by Macky & Veronica | May 19, 2018 | Preschool
This week we continued working with the “El Circo” unit. This topic has been very interesting for the children’s learning because the circus is a magical world for children and the activities that take place in it give the opportunity to work on aspects such as: motor skills, coordination skills and abilities perceptive-motor. We have had so much fun with all our prepositions words as we move ourselves around in our circus activities.
The circus always presents itself to children as an activity in which they can learn many things, that is why we started from this idea to develop our project.
From these ideas, we tried to create a series of different activities for children, based on circus activities, where the children have done an excellent job. Also, we reviewed the vocabulary learned during the last couple weeks (circo y/o carpa/ circus, boleto/ticket, and payaso/clown, pista/circus ring, taquilla/ticket window, and palomitas/popcorns). As well, they learned new vocabulary this week:
Domador/ circus tamer
Tigre/ tiger,
Elefante/elephant.
Children did activities for lions, elephants, and popcorn.
Numbers
We learned all about the number 13/trece. They did an excellent job counting 1 through 13. We did different activities with this number involving counting and recognizing the number. Children used some different manipulatives to count. Also, they traced the number 13, forcing on correct number formation. They did a good job!
Letras
We reviewed the letters that we have introduced throughout the past weeks (A,E,I,O,U, M, N, S, T, P, L, V, B, K, R, C, F, H,Q, W, Y, D). We played games to find letters in books and looked into letter soup. The kiddos traced the letters they found. Before they left the classroom each day we reviewed the letter placed in our letter’s tree as well.
La Figura y Color
This week we went over the shapes that kids were learning throughout the year. Children could play with shapes, looking for them throughout the classroom. Kids that found more shapes earned tickets, which they are saving, to exchange on our last day of “El Circo” unit to buy special prizes. They are so excited, waiting to exchange those tickets. Also, the kids continued reinforcing the colors names that they learned: rojo/red, azul/blue, verde/green, amarillo/yellow, purpura/purple, cafe/brown, anaranjado o naranja/orange, and the new color blanco/white. This week children colored a sheet of paper with different circus animals like the leon/lion and elefantes/elephants, being sure to identify the colors they were using.
Have a good weekend!
by Macky & Veronica | May 12, 2018 | Preschool
“Mothers hold their children’s hands for a short while, but their hearts forever” Unknown.
Happy Mother’s Day!
This week we continued working with “The Circus” unit. Kids had a lot of fun playing with our little circus, made by a school parents Fernando Horner and Akilah Johnson. Thank you very much for making this awesome circus for the kids. They were so exited with it. We also reviewed the vocabulary learned last week (circo y/o carpa/ circus, boleto/ticket, and payaso/clown). As well, they learned new vocabulary this week:
Pista/circus ring
Taquilla/ticket window
Palomitas/popcorn
This week we had a great time playing at the circus. Each child did different shows, like dancers and clowns. They made it excellent. On the other hand, children were working with beautiful projects for their moms. So, they were working hard to give their moms a very special moment, practicing the song and poem many times. Thank you moms who were able to attend this little gift for you. Your kids were so happy to sing and recite for you. Doing projects together was awesome!
Letras
This week we learned all about the letter Yy/ letra Yy. Be sure to point out the letter that we practice when you are reading. The English letter name Y can be pronounced as (uai). While the Spanish letter name is; Y (i griega). Some examples:
Yema/yolk,
Yoyo/yo-yo,
yogur/yogurt.
Kids did activities like hands-on working with sugar, sand, letters games, coloring and letter recognition.
Números
This week we continued working with the number 12. We had a fun time playing with and recognizing the number too. Kids used some items to sort and count. Sorting helps children see differences and similarities. We did activities such as counting twelve/doce buttons, little bears, and beans. As well kids traced the number 12 (número doce).
La Figura y Color
This week we continued reviewing the shapes learning through this course. Children were looking into the classroom for shapes circulo/circle, cuadrado/square, triangle/triangulo, rectangulo/rectangle, oval/ovalo, Estrella/star, and diamante/diamond. They play shape memory games as well. Also, the kids continued reinforcing the colors names that they learned as rojo/red, azul/blue, verde/green, and amarillo/yellow, purpura/purple, cafe/brown, anaranjado o naranja/orange. This week the kids had fun using the colors they learned using them on the beautiful hand prints they made for their moms.
