Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Cutting Ideas - Fine Motor Work

Las conferencias con los padres ya casi estan aquí!  
Pedimos que cada mes uds. pongan un ejemplo de como corta cada niño en su portafolio.  
Aquí estan algunas ideas de inspiración! No se olviden poner la fecha en la obra de trabajo!  :-)

Conferences with the parents are almost here!  
We ask that all of you put an exmple of how each child cuts each month in their portfolio.
Here are some ideas of inspiration!  Don't forget to put the date on each work of art!

 Alicia en Brighton hizo estas hojas de papel para evaluar la motricidad fina de los niños en su salon!  

Alicia in Brighton made these pieces of paper in order to evaluate the fine motor skills of the children in her classroom!

 Es facil crear las lineas en cartulina para que puedan averiguar su nivel para cortar.  Alicia escribió exactamente como cada  niño cortó en su hoja de papel y con cual mano.  

It's easy to create the lines on construction paper so that you can figure out what level they are cutting at.  Alicia wrote exactly how each child cut their piece of paper and with which hand.  


Aquí esta otra manera de evaluar su nivel para cortar.  Pueden hacer "cutting strips" con varias lineas.  Unas  de forma curva, y otras de forma derecha.  

Here is another way to evaluate their cutting level.  You can make cutting strips with various lines.  Some are curved shapes, and others are straight!

Este ejemplo viene de una escuela Montesorri, por lo tanto tienen una caja para hacer su "trabajo."

This example comes from a Montesorri school, therefore tthey have a box for them to do their "work."



Aquí esta otro ejemplo de como podemos coleccionar ejemplos de su motricidad fina.  
Hagan varias lineas en una sola hoja de papel y explicándoles que tienen que parar cuando llegan a la etiqueta.

Here's another example of how we can collect fine motor examples.  Make various lines on one piece of paper and tell the children that they have to stop when they get to the sticker!


Claudia en Needham pidio que sus ninos cortaran partes del cuerpo de revistas para formar un solo cuerpo.      Es facil agregar estos ejemplos a los portafolios!

Claudia in Needham had her kids cut body party from magazine to form a body.  It's easy to add these samples to the portfolios!



Cuando los ninos estaban estudiando puntilismo en Pine Village South End con Claudia, "cortaron" con un "hole puncher" para hacer agujeros.  

When the children were learnin about Pointillism in the South End with Claudia, "they cut" with a hole puncher to make holes!


Karen en Kendall Square hizo esta actividad con sus toddlers para practicar cortando!  

Karen in Kendall Square did this activity with her toddlers to practice cutting!


No olviden que hay otras maneras de evaluar la motricidad fina de los ninos.  Pueden hacer collares con shakiras como los ninos en la clase de Maru in Brighton....

Don't forget that there are many other ways to assess the fine motor skills of the kids.  They can make necklaces with beads like the kids in Maru's class in Brighton... 


Pueden rollar papel para crear esculturas como hizo Alicia en Brighton...

They can roll paper to create sculptures like Alicia in Brighton did...


...whatever you do...just have fun!!!

Jacie




Friday, April 20, 2012

La Primavera ya Llego


Ya llego la primavera...


Several teachers were mentioning to me that they were planning on doing a unit on "Cambios de la Primavera" in May since the children have been remarking about all of the changes with the weather, seeing trees and flowers blossoming (In fact, one of the students in Claudia's class in Kendall Square thought that a tree that was blooming with white petals had SNOW on it!  So cute!!)  So I thought it would be fun to send out some pictures and ideas of inspiration all about Spring Things this week!!  You certainly don't have to do a unit on Spring, but it seemed to be recurring in several schools, which is why I am focusing on it this week.  :-)  
REMEMBER:  The month of May has 5 weeks of planning to keep us busy!!  

Possible Weekly Units:  

De Oruga a Mariposa
De Renacuajo a Rana
Ranas vs. Sapos
Las Hormigas 
Las Abejas
Los Insectos
Semillas, Flores y Jardines
El Clima (las nubes, el viento, la lluvia, el arcoiris)
Cometas/Papalotes  y el Viento
Vamos a Crecer un arcoiris
Nuestro Jardin
Los Pajaros


Here are some links to websites to get more detailed ideas on la primavera! Remember to keep the objectives in mind when planning your activities!







