El día de Los muertos

Hola padres! I hope this week has been as much fun for your scholars as it has been for me. Last weekend, my family and I went to a Day of the Dead festival at the Mesa Arts Center. It was really exciting to see all of the colorful decorations, music and artistry that goes along with this holiday. I was able to share the pictures of the day with the scholars in class too which I think they really enjoyed. In order to have our own little celebration of this holiday, we spent the week working on our own replicas of sugar skull masks. The focus of these masks is the bright colors used to decorate them and the scholars really came through on this. They used great colors to exude the brightness of the celebration. We then cut them out and put them on a popsicle stick. It was really fun to see these completed. Also, some of the classes had time to create flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners that are one of the symbols of the day of the dead. These flowers were meant to replicate the marigolds which represent the spirits of those who have passed away. This is a tradition begun by the Aztecs that ruled Mexico long ago.

In P.E. this week, the scholars were really able to practice letting me know how they felt (thirsty, hot, cold, etc) as we played a variety of running games. I am so happy to be able to give them a context where they can practice what I am teaching them and I hope it is fully solidifying the language in their minds. 

Next week, we will return to soccer in PE and Kinder will continue with shapes in Spanish. For first grade, I plan to continue their study of feelings. In November, we will begin our study of Honduras as our Spanish speaking country. Have a wonderful end to your week!

Sra. Hamilton 

feelings, soccer and la semana de cookie....

Hola padres! This was an exciting week for the scholars as they learned so many different things! In PE, we started off on a soccer unit. We learned how to kick with the instep of our foot and to stop the ball by trapping it instead of picking it up with our hands. They really enjoyed this. On Wednesdays, we are continuing to use the parachute and I was able to translate a ryhme set to the tune of "row, row, row your boat" into Spanish. In the ryhme, a scholar's name is called out and they have to run under the parachute and find a new spot. It was fun to have them catch on to the song and be able to sing it along with me. I will continue this game with the classes as they rotate through their Wednesday PE class with me. 

In Spanish, both Kinder and First were able to review the days of the week with a fun book called, La Semana de Cookie which tells about a mischievous cat and his misadventures throughout the week. From there, we learned our new vocabulary about feelings using different props or motions. Be sure to ask your scholar how to say "I'm cold" or "I'm hungry". Today we continued learning that vocabulary using two fun games that also helped them review their body part vocabulary. 

Next week, I plan to delve into some crafts that exemplify the celebration of Día de los muertos, the day of the dead celebration that happens at the beginning of November in Mexico. Phoenix has many ways we can teach the rich tradition of this holiday to our children. Here is a link to some of these celebrations around town: http://phoenix.about.com/od/events/a/dayofthedead.htm
We will actually be attending the one at the Mesa Arts Center on Saturday. Here is the link and info for that one:
http://www.mesaartscenter.com/index.php/events/free-events/diadelosmuertos
I am excited to see what it is all about! Have a wonderful weekend! 
Sra. Hamilton 

formas, reviso y days of the week

Hola padres! This was a great week in both Spanish and P.E. for the Kinders and first graders. For the Kinders, we started learning our formas, or shapes, a concept they will begin soon in math. We discussed how there are many shapes in art and how the names for shapes in Spanish reflect the English names for shapes. Starting today, I will see how well they remember their formas when I ask them to take out some crayons and create the shape I call out with the crayons on their desk. (No coloring involved!) We'll see how well they do. 

In order to reinforce the formas with the Kindergarten, in P.E. we played círculo tag, where they had to form a circle with their squad with one person standing outside as the tagger. The tagger then selected a person that is part of the circle to tag. It was up to the circle to move in a way so as to not have the selected person tagged by the tagger. This game will need some work, but hopefully, after some practice they will be very efficient in their strategy. 

For first grade this week, Spanish has been mostly review. Earlier this week we did some fun activities in our workbooks to help us review most of the vocabulary we have learned so far and in the latter part of the week, we are working on a bingo or lotería game that helped them review their colors and numbers. It is fun to see their excitement when they remember words from the first weeks of school. 

For both grades, in P.E., I have put them in squads and because first grade has learned the days of the week, each squad is named a different day of the week. I am hoping with some repetition and practice, they will be able to recognize their squad name and the days of the week in general. I know this took me a long time to understand, so I will make sure we practice many times until they are comfortable with it. 

Next week, we are looking to study emotions and feelings in Spanish for both grades. In P.E. with some help from Mrs. Harding, we hope to incorporate a dance from Hansel and Gretel. Stay tuned for more details! 

Sra. Hamilton 

adjectives, bean bags, Guatemala and follow my blog!

Hola padres! It was brought to my attention this week that it was not easy to sign up to get emails when a new post was made to my blog. My apologies. I had no idea I needed to add this feature. I have now done so and at the top of the right hand column, you can type in your email and hit submit and you should get an email update on Thursdays when I write a new post. Please let me know if you have any troubles with this. Thanks!

This week, we have been busy in Spanish working with adjectives. I made sure the scholars knew that adjectives were describing words and then we began to learn the vocabulary, learning gestures to go along with each word. See if your scholar can demonstrate "grande, pequeño; gordo/a, delgado/a, flaco/a; largo/a, corto/a. 

In P.E. for both Kinder and First grade, we have been working with bean bags. At the beginning of the week, they had to pretend to be crabs o cangrejos and use their crab walking skills to collect crab food or bean bags to bring back to their team. Once all the food was collected, they were to count their bean bags en español to determine who won. There was quite a bit of debate as to the best way in which to count the bean bags, but by the third go around and lots of discussion about team work and friendship, they had it figured out. Today we started another game which required them use a specific locomotor skill depending on which color bean bag they had. The bean bag colors we used were anaranjado, verde, amarillo y morado. On my signal, they were to drop the bean bag and put their hands on their knees. Then they had to find a different colored bean bag and use that locomotor skill to move around the space. They had lots of fun with this! It is my hope over fall break to come up with more commands to use in Spanish during P.E. class. I'll let you know how these work once we are back from break.

For Kinder Spanish, we have been working on seasons and I have begun to teach them a short poem that will hopefully help them to remember the names of the seasons. We discussed quite a bit about what colors we see when, particularly in autumn (el otoño) and summer (el verano). 

A new element I have begun to include in P.E. is a short saying that my mother taught me. I have had a few instances where scholars approach me and say they have a scratch, are bleeding (barely) or have hurt themselves somehow. Most of the time, they are just fine and are able to continue and I use this saying to let them know that I think they are going to be just fine and can continue to participate: Sana, sana, colita de rana, si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana. Loosely translated, it means that if you don't feel better today, it should be better tomorrow. They always smile when I do this and as with my own children, it assures me that they really are o.k. and can continue on. 

The Spanish speaking country we are studying this month is Guatemala. They, like Mexico,  also celebrate their independence in September. We discussed where Guatemala is on the map and what the word Guatemala means. We also discussed and colored a picture of the national bird, the quetzal. Ask your scholar what other meaning the quetzal has for Guatemala. I did this with Ms. Keating's and Mrs. Thompson's class yesterday and will rotate through the other classes throughout the rest of the month. 

That is all I have for this week. I hope you have a wonderful Fall Break and I will check in with you again on the 17th. 

Sra. Hamilton