Es semana espanola!

Hola!

This week we start our whole-school Spanish week, hence the title of the blog this week. It has actually taken me quite a while to work out the pronunciation of the spanish words and thus our week will be revolved about what I can pronounce!!

We will be focusing on the days of the week and colours. I have listed them below for you to have a go at but BEWARE my pronunciation of the words may actually result in the creation of a new spanish dialect! Espanola a la Wigan!
Days of the Week
Monday - lunes (loonez)
Tuesday - martes (martez - roll the r)
Wednesday - miercoles (me-air-co-les)
Thursday - jueve (quebe)
Friday - viernes (bee-er-nez)
Saturday - sabado
Sunday - domingo

Colours
red - rojo (rocko)
yellow - amarillo (no Peter Kay jokes please!)
blue - azul
green - verde
orange - anaranjado (haven't got a clue-o)
black - negro (the 'e' is pronounced as the 'e' in 'egg')
white - blanco
pink - rosa
purple - purpura
brown - marron
grey - gris

All I can say is GOOD LUCK!!! (and wish me some too)

If you want further spanish translations try out this translation website:
www.babelfish.altavista.com/tr
If you want futher tution then these sites are good for the children and they have the pronunciation on too!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryspanish/

http://www.dsokids.com/2001/dso.asp?PageID=298 - for a recipe to try out.

Creative Development and Knowledge and Understanding of the World
We will begin our week with a Mantle ( a role-play) to inspire the children for the rest of the week's work. The children will receive a letter from the Tate Gallery whose trustees are not very impressed with the standard of art work the artist of today are producing. Therefore, they are commissioning the children to create pieces of art for the gallery. Of course, this is not real, so the school hall will become the Tate for the exhibition of their work.

Due to use doing Spanish week, we are asking the children to create their artwork in the style of Antoni Gaudi. I went to Barcelona for my 30th birthday and was truly in awe of the work he did. So...please allow me a little indulgence!

There is, however, a CHALLENGE on top of this! The Healthy Schools Award is funding the exhibition (not really but I bet you are starting to believe just as the children will!) and are requesting that the theme be based around healthy eating. Did I hear the word 'eating'? Not another week of food! Well, why should it be any different?
Information about healthy eating can be found on the following websites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/schools/4_11/uptoyou/
http://tiki.oneworld.net/food/home.html
http://www.cspinet.org/smartmouth/recipes_articles/index.html - lovely recipes to try out. Faith loved the strawberry smoothie.


Throughout the course of the week, the children will learn about vegetables and fruit that they may not have otherwise tasted or seen before. We do encourage the children to have a try of all the foods we give them. The ruling being:
First taste is a shock.
Second taste they decide if they like it or not.
In addition to this they will learn about where the fruit and vegetables come from and hopefully learn some of the spanish names for them.

The children will be completing observational drawings of their different fruits and vegetables and this will be transfered onto a large canvas for a team piece of art. We hope to develop the children's cooperative skills whilst also optimising their creative ones. Following the drawing of the fruits and vegetables onto the canvas they will then use gummed paper in small squares to create a mosaic effect in the style of Antoni Gaudi.

Mathematical Development and Physical Development
This week, these two areas of learning are to be combined in order to teach the children about positional language.

By the end of this week, the children:
MUST be able to understand positional language;
SHOULD be able to use positional langauge;
COULD be able to give directions to a partner using positional and directional language.

The children will have an input where they will learn the following vocabulary: on, above, under, beneath, beside, on top of, in front of, behind, next to. You may wish to support this in the home by asking your child where certain items are and encouraging the positional language. A good game is to hide a teddy bear and your child has to say where they found it.

The physical development aspect comes into play when the children will be asked to tell a partner what to do on the obstacle course in the hall during PE.

Communication, Language and Literacy
As always we will be developing the children's reading and writing skills. We are particular focusing on the children's spelling of simple three letter words and some longer words. the websites posted on the last website will adequately support your child's development. Why not give them a simple word like pen, man, net etc and see if they will write it. You will be amazed at what they can do!

We will also be using the artwork produced by the children and the work of Antoni Gaudi as a stimulus for the children's writing next week. The children will be developing their ideas for a shared composition which will be a tour guide to accompany their art exhibition. (Is this really the Foundation Stage??)

Parents' evening
You should have received your appointment date and time via your child's diary. Unfortunately I was not able to accommodate all parents with their request and I did have to work on a first come first served basis. You may also have noticed that I had to alter the Thursday and Friday dates to the following week. I hope this has not caused any problems.

And FINALLY...
Happy Mother's Day to all those mums out there! I hope you had a lovely day and liked the card and gift your child had so lovingly created.

Have a lovely week!

Best wishes

Jayne Narraway and the Foundation Stage Team xxxxx