Rooms in the house - La casa. Part 2

More photos:

Rooms in the house - La casa. Part 1

This week we learned rooms in the house. Monday we learned: bathroom, living room, kitchen and bedroom. We use the family members and asked: Donde esta la mama? Some children were just pointing at the rooms, others were answering with the correct Spanish name: la sala.
Today I draw the rooms of the house, printed some furniture; the children pick, for example a bed and tape it in the correct room: the bedroom.

Here are some pictures:

Mi Cancionero in 3 volumes!!

I decided to break the Mi Cancionero book in 3 volumes, making it more affordable!
There are 15 songs in each volume. For more information visit my website.

New Song Book and CD!!

I am very excited!!
I just finished my new song book, it includes 50 songs (yeah 50!!) that I learned as a child. It comes with a CD. Some songs are very easy to learn, some are more complicated.
You can buy Mi Cancionero in my website.

Things to keep in mind before teaching a song to children

Before you teach a song to children keep in mind the following:

Know the song.
You should know the song yourself! Become familiar to the words and melody by listening to the recorded version of the song. practice the song over and over until you know it well.

Ask yourself:

• How can I capture the children attention? Perhaps with an object, a picture, an experience, or even a whisper.
• What questions can I ask that will encourage the children to listen to the song? ask questions that help the children understand the song. For example, Who?, What?, Where? Why?. State questions in such a way that children can discover the answer as you sing the song.
• How can I encourage the children to sing the song? Invite the children to sing the phrases that answer the questions.
• Vary the tempo and the volume to add meaning.
  

Christmas song drawings. Part 3

And the drawings for the last verse:

I hope you find this helpful, i had lots of fun making the drawings :).

The other songs I picked for this year's Christmas program are:

Fum, fum, fum and El abeto. both included in my Christmas song book, you can download it for FREE here!

Christmas song drawings. Part 2

Here are the drawings for the second verse:

Christmas song drawings. Part 1

The first song I am going to teach the children is Campana sobre campana. I won't teach them the whole song, just the following part:

Campana sobre campana

y sobre campana uno ( I will use uno instead of una)

asomate a la ventana

veras al nino en la cuna

Belen, campanas de Belen

que los angeles tocan

que nuevas me traeis?

(we'll probably repeat this part twice)

Campana sobre campana

y sobre campana dos

asomate a la ventana

porque esta naciendo Dios.

I made one drawing per line, below are the drawings for the first verse:

Christmas songs

Just updated my website, I have a Christmas songs booklet you can download for free here.
Also mp3 digital audio downloads for some of the songs included in the booklet. For the mp3 files click here.

Enjoy!

Christmas

Yep, Christmas...
That means I have to start practicing songs for the Christmas program. I need 3 songs; looked through my song book and picked Campana sobre campana, one of my favorites.
I decided to just teach the children a couple of verses. Here's what I did to teach them the song:

• I started by singing it to them, then I translated the whole thing to give them an idea of what the song is all about.
• Then I read them the first sentence on the verse and draw them a picture (it was easy, I draw a bell on top of a bell :)), I asked them to tell me what the picture was and they got it!
• After that we just sang that first sentence a few times, we will continue to do the next sentence (y sobre campana una) next week.

I also recorded a Cd for the lead teacher to play to the kids when I am not there.
I am working on the drawings for the whole song, I'll post them when they're ready.

I also put together a booklet with 14 Christmas songs, you can download it here.

Day of the dead. Part 3

Here are more pictures:


We added a picture of el abuelo since some of the children said their Grandfather had past away.

Finally I made a big skull for all the children to color, they all took turns picking the crayon they wanted, naming it in Spanish, here's the end result:



Feliz Dia de Muertos!!!

Day of the dead. Part 2

Today we did our day of the dead celebration. As I said in the previous post, I explained all the elements and the history behind the altars, then we made our own paper version. Here's what I did.

I printed the following pictures:

1. Traditional Mexican food: pollo con mole, papas con chorizo, tamales, etc.
2. Flowers
3. Drinks
4. Skeletons
5. Sugar skulls

I previously cut tissue paper (papel picado) to use as our base. then, I asked each child to pick one item to put in our ofrenda; I had enough for them to pick twice.

Here are some pictures:

Day of the dead. Part 1

Next week we are celebrating Day of the dead, I am having the children color their own skull, you can download it here. I will also explain them the meaning and the tradition of this day. In case you don't know it, this is a short explanation:

Day of the dead in Mexico represents a mixture of Christian devotion and Pre-Hispanic traditions and beliefs. As a result of this mixture, the celebration comes to life as an unique Mexican tradition including an altar and offerings dedicated to the deceased.

