Ropa Project

Well, the week project worked out better than I expected. The children were very engaged in designing the clothes, learning the names, and working in teams. I switched the teams everyday, so every child will work with both projects: the niño & niña. I also did not want to create a sense of competence/preference among teams. The idea was simply to learn vocabulary on ropa (clothing) in a fun and meaningful way, and what better way than designing the clothes by yourself?

You'll be able to see the project from beginning to end. Since some clothing like ropa interior (underwear) is not shown in the end product, I took pictures during the whole process, so you could observe the changes throughout the week. We had a lot of fun, and the children used their creativity to the max. I must say all the ideas on the clothing design, color, texture, and messages (like suddenly both the niño & niña became 49's fans) were 100% their own ideas, which surprised me to understand to what extend children are influenced by their culture and daily experiences.

Enjoy the pictures!

Our boy's name was chosen by democratic vote as "Pinocchio", but they had their own way of spelling it :)

Of course Pinocchio had a long, long, long nariz (nose).

After dressing up Pinocchio with some pantalones (pants), the kids  decided to have him take a shower. Notice the drawing of the upper shower, and the note on the right of how he forgot to remove his pants (Luca's idea.).

I took a closer picture of the details. Madi designed a fancy cinturon (belt), and Ken worked really hard on this festive right zapato (shoe). Luca added a maleta (suitcase), and Tyler made sure the zapatos were warm enough by adding some cotton to it.

Marlene's group  helped us on designing the labels for the ropa.

Sean & Tyler decided to make Pinocchio a 49's fan, so they drew the logo from his saco (sweater) to the front of Pinocchio's camisa (shirt)..

Then, the kids decided Pinocchio might like to go out running, and after a long discussion on what he should wear, they decided on adding a gorro (hat), bufanda (scarf), and bubble wrap guantes (gloves).

But, then the kids thought Pinocchio would feel too hot running with a bufanda, so they removed it.

Here are the pictures on the niña project, who was named Amanda after a vote.

 I hope you can see how much detail the children added on their clothing design.
 For instance, the ropa interior (underwear) had a picture of Sponge Bob Square pants:

Amanda wearing a falda (skirt) & medias (socks). Alee was very careful on choosing the girl's face from a magazine that would fit on the head's space.

 Here's one of the teams deciding on how to decorate the falda & cinturon.

Amanda was also ready to go outside into the cold weather with this lovely gorro verde (green hat) and a fashionable bufanda (scarf).

Also, notice how they drew a tattoo on the left arm saying: I love the 49's.The kids wanted to make sure both were fans of the same team.

& Aqui esta! The end result with the clothing labels:














Btw, I'm thinking to do a similar week project building  Nuestra Casa  (our house) when we go over our lesson on parts of the house on February, so don't miss it!