New free game!

OK, I've been a little busy this week, just made a new game, it is called Ahorcado and is the paper version of the hangman word game. To download just click here.

Free printouts pictures

Here are the pictures of the new printouts I made. Check my previous post for links to download for free from my website.

• Describing friends:

• Memory food game:

• Goldilocks and the 3 bears activity: for older kids have them write it down, for younger kids read it out load and have them call out the missing words.
  

• Draw the shape:

• Write the number 0-9:

New free printouts links!!!

As promised, here are the links to my new printouts!!
Photos coming soon!

1. Describing friends
2. Draw a shape
3. Write the number 0-9
4. Goldilocks and the 3 bears
5. Memory food game

Enjoy!

Sick days :(

I've been home for the past two days taking care of my little girl. The poor thing has a nasty flu. Sooo, I've been working on some materials, so far I've done 5, I will be posting the link soon for you to download them for free!.
Below are the themes I've been working on:

• Sizes: small, medium, big
• Shapes and up-down
• Numbers 0-9 and right-left
• Face parts and colors
• Food

Make your own dominos/dominoes

Here is how I make my dominoes:

1. Find a rectangular paper in the size you want your dominoes to be. I found a couple of notepads I got at the Montessori conference last year for free :); they are approx. 7"x5". I used the back side since the front had the company's logo and I didn't want that on the front of my dominoes. You'll need 54 sheets.
   
2. Use a sharpie to draw the dots. Start with one dot on one side and nothing on the other. Go all the way to nine: one-zero; one-one; one-two, one-three; one-four; one-five; one-six; one-seven; one-eight; one-nine. Do the same with every number. Do not repeat two-one since you already have one-two. This way you'll have less number combinations towards the end.
   
3. Here are the finished dominoes:
   
   

Numbers practice: dominos/dominoes

This week I will finish with numbers as the main theme. We will still practice them every class.
An hour ago I decided to play dominoes with the children. I have the normal size dominoes but I wanted something bigger. I looked on line but the ones I found were not that big :). So, I decided to make my own. I will post a tutorial in the next post.
I am also concentrating this week on showing them the Spanish words for each number, so I made some labels on 3"x5" index cards. I am planning on have the kids label the dominoes after they count the dots. I will post pictures after the class. In the meantime this are the labels I made.

More numbers cont. 1

The last activity was make the number. I will call a number and then the children would have to "make it". See videos below:

More numbers cont.

We also played a little bit more with the flashcards. We played: "Call the number". The children will make a number and then call it out loud. See the videos below:

More numbers - Count the stickers activity

Today we continued practicing numbers. I "borrowed" some extra stickers from my kids and used them in one of my activities.
I got 10 white sheets of paper, then on each one I put stickers. One sticker in one sheet, two stickers on the next one, three on the next and so on until the last sheet where I put 10 stickers.
Then I used my numbers flashcards and called the numbers for the kids to found. After they found the number they have to find the sheet that have the same number of stickers; after they found it they would have to count the stickers out loud to verify that it was the correct one.

Numbers cont.

Here are the pictures for the bingo cards, I used 36in x 24in paper. I got it from my father in law, a great way to recycle his old plans :).

Numbers

For numbers I used the Numbers Flashcards to review the numbers they already knew. Then used the Three Part Lesson for the numbers they didn't know. Then we played Bingo.

To make the bingo:

1. I save everything ;) I had a few bottle caps. I wrote the numbers on the caps from 1-50, then put them in a jar (spaghetti sauce jars are great!).
2. I made a big Bingo card with the numbers in order from 1-50. My father in law is an engineer, so I use some of his old plans paper; not only I am recycling but they're great size!
3. Then I put the bottle caps inside an empty Kleenex box :) and voila! you have a great homemade bingo.

To play:

1. Without looking grab one bottle cap from the Kleenex box.
2. Show it to the kids and whoever knows which number it is should raise his/her hand and after you called their name if they say the right number in Spanish they'll get to put the cap on top of the number on the bingo card.
3. If they don't know the number, tell them then, put the cap back in the Kleenex box.
4. When all the numbers have been found the whole group gets to call Bingo!

Did I mention that the kids loved it? Well, they did! They asked if we can play again next week. Here are some pictures:

Winter

For winter I made a big sign and post it on my closet mirror. We read it every day and sing our seasons song. We also introduced winter clothes such as: los guantes, la gorra, las botas, la bufanda y la chamarra, again, since it's been cold most of the kids are wearing the clothes that represent the season so, I don't even need flashcards :).

Date

For the date I normally use a calendar and have them put the cards there. This year I made a big sign with the date. We update the day and read the whole date together:

"Hoy es lunes 10 de enero del 2010" We are also working on weather, so I will ask them how is the weather outside and then I will tell them how to say it in Spanish. The past two weeks it's been cold so we've been practicing: "Hace frio". Here are some pictures:

January 2011

This month I will be concentrating on numbers, days of the week, date and winter.

• For numbers we'll be working on identifying the numeral and the word. I keep noticing that the kids count in order every time I show them a number, my goal is for them to be able to look at the number and know the Spanish word without counting in order.
• Days of the week: I am teaching the days of the week song while finding activities they do every day so that they can relate it to the day and remember it that way.
• Date: we've been doing the date every day since the beginning of the school year, we are taking advantage that it's a new year to reintroduce seasons and months and, of course the New Year 2011.
• Winter: we are learning the months that belong to it: December, January & February; also the clothes we wear: jacket, mittens, boots, etc.

Look for the post on each theme for more detailed examples on what we are doing in the classroom.

Happy 2011!

I haven't been able to post for a while, sorry! I've been busy trying to get everybody in the family back to their regular schedule ...
I have lots of new ideas I can't wait to share with you! Also one of my New Year's resolutions (I know, I should know better:)) is to blog at least once a week so, check often!.