Have a good weekend!
Macky J
by Macky & Veronica | May 5, 2018 | Preschool
May is here and the Circus is coming to the classroom!
This month we are going to work with “Circus”/ El circo Unit. The theme of the circus is a very fun topic where children will learn about the people that work in the circus and their different jobs and performances. We are going to do different activities throughout this unit that will help them to work with their fine motor skills doing different types of crafts, trimming, inserting figures, etc. We will also work with their gross motor skills, pretending to be the artist or performer of the circus they will use general coordination, vision, muscle, motor and balance.
This week we put our focus in the circus on; who works there? What do you need to go into the circus? Who is the funniest artist/performer in the circus? They had a lot of fun doing activities with circus and clowns. Our favorite activity was to paint on our own pictures as a face of a clown. They were very happy doing this activity.
Vocabulary learned this week:
Circo/circus,
Boleto/ticket,
Payaso/clown.
LETRAS
This week we went over the letter Xx/ letra Xx. Be sure to point out the letter that we practice when you are reading. The English and Spanish pronunciation of this letter are the same, most of the time. 😉 Sometimes the Spanish pronunciation is /s/.
Some examples:
Mexico/Mexico,
Xilofono/xylophone
Rayos X/ x-ray
NÚMEROS
This week we started working with the number 12/ doce. We had a fun time playing and used some items sorted and counted. Sorting helps children see different and similarities, we used to count little fishes, bears and blocks. We worked on correct number formation by writing the letter on the white board (vertical surface) and on our papers (horizontal surface).
La Figura y Color
This week we continued with the diamond shape/figura de diamante. We played with the shape by tracing it with our fingers and lacing shapes. Also, the kids continued reinforcing the colors names that they learned such as rojo/red, azul/blue, verde/green, and amarillo/yellow, purpura/purple, cafe/brown, anaranjado o naranja/orange. This week the kiddos had fun using the colors that they learned on their clowns faces.
Have a good weekend!
Macky J
by Macky & Veronica | Apr 28, 2018 | Preschool
This week we continued working with the “Zoo Animals and their habitat” unit. So, this week we talked about animals that live in the Desert like the rattle snake, lizard, scorpion, fox, and camel. They learned what a desert habitat is and the special adaptations that help living things survive in areas of dry land that get very little rain. Also, they learned how some animals stay cool in the hot temperatures and how nocturnal animals save their energy during the day and become active at night. Children learned that lizards do not need to drink water because the water they need is obtained from the insects they eat, as well they learned that the rattle snakes hide under the sand to protect themselves from the sun. The fox goes out to hunt his predators at night. They also learned that the desert is very hot for the day and it is very cold night. Vocabulary learned this week:
Serpiente cascabel/rattle snake,
Lagartija/lizard,
Zorro/fox,
Escorpion/scorpion,
Camello/camel,
Desierto/desert,
Caliente/hot,
Frio/cold,
Dia/day,
Noche/night,
Arena/sand.
Children worked on activities like making rattlesnakes decorating with glitter and small brown circles. They also made a model where they decorated with characteristic elements of the desert. They put both the vegetation and the animals.
This week was full of fun with an excellent walk around the zoo, where the children were able to enjoy the wonders that this offers us: the animals and its “modus vivendi” Latin phrase that means “way of life “. And at the end of our week we were able to enjoy the children’s day, where children could enjoy games and surprises. “Dia del Nino” Mexican culture was one of the first around the world to dedicate a whole day to children. Other countries picked up on the celebration years later when the Declaration of the rights of the child was proclaimed by the General Assembly Resolution 1386 on November 20, 1959. This day is now known as “Universal Children’s Day.”
Mexican Children’s Day and Universal Children’s Day follow the same line of thought: “A day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children and a day of activity devoted to promoting the ideals and objectives of the Charter and the welfare of the children of the world.”
