End of Session Celebration

Today we finally got to destroy our pinata and eat candy. We also learned about body parts (face) and practiced our song with the sr. Spanish class and the sr. music class.

I believe our song will be one of the first ones in the Festival, so as you arrive, bring the ukes to the front, I will tune them so they will be ready for the performance.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING UKES ON SUNDAY!!! Those of you who have borrowed them from HLACNY, just leave them behind after the Festival and I will storage them so they can be used again next year. Thanks for taking such good care of them as you have.

Next session, I will be travelling to Spain, so Wendy and Kim will take over the class. This is great news since this means Jr. Spanish will continue for another three sessions! It is also great news because they know all of you and you are also familiar with them so it should be a seamless transition.

Below are some pictures of our day....See you on Sunday!

Today we practiced likes and dislikes.

We also learned about the family and created our own idiosyncratic extended families with plush toys... it was quite fun, actually.

Please review the Family video at Rocaklingua (see below) if you can. You may want to print the homework pages for this lesson.

Our song is coming along...our playing could use practice though :)

Next day in class, we will break our pinata. After that, we will visit the music class to practice our song and choreograph our performance one last time before the festival.

La Familia (Rockalingua)



See you next week!

Numbers 1-50 and song.

Today we practiced our song and continued learning how to "play" the ukelele

We also learned about numbers 1-50 in class.

Please visit Rockalingua, log in and print the worksheet to the video below.

You can also play the included game if you want to.





Rockalingua: Numbers 1-50.




For all of those of you who want to play at the festival my advice would be to practice daily for the next two weeks, even if only 5 minutes each day. You can tune your instruments with a tuner or some free app (ask your parents for help). You will want to tune your ukes before each practice since strings can stretch quite easily when new. Refer to the handout I gave you in class today, and remember the phrase "Good Cats Eat Apples" I find it helpful to remind me of the pitch when I need to tune my strings :)

How to tune a Ukelele using a digital tuner




How to Tune a Ukulele




If you cannot practice, do not worry, we will keep practicing in class and (briefly) during our lunch break for the next few weeks.

Enjoy your break and see you in a couple of weeks!

Day of the Dead: altar

This is our Day of the Dead 'altar' put together by our Jr. Spanish class students. Today in class we learned that normally such an altar, includes a picture, flowers, sugar skulls, food and drink offerings and decorations such as 'papel picado' and candles.

We also learned how to express likes and dislikes. Please watch the video below to reinforced what we learned in class today.

Sesame Street: No me gusta/Me gusta.

We continued practicing our song in class. Please new students, watch the video below to become acquainted with the lyrics. We will be singing the main lyrics three times, instead of four but otherwise it is the same.

Rockalingua: Numbers and colors in Spanish.

\

PARENTS: Those of you with children working on the uke, please have them start practicing (I gave them some chord diagrams with the fingerings). You will need to tune your ukes. I suggest you download a free app like DaTuner Lite (Android) or something similar, to your phone or tablet and get your ukes tuned: GCEA. If you do not know how to do this, do not worry, we will go over it in class briefly next Friday :) Other students will be playing other instruments (shakers, bells, etc) and helping with the choreography. We will all be singing.

And that is it for now. I will see you on Friday.  Oh, I almost forgot...PLEASE HAVE YOUR STUDENT BRING A THREE RING BINDER TO CLASS...

Calaveras de azúcar (sugar skulls)

We had fun decorating our sugar skulls today. Big thanks to the adults that made this possible!

Next Friday, we will work on a traditional  Day of the Dead display, we will continue with our song, and will go outside to whack a pinata.

For those of you who are new to class, please watch the first two videos in this link (you may want to preview them and determine if this is something your child may enjoy).

Also, below you will find two links to the Wild Thornberrys episode Spirited Away (parts 1 and 2) , loosely based on the Day of the Dead. Again, you may want to watch them ahead of time and decide whether to show it to your children or not.

Enjoy and see you next week in class!

The Wild Thornberrys Spirited Away, part 1




The Wild Thornberrys Spirited Away, part 2.

Sugar Skulls

calaveras (skulls) drying in the oven

Hi, today we worked in the kitchen and made some awesome sugar skulls. I am baking (drying) them in the oven as I write this. It was lots of fun (and messy too).

I will make some extra ones during the break and will put them together, so when we meet again on October 30th we can go ahead and decorate them.

Enjoy your break (review last week's videos, if you have not done so) and see you in a couple of weeks!

Day of the Dead

Today we practiced greetings, colors and numbers in our class. We also played with finger puppets to create a simple dialogue. We also continued practicing our song for the Winter festival.

Next week, in preparation for Día de los muertos (Day of the Dead),we will explore the cultural meaning of this celebration and will make some sugar skulls in the kitchen.

I will bring molds, sugar, eggs (or corn starch), vanilla extract and lemon to prepare our mix. Once the front and back of our skulls are shaped, I will take them home for baking/drying.

When we reconvene on October 30th, we will decorate the dry skulls, make some paper flowers and set up a small display in the Fellowship Hall or the corridor, outside our classroom.

If you wish, please take a look at these four videos on the Day of the Dead. Parents, you may want to watch them ahead of time and decide if they are suitable for your child. The animation is quite beautiful, but you may find that it is best to explain ahead of time what is going to happen in the beginning as some kids get "afraid" at first, when they see the skeletal mariachi or when the mom is preparing the girl delicious traditional desserts. Do not spoil the end though, as it is quite moving :).

¡Hasta el viernes! See you on Friday!

¿Cómo te llamas y de dónde eres?

My name is Taco

Hi,

Today we continued working on numbers and colors and started our second lesson (introductions and origin). I am very pleased with the way things are going and how much all of you know already!

We also started our song for the Winter Festival. I will bring a couple of ukuleles to class on Friday that you can borrow if you want to. We will try playing them and see how it goes. It should be fun.

In preparation for class, please watch again, the Rockalingua video ¿Cómo te llamas? What is your name?  (preview below). You can also practice the Calico video included in this post (see below).

If you could, please download and print the corresponding worksheet for this lesson. Do not forget to bring it to class if you can. Our three ring binder comes in handy for handouts or as reference. Thanks!

¡Hasta pronto! See you soon!

¿Cómo te llamas? What is your name?

¿Cómo te llamas? What is your name? by Calico Spanish.

Números y colores

Hi, today we had a great day learning numbers, colors and the names of some fruits and vegetables: banana/plátano, kiwi, tomate, chile.

We also learned some basic descriptions: El plátano es amarillo. El tren es azul, rojo....

Please, if you can, and in preparation for class, watch the Colorín Colorado video below in Rockalingua

Also, have your kids play the drag-and-match colors game online (remember to use our class username and password).



¡Gracias y hasta pronto! Thanks and see you soon!

¡Bienvenidos!

Welcome!

¡Hola! ... and welcome to Jr. Spanish!

This session we are going to learn numbers and colors in Spanish, as well as some basic greetings.

The purpose of this blog is to remind you and your parents what we have learned in class and to give you a chance to practice at home every week.

The more you practice on your own, the better your Spanish will get and the more time we will have in the classroom for conversation, songs and games.

¡Gracias! ... and see you soon!