Las Posadas, the Poinsettia and me gusta!

Hola, padres! We have wrapped up another fun week in Kinder Spanish today! We started the week out discussing food we liked by learning that "me gusta" means you like something, while "no me gusta" means you don't like something. The kids enjoyed picking our cards with pictures of food on them and putting them on the white board expressing weather they liked that food or not. 

The rest of the week we concentrated on Christmas traditions in Spanish speaking countries. I read two books to them this week which helped me explain the legend of the Poinsettia and why it is now considered a Christmas flower and another book that explained Las Posadas or the tradition of a town getting together to reenact Mary and Joseph looking for shelter before the baby Jesus was born. Both books were written by Tomie DePaola and have vivid pictures and captivating stories. The kids did a great job sitting through the stories even the one written in Spanish that I translated for them. We had fun picking out words that we had studied and learned these last few weeks. 

I will only see each class one more time next week before the end of the semester. Please know how much I have enjoyed spending each afternoon with them. Their excitement, energy and smiles have really brought me so much joy each day. Thank you for allowing me to share this time with them. 

Conferences will be held the week of January 7th. I realize there is no schedule for Kinder Spanish conferences. If for some reason you would like to meet with me, please email me at ahamilton@archwaytrivium.org and I can set one up with you as I will be around school that week. Have a wonderful holiday break and I look forward to resuming class with the Kinders in January!

Sincerely,
Sra. Hamilton 

¿Dónde está....?

Hola padres! What an exciting week in Kinder Spanish as we wrapped up  our study on family members and began a new phrase that brought us the joy of reading one of the popular "Spot" books. It is these popular English books translated into Spanish that are my favorites. Using the "Where is Spot?" book we learned what to ask when we are looking for something. " ¿Dónde está..." means "where is....?" It was especially fun and exciting to share with the children about the upside down question mark that begins all interrogative Spanish sentences and also the accent marks that emphasize certain parts of Spanish words. Despite the fact that these elements don't exist in the English language, I could see the fascination and wonderment on their faces as they encountered these new concepts and did their very best to replicate them on their Spot art project. I am so excited to see their great efforts in class to replicate these elements to the best of their ability and hope that these introductions provide the steps necessary for them to truly understand when these elements need to be used in writing in Spanish. Ask them what an accent mark means and why it is important. I would like to see if they remember why. Thank you again for your support and encouragement. I am having great fun with the Kinder classes!

Adios, 
Sra. Hamilton