Then, we celebrate them with specials events inviting parents to celebrate with them during the school hour. Some activities include music, face painting, games, art, contest and prizes. During this day children are recognizing as in important part of society, so the day focuses on the importance of loving, accepting and appreciating children.
Letras
We continued reviewing the letters that they have learned in the past weeks (A,E,I,O,U, M, N, S, T, P, L, V, B, K, R, C, F, H,Q, W,). We played games to find letters in the books and we played letter games in teams.
Números
This week we continued working with number 11 / once. We had a fun time playing and using different items for sorting and counting. We did activities such as look around the classroom and find number 11. Coloring the number 11 and draw it.
La Figura y Color
Color and shape are ways children observe and categorize what they see. These very recognizable characteristics encourage children to define and organize the diverse world around them. So, this week we continued working with diamond /diamante shape. The kids could play games as matching shapes, trace shapes and recognize it. Then, kids were reinforcing the colors that they learned as rojo/red, azul/blue, verde/green, amarillo/yellow, purpura/purple, anaranjado o naranja/orange, and café/brown.
Have a good weekend!
Macky J
by Macky & Veronica | Apr 21, 2018 | Preschool
This week we continued working with the “Zoo Animals and their habitat” unit. We focused on animals that live in the Antarctic:polar bear, penguin, and walrus. They learned that arctic animals are those that live in the Arctic region of the world which is located in the northernmost part of the Earth. It consists of the Arctic ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Alaska, and a few Nordic countries. The arctic animals are specially adapted to life in this unique region of the world. As well, they learned that polar animals are in danger since people dump garbage in the artic and polar animals eat garbage and get sick. After reading books about these animals we did a different crafts related to arctic animals: polar bear, shapes of penguins, and a walrus craft. We had a lot of fun learning about arctic animals.
Vocabulary learned this week:
Peligro/danger,
Artico/arctic,
Basura/garbage,
Enfermo/sick,
Oso polar/polar bear,
Ping”uino/penguin,
Morsa/walrus.
The children were very interested on the subject and very willing to protect the polar animals by trying to keep our earth clean. (Perfect thoughts around Earth Day!) 
Letras
We reviewed the letters that they have learned in the past weeks (A,E,I,O,U, M, N, S, T, P, L, V, B, K, R,
C, F, H,Q, W,). We played games to find letters in the books and looking into letters soup, as well, before they left the classroom, we reviewed the letters placed in our letters tree.
Números
This week we worked with number 11 (once). We had a fun time playing and using some items for sorting and counting. Sorting helps children see differences and similarities. We did activities such as counting little buttons, bears and blocks. They also worked on writing the number by tracing it.
La Figura y Color
This week we learned about the diamond /diamante shape. The kiddos played with the shape by tracing it with their fingers and lacing it. Also, the kiddos continued reinforcing the colors names that they have learned: rojo/red, azul/blue, verde/green, amarillo/yellow, purpura/purple, anaranjado o naranja/orange, and café/brown.
Have a good weekend!
Macky J
by Macky & Veronica | Apr 15, 2018 | Preschool
“Spring would not be spring without bird songs”-Francis M. Chapman.
This month we started with a new topic “The Zoo”.We will be learning about the different animals that are present in our world today. Many of these animals can usually be observed in zoos. Therefore, we are introducing them the different zoo animals and their habitat, then the children will be ready for their trip to the zoo. This week, we worked with the jungle animals;
Leon/lion,
jirafa/Giraffe,
Elefante/elephant,
Mono/monkey,
Hipopotamo/ hippopotamus,
Rinoceronte/rhinoceront,
cebra/zebra.
Children did different activities such as; paper plate elephants, giraffes, and lions. As well we played the sound game, it is a nice teaching technique to inform the kiddos of the different sounds that animals make. We showed them a picture and asked them to listen to an animal sound, then they had to guess the animal sound. To finish this week, the children enjoyed their snack in the jungle, surrounded by animals, such as monkeys, snakes, and macaws. They were very excited eating some delicious bananas
LETRAS
This week we learned all about the letter Zz/ letra Zz. Be sure to point out the letter that we practice when you are reading. The letter sounds are different in Spanish and English. The Spanish letter Z makes for of an /s/ sound. Some examples:
Zapato/shoe,
Zanahoria/carrot,
Zorro/fox,
Zorrillo/skunk.