The altar includes four main elements: earth, wind, water and fire.

Earth is represented by crop, Mexicans believe that souls are fed by the aroma of food.
Wind is represented by a moving object, tissue paper is commonly used.
Water is placed in a container for the soul to quench its thirst after the long journey to the altar.
Fire is represented by a wax candle, each lit candle represents a soul and an extra one is placed for the forgotten soul.

Nowadays, people also use photographs of their love ones and prepare their favorite foods. My mom used to leave a Coke for my dad on his favorite glass.

Songs

At the AMS conference I was asked for songs. I am currently working on a Cancionero (Song book) with 50 songs. I am almost done with the book, just need to find a quiet time to record the songs :)
Just a reminder, I am not a singer but I try!
In the meantime here's a link for all of the great lyrics our beloved Cri Cri gave us. Enjoy!

By the way, Francisco Gabilondo Soler (Cri Cri)was a great composer; my dad used to sing to me all his songs and I played them to my kids when they were little. I must confess I still play them in my classroom just out because of the memories they bring back. If you've never listen to any of his songs, here's your chance!

AMS Conference - more pictures

AMS Conference

Here are some pictures of my exhibit at the AMS Conference:

Today is the last day of the AMS Conference in San Diego. It is been good, meeting a lot of teachers. Got great feedback on my products and some ideas on new materials; I will be busy the next few months creating more materials.

Thank you to all of you that stop by, special thanks to Susan, Dilek, Abigail and Sarai for all your comments.

My current project is a songbook - Cancionero, so far I have 30+ songs, I hope to have 50. It will have a CD to accompany the book. Now, I am not a singer but it will give you an idea on how the song goes.

Animals in the house

This week I am teaching Animals in the house. We did family a couple of weeks ago and have been reviewing vocabulary every day. We will do flashcards first, then a coloring exercise (colors review) and then, we will make animals out of shapes (yep, shapes review).
As you can tell by now, I always use every opportunity to review vocabulary :). I will take pictures and post them before I leave to San Diego.
Have a great week!

AMS Conference and New website

As I mentioned before I am going to be at the AMS Conference in San Diego next week. I've been very busy getting samples of my products ready to show there. My booth number is 74. Make sure to come say hi.
I've been also very busy updating my website, now I have 170 products; some for immediate download, some Cd's and some books and 3 part cards ready to use. I am currently working on more products so, check my website often.
I will take lots of pictures at the conference for all of you! San Diego, here I come!

New website

I am very excited!! I got a totally new website and 160 products!!!
You can download flashcards, 3 part cards, activities, games, etc or; I can print them and laminate them for you.
Here's the link, take a look and tell me what you think...:)

Classroom walls

I always start with clean, empty walls in my classroom and then, I like to fill them up. Also our closet door is a big mirror so, I like to cover it as soon as I can. My children love to stare at the mirror a lot! :)

Here is a sample of what we have up so far:

Colors (we add 2 colors at a time, with the kindergarten I ask them which colors are missing on the mirror: negro, gris & morado)

Family: we started family this week, we introduced la casa, we will continue with family next week.

Our feelings wall, I love it!:

Feelings cont.

Today we reviewed feelings. We selected 4: estoy feliz, estoy trite, estoy enojado y estoy sorprendido. Each child tape their pictures under the corresponding feeling and then; on the other side of the wall we taped a sign that reads: "Hoy estoy". each child had a chance to say how they felt and put their corresponding picture under the sign. We will do this every class.

Family, Feelings, Numbers

This week we'll be reviewing feelings, numbers 0-10 and introducing family: el papa, la mama, la hermana, el hermano, el bebe, la abuela, el abuelo.



I usually put all the materials in the middle of the oval, to let the children know what are we going to do that class.




First, we reviewed feelings learned last week. We draw the feelings in a blackboard; each child had a chance to draw eyes, nose and mouth. Here are some examples:




Then, I introduced family with the flashcards and reviewed numbers from 0-10.

Feelings

This week we introduced feelings. I used flashcards and then, "make a face" activity. On Wednesday we make headbands with a face. Here are some pictures. Happy Bicentennial Mexico!!!

Shapes practice

For practice on shapes we did the Shapes clown activity. Attached is the video of the children following directions to make the clown out of shapes. The children on the video have been taking my classes for a year now, twice a week, so they know shapes, colors and body parts.
With the new children I will say the body parts in English.

3 part cards

As I mentioned before, I've been preparing materials for the October AMS Conference, here are some pictures of the "making of the 3 part-cards".