Family Calendar

For the past 16 years I have been creating my family's calendar. I started back in 2001! Back then, only a few of my cousins were married, so the calendar was fairly simple. But now... Wowsers!! It's become quite a phenomenon! It started out with only 15 families. Granted, a few were for my single cousins, but none the less... Now, as I finish editing the 2016 calendar, I realized how beautiful and wonderful it has been for me to see, first hand, how our family has grown. I tear up just thinking about it. 

First ever calendar from 2001

I now make it for 25 families! Back in 2001, it started out with 48 members. Now, we have 137!! Oh my! I had not realized how many relatives (by blood or marriage) had become a part of this tradition. No wonder I take for ever to do it every year. Hahaha! 

Past calendars: You can see how the family has grown!

My family has become so accustomed to this calendar, that by the end of December, during our Posadas (our 9 day Mexican recreation of Mary and Joseph's arduous journey to Nazareth,) they begin reminding me if I'd already begun the calendar. 

And so, I'd like to share with you this wonderful tradition with you of creating your very own family's calendar. All you have to do is enter your family member's birthdays and/or anniversaries. Once done, print and bind it. I print at home and bind at my work. I buy the binding strips at Staples.

I am sharing it on PowerPoint so you can edit it. I used to create it on Calendar Maker, but began doing it on PPT last year. It's sooo much easier. Here is a sample of what my calendar pages look like. (FYI: I make my calendar in Spanish, but I've included the English version for you as well.)

To get your family calendar template, click: HERE.

I hope you enjoy creating and making it a family tradition as I have.

Happy New Year!! And God bless!!

-Hilda

An InLinkz Link-up

Farmer in the Dell - Sentence Patterning Board

Teaching parts of speech can get pretty boring and redundant after a while. So why not make it more fun?!

For every unit that I teach, I include a "Farmer in the Dell" sentence patterning chart. Farmer in the Dell is from GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition and Design.) These are charts that include separate columns for adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, and prepositional phrases. The teacher and students combine words from the charts to make sentences and "sing" the sentences to the tune of Farmer in the Dell.

It's easy to make and it does wonders in teaching parts of speech in the present, future, and past tense and more! Try it!

As you can see from the photos above, once you write down the student responses, you can manipulate the prepositional phrase column by cutting it and placing it at the beginning of the chart. This allows students to see how a sentence can be written in different ways.

For the holidays, (or any holiday) you and your students can create a sentence patterning chart for any noun!

Topics, for example can be: Santa, elf, gift, tree, reindeer, candy cane, stocking, etc. Have fun with it! I'm sure your students will get a kick out or singing, "Huge and furry candy canes

Huge and furry candy canes

Huge and furry candy canes  

run across the yard!"

Then they can draw it! How cool is that?! :)

I can't wait to do it in the month of December. I'm sure Grammar time will be much more fun when their working in partners giggling over "Large and bumpy elves swimming in the beach." Ha!

For a free Farmer in the Dell template (Spanish & English) click

HERE!

Altarcitos del Día de los muertos

     Nuestra clase estará aprendiendo sobre el Día de los muertos durante la semana de octubre 26 al 30 del 2015. Durante esa semana, los estudiantes tendrán la oportunidad de completar su tarea semanal o, hacer un altarcito del Día de los muertos. Esta opción se la doy a mis estudiantes por si acaso no celebren días festivos.

     El Día de los muertos es una celebración Mexicana. Aunque también se celebra en muchos países Latinoamericanos y ciudades con poblaciones de habla hispana, originó en México. El Día de los muertos honra a los difuntos del 1 de noviembre hasta el 2 de noviembre. 

     Durante el Día de los muertos, las familias decoran un altar. El altar es decorado con artículos especiales. Todos estos artículos, u objetos recuerdan a la persona.

     A los altares, le ponen una fotografía de la persona que están recordando. Junto a la foto, le ponen las comidas favoritas del ser querido. Decoran con papel picado, velas, flores de cempasúchil, pan de muerto y calaveras de azúcar y calacas.

     Tus estudiantes pueden tomar parte en esta tradición Latinoamericana al crear su propio altarcito y recordar a un ser querido que ya a fallecido.

     El propósito de esta actividad es para que tus estudiantes hablen con sus familiares y aprendan sobre sus antepasados. 

**Todos estos altarcitos fueron creados por mis estudiantes y sus familias el año pasado.**

Aquí están las instrucciones para que tus estudiantes hagan sus altarcito.

--------------------------------

Recuérdele a sus estudiantes que: 

Un altar es un espacio que se usa para recordar todas las cosas maravillosas sobre un ser querido que ya a muerto. Consiste de fotografías veladoras, flores, golosinas y comidas deliciosas. Estos obsequios son considerados ofrendas para los muertos que vienen a visitarnos en un día mágico.

