More Holiday Activities

During the last couple of weeks, we've been doing many holiday crafts with the kids! The students learned holiday vocabulary, learned about some Christmas traditions, watched some classic holiday movies, and sang some typical holiday songs. The kids loved the past few weeks as they were able to hear and use English in a natural context to learn about the holidays.

In first and second grade, the children listened to the story "The Gingerbread Man." Then, the children got their own gingerbread man to decorate, as well as a gingerbread house. Check out the creative gingerbread men below!

 Students in infantil also celebrated the holidays by watching a classic American movie, Frosty the Snowman. 

Happy holidays, everyone! 

Winter door decorations

Now that we've entered the winter season, it was time to decorate the doors with a winter theme! All the primary school doors have door decorations courtesy of the students (with a little help from us auxiliares). ;)

Here's a sneak peak of the door decorations for 2nd grade...

A festive bird decorated by a student in 2B

Decorating Piqui's door with winter animals

 

The students colored moose, squirrels, seals, birds, and more!

1st and 2nd Grade Christmas Cards

This week, our 1st and 2nd graders created some beautiful 3D Christmas cards. Although they were a little difficult to make, the kids loved the challenge and they were so proud of their cards! Some of the cards will go to other students at a British school, and some students will give their cards to their families. Check out their festive cards!

First, the students had to cut, fold, and decorate the three 3D presents in the middle of the card.

The students had to write "Merry Christmas" inside the card. 

The 1st graders had fun decorating the inside of their cards! (Cards from Amelia's 1B class) 

More cards from Amelia's 1B class.

A student in 2A with his finished Christmas card

A student in 2B with his finished Christmas card

Meet the Auxiliares for 2018-19!

Hello, everyone! Did you know that Colegio Torrente Ballester has three language assistants from the United States? We assist in classes all throughout the school, so chances are most students know who we are! This year, the assistants are Melissa, Jacqueline and me (Laura).

Melissa comes to Spain from the great state of Texas--a state larger than the whole country of Spain! She loves dancing, traveling, and eating southern food. Melissa is on year three here in Madrid, but this is her second year working at Colegio Torrente Ballester. This year she's working with infantil, ESO, Bachillerato, and grades 5 and 6 of primary.

Jacqueline is from Arizona, a state in the southwest portion of the United States famous for the Grand Canyon. Arizona is quite hot and has deserts. Jacqueline loves reading books and baking delicious desserts (ask her about her amazing Mexican cookies and hot chocolate recipe)! This is her fourth year in Spain, and her first year at Colegio Torrente Ballester. She works with infantil, ESO, Bachillerato, and grades 3 and 4 of primary.

I'm Laura, from the beautiful northern state of Minnesota. My state is known for its plethora of fresh water lakes, rivers, and Lake Superior--the biggest fresh water lake in the world. In my free time, I love hiking, running, and practicing Spanish. This is my second year in Spain and my second year at Colegio Torrente Ballester. This year, I work with primary school grades 1 and 2 and ESO.

Halloween 2018 (Melissa "Brujilda," "Pirate" Jacqueline and "Minnie Mouse" Laura)

Say "hi" if you see us at school! (We probably won't be wearing these costumes, though). ;)

The Food Pyramid with 2nd Grade

Last week, our second graders learned about healthy eating, exercise, and the food pyramid. To review the food pyramid, the kids created a craft using pictures of food from magazines. Each student had to cut out various food items, write the food pyramid categories, and place the food in the correct category. The kids loved looking at each other's projects and seeing the food everyone found!

A student writing the food pyramid categories

Cutting out pictures from grocery stores advertisements

The children walked around the room to find the best food pyramid.

The kids cut the top paper so that they could flip
open each category to reveal what food is inside.

The students had a blast creating their food pyramids and looking at those of the other students.

Science projects with 2nd Grade

Yesterday, the students in 2B created the science projects for the unit. The project included identifying, coloring, and labeling the key parts of the digestive system, and then filling in the information about the system on the page underneath.

The kids had a lot of fun coloring and labeling the picture, and also hunting down the correct information in their books! They reviewed the key vocabulary and practiced their spelling skills. "Oesophagus" is hard to spell, even for us native English speakers! Way to go, 2nd graders!

A Sneak Peak: Digestion projects for 2nd grade

Students in 2nd grade are learning about the digestive system in science class. Here's an example project using information about the digestive system along with an interactive drawing.

  

 

Halloween Celebration

Halloween is a popular holiday in the United States. This year, we decided to make a show out of Halloween--quite literally! For the 1st and 2nd graders, we taught and performed the story "Five Little Pumpkins." If you're not familiar with the story or song, take a look at this wonderful youtube video by The Kiboomers.

First, we created actions and taught the children how to do the actions along with the story. Then, Jacqueline told the story to the children while Melissa and I used our pumpkin "puppets" to tell the story. The kids had a blast, and so did we!

For the 3rd through 6th graders, we had a whole different plan...

Melissa and Jacqueline adding final touches to our mysterious boxes

"Brujilda" with her potion pot and boxes of "ingredients"

Luckily, "Brujilda" made a special visit to Colegio Torrente Ballester and was able to teach the children how she makes her special Halloween potion. All she needed was: the squishiest of brains, the heart of a wild pig, the skin of a goblin, the intestines of a vampire, the fingernails of a princess, the prettiest of eyeballs, spider legs, the baby teeth of a zombie, and Frankenstine's hand.

We put all these "ingredients" in boxes for the kids to feel. Later, the students had to guess what the special ingredients actually were. Can you guess what ingredients we used?

Here's a reveal of one of Brujilda's special ingredients: intestines! Our "intestines" were actually the leftover insides of a pumpkin (from our morning pumpkin carving activities with infantil). 

Happy Halloween from Brujilda, Pirate Jackie, Minnie Mouse, and the rest of Colegio Torrente Ballester teachers and staff! 👻