Miércoles 18 de Diciembre, 2013

                  

Queridas familias,

            This wednesday was mainly spent preparing for our holiday party. We rehearsed the Los Reyes Magos song, adding a sing-along portion for the audience to participate. Before our party, I passed out more treasures to the students. This time it was sea tumbled shell fossils embeded in stone from the Purissima Formation, which is roughly 3.5 million years old. 

            We did take some time to review the names of body parts, and took turns reading a library book titled Voy al Médico (I Go to the Doctor), which explored the process and vocabulary of a doctor visit, as well as the characteristics of a doctor's career.

Following, came a couple of song rehearsals and, before we knew it, the Chiquitos Group was arriving to join the party. Soon our chorus was lined up ready to begin their performance. I introduced the song by explaining the tradition of El Día de los Reyes (The Day of the Kings), which is when children typically receive gifts. It is celebrated during the first week of January in most Latin American countries. Grass and water are left by children, before going to bed, for the hungry camels, which travelled so far to transport the Three Kings and their gifts.

Again, here is a YouTube link to the song and animated story:

Sung by Los Fronterizos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGMEv0yyeFA

Under the watchful eye of a fellow classmate, the students decided to relax prior to the recital.

Next came the wonderful singing.

Followed by an encore...

And of course...

...the yummy feast!

Thanks to those parents who were able to attend the celebration. I know it meant a lot to the students and helped them perform to the best of their singing abilities. Everyone, including me, also really enjoyed the refreshments, - Thank you Valérie.

I took the liberty of getting a small gift for the children on behalf of the Kings, thinking I could get them to the parents, ahem I mean, Kings on time. Unfortunately, I did not realize we are not meeting for 2 weeks, instead of just one,  leaving the timing a bit off since we won't see eachother again until January 8th.

Thanks to my deep connections, I have managed to cook up a deal with the kind Kings. They will actually swing by the school on the 8th while the kids are in class! I did agree to be sure and leave plenty of grass and water for the camels to get them off to a good start on their return trip, so please send some grass along with your child, we can get the water in the classroom. Come a few minutes before the end of class if you want to see the surprised look in your child's eyes!

As we come near to the Winter Solstice and the return of the light on Saturday Dec. 21st at 9:11am I look forward to the coming year with hope and excitement.

¡Felices Fiestas A Todos!

Señor Lobo

Miércoles 4 de Diciembre, 2013

Estimadas familias,

          I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday surrounded by family and feasting.

          We began our lesson this week by concluding our reading of Huevos Verdes con Jamón (Green Eggs and Ham) by Dr. Seuss. Everyone had a great time as we pounded the table in unison and declared: ¡No, no me gustan nada los huevos verdes con jamón! ¡No me gustan nada Juan Ramon! ( No, I do not like green eggs and ham! I do not like them Sam-I-am!)

Once again we distributed sea glass treasures as prizes. This time, for the great efforts everyone demonstrated with our word building game during our prior meeting.

Next, we concentrated on learning the names of various parts of the body. Everyone drew and labeled a drawing of a person to keep in their binders. I then introduced Pablo to the class, who has the peculiar habit of getting up in such a hurry, he often forgets to put on a body part. Leaving him, shall we say, feeling a bit incomplete? We used cards, such as the ones that follow below, as the students were asked to say ¡Ay, ay, ay, pobre Pablo. Pablo no tiene ¿¿¿???! (Ay, ay, ay, poor Pablo. Pablo doesn’t have ??????!). The children found it rather amusing. They were asked to recognize the name of the next missing body part and add it to repeat the sentence.

El Cuerpo Humano de Pablo on the board.

A few of Pablo's various bodily states.

          We even included a pop quiz to test their memory at the end of class. Without looking at their drawings, and facing away from the labeled drawing on the board, I would say the name of a body part and they had to silently touch it on themselves. They did very well.

                       Pop quiz time...

Hasta el próximo Miércoles,

Señor Lobo