Happy Fasching / Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday!
I completely forgot today was a holiday until my sister, Jennifer, emailed me pictures from Jonathan’s German school party. We’ll have to whip something up for dinner to celebrate the occasion… not sure I’ll manage to do (or find) any other traditions for the day. Maybe I can find some jelly donuts at the grocery store…
I actually heard birds singing outside this morning as Abby, Shawn, and I were on the way to Spanish class. I’m not convinced that winter is over yet and that the snow is done for the season, but it was a nice change of pace from the howling wind, tip-tap of snow flakes, and grinding scrape of the snow plows that we’ve become so accustomed to this year!
Shawn mentioned Diego’s name a few times this morning while he was getting dressed. It’s a good thing we had Spanish class today so he could see him! Today’s Spanish class was about transportation. (One of Shawn’s favorites.) We focused on car / el carro, truck / el camión, airplane / el avión, train / el tren, boat / el barco, and bicycle / el bicicleta. Diego came prepared with a bag of toy cars and little foam airplanes that the kids could play with. We practiced identifying the colors of the toys and talking about if they went fast or slow. Diego led us through an adapted version of “The Wheels on the Bus” (one of Shawn's absolutel favorite songs) that covered each of the different modes of transportation:
Diego even brought out a large plastic sheet with a town drawn on it, so the kids could drive their cars… “all through the city / por toda la ciudad.” I think Shawn and Abby recognized the tune, but they weren’t so sure about the words to this version. Just before snack time, Shawn was right on cue when we played hands up (manos arriba), down (manos abajo), in front (manos al frente), and in back (manos atrás). They got pretty excited about playing the game today. Both Abby and Shawn were funny, as usual, when Diego was checking their hands to see if they were clean (limpio) or not (sucios) before snack time. Each student in turn would stretch out her hands for Diego to “smell” them, to which he’d respond, “[Snif, snif, snif] Ewwwww… yucky, yucky! Las manos están sucias!” That always gets a round of giggles from the kids. Then, he helps the parents ask the kids if they’d like a wet-wipe napkin to clean their hands. We sing a song to clean our hands and then to clean the table because “la mesa está sucia!” To the tune of Hurrry, Hurry, Drive the Firetruck, it’s something along the lines of:
Clean, clean, clean the hands (table) / Limpie, Limpie, Limpie las manos (la mesa)
Clean, clean, clean the hands (table) / Limpie, Limpie, Limpie las manos (la mesa)
Clean, clean, clean the hands (table) / Limpie, Limpie, Limpie las manos (la mesa)
Then eat! / Entonces comer!
Once the table was clean, Diego handed each student a picture of a bicycle. Then we helped them attach construction paper circles with brads, so the wheels could “go round and round / vueltas y vueltas” as we sang the song a few more times about a bicycle / bicicleta this time. (I felt like it was a bit of a tongue twister, though that could’ve just been me!)
Diego forgot to end class with the nursery rhyme song, See You Tomorrow / Hasta Mañana. Though we always want class to go a little longer than it actually does, I wasn’t about to bring up the song that I stumble over each week! It was a nice break. I’m looking forward to when a new nursery rhyme is introduced. It feels like we’ve been working on this one for months!
Dr. Booth called today from Aurora University to ask if I'd teach a course this summer - Reading in the Content Areas. The problem is it's 8 am - 4 pm for a week about 45 minutes away, so it completely conflicts with watching Abby and I’d need someone to watch Shawn the whole time, too. She knows that I'm babysitting/nannying, so I mentioned that if they could give me 6 classes in order to get benefits, I'd have more to consider. She's working on schedules and placements now, so she said she'll see what she could come up with, but wasn't sure she had the availability right now. We'll see if that gets me anywhere - I won’t hold my breath!
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