aventuras

3.12.2011

Spanish Guide

As I am thinking more and more about how to teach in a bilingual classroom, I am aware that pronunciation is an important aspect of learning any language. While eating out with friends last night, a friend found in the brochure table at the restaurant a ´´guide for gringos´´ on how to pronounce basic Spanish phrases. We smiled and laughed about the pronunciation guide for how to say phrases that have almost become second nature for us now... so I thought I would share the guide with you. Consider this Kate practicing her Spanish teaching skills :)

Costa Rica (CO-sta REE-ka... never CA-sta)

Buenas! (basic greeting) (Bwe-nas)

Hola, cómo estás? (Hello, how are you?) (OH-la, CO-mo et-stA)

Muy bien, y usted? (Very good, and you?) (MUEE-be-yen, ee OO-sted?)

Pura vida! (Life is good!) (POO-rah BI-da)

Con mucho gusto! (You're welcome) (cone MOO-cho GOO-sto)

Hasta luego! (See you later!) (ahs-sta LUEH-go)

No me moleste. (Don´t bother me.) (no MAY mo-less-te)

Si. (Yes) (sEE)

No. (No.) (no) :)

Tal vez. (Maybe.) (tahl bAys)

No hablo español. (I don´t speak Spanish.) (no AH-blow es-PAHN-yol)

3.09.2011

Yearbook Photos

I have to turn in photos for the yearbook next week, so we had a photo shoot this afternoon.

The girls' idea was to have their photo taken in the tree behind the soccer field.

Cute!

Going to see what the boys decided to their photo...

The boys´ idea was to run down the hill and somehow get all faces in the photo...

This is how it worked out, haha. Some were ''flying'' :)

Then, of course, when we're done with the photos, I realized that one student was absent today. NOOOOOO!! We might have to have another photo shoot tomorrow!

3.07.2011

Talent Show

We had a talent show at school last Friday night. Check out Lisa and my ''talent''... making people laugh :)

3.04.2011

Flexibility Skit

Each month, we focus on different character traits at school, complete with a monthly assembly discussing that character trait. This month the topic is flexibility, and somehow I was nominated to be the lead exercise instructor for the skit!

So here we are, stretching out

And we did a tae-bo 3 minute workout, haha, including different ways we can be flexible when plans change. At the end, we shouted ''Let's get flexible'' and we did flexible poses! I did the splits :)

3.03.2011

March!

Wow, time is flying here in San Jose! Since getting back from the U.S. Feb. 6th, I have hardly had a moment to sit down and rest... My good mom keeps reminding me with Facebook messages that I need to rest :). Thanks, Mom.

This week's happenings at school:

Science exam building boats, adding cargo until they sink, identifying and measuring mass, density, and weight.
I was the aerobic instructor in a skit this morning :). I'll have to post photos of my SWEET one-piece exercise outfit, haha!
Sending students to the office for disrespect... they come back very responsive to my directions :)
Enjoying Spanglish and reinforcing English

This week's happenings at home:

no Internet
feeding the dogs at 5am... that's a long story.
chilly, windy in the morning and HOT in the afternoons... I never know what to wear! The sweater or the sundress?
I bought my favorite cheese bread from the panaderia Pan Por Kilo :)

And a big hello to Mr. Monger's students as I know they will be checking the blog soon :) Keep working hard on your ISATs, boys!!!

2.25.2011

Sports Day

Whew! Today was lots of fun and sun (and B.O.!! :))! We celebrated the third annual Sports Day at Lighthouse and I was so thankful for the many parents that helped. All I had to do was keep track of 22 students :)

Morning warm-ups

The sun was super bright!

The boys recently started playing ''Maracuya 1 2 3'' where one boy says that phrase and the last one to cross his arms is punched. It was a popular passtime today while waiting for our running race to begin.