Literacy support

Yesterday, during an activity with one of my Kindergarten classes, a student who had been asked to identify what animal I was holding up (a picture of a cat), thought for a moment then looked up at one of my bulletin boards where I had posted pictures of family vocabulary along with large labels for each word and said 'un gato'.
I am a strong advocate for presenting all vocabulary in written form along with the oral language. Even the youngest students will begin to build a visual memory of those words, and connections are built in the brain between the written and spoken language. This student already has literacy skills- she is already reading at an early emergent level. Regardless of whether a student has a set of literacy skills or not, however, the written word is an important piece of scaffolding and providing support for our students. In addition, students are encouraged to transfer the skills they have learned with the gen ed teacher to the Spanish classroom- another connection.

So cute!

On Friday, one of my kindergartners asked me, "Are you from Spanish World?".

For Jen

Hi Jen,
I answered your question in the comments section of the last post (geo/flags)- just wanted to let you know. :)
Julie

Fun with Geography and Flags

January is geography month- at least, for my first graders it is! We start by learning the names of the Spanish-speaking countries in South America and where they are on the map. I made a large map out of bulletin board paper, laminated it, and stuck velcro on it so I can do TPR activities with the map. For example, I printed out the flags for each country, put the other half of the velcro on the back, and have the kids put them on the correct countries.

First, I call a kiddo up and give him/her a flag and tell him to put it on ________. This continues until all of the flags have been attached to the map. This simple activity works on recognizing where the different countries are and helps the kids learn the names of the countries. Once the kids have a working knowledge of where the various countries are, we then work on recognizing which flag belongs with which country. This is a great opportunity to practice colors while you are working on geography. Instead of handing a flag to a kiddo, I would now say "Find Venezuela's flag and put it on the map." We then move to individual maps which the kiddos will eventually take home.
Flags are just one possibility- during my frog unit, we place various frog pictures I found on the internet on the countries where they live. You could do famous places (Machu Picchu, Angel Falls, etc), capitals, pictures of people in traditional dress, currency...the possibilities are limitless.

Villancicos

I am in love with Kumquat's 'Villancicos' cd. by Constanza Basaluzzo. Published and recorded in Argentina, each and every Christmas carol is just divine. Not to mention I adore the accent...
In class we have a great time singing and humming along with some of my favorites, including 'Navidad'. For older students you can copy the lyrics and highlight the chorus so they can follow along.
I bought this cd from Scholastic a couple of years ago- you can get it on Amazon.

Source for books

Here is an online store for materials for kids and adults. Check it out!

http://www.wor.com/shopping/#

Que chulito!

I just found the most adorable site for kiddos in Spanish:

http://us.gusanito.com/esp/

Enjoy!