I worked a lot to plan the activities for our cinco de mayo classes this week, because I was tired of the same old…..muy cansada! I also grabbed some special ideas to do at home, since the date is on Saturday this year!
I am using the book Fiesta, which I have used before, but with a new spin, I take them through the Mexican Village to celebrate it the old way, the way small Villages still celebrate it! Come and join us!
So we travel through small town markets, looking at toys, games, we make anillos and exchange them for the ocho anillos game! We tried 8 instruments which are shown in the book and I purchased to bring to our classes, the children loved it, the challenge was to find Spanish names for some of them, like the rain shaker! We danced around the hat using La Bamba! Last but not least we look at the piñata and I placed candy, which falls at the end of the class, but we also look at the way they are homemade and serpentinas, we review colors, numbers which are added to the social aspect of the party!
I also show this video which reviews vocabulary as they ispy the video, looking for things we talked about before, I divided them in groups, they became so competitive! You will not believe it! Increible!
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!
This past two weeks, I searched for a different way to bring the Thansgiving theme a different flavor! I decided to use prepositions and shapes for the first two weeks and food as well.
Children learned or revisited food vocabulary while setting up a table with thanksgiving favorites, such as :
Pastel de Calabaza- Pumpkin Pie
Pavo- turkey
Patata- Potato
Pan- Bread
We also learned:
Feliz Dia de Acción de Gracias – Happy Thanksgiving
and shapes which were compared to food and feathers of Pablo the turkey!
Many parents asked if there is Halloween in Spanish speaking countries and I used to say no, there is a Dia de Los Muertos celebration which is more religious and not child oriented. Well, a parent of one of my students recently shared that in Colombia they do Dulces o Travesuras (trick or treat) and children dress up like in the US. That surprised me!
In Brazil, my native country, Halloween is only celebrated in English Schools, not as a real holiday…..They have dia das crianças, October 12th when little children receive toys.
I will share later this week some linkswith information on dia de los muertos and Spanish Halloween worksheets and songs. Stay tuned!
I’m so excited to announce that we listened to parents and we are now offering our summer book with activities to be used at home! The book contains 20 pages of pure fun, coloring pages, games, suggestions on activities and more! The book is recommended for children 2-7 years old, but some of the activities can be done with older ones as well!
Make it a family fun time and join us in the great journey of bringing foreign languages to little ones!
To purchase the book only, go to our site: www.easylearnlanguages.com and make a payment of $ 10.00 + shipping and handling and you will receive your book at home or receive instructions for download.
To join the membership portion of our site, you will click on the membership icon on this blog and follow instructions, that will give you the book, personal consultation on how to use it, newsletter with great articles, class plans and more!
I am proud of our new venture and I hope you enjoy it too!
Saludos,
Claudia Krusch
EasyLearn Languages Programs Director
Parents have always asked me to include a summer class in our regular programs. Summer is a fun time, when children play, so teaching Spanish in the summer, means adding Spanish to fun activities children love!
I hope you enjoy my vocabulary list and suggestions:
El Sol – Sun
La Playa – Beach
La Sombrilla- the umbrella
La crema – the lotion
La arena – the sand
El Castillo- The castle
El Mar – The sea
El Calor- The heat
A few activities which can be used when teaching summer and beach themes are:
*Use colored sand and have them cover the word playa for example
*Buy precut fish craft and have them put it together, teaching fish and other sea animals
*Buy plastic fishing kit, they children will love to go fishing and learn about water and animals
*Beach Ball can be used to be passed, each student will need to say a beach word in Spanish when you stop the song
I also use some songs such as, vamos a la playa, la bamba, que calor to bring some flavor to the activities.
I hope you enjoyed my suggestions, please post your comments and suggestions.
Claudia Krusch
EasyLearn Programs
Director
-For more information on summer language programs, call 856-848-8870 or log on www.easylearnlanguages.com
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