

We also sang Happy Birthday in Spanish:

Feliz Cumpleaños a ti, Feliz Cumpleaños a ti,Feliz Cumpleaños a ti,Feliz Cumpleaños a ti!

We showed a Sesame Place video  about Fiesta in Spanish and read a book on the same topic which taught children how they celebrate birthdays in Mexico.

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch CEO

While cooking up new ideas to offer our students this winter, our team came up with a snow man themed class, where children will learn/review body parts using frosty!

Activities involved are Frosty coloring page, place body parts on frosty on the wall, throw snow balls(white balls) at frosty and tell the body parts where it was hit, read a winter book and watch frosty the snowman video:

Body Parts in Spanish:

arm — el brazo
back — la espalda
backbone — la columna vertebral
breast, chest — el pecho
calf — la pantorrilla
ear — el oído, la oreja
elbow — el codo
eye — el ojo
finger — el dedo
foot — el pie
hair — el pelo
hand — la mano
head — la cabeza
heart — el corazón
hip — la cadera
intestine — el intestino
knee — la rodilla
leg — la pierna
mouth — la boca
muscle — el músculo
neck — el cuello
nose — la nariz
shoulder — el hombro
skin — la piel
stomach (abdomen) — el vientre
stomach (internal organ) — el estómago
thigh — el muslo
throat — la garganta
toe — el dedo (See Note 1)
tongue — la lengua
tooth — el diente

We also cooked up some other new ideas which I will be sharing week by week. The materials listed on this post are available on our membership portion of this site.  Those activities hopefully motivate you to bring Spanish to your home/class using innovative techniques chasing away cabin fever mood!

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch

Easylearn languages CEO

I was thinking about good ideas for games to play with my son while we were home during the holidays and new year’s and I came up with some ideas to bring foreign language into our play time, I hope you get a chance to try some of them!!!

1. Año Nuevo - Buena Suerte- make a popcorn string and add a marshmallow after each 10 pieces, they will have to count pieces while placing them on a piece of thin wool or rope, ribbon….

2. Baking together- A very famous holiday baking recipe is for pan dulce, try this recipe and ask children to place dried fruits inside of it, they will have to tell you the colors while placing them. For recipe:

La receta del pan dulce casero es una buena y energética receta que permite elaborar unos sabroso panecillos muy apropiados para almorzar o merendar gracias a su gran aporte energético y nutricional.

Ingredientes para 4 personas:

• Pasas de corinto: 50 gramos
• Azúcar: 6 cucharadas
• Huevos: 2 unidades
• Levadura en polvo: 1 sobre (15 gramos)
• Harina: 280 gramos
• Mantequilla: 100 gramos
• Leche: 100 cl
• Anís: 1 copa
• Fruta confitada: 50 gramos
• Piñones: 30 gramos

Preparación:

Tiempo estimado:

• Se ponen las pasas en remojo para que estén blandas cuando las tengamos de utilizar
• Por otro lado, se separan las claras de las yemas de los huevos. Las claras se reservan y las yemas se ponen en un bol junto con el azúcar y se baten enérgicamente hasta obtener una consistencia espumosa
• A continuación se añade la mantequilla previamente derretida y, sin dejar de remover, se van agregando alternativamente la harina, la levadura el polvo y la leche vertida lentamente
• Cuando está todo bien mezclado se agrega el anís, las pasas previamente pasadas por harina, los piñones, las frutas confitadas cortadas a trocitos
• Por otro lado se baten bien las claras de los huevos a punto de nieve y se añaden a al mezcla anterior
• Se remueve todo bien hasta que quede una mezcla homogénea y esponjosa
• A parte, se unta un molde con mantequilla y se enharina para que no se pegue el pan a las paredes del molde
• Se vierte la mezcla en el bol y se introduce en el horno a 180? durante una hora. Cuando el pan esta cocido se saca del horno y se deja enfriar a temperatura ambiente

3. Counting Beans- In Brazil, people place lentils or beans on the table during new year’s eve to bring prosperity, place a bowl with beans or lentils on your table, explain  the tradition and count the beans together!

4. Print some foreign language words and hide them in cookie dough, bake them, after cooling it off, have children break cookie before eating and they will read the words….make sure you know the meaning and that words are previously explained to children before baking or in another activity! Suggestion on words: Spanish: coche, pelota, libro, agua, jugo, galleta, Portuguese: Carro, bola, livro, água, suco, biscoito.

5. Suggestion on song: Portuguese:

Adeus ano velho:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ajbyPaBJqM

Please share your experience with me!!

Happy New Year! Feliz Ano Novo, Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages CEO

I’m so excited to start sharing some activities our instructors will be using at our Spanish classes in South Jersey!

First I would like to share a list of words, must have when you are teaching Christmas in Spanish:

Feliz Navidad! -Merry Christmas 

Christmas tree – árbol de Navidad

presents – regalos

sleigh – trineo

chimney – chimenea

the shepherds – los pastores

bells – campanas

peace – paz

ornaments - adornos

wreath - corona

For children who read, they will “decorate” the tree below with the words above ( cut them and have them glue them on the tree, saying the names in Spanish)

http://www.coloring-page.net/pages/xtree027.html Word find for older ones:

http://spanish.about.com/library/weekly/aa121399a.htm Song/video for little and older ones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq34OLRM5Mw

I also have a line of bells, children will ring (repicar) and each time I stop in a different number of bells, they need to count them.

I read Santa Claus is coming to town in Spanish, I use the book in English and make 2 line sentences for each page. They know the story, so it becomes easier. I also use the video and turn in the Spanish mode for the dvd, I do that with frost the snowman and Rudolf too. We have a whole class, just with Frosty! I may share that later!

I also print colored balls and color cotton balls with paint and have them do a “snowball fight” and each ball touches another student, they need to tell me the color. Younger and older ones love it!

Google ” cascabel” and you will find the words for jingle bells in Spanish, there are three or four versions.

The one listed here on youtube is a little hard for little ones, so when we sing only, I use

Cascabel, Cascabel musica de amor

Dulces horas, gratas horas

Juventud in flor

Cascabel, Cascabel

Tan sentimental

No ceces o cascabel,

de repiquetear

I hope you enjoyed my ideas! Please share your experiences in using them here!

¡Feliz Navidad!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages© CEO

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