Sra. Michaud's Blog

Septiembre y Octubre gone!

2010-10-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

¡Hola! I can't believe that September and October have already flown right by! I'm really happy with how much we are covering in Spanish this year, we are definitely building on last years vocabulary well!

For those of you that do not know, I am pregnant and will be leaving for my maternity leave sometime in November but I want you all to know we have hired a very energetic and knowledgeable young lady, Mrs. Becky Kash! I will have as much of the students report cards written up before I go and Mrs. Kash will fill in the rest. If you have any questions or concerns please contact myself or Ms. Lisa Clarke before I leave or Mrs. Kash when she takes over for me at school 882-5515.

During my maternity leave Mrs. Kash will be covering: Family, holiday traditions, expressing needs, and numbers. She might also throw in some other fun vocabulary if she has time as well!

Le saluda atentamente,
Sra. Michaud

¡Bienvenido!

2010-08-31T07:03:00.000-07:00

¡Bienvenido to a new school year! This summer has been terrific but I'm ready to be back at school and back to learning! I hope you all are as well! This year will be a fun and exciting Spanish year and we will be diving right into the culture, language, and history of our Spanish-speaking friends.

I look forward to sharing my knowledge and passion with you and also learning from you as well!

The first song we will be learning:

Buenos días, buenos días 

¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo estás? 

Muy bien gracias, muy bien gracias 

¿Y tú? ¿Y tú?

Research

2010-04-29T07:28:00.001-07:00

Brains Benefit from Multilingualism
ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2009) — For a considerable time already there has been discussion within scientific circles about whether knowing and using multiple languages could possibly have positive effects on the human brain and thinking. There have been a number of international studies on the subject, which indicate that the ability to use more than one language brings an individual a considerable advantage.
The report of the research team appointed by the European Commission, "The Contribution of Multilingualism to Creativity," presents the first known macro analysis based on the available evidence, which has been conducted by searching through several studies and giving particular attention on recent research on the brain.
David Marsh, specialized planner at the Continuing Professional Development Centre of Jyväskylä University, who coordinated the international research team behind the study, says that especially the research conducted within neurosciences offers an increasing amount of strong evidence of versatile knowledge of languages being beneficial for the usage of an individual's brain.
"The research report brings forth six main areas where multilingualism and hence the mastery of complex processes of thought seem to put people in advantage. These include learning in general, complex thinking and creativity, mental flexibility, interpersonal and communication skills, and even a possible delay in the onset of age-related mental diminishment later in life," Marsh relates.
One of the central cerebral areas highlighted in the research report is the one responsible for memory function. People rely especially on the short-term memory when thinking, learning and making decisions
"It is obvious that enhanced memory can have a profound impact on cognitive function, says David Marsh. -- This may be one reason why the multilingual shows superior performance in handling complex and demanding problem-solving tasks when compared to monolinguals. They seem to be able to have an advantage in handling certain thinking processes," March continues.
It was assumed earlier that differences in the brain would only occur if a person is bi- or trilingual, that is with a very high command of different languages. The recently published research suggests, however, that changes in the brain's electrical activity may occur already in the beginnings of learning a new language.
According to Marsh, there is also room for improvement in language education, since children should be encouraged to engage in higher order thinking about meaningful content that fires up the brain.
"Learning a language strictly as a separate subject in the curriculum does not work as effectively for a broad range of young people as compared to embedding second language learning into other subjects. Thinking about numbers, for example, does figure naturally in a lot of school learning as well as in real life outside the school, which supports learning and knowing mathematics. The same may not always be true of foreign languages," Marsh argues.
The results of the recently published study show that even though it is difficult to prove the existence of a direct causal link, it is likely that multilingualism produces a special advantage in utilizing a person's brain capacity as creatively as possible.

Spanish this year...

2010-04-01T04:52:00.000-07:00

Hola! Today in the upper grades we took a step back and reviewed our learning styles and answered the question "where do you see spanish going for the rest of the year?" These two questions turned out to be fantastic questions and I received some great feedback! We're about to start a clothing unit and I can't wait to jump into this. The culminating event will be one for the books!

In the younger grades we learned a new song about the weather. The third grade even performed it for their teacher Mrs. Morrison!

You can listen to the song at: http://foreignlanguagehouse.podbean.com/2010/03/02/spanish-weather-song/#

It's a really fun song that is quite fast but we slowed it down by singing it ourselves! Have your student sing it to you and translate it!

Long time no blog!

2010-03-22T11:28:00.000-07:00

¡Buenos Días!

It's that time again! Report Cards! I just wanted to let you all know that developing and partially meets is completely normal! We have only just begun our Spanish and for all of our students to know everything already would be impossible! So all the report cards are based on the k-2 Maine Learning Results and our students here at Edgecomb Eddy are progressing faster than I could have predicted!

