I was singing to my son tonight and I sang all the same Brazilian Lullabies I always sing:
Boi da cara preta, Maezinha do céu, Chu chu chu, Sereia, Samba lele ( I will list those songs in another post)
He said Mom, Im kind of tired of the same songs, can you sing something different and I sang this song which reminds us how beautiful life is! It always makes me cry, because reminds me of Brazil! So I wanted to share here on the blog:
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!
This is an easy recipe which you can make it and bring a foreign language at the same time!
Cook 2 Tbsp of butter
1 Tbsp of chocolate powder
1 can of condensed milk
Cook in low heat until mixture is not stuck to the pot, it falls off. We are looking for a more firm consistency. Spread butter on a plate and spread the cooked mixture and let it cool off until you can take a piece and make a 1 inch ball with it. Roll the ball on jimmys or sugar or nuts. Ask kids to help you make the balls and count them in Portuguese or Spanish as you roll them.
Today I started my mission to post some of my mom’s favorite recipes and some Spanish and Italian recipes. I promise I will not post things that were incorporated to the American Cuisine! Please try my recipes and tell me what you and your family said about it!
Bolinhos de Carne a Baiana – Brazilian Meatballs
Ingredients:
1 pound of ground beef
1 small onion
black pepper and cumin (depends on how much you like, I put a little bit of each)
salt
3 eggs
bread crumbs
1 cup of flour
Mix ground beef, chopped onion, cumin, pepper, salt and 1 egg and place in the fridge for 2 hours. Make small balls and pass in the flour, egg, then bread crumbs and place in a skillet with hot oil, enough to cover the meatballs. Cook until brown. Serve on top of spaghetti or rice. Please no tomato sauce. Brazilians usually eat that on top of white rice, but my family likes it with pasta cooked sauteed on butter.
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 Spanish, with them I 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=GXvcKm6tERQ We 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.
They loved the activities and learned Portuguese!
Até a próxima!
Abraços,
Claudia Krusch
EasyLearn Languages CEO
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:
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!
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.
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
Lasvelas – 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:
FelizCumpleaños a ti, FelizCumpleaños a ti,FelizCumpleaños a ti,FelizCumpleaños 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.
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!
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