Numeros, Colores y Formas

Happy Friday, Kinder parents! This week was a combination of learning topics for your children. I continued doing some reinforcement of Spanish colors as well as introducing numbers 1-10. Most of the children can count to 10 in Spanish, but it's recognizing each number individually that they aren't familiar with yet. I will introduce games in the next few weeks to help them begin to do this and I have no doubt they will catch on. Yesterday in Mrs. Kelly's class we started talking about formas or shapes and I will talk to Ms. Sitzmann's class about that today as well. Thankfully, many of these words are cognates or words that have the same origin and in turn very similar pronounciation in English as they do in Spanish, so this should be fun for them to learn. 

This is a fun and easy activity you can do with your children that I think will enrich their learning of Spanish. First up is a local bilingual radio station, 95.1 Latino Vibe http://www.951latinovibefm.com/index.aspx. I was so excited to find this station about a year ago that is truly bilingual. I realize that some of the content of isn't appropriate for five and six year olds, but what this station does is give your children an opportunity to hear the language spoken "in real time". Much of the content is translated to English, so that you can follow along with what is being said. Also, the music played is modern and upbeat making it fun for kids. I like to have it on occasionally while we are in the car and its fun just to hear something different. 

It has been great fun sharing my love of the Spanish language with your children. They are so exciting and fun to be around. Enjoy the 3 day weekend! 

de colores

Happy Friday, Trivium Kinder families! It was a week full of color in our Spanish classes and I am hoping that our repetition of colors provided some retention in the minds of our young scholars. I read the children several books about colors, we decorated a bear with colors, we completed worksheets that concentrated on a specific color and we created a coloring book that I asked them to read to you tonight that would hopefully show you their knowledge of colors in Spanish. Again, their enthusiasm for the language has floored me and I rewarded some with a special Spanish sticker if I felt they had put in extra effort in showing me their amount of knowledge. In doing this, I hope to emphasize some of Trivium's virtues namely citizenship as I encourage the children to clap for their classmates who have received the sticker. We hope that encouragement from each other will spur them all on to wisdom and perseverance in their learning.
As for a concrete way to integrate Spanish into your lives my suggestion this week takes you no further than your computer. http://www.youtube.com/pocoyo is a channel on YouTube that plays cute, short videos in Spanish. Although I am not very familiar with Pocoyo, I know that I did play several of these videos for my children one Saturday morning and they loved them! They are completely in Spanish which I think is essential. More than anything at this stage in their learning of a new language, it is important for them to hear the language spoken and these videos will hold their attention though they may not understand what is being said. Let me know what your children think! I would love to hear their reactions. Until next week,
Sra. Hamilton

Raspados, Greetings and Colores!

Well, we have made it through our first week or so of school! Spanish is off to a great start and I am loving the adorable energy of your children. We worked on greetings these past few days namely hola, buenos días, buenas tardes and buenas noches. The kids learned to ask each other their names by asking ¿Cómo te llamas? and responding with me llamo….The best part of our lessons so far was when we talked about when someone asks us how we are (¿Cómo estás?). I gave them three options to choose from when answering: Muy bien gracias, if they were doing well; así así if they were doing o.k. (ask them to show you the hand motion for this one ~ they loved it!) and muy mal (very bad) if they were having a rough day. Well, by the time we got to this lesson, it was later in the week and I think we were all a little worn out, so most of the kids chose muy mal along with the corresponding tired face card I had brought along to help them recognize the feeling. I reminded them all that thankfully it was Friday and that they would have a couple of days rest and that hopefully by Monday they would all be muy bien, gracias! 

As for my my weekly suggestion of how to incorporate Spanish into your life I wanted to share a place that I visited this week that helped me cool down as well as connect with the Spanish speaking community. A friend of mine was in town and staying in Mesa. We decided to get our families together for some ice cream and I chose a place called Oasis Raspados that I had heard rave reviews about. If you have never had a raspado, (rah-spah-doe) are you in for a treat! Not only is it delicious, but also very refreshing. It is much like a snow cone, but instead of just crushed ice, the ice surrounds a scoop of creamy ice cream. On top you can select your choice of fresh fruit (much like at these new self serve yogurt places) as well as syrup much like sweetened condensed milk called La Lechera. You wouldn't think that something so simple could be so delicious, but I dare you to try it. Oasis Raspados has three location to choose from. We visited the 1617 N.32nd Street location in Phoenix (the sign actually said Snowflake Raspados and was in a strip mall). There are also locations at 606 E. Main Street in Mesa, 6629 S. Central Ave. in Phoenix and 6702 W. Camelback Road in Glendale, but I would call before going just to make sure (408) 834-0302. Give it a try; with this hot weather, something yummy like this is definitely worth the drive.

As for this next week, we will be starting to learn our colors and I have some activities that will help them make the connection between what I am teaching them and the words in Spanish. Be sure to ask them what they are learning and what they are working on in class. I really enjoy seeing them on the playground at recess and try to converse with them in the Spanish that we have learned. They are doing an amazing job. Until next week, Adiós!

Bienvenidos

Hola, my name is Andrea Hamilton and this is my second year here at Trivium. I was a fourth grade assistant last year and will be assisting in third grade this year as well as teaching Kindergarten Spanish. I have three children that are attending Trivium this year and that I have raised bilingually since birth. I am very excited to start this new school year and to be adding Spanish to my schedule. Please check back to this blog every week to learn what we are covering in Spanish and to learn ways to help your student supplement their Spanish learning at home and as well as in various places and activities around the Valley of the Sun! We are blessed to live in an area that is rich with the Hispanic culture and language. It is my hope to find various ways to make the Spanish language real and relevant to your children as well as to my own. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and I look forward to working with your children this year.