¡Estoy emocionada! ( I am excited! )

This week our 4-6 graders learned a little about sentence structure and where objects are in relation to another in our bathrooms! We were working with the same vocab as last week!

3rd grade learned more about the weather! Ask them how to say winter, it's snowing, and there's snow!

kindergarteners through 2nd grade took a break and played a fun game of head, shoulders, knees, and toes. I'm very proud of the 2nd graders, we presented our song to Mrs. Garey and she was truely impressed!

Spanish Words:

cabeza = head
hombros = shoulders
piernas = knees
pies = toes (actually pies means foot or feet and dedos de pies is toes, but doesn't fit in the rhythm of the song)
ojos = eyes
orejas = ears
boca = mouth
nariz = nose

10 de Marzo de 2010

2010-03-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

WOW! What a great day! The 4th graders started making sentences in Spanish about the bathroom vocabulary they have been learning. We had 8 students develop 8 sentences explaining where a certain item was!

The vocab for today in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades were:

Debajo (under)
Sobre (over)
Dónde (where)

The kindergarteners completed their color books so make sure you check their backpacks!!!

1st grade read and colored a new book about Invierno, which is Winter in Spanish while the 2nd graders learned numbers up until 30!

3rd graders had a substitute teacher today! One student taught the rest of the class about weather words as I was watching for about 10 minutes, it was fun and a good sight to see!

¡Hasta Luego!

¡Buenos Dias!

2010-02-11T08:11:00.000-08:00

¡Lo Siento! This has been a very busy week and I have not had a chance to post what we did in class yesterday yet!

6th graders - I had the 6th graders fill a student in on what we did last wednesday and had them teach the new vocab to this student. I must say that I was very proud of what they could tell him! We then worked on recognizing vocabulary and singing ¿Puedo ir al Baño Por Favor? We did not have a lot of time in this class yesterday but I think the learning that was taking place was definitely quality!

5th graders practiced the same song and I video taped them acting out the song. This was a lot of fun with such a creative, enthusiastic class!

4th and 3rd graders reviewed the ¿Puedo ir al Baño Por Favor? song and also learned new vocabulary that had to do with Día de San Valentín. We talked about what is in our hearts and then made a word bank on the board of the translated words. We then divided our heart on paper and wrote down what is in our own personal heart! It was a LOT of fun!!

2nd graders learned a fun new song reviewing emotions, numbers, and colors and also played their memory game of weather words! It was a smorgage board of vocab but these niños could handle it!

1st graders worked on their color words in a word search, TOOOO much fun! We also learned a new song "Cinco Calabazas Sentado en su Casa" (Five pumpkins sitting in your house).

Kindergarteners also worked on vocabulary words for Día de San Valentín and made a muy bonita heart that they are finishing today in class!

I hope that everyone has a very enjoyable vacation and we will be tackling sentence structure when the "big kids" come back and learning a few more songs with the "little kids". I can't wait!

HASTA LUEGO!!!!

¿Puedo ir al baño? & Memory Game

2010-02-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

MEMORY GAME

The Kindergartners and 2nd grade started learning weather words today. We are in the process of making the cards to go to the game "Memory".

Words the Kindergartners are learning are: Nublado (cloudy), Niebla (foggy), Viento (windy), Nevando (snowing)

In addition to the kindergarten words the 2nd graders also learned: Frio (cold), Calor (hot), Lluvia (raining), Perfecto (perfect)

Today the 3rd through 6th grade had a lot of fun learning a new song!

To listen to the song go to: http://www.senorwooly.com/music_puedo_ir_al_bano.php

¿Puedo ir al baño?

Maestro, ¿puedo ir al baño?
Por favor.
Yo necesito ir al baño.
Por favor.

Teacher, may I go to the bathroom?
Please.
I need to go to the bathroom.
Please.

Es una emergencia.
Y ya hice mi tarea.

It's an emergency
And I already did my homework.

Maestro, ¿puedo ir al baño?
Por favor.
Yo necesito ir al baño.
Por favor

Teacher, may I go to the bathroom?
Please.
I need to go to the bathroom.
Please.

Le traeré una manzana.
Y lavaré su pizarra.

I'll bring you an apple.
And I'll clean your chalkboard.

Maestro, ¿puedo ir al baño?
Por favor.
Yo necesito ir al baño.
Por favor.

Teacher, may I go to the bathroom?
Please.
I need to go to the bathroom.
Please.

¿Por qué Carlos fue al baño?
Él estaba hablando.

Why did Carlos go to the bathroom?
He was talking.

Maestro, no puedo esperar.
Yo necesito ir al baño.
Es una emergencia.

