Our Spanish Immersion Pre-K and Kinder students blew me away during our recent Friday field trip to the Little Thompson Observatory. The kids have been working hard; learning all they can about Space and they have an insatiable curiosity for Astronomy.







During the field trip, the kids were able to expand on their knowledge of the Milky Way (Via Láctea) in which our solar system belongs and discuss more about stars, such as the Sun. They even had the opportunity to look at the Sun through a solar telescope and see a solar flare! John Hiatt, our guide and local Astronomer, taught the kids how to find the North Star, the brightest star of Ursa Minor (Osa Menor), and in return the kids taught him all of the names of the planets in Spanish.

The kids explored the star charts on the walls of the Observatory to find constellations, galaxies, black holes and nebulae. The students learned that different cultures have specific ethnoastronomy and were able to look at and discuss the constellations used by the Lakota Indians. The children had lots of questions for John and spent the remainder of our time asking about astronomy research, the history of astronomy, telescopes, astronomy photographing, and space flights!

What an amazing opportunity for our kids! Thank you to John and the Little Thompson Observatory! We'll be sure to visit again soon!

Crystal Ferreira

Thanksgiving

As we approach Thanksgiving, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you—it is such a blessing to have such wonderful families be a part of our school and to be able to work with your children.


Our kid’s immersion Spanish classes joined in the Thanksgiving fun with some great art projects! As they talked about the first Thanksgiving, the kids made cute little turkey centerpieces that list the things they are thankful for.

They also learned some useful table manners in Spanish that they can utilize over the holiday. Our teachers set the stage for success through practice. A "fancy Thanksgiving table" was set up and the kids got to ask questions and practice so that they are now comfortable and familiar enough to wow everyone with their great table manners! So much fun! The students were adorable!

Please remember, school will be closed November 25, 26th and 27th for Thanksgiving.

Have a lovely holiday week with your family.
Happy Thanksgiving!

One-Bunny-One-Language

Our new bunnies are one year old now. As we celebrated their birthday we tried out some IQ tests at home to see how they were doing. My son, James, who’s now four years old and attends Spanish Kindergarten five days a week at Language Exchange, set up a timed language test for them.

‘Dinner!’ (Bunnies run across room and eat food one minute later)
'Cena!’ (Bunnies run across room and eat food two minutes later)

James decided they reply faster to English than Spanish, probably because we always speak English to them. It seemed weird to speak my second language to an animal, and James simply followed suit. The Bunnies do have a role to play though. They are a shining example of the one-bunny-one-language strategy, because now James speaks Spanish to the bunnies. The conversations can go on for quite some time. He even made up special songs in Spanish for them to the tune of 'Little Bunny Foo-Foo.'

The OBOL approach may not be high level language use, being rather limited in subject matter (food, water, carrots, the weather), but at least it gives James a chance to use the minority language with a willing and cuddly listener.


Crystal Ferreira

Today we took advantage of possibly the last beautiful day before some cold weather hits us and brought a little reminder of summer into our classroom. One of our grandmother's is a Master Gardener. As a retired preschool teacher of many, many years she brought her expertise in both plant care and child care to our immersion Spanish group of preschoolers. We planted an herb garden to keep in our room and which will later serve as some wonderful experiments in the 5 senses for this Fall. We learned about care and vocabulary for plants in Spanish. Muy divertido! Gracias Gramms. Please visit us again.

Fridays are always fabulous at LEXNC. We call it Vamos Viernes and the kids and I have even come up with our own jingle for the day. This Friday we finished up our Spain studies but we also had Pet Pals day. The children talked about "mascotas" which pets we have at home, what is required to take care of them, how we treat them and then..we got to share our best Pet Pals. Conejos (bunnies) came, Ratas (rats) and dos perros (dogs). It was a regular petting zoo! To remind us how we care for our pets, Hathor and Isis have become our new classroom mascotas and Lex the beta fish has been brought out of his sabbatical.

Finished up Spain study

Our young students have had quite a run these last few weeks. We have met and walked alpacas, made sangria, eaten tapas, danced the flamenco and acted out and played with our Don Quijote characters about as many ways as you can. It was a blast.
The most amazing thing to me is how they no longer really notice the Spanish factor. It's all the same games and fun for them. The most wonderful thing though has been watching the preschoolers slide into that same level of comfort with Chinese. Wait! Did I say Chinese? That's right...our preschoolers also get one hour of Chinese including Tai Chi every day of class. They are already more globally astute than most of us adults!!

OK, I made the hummus recipe for 11 people Sunday night. It really worked! Tasted great, and took 20 minutes total (not counting the boiling time). Let's hear it for healthy, delicious, fast-food to feed the masses.