Our Christmas posadas

It has been great to have ten days with my parents-in-law, my brothers-in-law, sister-in-law and lots and lots of Spanish speaking. Being the only family with grandchildren on my husband's side has its advantages. Many of the festivities took place at our house. One of the highlights was that we put on our very own pastorela (nativity play). My youngest son was a donkey, my eldest an angel and my brother and sister-in-law (who are newlyweds) got to be Mary and Joseph. We did no preparations in advance other than making crowns for the three kings, donkey ears and throwing together a manger. It was fun though to read directly from scripture and just kind of improvise the acting with what was read aloud. We did it only for ourselves, there was no audience, but it felt good remembering the purpose of the season in such a hands-on way. My sister-in-law especially liked it when my youngest exclaimed "Tia!" for the first time at the end of our closing song. What can I say, it was a hallelujah moment!

There were pre-party setbacks, emotional family meetings and even late-night stitches this holiday (think forehead to sharp-cornered shoe stand!) but our family has been brought closer together and we're stronger for it. Strengthening these ties is, I hope, the foundation my children will need to keep hold of their Latin culture and Spanish-language heritage.

And my side of the family was a part of the action too. My siblings watched El Grinch (The Grinch in Spanish) with the rest of us and sang us villancicos they learned in their dual-language academy. Ever since my parents and younger siblings have buckled down and started learning Spanish, it has thrown a curve into my 2 year old's language separation. With talk of regalos and navidad coming from his tios who 6 months prior spoke no Spanish at all, he started chiming out in Spanglish "Quiero open it" with gusto during present unwrapping time.

Needless to say, we had a blast this Christmas.

Library Playgroup: Hispanic Heritage Month, Columbus Day and decorating banderas (flags)

Music/Movement Time:
Sapito/Little Toad
Un sapito (A little toad)
Que feliz vivía (Lived happily)
Debajo de un puente donde un charco había (Under a bridge where there was a puddle)
Dura dura dura dura pas pas pas (nonsense words)
Yaqui yaqui yaqui yaqui pas pas pas

Cabeza, Cara, Hombros, Pies/Head, Face, Shoulders, Feet
Cabeza, cara, hombros, pies (Head, Face, Shoulders, Feet)
Hombros, pies (Shoulders, feet)
Hombros, pies (shoulders, feet)
Cabeza, cara, hombros, pies (Head, Face, Shoulders, Feet)
Y una vuelta entera (And a full spin/turn)

Song vocabulary:
El sapito - the toad
Feliz - happy
La cabeza - head
La cara - face
Los hombros - shoulders
Los pies - feet
Una vuelta entera - a full spin/turn

Storytime:
De la A a la Z con Cristóbal Colón


Display/Story vocabulary:
La máscara - mask
El barco - boat
El país - the country (nation)
Las plumas - feathers
El maíz - corn
Frijoles/Judios - beans
El mar - the sea
La bandera - the flag

This was a super cute book about Columbus reaching the new world and what he found there. We had a good time reading about the people and structures and even gods of the Americas at that time.

Activity:
1. We decorated banderas. I had moms pick in advance the country their kids would like to represent and then we had full-color flags to glue feathers, beads, noodles, pipe cleaners and tissue paper to using the pre-Columbian setting from storytime as our inspiration!

Library Playgroup: Hispanic Heritage Month, drums and circle game

I had a really fun time finding ideas to celebrate Hispanic Heritage month!

Welcome song:
Cantemos todos juntos, Halo, Halo, Halo
Cantemos todos juntos, Halo, Halo, Halo

Cantemos a (name here), Halo, Halo, Halo
Cantemos a (name here), Halo, Halo, Halo

Cantemos a (name here), Halo, Halo, Halo
Cantemos a todos, Halo, Halo, Halo

Let's all sing together, Hello, Hello, Hello
Let's all sing to (name here), Hello, Hello, Hello
Let's sing to everyone, Hello, Hello, Hello

Getting to know you:
Jimbo the puppet introduced himself and asked kids, "Cómo te llamas?" and "Cuántos años tienes?" which means, "What's your name?" and "How old are you?"

Activities:
1. We did a traditional circle game from Spain called "La Tía Mónica". You can watch some little girls dance to a slightly different version on youtube.

Lyrics in both English and Spanish are found here, as well as a sound file you can play on your computer.

We actually played the José-Luis Orozco version at the playgroup though, it's from his cd "Diez Deditos". In English it's "My Aunt Monica" and it's a cute song about how a child's aunt moves different body parts when she dances.

Vocabulary:
los ojos - eyes
las sejas - eyebrows
las pestañas - eyelashes
la nariz - nose
la cabeza - head
los hombros - shoulders
los codos - elbows
"así se da la vuelta" - this is how she turns

2. We made caribbean congo-style drums with plastic circles cut from a blue kiddie pool and some sturdy plastic cups. We used rubber bands to attach the plastic and then decorated them with stickers and paper. I got this idea from Handy Manny's Hispanic Heritage Month Party page.



After that we drummed along to a song called "Debajo del Botón" on the same José-Luis Orozco cd. It has these great repetitions like, "Debajo del botón, ton, ton que encontró Martín, tin ,tin" and so on that are perfect for keeping rhythm with. I said "un, dos, tres" a few times to add extra emphasis as I drummed.

