Spanish Tip – Keeping Spanish Fun!!

A great way to keep children interested in practicing Spanish is to make it fun! Children want to speak and interact with the people they admire and about the things that interest them. Who do they admire most? You! Tie Spanish into family game night or watch a favorite movie in Spanish!

Another fun way to connect with your child in Spanish every day is through a daily personal message. You can put a message in his or her lunchbox or backpack in Spanish. Here are some fun ones to try:

Te quiero mucho. (Tay Kee-ero Moo-cho)	I love you very much.
Estoy pensando en ti. (Eh-stoy Pen-sahn-do En Tee)	I am thinking about you.
Esta tarde vamos a ____. (Eh-stah Tar-day Vah-mos ah ____.)	This afternoon we are going to ____.

You can use pictures for beginning readers. Younger children, who aren’t reading yet, can have their teacher read the note for them. It is encouraging and special for your child to share their new language with you!

Spanish Tip of the Week: Open Ended Questions

This month at Pine Village, we will be learning all about famous artists and recreating our own versions of some of their famous masterpieces!

You don't have to speak a lot of Spanish to encourage your child to do so.  Simply ask an open ended question and let them respond with as many words as they like! (If you don't understand the reply you can ask them to repeat themselves in English.)

Even if you speak Spanish fluently, open ended questions give your child a chance to express themselves fully.  It's a great way to spark deep imaginative thought and self-expression in any language.

Here's one quick art-related example:

Try asking your child in Spanish,
“¿Qué ves?” 

(Kay Vase) 

What do you see?

Come Sing With Us!

UPDATE: Come join us on 4/6/13 at 10:00 a.m. at our South End school for Launch Party #2! 

This week PVP Education Director Jacie Feinberg unveils her first Spanish-language CD with songs written for the toddler/preschool set. There will actually be several launch parties, the first being tomorrow (Friday, 3/8) at PVP Newton (1326 Washington Street, West Newton) at 10:00 a.m. Bring your kids/family/friends for the sing-along; everyone who attends gets a free CD.

Music has been a part of Jacie Feinberg's life since she was a little girl. She played piano for nine years and took several guitar lessons when she was in seventh grade. Although she and her teacher's style didn't quite mesh, she was determined and ended up teaching herself to play guitar. She's been doing covers and writing original songs ever since. She stopped playing guitar in high school, but picked it up again when she began working in early education in 1998 and incorporated music into her circle times.

"I think it's a wonderful way to bring music to life," she says. "Having the guitar was such a great way to travel and visit other schools." It gave her the chance to bring music to as many kids as she possibly could.

With a background in Spanish education (Jacie started taking Spanish as a seventh grader and has always felt a connection to the language and culture), she started out thinking that she'd be working in the 7th-12th grade range. But in college, as soon as she began a job with a family childcare, she knew that she wanted to focus on the early education piece. She hasn't looked back.

When Jacie joined Pine Village, she started doing weekly music classes in her own school (after a year of being a Pre-K teacher, she became Director of PVP Newton in 2008). Then she branched out and brought her music to other Pine Village schools. After having twin girls, Jacie returned in December 2011 to become Pine Village's first Education Director. The new position showed the growth not just of Jacie, but of Pine Village as well. With eight schools now making up the Pine Village family, part of Jacie's job has been to help unify and systemize the curriculum amongst all of the locations by creating unified templates and ways of presenting the curriculum to all of the PVP families.

She distributes curriculum ideas to all of the staff on a monthly basis as inspiration. And each week, she sends out her “Ideas de Inspiracion” in an internal blog to the teachers that documents what's going on in all of the schools. Topics range from bulletin board design to pictures of each school's dramatic play areas to ideas on how to document each child's progress. The overall common factor, though, is that these tools allow Pine Village to really tap into the wealth of resources from all of the teachers in all of the schools. Jacie also provides curricular support, training for new teachers, and, basically, whatever other support she can provide so that teachers can be at their best every single day. 

