Thursday, July 16th, 2009
Today the students went over written dialogues to practice greetings and conversational phrases. Afterwards they wrote their own dialogues and acted them out in pairs. Later in the afternoon, they finished making their piñatas and couldn’t wait to get home to break them open and eat their candy!
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
July 16 2009
Today we reviewed our numbers 1-10 in Chinese, and learned another new song about the body parts. The kids loved playing different games, like tic tac toe, and they did a great job in remembering all their numbers. We had Chinese noodles for our snack, and Mrs. Westlund explained that the long noodles represented a long life. The Chinese eat red eggs for the one month birthday, and noodles on the other birthdays. After practicing our three songs for the parents tomorrow, Mrs. Westlund read us a story about a Chinese tea shop. The Chinese order many small dishes, and share all the food with the whole table. Then we learned that the proper way to thank a waitress is to tap two fingers on the table. The kids all thought that was interesting, and we had fun pretending Mrs. Westlund was our waitress. The kids are really learning and remembering everything they have learned so far, and they never fail to impress us.
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Day 2
The girls learned about the culture of the Dominican Republic today. They were taught about the typical dance, the Carnival, some history of the country, and how other cultures have influenced the Dominican culture. Later, the students played Ole (Bingo) using the vocabulary of emotions they learned. They also enjoyed writing a postcard to a friend as if they were in another country. They even asked if they could really send it to someone!
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
Day 1
Today the children learned new vocabulary. They were taught emotions like happy, sad, bored. They practiced these new words in a couple different games. Later, they learned about the culture of Costa Rica, the sports, religions and fiestas. They were very interested in learning about the parades they have to celebrate the Saints.
Tuesday, July 14th, 2009
July 14 2009
This morning, we were greeted with an enthusiastic “ni hao!” from each child as they walked in the door. “Ni hao” is a phrase we learned yesterday - it means “hello”. Today was the second day of our Chinese Camp, and Mrs. Westlund taught us how to count to five in Chinese. Yi, èr, sān, si, and wŭ. The rest of the day was spent playing games to help us learn the numbers. We played musical chairs and the flyswatter game, which all the children enjoyed. Another favorite was picking the team names. Today the teams were the Golden Panthers vs the Golden Fish. The winning team got to get a little prize out of the prize box. All of the kids have great memories, and we are really impressed by how quickly they learned the numbers. Mrs. Westlund had a special surprise for us to eat at snack time. She brought in frozen Chinese dumplings, and she taught us about them as they boiled. All of the children had a bite of the dumplings, but only 2 liked the taste. It was a good experience for them to try a new food, even if most of the dumplings ended up in the trash. Mrs. Westlund read a story about Stillwater the panda bear. The children are already excited to show off what they learned to their parents at the end of the week.
Sunday, July 12th, 2009
Day Five Mexico
The students learned about Mexico today. They were taught about the food, climate, and culture. They liked how colorful the Mexican culture is and enjoyed looking at the pictures of the scenery in Mexico. Later, they completed their scrap book, then practiced their skit and song until the parents came. They did a great job on their presentation!
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Day Three Ecuador
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
Day Two, Dominican Republic
Today the children learned about the Dominican Republic. They learned a Dominican song called “Arroz Con Leche”, and practiced more of the vocabulary by making their own memory game. They made a typical juice from the Dominican Republic called “Morir Sonando” and wrote about how much they liked it in their scrap books. They said it tasted like an orange creamsicle!
Saturday, June 27th, 2009
On the last day of camp, the children present their parents with a sampling of what they have learned at camp. This past week, they sang “Los Pollitos” and “Los Vocales”. They made maracas and received pictures from Señora Wimer to remember Spanish Camp. The audience was large, but the children were not shy and gave us quite a performance.
The next camp coming up will be the Spanish Immersion Camp for ages 8 and older. They will be visiting 5 different Hispanic countries, and learning about and preparing food from those countries. Then there is the Chinese camp for ages 4 – 8, where they will be learning a variety of things about the Chinese culture and some useful phrases and vocabulary.
Check in regularly to see the exciting things happening at language camp!