October 16, 2013

Hola, Padres, Que buen tiempo hace! What good weather it is today, el sabado! During the last class the children learned something about Monarch butterflies, Las Mariposas Monarcas, which are at Natural Bridges for a few months. You might want to take your child to see them, since they are actively flying on a warm, sunny day. The children made butterfly puppets with popsicle sticks and fluttered them around, singing the little song we are learning. I will send the lyrics home after the next class. Why not encourage your child to sing it to the tune of “Frere Jacques”? We talked about the colors of the monarchs and looked at books about them. As always, we reviewed Hola and Buenos Dias, Buenas Tardes songs, and are working on the Colores song, as well as the Me Llamo and Adios. We continue to use counting in Spanish at every opportunity. You can do this at home for just about anything! Uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve diez. With the help of felt pumpkins in different sizes, shapes, and colors, we learned which is the Calabaza (pumpkin) pequena, mediana y grande. Again, you can practice this at home with objects that are different sizes and colors. We are learning about our families and the vocabulary for next time. We are still deciding what to do for Halloween, which is now celebrated in some Spanish-speaking countries. We would like to make pan (bread) for the class on the 30th. We will need to get permission from the kitchen to bake it so each child may take some home. We will learn Halloween songs and read a book about el Dia de los Muertos. The song about five little pumpkins is very popular in English and Spanish. I will bring my ceramic jack-o-lantern for the next few classes. Is there any parent who might help us out by mixing the dough for the special bread? If not, I will, of course, prep it myself. It just uses regular bread dough, which we will decorate. We will learn some other fun Halloween songs and maybe plan another way to celebrate. I will let you know in advance. Have a nice fin de semana! Senora Lucy