Are you interested in introducing your little one to Spanish in a fun
playful environment? If your answer is yes you will want to join the
new infant/toddler Spanish series at BABS (Bloomington Area Birth
Services) that I will be teaching.

In this series you and your child(ren) will have the opportunity to
build Spanish vocabulary together through storytelling, movement,
music and sign language. The curriculum follows a natural progression
and includes numbers, colors, family and animals.

This is an eight class series on Mondays, from 4:45 to 5:15 pm from
October 24 to December 12. Pre-registration is required. Fees are
determined by an income-based fee schedule. You may call the office
(337-8121) or stop in to register (2458 S. Walnut St). Registration
deadline is October 17th. A minimum number is required to hold class.
More information at: http://bloomingtonbirth.org.

Also, please feel free to contact me directly if you have any
questions about the class content.

I'll be looking forward to meeting some new little ones!

Week 2 BDLC

This week we continued our work on all the topics from last week. In addition, we began our study of colors.

We sang the song, Yo veo los colores (or I See the Colors). This song helps us to practice important classroom vocabulary: siéntate, (sit down), date la vuelta, (turn around) párate (stand up) while also learning the colors and having fun!

Blanco, blanco yo veo blanco
Si tu llevas blanco, enséñamelo
Párate, enséñamelo
Date la vuelta
Siéntate

White, white, I see white
If you're wearing white, show it to me
Stand up, show it to me
Turn around
Sit down

The kids love finding tiny spots of each color on their clothing.

Colors:
blanco --- white
negro ---- black
rojo --- red
naranja --- orange
amarillo --- yellow
verde --- green
azul --- blue
morado --- purple
rosado --- pink
gris --- grey

Cuento (story)

This week we began work on Pájaro Cú (Cu Bird), a Mexican folk tale about a bird who doesn't have any feathers. He's very cold so he asked his bird friends to borrow feathers of every color. Finally, he asks the owl who says no. This story explains to us why the owl is nocturnal. Ask your kids to explain it to you! This is also a favorite for teaching please (por favor), thank you (gracias) and you're welcome (de nada).

Week 1 BDLC

Welcome to the Spanish with Katie blog! I am so happy that your children can participate in my preschool Spanish classes. I hope that you'll be able to share the joy of learning a foreign language along with your child. This is a great age for language acquisition!

During our first week at the BDLC, we started out by learning our hello or hola song. We'll be starting all of our classes by singing the hola song,
Aquí estamos juntos which is a song to learn everyone's name and then we'll use our Spanish calendar to learn the day of the week, date and weather conditions. The two opening songs are below:

Hola, ¿cómo estás? x3
¿Cómo estás hoy día?
Muy bien gracias x3
Muy bien hoy día

This song is to the tune of Skip to my Lou and means:

Hello, how are you?
How are you, today?
Very fine, thank you
Very fine, today

Aquí estamos juntos, juntos, juntos

Aquí estamos juntos, sentados en el piso

Hay __________ y _____________ y ____________ y _______________

Aquí estamos juntos sentados en el piso

Sung to the tune of The More we Get Together and means:

Here we are together, together, together
Here we are together, sitting on the floor
There's ___________ & _____________ & ______________ & _____________
Here we are together, sitting on the floor


At this point of course, I don't expect students to be able to respond to the question,

¿como estás?, but they definitely will soon! We are also learning about other emotions: contento/a, enojado/a, triste, tiene miedo and cansado/a through the song, "Si tú estás contento," If you're happy and you know it.

si tú estás contento, apláudalas fuerte (x2)

si tú estás contento en tu cara se verá

si tú estás contento apláudalas fuerte.

enojado--- grite

triste—llore

tiene miedo—temble

cansado-- duerma

If you're happy, clap your hands loudly (x2)
If you're happy, your face will show it
If you're happy, clap your hands loudly.
angry-- shout
sad-- cry
scared-- tremble
tired-- sleep

In the middle of class, I like to get all the students standing up and active. One of my favorite songs to use for this segment of the class is:

Mi cuerpo, mi cuerpo

Hace musica

Mi cuerpo, mi cuerpo

Hace musica

Las manos hacen (clap, clap, clap)

Los pies hacen (stomp, stomp, stomp)

La boca dice (la, la la)

Mi cuerpo hace cha, cha, cha (students dance)

My body, my body
Makes music
My body, my body
Makes music
My hands go (clap, clap, clap)
My feet go (stomp, stomp, stomp)
My mouth says (la, la, la)
My body goes cha, cha, cha (students dance)

Finally, we end each class with a feltboard story. So far, we've done two stories: "Los tres cerditos," The Three Little Pigs and "Los tres chivitos," The Three Billy Goats Gruff. During both stories, we reinforce the emotions vocabulary (especially contento/a, enojado/a and tiene miedo.) In the Three Little Pigs, we talk about bueno/a (good) and malo/a (bad) when referring to the different materials the houses are made of. In the Three Billy Goats Gruff, we focus on sizes: grande (big), mediano (medium) and chiquito (small) when referring to the goats. We also reinforce bueno/a and malo/a when talking about the quality of the grass on each side of the river.

I know it seems like a lot of material, but we will continue to review and reinforce everything that we've learned so far. Your children will soon begin to acquire Spanish! Please don't hesitate to contact me if you should have any questions.