Transition to playtime song:
Ahora vamos a jugar, a jugar, a jugar
Ahora vamos a jugar, a jugar, a jugar

Excerpt from "Y Ahora Vamos a Cantar" also on the cd "Diez Deditos"

Cleaning song:
Limpia, limpia
Guarda todo en su lugar
Limpia, limpia
Todos deben cooperar

Taken from Barney, it's the "Cleanup" song, spanish version

Downtown Playgroup: Seasons, Weather, Tactile Adjectives

We've had three get togethers as of today and we've talked about the seasons fall and winter, weather, and learned some tactile adjectives.

Seasons/Weather:
Vocabulary:
las hojas - leaves
el otoño- fall
el invierno - winter
la lluvia - rain
el viento - wind
el sol - sun
la nieve - snow
la tormenta - storm

Activities:
1. We crumpled up squares of tissue paper in red and yellow to represent las hojas and in white to represent la nieve and we threw them around the room and blew them around just like el viento does.

2.We made a tormenta with a spray bottle of water as la lluvia, the metal sheet from the front of my dishwasher to shake for trueno (thunder) and a cardboard representation of a nube (cloud) to wave to make viento. We also turned the lights off and on to represent relámpago (lightning).

3. We took a big floppy teddy bear and dressed him with appropriate clothes for un día soleado (sunny day), de nieve (a snowy day) y de lluvia (and a rainy day). The clothing they chose from: sun hat, swim shorts, surf shirt, snow suit, scarf, rain jacket and an umbrella

Songs:
Cae la Lluvia Alrededor
Este Era un Mono
Palomitas de maíz


Tactile Adjectives:
Vocabulary:
frío - cold
liso - smooth
áspero - rough
suave - soft
duro - hard

Activities:
1. I brought a bin of dress up clothes and while the kids put on dress up items we talked about the different textures. There was a vest to dress up like a lion that was suave and a straw hat that was áspero. They also played with a helmet that was duro and also liso.

2. We set up a learning table where the kids touched ice cubes that were frío and rocks that were either liso or áspero. There was also sandpaper for the kids to touch.

3. We went around the room describing things we saw and, among other things, found a couch that was suave and a table that was liso and duro.

Songs:
I made this one up and sung it to a tune that was familiar to me. You could pick any tune that is familiar to you.

Suave, suave, como el gato
Duro, armadillo
Liso, liso, como uvas
Áspero, piña

Spanish immersion playgroup for kids

Through a series of divine circumstances, I came to teach a little playgroup/preschool made up of my kids and a few other children 5 years and under. It was crazy really how the idea grew from a group activity where parents would sing familiar songs with their kids, into language immersion, led by me. Parents still come with their children, but I'm the current teacher and I plan the lessons and select the songs, stories and activities for each week.

And it has been so good for my boys to have this once a week, one hour playgroup hearing so much spanish while interacting with other little kids. And I love it too. I look forward to the planning especially, it's definitely become a creative outlet for me!

We've only recently made it more educational. The past two times we've met there was more speaking with the children, repeating words and asking questions as opposed to singing the majority of the time.

I am trying to prepare only one big activity for the hour period and then the rest of our class is mostly routine. The first week we talked about vocabulary for a new song we wanted to learn and I made a big poster of the animals in the song and the habitats they live in. I asked them questions like "Which one is the monkey?" to begin with and then tried to see if, after repeating the new words, they could recall the name of the animal when I asked, "What animal is this?" It was very encouraging to see them all trying to make the connections between the pictures and the words we'd say out loud.

This past week I took an idea from a dvd called "Professor Parrot Speaks Spanish" and I drew out flashcards of the story Goldilocks. Then I told the entire story in spanish with lots of visuals and gestures.

I'm still trying to think up what I can do for this week that will be all in spanish, teach the kids without rushing them too much into unfamiliar territory, as well as be on a level for moms that have a limited vocabulary. Yikes! I need more resources for lesson plans!

A part of the Latin community

Whew! Two years and another baby later, I think I now know exactly what I want to share in this blog.

I have realized just exactly how far I'll go to teach my kids Spanish, and to be frank it may be a little too far when you decide you have to teach all of your child's friends the language too.

But that's exactly where I'm at right now. And today I had the epiphany that for me, them knowing the language is not enough. I need to figure out how to prepare them to be a part of the Latin community as well.

And how do I do that? Good question. Please tell! I am only today exploring the options.

Foreign Language books at the library

In the past, I have been really intimidated by searching through spanish children's books at the library. There are so many books! Plus, the books are all so irregularly shaped and the spines so small that no titles can be read. It reminds me of digging through the bargain bins at yard sales - a task that frustrates me on the best of days.

But today I learned a new trick! Maybe an obvious one, but I'll share it for anyone else who hasn't leapt to the obvious of searching library catalog systems.

I found this helpful hint at http://www.library.uiuc.edu/edx/forlang.htm:
If searching for a foreign language book on a specific subject, add the appropriate subject heading to the foreign language search string. For example, if looking for a Spanish language book on cats, use the following subject searches:

Cats – Spanish language materials
Cats – Spanish language materials – Juvenile fiction
Cats – Spanish language materials -- Fiction

Brilliant! I'll be checking out books on soccer, guitar playing and Mexico now that I know how to find them!