It's been a longtime dream of Jacie's to compile the songs she's used in her classes and have a CD as another home/school connector. As she visits all the schools, parents often say to her, 'I want to know the songs. How do I sing these at home?' The CD provides a way for the kids to relate to the language and listen in their cars, but it also allows the parents to learn along with their children.

Although this was part of the reason behind the development of the CD, Jacie has seen the evidence of this firsthand with her own kids. "Ever since I received the CD," she says, "I've listened to it to and from the school every day – because my girls ask for it on the hour commute. They get so excited. Because they listen to it every day, and the songs are so repetitive – which is how they're designed – they anticipate the songs, they know what's next in the order, they repeat the phrases over and over again. And they're 19 months. I see the benefit in the way they are beginning to communicate."

And for those of us who aren't native Spanish speakers? Jacie's mother doesn't speak Spanish at all but through the CD she's picking up phrases and connecting with her granddaughters on that level as well.

The CD has a mix of traditional and original songs – out of a total of thirteen songs, eleven are original. When it comes to her own inspiration, the world is Jacie's oyster, so to speak. "I have a song about a fish who doesn't know how to swim," Jacie says. "Adding that element of silliness to a song makes it memorable for the children. Imagining a fish that doesn't know how to swim, but it knows how to fly, run, jump, sleep, read..."

Jacie wants to get the kids moving, and she likes to use props so that the kids have hands-on experiences. “With the language learning, I feel there's a total physical response (TPR in language-learning circles). The children are associating movements and actions with the words in the songs; it helps them to memorize, to internalize the songs, to start to reproduce and communicate and sing along. The song called "En Mis Botas" is about jumping in different colored boots. As the kids jump along, they sing along.” Using catchy melodies allows children of all ages to be able to connect with the language.

Doing the music is just a component of Jacie's job, but it keeps her connected to the kids and teachers, and, as she says, it fills up her "metaphorical cup of happiness." Getting into the schools, connecting with the kids, having them call her name when she walks in because they're so excited… It's what teaching is all about.

For Jacie, the ability to combine her love of the language of music and of working with young kids has been a dream come true. "I love Pine Village," she says. "I love working for Pine Village. Just to be able to send my girls to such an amazing program – to be able to give my kids the exposure to a foreign language and another culture – is such a gift. I see the results already within my own children."
 
If you can't make it to this week's Launch Party, join us in April (4/6/13, 10:00 a.m.; Pine Village South End) or July (7/2/13, noon; part of the Kendall Square Corporation's FREE Summer Concert Series, 300 Athenaeum Street) instead. Or come to all three!
All events are free and open to the public.

Spanish Tip of the Week: A game to try at home

If you are looking for more opportunities to practice Spanish with your children, repetitive games, songs, and rhymes can be a great way to build vocabulary and increase your child's comfort level while using Spanish. Try this game at home to practice syntax and color names. Remember, in Spanish we usually put the adjective after the noun, such as in camisa azul (blue shirt), pantalones rojos (red pants), or zapatos negros (black shoes). This game will help you practice.

“¿Dónde está el osito?” 

Cover some paper cups with colored construction paper, or have your child color or paint white cups.

Hide a small object under the paper cup (like a small bear) and have your child guess where it is by asking them...

 “Where is the bear?”
“¿Dónde está el osito?”

(Dohn-deh eh-stah el oh-see-toe)

Only the person who hides the object can touch the cups so they HAVE to practice their Spanish to figure out where it is!

Encourage full sentences like...

“The bear is under the blue cup.”
“El osito está bajo el vaso azul.” 

(El oh-see-toe eh-stah bah-joe el vah-soe ah-sool)

Keep guessing in Spanish until they find it. For more variations, label the cups with letters, numbers, or shapes instead of using colors.  Most importantly, HAVE FUN!!

Easy Playdough Recipe

Do you need some fun to brighten up your snow day?  You probably already have all the ingredients you need to make playdough.  Try this easy recipe or find more options here.  Not only is this a fun cooking project to do with your family, but you get to play with it when you're done!

