This year  our Easter season was followed by some mixed feelings when one parent asked me not to mention the word Easter in one of our classes. We normally do a class pretty low key, more towards bunnies, eggs and egg hunt, but we do have Happy Easter in all the coloring pages and her request made me think about how people have a more exclusive than inclusive mentality. It is about excluding Christian values, so the other values are respected and uplifted. Sounds like double standard to me. As a Christian, I feel insulted, as a business owner, I feel my program and its content, since it is announced beforehand, prior to enrollment, should not be subject to change for whatever reason. I believe all religions are important and should be respected, I also believe God does not have a religion and he should be the center of any and every faith.

I had to share what happened this year, which has never happened before, because I believe foreign languages should express the culture of language learned and Spanish and Christians walk hand in hand, there is no denying it!

My comments don’t have any intention to offend any of clients which are not Christians, they do offer my perspective on this issue, though. Now let’s get to the important topic! Easter!

Happy Easter – Feliz Pascua 

We started with flashcards, showing pictures and words in most of our classes in South Jersey:

Easter – Pascua    Bunny – conejo  Eggs- Huevos  Canasta – Basket  Chocolate- chocolate  Carrot- Zanahoria

We also Played the Carrot Baseball, children had to use my oversized carrot to hit the eggs on the other side of the room saying just color, huevos + color or Yo veo un huevo amarillo, depending on level.

We colored a page with bunnies in some classes and we wrote a letter to a friend saying what we like about Easter using vocabulary and me gusta…

We played domino, they loved it!

We showed this video: Caramelo!

We absolutely had a blast looking for matches of Easter words and placing them in the canasta!

Hope you enjoyed our class and you use some of the activities at home or in your classroom!

Claudia Krusch

EasyLearn Languages – Director

Dear Members,

This time of the year brings the best memories of my childhood. When my mom used to stay hours in the kitchen preparing the seafood dishes for Easter! My dad would spend hours stirring Vatapá, Camarão, arroz branco, farofinha…..makes my mouth water. Those sounds and smells still surround me when Easter times come, so I try to make this a special time for my son as well…bringing some of the traditions like purchasing the one pound Easter Egg at the Brazilian store….making sea food on good Friday and working on a two hour sweet bread which allows me to share some of my memories with him.

If you wish to share some traditions with your child or use some interesting materials in the classroom, I would suggest:

Use bunny songs which can be found in YouTube:

De olhos vermelhos or Coelhinho da Páscoa, words for the songs can also be found online

Memory game with Easter vocabulary like, coelho, cesta, ovos, chocolate, colorante, páscoa

Print easter egg from online free coloring pages and cut them in three parts, have the children put pieces of the eggs together, this can also be used to review colors on the eggs.

I hope my ideas help you share Easter traditions!

Feliz Páscoa!

Claudia Krusch

Director of EasyLearn Languages Programs

Dear Readers,

A lot of homeschooling parents and teachers e-mailed us, asking  for materials to use on Easter. I have couple ideas to share, which can be used in any foreign language class:

1)Plastic egg decoration- children will glue decorations they colored on the eggs and you will review or teach Spanish colors while doing that

2)Hide and seek, children will take turn counting(numbers) and try to find students.

3)Word egg hunt- I hide eggs and words/candy seeing during the month, they will hunt for eggs, but they will only get the candy if they can tell me what that word is.

4)I also use the song Los Pollitos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4y6PEWhGmE&feature=related

5) We make baskets, chicks as crafts

6) We do an animal class with Easter related animals, they will toss them into a basket, saying their names.

Feel free to contact me for more ideas! Above all, let’s help children have fun with a foreign language!

Saludos,

Claudia Krusch

Director of EasyLearn Programs