Korematsu: Beginning Spanish

Hola padres!
Hello parents! 

These past couple of weeks have been a wonderful and exciting journey! Teaching and learning with your kids es muy divertido/is very fun. Each week is based on a theme. The first week was commands and introductions where we learned:
Yo me llamo/My name is _______.
Tengo ____ años./I am ____ years old.
Soy de Davis/I am from Davis.
Soy un niño o una niña/ I am a boy/girl.

Also, some basic commands like:
Sientate/Sit down
Levanta la mano/Raise your hand
Hagan un círculo/Form a circle
Por favor/Please
Gracias/Thank you
Adios/Goodbye

I've also picked one student at the beginning of each class to read the date and as a class we vote on the weather. We haven't learned the days of the week in a lesson but I think it helps them start recognizing the names. For the weather there are three options: soleado/sunny, nublado/cloudy and lluvioso/rainy.
You can practice with them by asking Cómo esta el clima de hoy?

This past week week we have learned the Spanish Alphabet including the extra letters that alphabet has like: CH,ñ,ll, rr. They liked pronouncing the ñ as in niño but some were not too thrilled at not being able to roll their r's for the rr! We'll continue to practice :)

This upcoming week our theme will be shapes and colors. I have some fun activities planned out for them! And I said, feel free to practice some of the material we have learned in the class with your children.

Hasta mañana!
Joanna García

Birch Lane, Beginner Spanish

Bienvenidos Padres!

Welcome parents!

These past few weeks have been a fun learning experience with the kids. The first week we were all gathered in one large group, together we learned commands. Some of the commands we learned were:

Agarrense las manos (hold hands)

Levantensen (stand up)

Sientensen (sit down)

Hagan un circulo (make a circle)

We also introduced phrases and greetings, such as

Hola, mi nombre es... (Hello, my name is…)

Buenos dias (good morning)

Adios amigo (goodbye friend)

After the first week we divided the class in two groups. The older kids that were advanced in their reading and writing went with Carmen. The smaller kids that are learning how to read and write and also the ones that have no yet learned stayed with me.

This past week I introduced the Spanish alphabet. The kids learned new letters such as ll, ch, rr and ñ. They also learned how to say the letters in Spanish and they were able to distinguish the sounds between the English alphabet and the Spanish alphabet. They also learned words in Spanish that had the new letters that were introduced. Some of the words were:

Lluvia (rain)

Lleno (full)

Charco (puddle)

Chocolate

Carretera (road)

Pizarron (board)

Niña, niño (girl, boy)

Piñata

Please if you have time don’t hesitate to practice or quiz your kids at home, it will help the kids keep the material we learned in class fresh in their minds. Also the more we practice the more we learn.

Next week we will be learning about shapes and colors.  Thank you for your time and have a great weekend!

Bienvenidos a Intermediate Spanish!

Welcome Back Parents!

We're so thrilled to be able to teach Spanish to your kids. We'll have a fun & rewarding year!


So far, these past weeks, we have reviewed  el alfabeto (the alphabet), numeros 1-15 (numbers), and introductions.

At home, you can practice introducing yourself with your child.

Hola, Mucho gusto! (Hello, Nice to meet you!)
Me llamo... (My name is...)
Tengo ... años. (I have # years- not that you introduce your name and age to strangers, but it's useful to know how to say how old you are in Spanish)

You can also quiz your children on which are the new Spanish letters that are not in the English alphabet: ñ , ch, ll & rr.

Next week, we'll be working on shapes & colors. Beside our lesson, I found this practical website where children can practice vocabulary on shapes with online games. The more your kids practice Spanish, the more they'll remember. Practice at home will help them to associate the names and remember them. Here's the link: http://www.spanishplayground.net/shapes-spanish-online-games-kids/

Finally, as you've noticed, this year we have a new activity: Viernes de Pachanga! (Party on Friday). We, the teachers, discussed beside language we wanted to introduce the kids to the Latino culture. & What  best way to do it than through our  music? Every Friday, we'll introduce new rhythms from different countries. It's also a great way to start the last day of the week with lots of energy ready for the school day. So far, we've danced: merengue (From: Santo Domingo), la macarena (From: Spain), and Mexican cumbia. Along the dancing time we introduce at lest three new Spanish words such as directions, parts of the body, verbs, and numbers.


