Máscaras, orugas y el cuerpo

Happy last week of October! What an exciting time of year! I'm sure you saw the beautiful 

máscaras or masks your children brought home this week when we started learning about el Día de Los Muertos. They did an amazing job of coloring, making the masks bright and lively just as they are for the celebrations held throughout Spanish speaking communities. I was so pleased to see that they were not scared or frightened, but held on to the knowledge that el Día de Los Muertos is a day where loved ones who have passed on are celebrated and remembered. The good times and loved shared between families is what is emphasized and the kids really let me know that that is what is important on this day. Next week we plan on making marigolds which is the official flower of this celebratory day, chosen because of its bright and vibrant color. I plan to make this a two day project with one class going home with it on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. Please keep your eye out for it! 

Also this week, we continued our study of the body and its parts. This may be a long unit as there are so many parts to learn and I want to make sure the children have a firm grasp on most of the major parts. We played a really fun game with dice in order to for one of two teams in the class to be able to draw a complete picture of la oruga muy hambrienta or the very hungry caterpillar. I won't give anything more away as I'm sure your child would more than love to tell you about it if they haven't already. It was very exciting to be able to incorporate both counting and naming of body parts into one game. We will definitely be doing it again! 

 

I hope to make it to at least one Día de Los Muertos celebration either this weekend or next. If I get really brave, I will post pictures! I'd also like to find some pan de muerto (Mexican Bread of the Dead) or sugar skulls to show the kids, both of which are representative of this holiday. Wish me luck! 

Sra. Hamilton

Welcome back, parents! I hope you all had a wonderful fall break! What a great chance get away or just hang out and rest. We are glad to be back in the swing of things.

This will be a short post, but I wanted to let you know that we will be working on body parts and clothing in these next couple of weeks as well as looking into the Day of the Dead. Starting later this month, we will be delving into family member vocabulary. I hope to incorporate fun activities for the kids to help them learn all of these new words. Please be assured that these young scholars will all have the opportunity to review all of this vocabulary next year in first grade. I know its a lot but we are just familiarizing them with the vocabulary in order to build a strong foundation. Please ask you children about the faces we drew in class this week to help them learn the parts of the face. The drawings were really cute. Have a wonderful week!
Sra. Hamilton

Finishing up the quarter.....

It is so hard to believe that we are just a few days away from the end of the quarter! What an exciting journey this has been! I have decided that I would like to spend this last week tidying up our study of the months and seasons. I made weather cards with Ms. Sitzmann's class this afternoon and hope to do that with Mrs. Kelly's class tomorrow. My plan is to play some games with these cards in hopes of solidifying in the children's minds their concepts of weather and the seasons before we move on to parts of the body next quarter.

I know that some of you still have littler ones at home and I was hoping to encourage you to attend bilingual storytime at the Avondale Public Library, but I was very disappointed to learn that they no longer have it. Instead, I have come up with a short list of libraries in Phoenix that do have bilingual storytime, but unfortunately I wasn't able to come up with any on the West side of town. Even so, I thought I would share with you what I have found and if you ever find yourself with some extra time or just want to wander out on an adventure, you can check one of these bilingual storytimes out:
http://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/events.jsp
http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/events/Bilingual_Family_Storytime_-_Tiempo_de_Cuentos_Biling%C3%BAe_Para_Familias_613895348099
I would call before heading out just to double check times and locations. If you ever do attend, let me know what you thought! Have a wonderful fall break and I look forward to hearing your children's stories about their time away from school when we return.
Adios,
Sra. Hamilton