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!

Dear Members,

I thought a lot before offering Valentine’s classes in Portuguese because Brazilian people don’t celebrate it! I decided to bring the theme and incorporate some ideas used in the Spanish class, so they would still learn the vocabulary without meaning less translations. I created a math worksheet with hearts, they learn the word heart, coração and had to add the hearts on the page, children 3 and under just had to look, count on fingers and give me the answer in Portuguese, I also made large heart inside a card and they would draw the family in it; we also  used hearts I cut out and we did the math on the rug. I also used the song beijo, Ivete San Galo to talk about Valentine words…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXvcKm6tERQWe played a tic tac toe with pictures cut where they would have to use thier piece to try to win I used pictures of hearts- coração, cupid – cupido, chocolate- chocolate, baloons-balão I explained in Brazil, Valentine’s Day is in June and it’s called the boyfriend/girlfriend’s day, it’s not for friends, but for people who are inlove, married, in a relationship.

I also used the song I love you, you love me from Barney with ages 3-5, another hit!

They loved the activities and learned Portuguese! Até a próxima!

Abraços, 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.

6) Valentine’s Tic tac toe – regular template with hearts printed on card stock as pieces, white and red.

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

Saludos Amigos,

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages CEO