Domingo 28 de septiembre

(English text below)

Este sábado pasado marcó la segunda sesión del Círculo del semestre. Los niños no saben todavía los nombres de todo el mundo, y por eso, los practicamos. Todo del mundo decoró su nombre en una  etiqueta por cinco minutos al comienzo de la sesión. Entonces todos formaron un círculo y comenzó un divertido juego de El Lobo (The Wolf). Esta vez, sin embargo, tratamos de ayudar a los chic@s a ser más específicos acerca de lo que estaban haciendo durante su rutina diaria. Esto les ayudó con su vocabulario de ropa y las partes de cuerpo. Por ejemplo, en lugar de simplemente decir "Me estoy cambiando",  los niños decían "Me estoy poniendo mi camisa/mis zapatos/los pantalones",

Segundo, comenzamos a cantar. Practicaron la diferencia entre alto y suave para cantar una melodía en diferentes volúmenes. Entonces, todo del mundo fue designado en grupitos un ritmo distinto de aplaudir. En cada grupo, romperían el ritmo de su grupo. Este ejercicio fue un poco difícil para los niños y los voluntarios, pero fue bueno para ser la primera vez. Después, cantamos "A La Nanita Nana". Una estudiante cantó la canción por sí sola. ¡Qué bien lo hizo! Una escena de la Natividad le dio a los chicos su primer vistazo de un pesebre, que fue un tema un poco más adelante.

Después de colorear, los niños se lavaron las manos y comieron merienda. La comida era muy nutritiva, con galletas saladas, uvas, queso. Las bebidas también estaban sanas con jugo de manzana o sidra de manzana. Después del almuerzo, los chicos y voluntarios fueron puestos en dos grupos, cada uno a un ritmo diferente. Luego los estudiantes aprendieron una nueva canción sobre el pesebre y aprendieron a mantener el ritmo con palmadas. Terminamos la sesión con un repaso de ejrcicios de "fuerte" y "piano".

Fue divertido!

Nos vemos el domingo entrante!

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This past Saturday marked the second Círculo session of the semester. Since the students still didn’t know everybody’s name, we decided to make name tags. Both the students and volunteers decorated their name tags for about five minutes at the beginning of the session. Then we all formed a circle and began a fun game of El Lobo (The Wolf). This time, however, we tried to help the students get more specific about what they were doing during their daily routine. This helped them strengthen their clothing vocabulary and body parts vocabulary. For example, instead of just saying “I am dressing,” the kids would say “I am putting on my pants/shoes/shirt.”

               After the warm up activities, we began to focus on singing. First the kids practiced the difference between “fuerte” (loud) and “piano” (soft) by singing a melody at different volumes in relation to the volume of the music instructor’s piano. Then the children and volunteers were split into three different groups. Each group was designated a different rhythm to clap. And in each group there was one drummer that would beat the same rhythm as his group. This exercise was a little difficult for both the children and the volunteers, but the really tricky part was when all of the groups had to play their rhythms all at once. After this, we had an easier review activity that involved singing the song “A La Nanita Nana.” One student, Vanessa, even sang the song by herself to the entire class to show how good her memory was. Then after a few times singing the song, the students had the chance to color in a nativity scene, while the song played in the background. The nativity scene gave the students their first glimpse at a pasture, which was a topic of focus later on in the session.

        After coloring, the kids washed their hands and went to eat. The snack was very nutritious, filled with pretzels, grapes, and cheese and crackers. The drinks were also healthy and apple-themed with the choice of apple juice or apple cider. Following lunch, the students and volunteers were split into two groups, which were each assigned a different rhythm. With only two groups this rhythm activity was easier than the first, but still difficult. Then the students learned a new song about the pasture and they learned to keep the beat with claps. After a few rounds of this activity, we ended the session with a review of “fuerte” and “piano” exercises.

That was fun!

See you next Sunday!