Here are the youtube video links for those songs in case you want to ask your children to teach you the dance & have a great time at home dancing together (Viernes de Pachanga can continue at home, why not?)

Merengue: El Gato Garabato: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBDRz_UuJRU

La Macarena: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheDG30cYT8

Mexican Cumbia (Selena) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uW4QRkQe110

Todos a bailar!!!

DAC French

Bonjour!

It has been nice seeing some new and familiar faces in class this year and I am excited to see what this new TALK year has in store.

About every two weeks, I will write  a post to keep you up to date with what we are learning in class! If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions related to class and the curriculum, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail at kmdonahue [at] ucdavis (dot) edu or to talk to me before class.

So far we reviewed basic commands, reviewed how to introduce ourselves, reviewed colors, and shapes, and numbers which have been a breeze for the kids seeing as we have many returning students, as well as very enthusiastic and more advanced new students! If these first two weeks are any predictor of how the rest of the year will unfold, I think we will make some great progress by the time May rolls around.

Have a lovely weekend, and see you on Monday!

Bon weekend, et à lundi!

Pioneer Elementary Beginner Spanish Week 2

Saludos,

Somos la Maestra Auri y Maestra Daisy and we want to welcome all parents to the t.a.l.k beginner spanish program at Pioneer elementary school. Even though, we had a slow start at the beginning of week one in terms of getting to know the kids, we were able to brake the ice quickly after a few cool activities with the cool cubes and the beach ball. In these activities, we had them play with the cube which contain phrases such as: "podría ir al baño"(may I go to the bathroom), "vamos a formar un ciculo" (lets make a circle), "no entiendo" (I don't understand) on each side of the cube. We used the beach ball for them to pick who was going to be it next by passing the ball to their peer. The kids were very engaging and taking every opportunity they had to play with the ball. It was such a cute scene! As a thank you to them for being awesome kids, we had "Jueves de Juego" which gives them the opportunity to play a game of their choice. Today they choose "hide and seek" and we had a blast!

For the next two weeks, we will be learning the Spanish alphabet, shapes, and colors. We have a lot of fun activities with post-its and flashcards in store for the kids.

P.S. Thank you to those parents to provided feedback based on week one. It is greatly appreciated.

Adios, no... Hasta pronto!

Hola T.A.L.K. parents!

I just wanted to thank you for participating in our program. Thank you for waking up so early every morning, and making sure the kids would be ready for their Spanish lessons. Thank you for your support throughout these months, and for participating in every activity. Thank you for those little details to show me your appreciation: the thank you cards, the cookies, the flowers, the delicious home-made fruit jams, and all the special details you sent me with your kids.
We hope your kids enjoyed learning a different language as well as we enjoyed teaching it! We look forward  seeing you again after the summer break, and to end, here are some last pictures to enjoy those great T.A.L.K moments:

Happy summer everybody! Felices vacaciones de verano!

Fruit names in Spanish

Aguacate, avocado. For some of them it was a surprise to know avocado is a fruit.

making animales in Spanish with clay - tortuga

making animales in Spanish with clay - ave

making animales in Spanish with clay - tortuga

making animales in Spanish with clay - serpiente

playing restaurant in Spanish 

ordering food in Spanish 

building la casa

casa terminada!

building la ciudad

learning vocabulary (ocupacion-lugar)

ciudad terminada

team work

It was a fun group to work with. Gracias!!!

canciones gratis

While looking for fresh songs to greet the children in the mornings, I found this great website from a Colombian project, Canto Alegre (Happy Song), with free songs in Spanish sang by children.

At first, I didn't recognized the project, but when I listened to the songs, I realized I grew up listening to those songs. It's a great project from a non-profit organization, so that's why the songs are free to download because they believe music should be free to be shared with everyone. If you're interested, please check out their great web site:
                                   http://musicalibre.com.co/

The page is in Spanish, so if you go to the tab "Descargas," you'll find the option to listen to or download each song, and the lyrics for each the song will be on the right side of the page once you had clicked on one song.

And, here's the link to their main page: http://www.cantoalegre.org/