A great team!

During these last two years at school I've had Nathy as my assistant and I must say that, eventhough all the assistants are great, mine is the best!!

It is very important for a kindergarten teacher to have a good assistant in class but, it is more important to have a good relationship with her. I think that, in the same way we need a good rapport with our students, we also need to feel comfortable and to know the person we are working with. Luckily for me, working with Nathy is a pleasure... She is the kind of person that you would like to add to your friend's list.

I want to thank her for all her support and for letting us become a great
Pre-Kinder team!!

Vegetables and fruits

These last weeks we have been learning about vegetables and fruits. Some of them were already known like carrot, potato, apple or banana; but our Deer have increased their vocabulary with words like cabbage, peas, custard apple and strawberries.We always like to play with chants and rhymes and this time wasn't the exception. We had learned the Navajo chant "Tortillas, tortillas" before and we had a great time playing with it changing the word tortillas for the name of a vegetable or fruit.

Another activity related with the topic was a cooking day! We decided to prepare a vegetable soup and so we did. Everyone brought a vegetable from home and we went to the kitchen to prepare our delicious vegetable soup. Everybody made a great job peeling, cutting and washing the vegetables. Then, they followed all the steps and took turns to help me put the vegetables in the pot with water.


It took about 20 minutes to have our soup ready and our Deer didn't refuse to eat it. Almost all of them asked for more!! At the end of the day we were really happy because our recipe was a success. Hmmmm...

"The Farmer and the beet"

Following our school's methodology based in language acquisition, and having storytelling as one powerful tool, we always read and listen to stories in class. In this opportunity, I want to show you how we worked with the story: "The Farmer and the beet".

After listening to the story, my students answered comprehension questions, following some language patterns that we have practiced in class like short answers: Is this a ....? Yes, it is / No, it isn't and also answering questions like: What is this? It's a .... Then, we proceeded to dramatize the story.

But to start dramatizing it, we need volunteers! Who wants to be the farmer? Who wants to be the horse? Who wants to be the cow? Who wants to be the dog? Who wants to be the cat? Who wants to be the mouse? I asked. My deer never ever rejected a chance like that.

Now that we have all the characters we can start dramatizing the story!They pulled and pulled... but the beet did not come up! So, the mouse pulled on the cat, the cat pulled on the dog, the dog pulled on the cow, the cow pulled on the horse, the horse pulled on the farmer, the farmer pulled on the beet, and the beet finally came up!
When we finished dramatizing the story, we learned the song: "The farmer and the beet" and we sang and dramatized it, too.
We really learn having fun in class and storytelling sessions allow our students to acquire the language by following patterns and to increase their vocabulary by using it in context. See you in another story!!

Maytime Magic Books

After finishing working with the growing process of plants, the seeds, and learning the poem "Maytime Magic" my students elaborated their own books.

In this opportunity, the books were created as an extension of the lesson using the same pictures of the poem's cards. They were really excited with the idea of becoming editors and taking their books home, so they can teach the poem to their families and friends.

At the end of school's day, they went home carrying their books and all the satisfaction of having demostrated how good they are.

Planting!!

After learning the poem "Maytime Magic" and putting our seeds to grow in a cup with cotton, we decided to transplant our beautiful plants to flowerpots. All my students were so excited with the idea of following all the steps we learned to plant:
1. Make a hole in the earth.
2. Put the plant in the hole.
3. Make a little pat to the earth.
4. Water the plant.

Finally, that wonderful day came and all my Deer showed their enthusiasm in the activity. They put their hands in action and started the process of planting while they were reciting the poem they had learned before. They were really happy and you can confirm that by looking at these pictures...

"Maytime Magic"

During these last weeks, my class have been learning the poem: "Maytime Magic" as part of our 6th TLLC theme. This poem describes very clearly the germination process of a plant, starting with the seed. Our children have in class a big poster with the poem and its set of cards displayed on the board. Each student also has the same set of cards in order to practice sequencing and reciting each part of it individually as well as the whole poem.
Here I want to show you some pictures of my children working with the poem and the cards in class. Hope you like it!

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And here you have a video of my little Deer reciting the poem. Look!!