Check out these pictures for more inspiration!!!

Have kids put flowers in playdough (real or fake)

Make a flower collage!  Kids can cut out the flower pictures from clip art, or from magazines!

Make a Seed Mosaic!  Put liquid glue in a margarine top, kids place seeds or beans in it, then paint!  Allow to dry and hang!


Easel Starter:  Hot glue seeds to the bottom of easel paper, and let the kids paint how the flowers grow...starting from seed to flower!

Make a Sticky Board and give the kids different materials to create the seed to flower process.



Give the children seed packets with white playdough as a sensory experience!

Make a "Garden Center" or a "Flower Shop"  in your Dramatic Play Area!

Use dye to color different flowers!

Older kids can cut strips of paper, and use glue to roll them into flowers!


Make Paper Plate Flowers!

Here's a project I did with the kids in Needham when I was helping out one afternoon.  PAPER RAINBOWS using the 10 SECOND RULE!!  Have the kids cut out strips of paper, then give them glue sticks to glue down the ends of the paper.  They need to count to 10 (in Spanish of course) so that the paper stays up and is 3 dimensional.  

Have them write something like, "Mi Arcoiris" on it and of course have the artist write their own name!  



Spanish Techniques

I was sooo excited to hear that in the schools that I visited this week, everyone is trying new Spanish Immersion techniques, and it's WORKING!!  I got some AMAZING feedback about the "espanol o silencio" technique during different parts of the day from both Ohdra in Porter Square and Denise & Alejandra in Kendall Square.  Teachers are having incredible success with it and the children love that it feels like a game!  They are reminding their friends to speak only "espanol" and they are using full sentences to communicate.  ME ENCANTA!!  Keep it up!!  

Also, Maru in Brighton told me that the kids know that Pine Village is a "Spanish School" and they remind each other to speak in "espanol" to each other all the time.  We want all of the children to be bilingual speakers in Spanish!!  With Conferences right around the corner, be sure to document the progress of your children's language skills so you can confidently assess each child's skills.  Woo hoo!!

USEFUL LINKS!!!

Here's a link I recently came across with lots of songs in Spanish for children.  I thought it was a great resource to share since MUSICA is such an important part of our language learning.  


Another great link I wanted to share about how music is used to teach another language. Check it out!


GRACIAS!!!

Jacie

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Spanish Immersion Techniques and Getting Organized!

Spanish Immersion Techniques

We reviewed a lot of Spanish Immersion Techniques in our Summer Camp Training this week.   So I wanted to bring some of these techniques to life in my blog for you to see for yoruselves!  

Vocabulary Games
In the South End, they always, always, always print out some Thematic Spanish Vocabulary to refer to during circle time.  


You can play Hide and Seek games with the kids by asking, "Donde esta la mariposa?" and they need to use the pointer to find it and repeat, "Aqui esta la mariposa." con una frase completa.  There are so many ways to use the vocabulary cards for games and inspiration!!  




Associating Actions with the Words in the Song:
Claudia Caballero, our Pre-K teacher in Needham, has tons of songs in Spanish that she sings with her class during circle time.  Here's one short clip to see her doing some actions to complement the Spanish song!


Here are some links to some more SHORT videos of the teachers showing some amazing Spanish Immersion Techniques that they use in their classrooms!!  Please take a few minutes to check it out and have a sneak peek into their classrooms!

Here's another clip of Claudia reviewing the circle time rules with her children.  There are actions to go along with the words and the kids have them memorized.


Elba (pre-K teacher in JP) singing the morning circle time song where the children have to respond, and listen carefully if they are a "nino" or a "nina"!


Marcela (preschool teacher in JP) using ACTIONS to help remind the children of the words in this very complex song!


Here's Elba again doing a great technique to encourage the children to learn a new phrase in Spanish!  "El Viento Soplo" in a book she was reading.


Here's Patricia (toddler teacher in Brighton) using VISUAL AIDS to go along with her silly food song!