Valentine’s Day in Brazil is in June, so I usually do the regular Valentine’s Celebrations in February and again in the Portuguese classes in June! In Brazil Valentin’s Day, Dia dos namorados is a celebration for lovers, couples only, no friendship, just love.

My favorite Bilingual Books:

Be Mine – Brenda Ponnay

Primer Dia de San Valentin  de Clifford

Dora Quiere Mucho a Boots

El Primer Beso de Froggy

Feliz Dia de La Amistad, Gus

We are making Butterflies with candy:

• We are teaching love, hugs, kisses, smile as vocabulary and they will see the pic behind a hear and have to say what it is in Spanish or Portuguese.
• The more advanced students will receive a blank cardstock and make pics for the front and write simple sentences inside, I will be posting later pics of what they did!

Wanted to share this link from Mommy Maestra for Valentine’s Cards:

http://www.mommymaestra.com/2012/02/bilingual-valentines-day-cards-for.html

• I will also use a heart shaped basket and they would throw colored hearts in it to review colors!
• We will be making a love tree and placing shapes on the tree which is pink and we call it árbol del amor, Árvore de Amor.

Feliz Dia de San Valentin! Happy Valentine’s Day! Feliz Dia dos Namorados!

Claudia Krusch

Director

     Carnival is approaching and I wanted to share some activities we will be sharing in some activities, some suggestion on games and videos! Enjoy!

Carnival is celebrated in some countries in South America, Europe and New Orleans in the US! I usually don’t share it in all the classes, but some of my intermediate and older children classes!

This year Carnival or Mardi Gras will start on the 9th in some countries and end on the Ash Wednesday, Feb 13th. So in two weeks, we will sharing some of the fun activities and bringing the beads and masks to our classes!

So let’s share some options for crafts:

Masks- We will be using templates for masks and I will bring beads and stickers and glitter to make the masks! I cut the masks myself on cardstock and punch holes for the two parts to tie in the back.

Here is a link for a Free printable template, but I design and cut my own and will be sharing some pics of the student’s work later after we do it!

http://freebies.about.com/gi/o.htm?zi=1/XJ&zTi=1&sdn=freebies&cdn=hobbies&tm=9&f=10&su=p284.13.342.ip_&tt=3&bt=0&bts=0&zu=http%3A//www.activityvillage.co.uk/mardi_gras_masks_to_print.htm

Confetti  

We will make our own confetti, I will bring construction paper and classes of children 6 and older will use templates of shapes, while learning shapes, make their own confetti, review colors and trade them to make a confetti rain at the end!

Beads

We will be making necklaces with beads and other materials, using different colors and ideas, I can’t wait to see their creations!

Some music:

We will be listening to Spanish Music, Rick Martin and doing a Spanish dance, Brazilian Music in the Portuguese class with Yvette San Galo! Here are the videos for the songs we will be singing in class:

We will also teach older children children the history of Carnival which started in Venice and how it survives in countries like Brazil, being a part of the country’s culture as a major component to their identity! I spent most of my life enjoying Carnival in Brazil and spent one in Venice, Italy, so I always look forward to finding a new way to share that with my students!

Teaching a foreign language is a lot more than just vocabulary and grammar, it is about connecting the passion behind the language!

Viva Carnaval!