My little pajarito

Like I mentioned before, Mateo and I do a letter project while Diego is at preschool. This day we made the letter "C" decorated with "corazones" of different sizes and colors. This isn't a particularly interesting or creative project but I took a picture because Mateo decided that he was a bird and insisted that before we started he needed wings. He tore a piece of paper in two and handed it to me. With just a little bit of tape I had a happy little pajarito. Two year olds are so funny.

Taking learning to the sandbox

Playing in the sandbox is one of my kids' favorite things to do. I received a set of uppercase and lowercase letters awhile back and they have just been sitting in the craft closet awaiting a creative lightbulb to go off in my head. Yesterday before going outside I asked the boys if they would like to go on a treasure hunt. After making various pirate noises that I took as a "yes," we headed to the sandbox. A very simple, but fun game of "dig up the letters" ensued. My favorite part was Diego trying to teach Mateo his letters and Mateo happily repeating whatever Diego said just so happy to be included in the game.

Sopa de letras/Letter Soup

I caved in and bought Diego a sticker/activity book at the store the other day. The problem that I have with a lot of these books is that either the activities are two easy and Diego spends five seconds putting two stickers on the page and is finished or the activities are too difficult and he gets frustrated and gives up. Since I can not stand to throw ANYTHING away, I am trying to find creative ways to use up this book that I bought. Below is an activity that I made from one of the wordsearches. (Please excuse the art. I made it very quickly while making dinner.) I cut up the lowercase letters from the puzzle and Diego glued them in the bowl of soup. Afterwards, we went on a letter hunt. I have some more ideas for book that I will post later.

P de Pavo

I had this activity ready for D to do after he returned from preschool one day this week. In our family, "P" is for Pavo (turkey). I was also pleased to realize that "P" is also for pico (beak), plumas (feathers) and patas (feet.) Great activity for Thanksgiving and to review the letter "P."

Spanish vocabulary:

pavo- turkey

pico- beak

plumas- feathers

patas- feet

rojo- red

amarillo- yellow

Día de Acción de Gracias- Thanksgiving

Q de Quesadilla

Since D already knows his letters, we do not do as many letter projects as we used to. He really seems to enjoy them though, so I am going to try to do them more often. Today's letter was Q. In Spanish, like in English, there are not many letters that start with the letter Q. The first word that came to my mind was "queso." A little more thought and no idea of what to make for lunch brought on today's "Q de Quesadilla." Since it is the same word in English, give it a try. It was so simple and muy deliciosa!

First we warmed up the tortillas and cheese on the "comal." (My husband would pass out if I warmed the tortillas in the microwave like I, um, used to do.)

Next I cut out the shape of a "Q" and served to my hungry kiddos.

Spanish Vocabulary:
tortilla- tortilla
queso- cheese
comal- cast iron grilling pan
delicioso-delicious

G de Gato (Cat)

D requested to do another letter craft. In keeping with our Halloween theme this month we made a black cat out of the letter G. Look below the picture to find some helpful words in Spanish that go along with this craft.

Black cat- gato negro

Eyes- ojos (don't forget the the "j" makes an "h" sound

Nose- nariz

Mouth- boca

Ears- orejas

Whiskers- bigotes

B de Bruja (Witch)

D and I have been working on his letters for well over a year now. We used to do one letter-picture a week but I stopped when it was obvious that he knew all of his letters. Lately he has been asking to do a "letra" and I obliged. I always find such cute ideas for letter-pictures on other sites but they usually do not work for us since we are focusing on the Spanish alphabet. This day D requested to do "B" so we made a bruja. I traced the pieces and he cut them out. By far, his favorite part was cutting the gray yarn. (I was excited too because I have had that darn gray yarn forever and had no idea what to do with it.)

I am going to start including Spanish vocabulary that we used during our projects. I hope that you find it useful. :)

yarn- el hilo

scissors- las tijeras

hat- el sombrero

broom- la escoba

black cat- el gato negro (Notice the cat that D drew under the witch.)