Para hacer tu altar del Día de los muertos necesitas:

1.Caja de zapatos de cualquier tamaño

2.Papel para envolver tu caja

3.Fotos de tu ser querido

4.Artículos que le gustaban a tu ser querido –recuerda que cualquier cosa cuenta como ofrenda.

5.Una velita real o de LED

6.Flores de papel o ceda (opcional-pero las flores son una gran parte en la decoración del altar.)

Para armar tu altar:

1.Envuelve tu caja con el papel de envoltura. Es bonito usar papel de colores brillantes que le gustaban a tu ser querido.

2.Decora con las foto. Es bueno pegarlas adentro de la pared de la caja. Puedes usar palito de paletas para hacer marcos.

3.Agrega cualquier otro tipo de decoración. Usa cruces, signos religiosos si quieres, y también corazones y gemas.

4.Pon también comidas y golosinas como chocolates y papitas reales.

5.Finalmente, ponle unas velitas y las flores.

Espero y tus estudiantes disfruten de este proyecto tan memorable.



Periscope! My New, "Secret" Obsession

 

OMG!! I am obsessed with Periscope! I went to the San Diego Zoo today and when I heard that whistle... I pretended to need to use the bathroom to see it! It was a Periscope from Lucky Little Learners. Luckily, (no pun intended) I had my earphones in my purse and was able to hear inside the stall.

Weird? Nah!!!! Ha!

 

So, here I am!  Following Sheila Jane and the 5 recommended teachers and some...

 

What a great tool for teachers!

 

Happy Periscoping!

 

 

4th of July Bilingual Blog Hop

¡Bienvenidos!

Welcome once again to our second 4th of July Bilingual Blog Hop! 

 

This year, I am very excited to share with you one of my monthly centers, Centros de junio. I know that it's July but this June, three week pack is filled with summer themed topics: the beach, camping, and road trip!

Your kiddos will be able to practice several skills like initial, medial, and final syllabication, alphabetical order, vocabulary development, complete sentence writing and writing in general. Additionally, you'll get 18 vocabulary cards for every word in this pack (6 per topic.) 

 

 

 

 

Hope you like it!

 

And from my family to yours, 

Have a fun and safe Fourth of July!!

 

To get your FREE Centros de junio

Click HERE.

 

Thanks for taking part in our Bilingual Blog Hop! 

To continue getting awesome bilingual freebies, click on the link below to visit the next Blog FREEBIE from Nicole & Eliceo!

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Spring "Animal" Writing Fever!

I love how my students have improved in writing this school year! They began with simple sentence frame writing in the beginning of the year, to full blown research papers! Okay, almost full blown research papers! But I must admit, my 2nd grade, dual immersion students have done so well. I cannot say enough of how proud I am of them.

We started off by learning about the life cycles of the plants and animals. Then we continued by learning about different animal groups, their characteristics, and habitats. 

 

During writing time, I prepared them really well. We went over the writing process of an informative piece of writing and what it entailed.  (Quick shout out to my best bud, Angelica Sandoval) And during their spring break, they completed their animal reports. I must say, they turned out FAN-TAS-TIC!!

Here are some of the awesome results and presentations!

Ha! I love my little kiddos! They all made their presentations. Presentation rules were:
1. Introduce your animal,
2. Give 3 facts about your animal, and
3. Say one fun/interesting fact.

In the end, my students expressed how fun it had been making their reports. And because we also worked on reports during Black History month, my students have gotten used to that "portfolio" format. Later a student asked what we were going to do a report on next. I told him, "Rocks!"

¡Un carnaval de recursos! - Bilingual Blog Hop

¡Bienvenidos! & Welcome!

 

I hope you are all having a restful, loooong President's Day weekend. I know, now, I am! With that being said,

I would love to share with you what I've been, and will continue to be working on for the next couple of weeks with my students.

 

If you teach 2nd and above, you know that distinguishing between open and closed syllables is quite a challenge. This week, I introduced closed syllable words to my students and they struggled! And so.... my freebie was designed for students to practice that particular skill: closed syllables.  

 

The words are their actual spelling words. They are the ones from the Houghton-Mifflin, 2nd Grade Lectura series.

 

Spelling patterns:

Sílabas cerradas con:

r, s, z y x

l, m, n y d

 

 

 

Don't forget to rate and comment on it!!

¡Mil gracias!

 

Now, for your next freebie!!

Click on the link to visit School en casa

 

 Click below to visit School en casa's blog.

 



Enjoy your weekend!