We did activities such as tracing the letter, coloring and letter recognition.
Números
This week the kiddos continued learning the number addition 1-10. We did different activities like counting and recognizing the numbers. We worked with little bears where we placed a piece of paper with a number and then the kids needed to recognize each number placing quantities next to the numbers. Then they did addition/sumas counting buttons and different animals. They did a good job with addition.
La Figura y El Color
This week we started working with diamond shape (diamante), and we introduce a new color, cafe (brown). The kids were coloring sheets of zoo animals like the elefent (elefante), tiger (tigre), hippotamus (hipopotamo), and giraffe (jirafa), using the colors they have learned. Also, they were practicing their fine motor skills lacing shapes (circle, square, rectangle, oval, start, heart, triangle and diamond).
Have a good weekend!
by Macky & Veronica | Mar 30, 2018 | Preschool
This week we continued to work with “The Ocean” Unit. Children learned more about the marine life, like the Starfish, seahorse, and seashells. We had fun with our handmade crafts!
The kiddos should know that starfish (or sea stars) are not fish, even though their name includes the word “fish”. Sea Stars come in many different bright colors and usually have 5 arms. They also learned know that, a seahorse isn’t a horse at all, but an extremely unique fish. Seahorses use their tails for grasping underwater plants to anchor themselves in place. They hold onto coral and sea grasses and camouflage themselves by changing color to hide from predators. Seahorses don’t have many predators, but some crabs and fish will pray on them. Also, we learned another surprising fact about seahorses is that the male carries the babies. The female lays the eggs in a pouch, sort of like that of a kangaroo, in the male’s stomach. He then carries the eggs until they hatch, usually two to four weeks later. We used many different materials while working with our crafts and practicing our fine motor skills with different textures. At the end of the week we painted seashells our favorite color. This was such a fun unit for everyone!
The new vocabulary that they learned this week was:
Caballito de mar/ seahorse,
Estrella de mar/starfish,
Concha de mar/sea Shell.
LETRAS
This week we learned all about the letter Hh/ letra Hh. Be sure to point out the letter that we practice when you are reading. This is a silent letter in Spanish. There are many words that begin with this letter but it makes no sound. Some examples:
Hilo/thread,
Helado/ice cream,
Hojas/leaves,
Hueso/bone.
We had fun learn the formation of the letter “H” with coloring, letter recognition and fine motor letter practice tracing the letter “H”.
NÚMEROS
This week we continued working with addition 1-5 and 1-8. Addition helps kids master the relationship between numbers and understand how quantities relate to one another. We worked with kids doing different activities with our collection of manipulatives (this week we used sea animals and circles shapes). They did a great job practicing their addition with hands-on manipulatives.
La Figura y El Color
This week we were reviewing all shapes that kids are learning; circle/circulo, square/cuadrado, triangle/triangulo, rectangle/rectangulo, oval/ovalo, heart/corazon, and star/estrella. Also, the kids worked on their starfish craft as well as, painting sea shells with free coloring, at the same time they reviewed our colors; rojo/red, azul/blue, verde/green, amarillo/yellow, purpura/purple, anaranjado o naranja/orange, and pink/Rosado. Also, they continued practicing their fine motor skills by lacing circle, square, rectangle, oval, start, heart, and triangle shapes.
Have a good weekend!
Macky J
by Macky & Veronica | Mar 24, 2018 | Preschool
EL OCEANO
This week we continued working with our “Ocean” Unit. The Oceans are very important to us as they cover about seventy (70) percent on the Earth’s water supply. They have the tallest mountains and the deepest valleys. Oceans affect weather and temperature, provide food, and a certain amount (approximately between 70 and 80 percent) of oxygen is produced by marine plants. So, it is important that children learn about it, and at the same time children will keep enjoying the ocean and its animals.