Teacher, I can't wait.
I need to go to the bathroom.
It's an emergency.

¿Por qué no puedo ir?
¿Por qué no puedo ir al baño?
(Por qué no puede ir al baño?)

Why can't I go?
Why can't I go to the bathroom?
(Why can't he go to the bathroom?)

Maestro, no puedo esperar.
Yo necesito ir al baño.
Es una emergencia.

Teacher, I can't wait.
I need to go to the bathroom.
It's an emergency.

¿Por qué no puedo ir?
¿Por qué no puedo ir al baño?
(¡Déjelo! ¡Déjelo!)

Why can't I go?
Why can't I go to the bathroom?
(Let him! Let him!)

Maestro, no puedo esperar.
Yo necesito ir al baño.
Por favor, ¿puedo ir?

Teacher, I can't wait.
I need to go to the bathroom.
Please, can I go?

Las Letras en Español

2010-01-14T06:46:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the whole school learned about the letters in the Spanish Alphabet. We learned the alphabet song and talked about the similarities and differences in the English and Spanish Alphabets. An easy pronunciation guide and a link to a You Tube video will help your student practice at home!

A: aa

B: be

C: ce

CH: che

D: de

E: eh

F: efe

G: ge

H: hache

I: ee

J: jota

K: ka

L: ele

LL: elle

M: eme

N: ene

Ñ: eñe

O: o

P: pe

Q: cu

R: ere

S: ese

T: te

U: oo

V: ve

W: uve doble

X: equis

Y: i griega

Z: szeta

The You Tube website that sings the ABC's to you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvIxn5ZT7AU&feature=PlayList&p=B6EA7532681027D2&index=45

Benefits of Being Bilingual

2010-01-08T07:39:00.000-08:00

Learning a second language at an early age

Has a positive effect on intellectual growth and enriches and enhances a child's mental development
Leaves students with more flexibility in thinking, greater sensitivity to language, and a better ear for listening
Improves a child's understanding of his/her native language
Gives a child the ability to communicate with people s/he would otherwise not have the chance to know
Opens the door to other cultures and helps a child understand and appreciate people from other countries
Gives a student a head start in language requirements for college
Increases job opportunities in many careers where knowing another language is a real asset.
(Center for Applied Linguistics)

http://www.cal.org/earlylang/benefits/benefits_of_being_bilingual.html

Día de los Tres Reyes

2010-01-07T08:22:00.000-08:00

Hola!

Yesterday in Spanish class we had a great time familiarizing ourselves with a little more Latin American Culture. Yesterday was, Día de los Tres Reyes (Day of the Three Kings) that many Spanish-speaking countries celebrate. We also learned some of the traditions that children celebrate during this day. We were able to write, what we would like, in Español, in our un zapato (shoe), in complete sentences. We learned “Yo quiero” which means “I want” and used Spanish dictionaries to translate our list from English to Español. Have your student explain this custom to you!

In Kindergarten we learned a game “Sra. Michaud dice…” which is a version of Simon says. It was very fun for the students and myself!

Tongue Twisters - Trabajenguas

2010-01-05T08:17:00.000-08:00

Erre con erre carreta

erre con erre carrill

rapido corren los carros

cargados de azucar del ferrocarril

Erre con erre guitarra

erre con erre barril

que r·pido que ruedan

las ruedas del ferrocarril.

Version of the It's Raining, It's Pouring...

Que llueva, Que llueva

La vieja esta en la cueva

Los pajaritos cantan

Las nubes se levantan.

Que si!

Que no!

Que caiga un chaparrón

Que se rompan los cristales

De la estación

Y los míos

Argentina's way of saying the same:

Que llueva, que llueva

la vieja est· en la cueva

los pajaritos cantan

la vieja se levanta.

Que sÌ, que no,

que caiga un chaparrÛn

arriba del colchÛn

con agua y jabÛn.

Or...

Del pelo al codo y del codo al pelo, del codo al pelo y del pelo al codo.

One of my favorites...

Supercalifragilisticoespiralidoso, aunque al oirlo hablar se te hace medio enredoso, si lo dices con humor sera mas fabuloso, supercalifragilisticoespiralidoso

Library

2010-01-05T08:02:00.000-08:00

Mrs. Nichols and I have set up a section in the library for students to bring Spanish books home to read over the week. We have a few introduction books as well as some translated books, and some more advanced Spanish books. All are colorful and have helpful pictures and some you might recognize! I hope that the students will start taking them home to share with their families soon!

El Conejito Knuffle

Book Fiesta

Abuelos

Un Amigo de Veras Maravilloso

El Tigre de Tasmania

Señor Felipe's Alphabet Adventure

Additions coming soon!