Playdough Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1 Tablespoon oil
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
Food coloring by drops**

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a pan and stir.  Cook over low heat, stirring until a ball forms.

2. Add food coloring and mix thoroughly until desired color.

3. Cool on foil. Store in covered container.

**You may prefer to add the food coloring to the water before mixing, though this will give you less control over the final shade.  As an alternative, try adding koolaid, peppermint, lemon extract, glitter or any other fun items to your playdough!

Leave a comment below to let us know what fun activities your family has in store for today!

Spanish Tip of the Week: Remembering to use Spanish at home

It can be challenging to remember to use Spanish in the home, especially if your own first language isn’t Spanish, or if you have older children who are more comfortable using English.  Despite your best intentions, you may find that you aren’t using as much Spanish at home as you would like.  

One way to increase the amount of Spanish spoken in your home is to hang something on the wall to remind you to keep using Spanish as much as possible.   This could be as simple or as elaborate as you like.  If your child attends Pine Village, or another language immersion program, take a photo of them in their school T-shirts and hang it somewhere visible.  When you look at it, you will be reminded of how much you want to continue that wonderful learning at home. 

You could also simply write the word “Español” on a piece of paper.   You can do all sorts of things to dress this up and make it look like a work of art.  For example, you could use pretty paper and a calligraphy pen.  If you are artistic, you could paint it on a canvas or canvas board.  You could draw or print bubble letters, and have your children help you decorate the insides of them.  As a variation on this, have your children hold a piece of artwork like this and photograph the scene.   Whatever you do, make sure it reflects your family and your home.  Then have fun remembering to use Spanish with your family as often as you choose!

Spanish Tip of the Week- Pretend Vacations

Take a pretend vacation and practice Spanish!

It is cold out lately in Boston- and then it's fairly mild- and then it's cold again.  All this back and forth just seems to make the colder days that much colder!  If you are like many of us, you're spending a good portion of these "colder days" planning imaginary vacations to warmer places.  So why not put those plans to good use?  Even if you can't get away right now, you can use some items you probably already have at home to spend some quality time with your children and practice Spanish at the same time!  Plan and execute a pretend trip to a Spanish-speaking country.  Whether you are fluent in Spanish or can only say a few words, use as much as you can when you "arrive".

During the months of November and December, many of our schools did Transportation and Travel themes to coincide with the holidays when families are often actually traveling.  Here are some pictures from our Needham school where the teachers and children created an "agencia de viajes" or "travel agency" in their dramatic play area.  

You can make one at home quite easily.  Ours had a travel desk, and a lounge-area for planning journeys, but you could use anything-even your kitchen table.  If you are a member of AAA or other such organization, you can obtain free travel guides and maps to use as well.  Otherwise, you can use any materials you happen to have around the house, or print information and pictures from the internet.  

Once you have planned your journey, you are ready to get on the airplane!  This can be as simple or as elaborate as you like.  All you really need though, are a few chairs arranged in rows, and maybe an aisle (depending on how big your plane is, of course).  The teachers at Pine Village Needham even created a beverage cart out of a set of plastic drawers on wheels.  It came complete with plastic cups and a pitcher for the children to serve drinks.  If you don't have one of these carts, you can use anything you do have around the house, such as a tray or even a flat piece of sturdy cardboard. You and your children can pretend to have the plane take-off and land.  Once you disembark, remember to use as much Spanish as you can as you play out all the activities you will be doing on your trip.  Maybe you would like to go horse-back riding, or swimming, or biking.  The sky's the limit!  

 Just don't forget to bring your passport!

If you like what you've seen here, you will love the Pine Village Spanish Immersion Summer Camp!  During the summer months, we take imaginary vacations to a different Spanish-speaking country every two weeks.

Session 1: July 1 – July 26 (closed on Wednesday, July 4^th)

Session 2:  July 29 – August 23

iVengan y Exploren con nosotros!!