This week we had fun with beach-inspired activities and games such as: jellyfish/medusa, marine turtle/tortugas marinas and crab/cangrejo. Children learned the life cycle of a sea turtle. They learned that sea turtles are one of the only existing animals that’s been around since the age of dinosaurs. The life cycle of the sea turtle is a long journey and only a few survive. While the sea turtles can live up to 80 years, they start out as small eggs buried in the sand. As well, they learned about the nesting and hatchlings: the female sea turtle will come to shore and dig a hole in the sand to lay between 50-200 eggs. She then buries the hole and heads back to the ocean. Around two months or 60 days later, the baby turtles break through their shells and dig out of the sand. They then must make their way to the ocean. The babies usually do this at night to avoid animals who might want to eat them, like crabs and birds. Once a baby reaches the water, it swims nearly non-stop to escape shore. If a baby sea turtle survives its trip to the open ocean, it gets caught by the current and floats around for miles feeding on algae and seaweed. The children were very interested in learning about the life cycle of a sea turtles.
LETRAS
This week we learned all about the letter Qq/ letra Qq. Be sure to point out the letter that we practice 
when you are reading. The English letter Q(kiu). While the Spanish pronunciation is; Q (coo, always followed by “u” then followed by “e” or “i”. The combination “qu”, in Spanish is always a “kuh” sound que, quien, quiero). Some examples:
Queso/cheese,
Quetzal/, quetzal,
Quitasol/umbrella,
Quince/fifteen
We did a variety of activities that the kiddos enjoyed since they had a variety of ways to learn the letter “Q” like letters games, coloring, letter recognition, fine motor and letter practice using sugar to write the letter into it and hands-on tracing letter.
NÚMEROS
This week we continued working with addition 1-10. We really dove in with the kids this week on understanding the concept of addition. We have been working with numbers 1 through 10 and number combinations. Now they know what happens when they add two numbers. We gathered up fishes and different ocean animals for the kiddos to add together different numbers of sea animals. They did a great job practicing addition with these hands-on manipulatives.
La Figura y El Color
This week we continued working with the star shape (estrella) and the color orange (naranja). The kids enjoyed coloring ocean animals such as the fish/pez and crab/cangrejo. They also used the colors that we are learning (rojo, azul, verde, rosado, purpura y/o morado, and amarillo). Also, we practiced fine motor skills with lacing our shapes: circle, square, rectangle, oval, start, heart, and triangle shapes.
Have a good weekend!
by Macky & Veronica | Mar 17, 2018 | Preschool
This week we continued working with “El Oceano”. The children had fun learning about marine animals like the octopus, dolphin and seal. This week the children learned that the octopus have 8 tentacles. They also learned that octopuses throw black ink to scare their predators. The kiddos had fun with activities such as octopus counting, dolphins, a dividing dolphins craft, and an ocean memory game. Also, we continued working with the month ocean vocabulary. Last week we started with:
Fish/pez,
Whale/ballena
Shark/Tiburón,
This week we added:
Octopus/pulpo
Dolphin/delfin
Seal/foca,
LETRAS
This week we learned all about the letter Ww/ letra Ww. Be sure to point out the letter that we practice when you are reading. The Spanish pronunciation of the letter W is the same as the English pronunciation. (The W only occurs in foreign words in Spanish.) Some examples:
Washington/Washington,
Wafle/wafle,
wapiti/wapiti,
We had fun with our ocean activities such as drawing the letter in sugar, tracing the letter on an individual whiteboard, and coloring the letter W.
NÚMEROS
This week children continued working with addition 1-5. We started really working with the pre-K kiddos this week on understanding the concept of addition. We have been working with numbers 1 through 5 and number combinations. Now they know what happens when they add two numbers. We gathered up our collection of green, blue, yellow, and red manipulatives to start working with the little ones to have fun with addition. They did a great job practicing addition with hands-on manipulatives. With this activity the kids had the opportunity to learn while also having a lot of fun.
La Figura y Color
We continued working with the star shape (estrella) and the color Anaranjado y/o naranja (orange). The children did activities like looking for orange objects in the classroom while also reviewing, in a color sort, the colors that we have already seen.
Have a good weekend!
Macky
