Español con los Cardenales: Las formas

¡Bienvenidos familia, amigas, y amigos! This week it was Katy’s turn to choose our destination to a Spanish speaking country. After singing our morning greeting song, ¡Buenos día amigos!, Katy suggested we head to Cuba!  Upon our arrival to this Spanish speaking country, we gathered in a círculo and began our Spanish language experience.

To connect with our recent study on shapes, “Ms. Hola” introduced the Cardinals to the Spanish vocabulary words for basic geometrical shapes. We first read Ellen Senisi’s simple book, Las Formas donde jugamos. In this book, two children find all the basic shapes in the equipment on their playground. For every shape we read, we used our “magic pencil” and drew the shape in the air. As we drew each shape, we counted its sides in Spanish.

Afterwards, we practiced the words by using a wooden puzzle with “chunky” pieces and matched the vocabulary word to the shape that was being held up. To further reinforce our learning and boost our visual memory skill, we played the “¿Que falta?” (What’s missing) game. Three of the puzzle pieces where displayed then covered. Then, one of the pieces would be removed and the Cardinals had to guess which piece it was that was removed. Once they figured it out, they had to identify which piece it was by using its Spanish word. What a fantastic time we had ! Go ahead and challenge your Cardinal by asking him/her to name the basic geometrical shape s/he finds in their playground.

Vocabulary introduced:

circle - círculo

oval - óvalo

triangle - triángulo

rectangle - rectángulo

square - cuadrado

rhombus (or diamond) - rombo (o diamante)

star - estrella

heart – corazón

magic pencil – lápiz magico

side – lado

What’s missing? - ¿Qué falta?

We finished our class with our traditional song, Adios, hasta luego, and Katy squeezing la vaca. ¡Gracias, Katy!

¡Hasta nuestro proximo viaje! (Until our next voyage!)

Paz,

Alicia

Español con los Cardenales: Mas transportes

¡Bienvenidos familia, amigas y amigos de los Cardenales! During la clase de Español, it was Kate’s turn to choose our destination to a Spanish speaking country. After singing our morning greeting song, ¡Buenos día amigos!, Kate suggested we head to Argentina.  Upon our arrival to this country where Spanish is an official language, we gathered in a círculo and began our Spanish language experience.

To reinforce our learning on Spanish words for different types of vehicles, we played the “Swatter Game.” This is a game that is truly enjoyed by all. First, using life-like pictures of four different styles of transportation, we reviewed the Spanish word for car, airplane, bus and truck. Afterwards, we placed these pictures down on the ground. Two friends are given a swatter and the Spanish vocabulary for one of these four vehicles was called out, carro, avión, autobus, ó camión.

The swatters job, you ask? Well, to swat the correct card of course! Two friends played at a time then we were asked to pasalo (pass it) to the next friend closest to us. What fun! As the game was played, the temptation to point out the card that was being called grew. To avoid getting our fingers swatted, friends without the swatter were encouraged to place their dancing fingers on their knees. After all los Cardenales took a turn, it was then their turn to do the calling while the teachers swatted the correct card. What an amazing job los Cardenales did as they spoke with confidence!

Vocabulary introduced:

pasalo – pass it

dedos – fingers

rodilla – knee

baila - dance

¡Hasta nuestro proximo viaje! (Until our next voyage!)

Paz,

Alicia

Español con los Cardenales: Los transportes II

¡Bienvenidos! During la clase de Español, it was Jayden’s turn to choose our destination to a Spanish speaking country. After singing our morning greeting song, ¡Buenos día amigos!, Jayden suggested we head to Mexico.  Upon our arrival to this country where Spanish is an official language, we gathered in a círculo and began our Spanish language experience.

To reinforce our learning of the Spanish vocabulary for some forms of transportation, we read Nuestro Autobús (The Bus for Us) by Suzanne Bloom. Through simple text and animated illustrations, the story introduced us to a variety of vehicles as Tess, a character in the story, waited at the bus stop for the school bus, el autobús.

Vocabulary introduced:

¿Es éste nuestro autobus, Gus? – Is this the bus for us, Gus

grúa – tow truck

camión de bomberos – fire truck

camión de helados – ice cream truck

camión de basura – garbage truck

excavadora – backhoe

autobús - bus

To further reinforce our learning and boost our visual memory skill we played a game using transportation counter pieces. Three forms of transportation were used; un tren, un carro, y un avión. Then, while covered with a cloth one of the pieces would be removed and los Cardenales had to guess which piece was missing. Once they figured it out, they had to identify which piece it was by using its Spanish word. What a wonderful time we had playing this game! Los Cardenales were so amazing that it wasn’t long before I needed to add more pieces into the game to make it more challenging. Go ahead. Try it at home! Ask them the Spanish word for some modes of transportation, you too will be impressed!

 

Vocabulary introduced:

¡Cierra los ojos! – Close your eyes!

¿Cuál falta? – Which is missing?

¿Qué es esto? – What is this?

Inténtelo de nuevo – Try again

¡Muy bien! – Very good!

We finished our class with our traditional song, Adios, hasta luego, and Jayden squeezing la vaca. ¡Gracias, Jayden!

  

¡Hasta nuestro proximo viaje! (Until our next voyage!)

Paz,

Alicia

Español con los Cardenales: Los transportes

¡Bienvenidos familia, amigas, y amigos! During la clase de Español, it was Evan’s turn to choose our destination to a Spanish speaking country. After singing our morning greeting song, ¡Buenos día amigos!, Evan suggested we head to República Dominicana.  Upon our arrival to this Spanish speaking country, we gathered in a círculo and began our Spanish language experience.

Given that our clases begin by determining what mode of transportation we need to take to get to our destination, we thought it would be great to learn the Spanish vocabulary words for some forms of moving.

We first read Barron’s book, Transportation/El transporte. This book gave us the opportunity to connect the words for different kinds of transportation to its corresponding picture.

Vocabulary introduced

carro - car

bote - boat

autobús - bus

camión - truck

bicicleta - bicycle

excavadora – digger

tren – train

motocicleta – motorcycle

avión – airplane

   

After the read aloud, we sang a song that included some of the modes of transportation mentioned in the book. To the tune of “Itsy Bitsy Spider”, we sang the following but first, we hummed the tune to give us the note.

A carro is a car,

And a barco is a boat.

Avión is plane, and tren is train.

Bicicleta is bicycle, and camión is truck.

Helicóptero is helicopter,

Autobús is bus.

And, to further connect with our auditory and visual learners, photographs to match the mode of transportation mentioned were used.

We finished our class with our traditional song, Adios, hasta luego, and Evan squeezing la vaca. ¡Gracias, Evan!

¡Hasta nuestro proximo viaje! (Until our next voyage!)

Paz,

Alicia