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!
I was thinking about good ideas for games to play with my son while we were home during the holidays and new year’s and I came up with some ideas to bring foreign language into our play time, I hope you get a chance to try some of them!!!
1. Año Nuevo – Buena Suerte- make a popcorn string and add a marshmallow after each 10 pieces, they will have to count pieces while placing them on a piece of thin wool or rope, ribbon….
2. Baking together- A very famous holiday baking recipe is for pan dulce, try this recipe and ask children to place dried fruits inside of it, they will have to tell you the colors while placing them. For recipe:
La receta del pan dulce casero es una buena y energética receta que permite elaborar unos sabroso panecillos muy apropiados para almorzar o merendar gracias a su gran aporte energético y nutricional.
Ingredientes para 4 personas:
Pasas de corinto: 50 gramos
Azúcar: 6 cucharadas
Huevos: 2 unidades
Levadura en polvo: 1 sobre (15 gramos)
Harina: 280 gramos
Mantequilla: 100 gramos
Leche: 100 cl
Anís: 1 copa
Fruta confitada: 50 gramos
Piñones: 30 gramos
Preparación:
Tiempo estimado:
Se ponen las pasas en remojo para que estén blandas cuando las tengamos de utilizar
Por otro lado, se separan las claras de las yemas de los huevos. Las claras se reservan y las yemas se ponen en un bol junto con el azúcar y se baten enérgicamente hasta obtener una consistencia espumosa
A continuación se añade la mantequilla previamente derretida y, sin dejar de remover, se van agregando alternativamente la harina, la levadura el polvo y la leche vertida lentamente
Cuando está todo bien mezclado se agrega el anís, las pasas previamente pasadas por harina, los piñones, las frutas confitadas cortadas a trocitos
Por otro lado se baten bien las claras de los huevos a punto de nieve y se añaden a al mezcla anterior
Se remueve todo bien hasta que quede una mezcla homogénea y esponjosa
A parte, se unta un molde con mantequilla y se enharina para que no se pegue el pan a las paredes del molde
Se vierte la mezcla en el bol y se introduce en el horno a 180? durante una hora. Cuando el pan esta cocido se saca del horno y se deja enfriar a temperatura ambiente
3. Counting Beans- In Brazil, people place lentils or beans on the table during new year’s eve to bring prosperity, place a bowl with beans or lentils on your table, explain the tradition and count the beans together!
4. Print some foreign language words and hide them in cookie dough, bake them, after cooling it off, have children break cookie before eating and they will read the words….make sure you know the meaning and that words are previously explained to children before baking or in another activity! Suggestion on words: Spanish: coche, pelota, libro, agua, jugo, galleta, Portuguese: Carro, bola, livro, água, suco, biscoito.
I wanted to share some of my experiences in the past week with children in our Spanish and Portuguese classes!
Some interesting things happened when we asked children to make a lista de presentes or lista de regalos (gift list), one of our students told me that he didn’t need anything, he had everything and asked me how you say that in Spanish! Another student had a 20 item list and we spent the whole class, trying to have him say the gifts in Spanish….off course they came up with fuzzoodles, zuzu pets and other wierd names….I used my imagination to help them say those things in Spanish and Portuguese!
We also brought some cookies and had them decorate the cookies and place things on Santa’s plate (prato de papai noel/plato de papá noel). We also did a craft with cookies, chocolate and milk. We placed a plate on a coloring page, children cut the cookies, candy and candy cane and glued and colored it.
I also share with children that candy canes are not a Christmas treat in South America, gifts are placed in shoes on the windows in many countries and no real trees, just plastic ones! Weather is warm in South America, so people eat lighter meals!
I hope that brought more ideas to parents and educators on how to share holidays with children using a foreign language!
Some teachers have asked me in the past years for ideas on Halloween themed classes. We have used many different topics but this year, I believe we really capture the children’s interest with the classes. We divided the Halloween topic in two classes, using the verb poner (Yo pongo), the children were asked:
1. To place Halloween objects in the cauldron – Yo pongo el fantasma en el calderon ( I put the ghost in the caldron)
2. To place eyes, mouth, ears, nose on the ghost’s face- Yo pongo la nariz en la cara….(Used a paper bag, markers for eyes, ribbon to tie the ghost), nice activity and cute craft
3. Book Activity- We read the book 5 little ghosts in Spanish and they had to place each ghost in each part of the book- Yo pongo un fantasma……
4. Song- Original Yo pongo sung by me to be released on my upcoming cd- for sound file email me directly
Vocabulary needed:
Ghost- Fantasma
Witch- Bruja
Monster- monstro
Mummy- mumia
Halloween – Dia de las Brujas or Dia de los muertos
Candy – dulce
trick or treat – dulce o travesura
Halloween, Dia de Las Brujas, is all about making children have fun!!!! Dressing up, having candy…..I hope my ideas will inspire teachers and parents celebrate Halloween at home using a foreign language!
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!
Dear Members,
When thinking about what activities to sign my son up in the fall, I faced many choices….music, sports, drama classes, arts and more…..I decided to look for classes which were fun and educational, so I kept him on our Easylearn programs for foreign languages, math at Mathnasium to keep his math skills, music to develop brain connections and concentration and a sport, which will be football due to his size!!!!!!I had no trouble picking a sport, I must say that!
Parents often talk to me about continuing with foreign language classes and I tell them it is for the children’s benefit to continue while they are young and learning is as easy as playtime!
This fall choose well, ask for demo classes but above all choose something your child enjoy doing!
It’s all about having fun!
Saludos,
Claudia Krusch
Director of Easylearn programs
I have answered this question more than 5 times this week, which motivated me to bring this topic to our blog.
Children who are exposed on a 30min foreign language class a week, will basically forget a lot of what was learned if the stimulus cease.
I highly encourage parents to buy cds, invest on classes, books anything that can keep the foreign language present in their lives!
Amazon offers many options of cds with songs and programs, classes as also offered nationwide and Bookstores like Barnes and Noble offer many offerings for at least 5 different languages, which can be easily downloaded to an ipad with the B&N reader, an app for ipads.
Please e-mail me privately if you wish to receive recommendation for specific materials and to receive a free sample of my spanish summer activity guide!
Enjoy the summer!
Claudia Krusch- Director of EasyLearn Language Programs
I absolutely love new gadgets, I must confess I’m a huge fan of apple products, not quite sure if I am a bigger fan of Apple or Steve Jobs, who did to Apple, what I dream to do with my business- bring monetary value to the same level of the quality of our product.
Back to the ipad, I need to share: it is a great gadget! I immediately started experimenting and downloading children’s books in various languages….found out an app for children practicing Spanish called Salta! Now I can sing songs, read bedtime stories and play with my son using a foreign language and everything is done on the ipad! Very interesting….
My son asked tonight, mom, where is the ipad? I answered, it is charging, he said, oh no! No story time tonight???
I know parents complain that technology drive children away from real interaction, family time…I just showed you that is not true!
Whether you have an ipad or not, please consider using technology to bring your little one closer to you, especially bringing a foreign language closer to both of you. Having that in mind, I am creating a series of videos for parents who wish to do something at home related to a foreign language, but don’t feel confident enough to do so. My videos and audio files will help parents use technology to do some cool things at home with the children, as well as follow our activity guide to bring more fun and a foreign language to their summer.
Summer Activity Book and audio files will be available here on the blog, under membership category. I will let all the parents know as soon as we have it up on the site.
Some Parents came to me yesterday at an event I attended and said, their children don’t even speak English…..that inspired me to write this post about the FAQs on the subject “misconceptions of foreign language being introduced in early age to children”.
On the top of the list:
1) My child doesn’t even speak – misconception
Even if the child doesn’t speak, the foreign language will at least stimulate the brain which is already working to produce language.
2) My child already speaks two languages, I don’t want to confuse him/her – misconception
All the studies conducted with children who had learned more than 2 languages in early age show that there are infinite ways where the brain is wired to store and process a new foreign language and there’s no limit to it. Children will sometimes, use words from different languages with bilingual parents, but the language use is a social behavior, so they usually use the languages when they are required by the parent who requires…(speaks) Later on , they will separate the language use.
3) My child has speech impairment, therefore I will not enroll him/her in a foreign language program – misconception
I currently have two children who have speech issues, especially with consonants in English, which is normal in early age, until the brain is processing sounds. But they presented no speech impairment in Spanish, so I came to the conclusion that there are different areas of your brain for different languages and your vocal system will be wired to use its tools to communicate in different ways, for different languages.
4) Foreign Languages should not be taught later on – misconception
I strongly believe that our brain is being formed until the age of 12, which benefits the early learning process of a foreign language or acquisition of any languages, but that doesn’t prevent any individual who is motivated to learn a second language later on. I currently have an 88 year old student!
5) My child is too young – misconception
It is never too early to introduce a foreign language to a child, I honestly believe the younger the better. We start mommy and me classes at 14months. Children love it!
I hope that this helps parents answer their questions regarding introducing a foreign language to children. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like recommendations on software and programs in other states or countries.
Saludos,
Claudia Krusch
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