LeapFrog Wants to Put Tag in Kindergarten Classrooms--FREE!

If you're a kindergarten teacher, you may be interested in learning how to integrate LeapFrog's Tag Reading System into your classroom for free.

Helping teachers inspire children's love of reading

Thank you for your interest in the LeapFrog® Tag™ Kindergarten Program!

With this exciting new program, LeapFrog partners with teachers, families, and schools to inspire the love of reading and learning in children during their critical early years. The centerpiece of our program is the Tag School Reading System, which features a pen-like tool that provides students with an easy-to-use, multisensory, independent reading experience.

Children touch the Tag School Reader to a page of a Tag book to hear an entire story read fluently, hear a page from a story, hear the pronunciation of a single word or, in some cases, a word part, or initiate comprehension exercises in the form of fun games that extend learning and provide immediate feedback.

All of this can be done independently, which is a crucial feature in a busy classroom where it simply is not possible for teachers to give all children one-on-one attention at the same time. For example, if a child reading a Tag book gets stuck on a word, he uses the Tag reader to touch the difficult word and hear the pronunciation, allowing him to continue reading and enjoying the book independently.

In this program, LeapFrog provides teachers with Tag School Reading System kits, including several Tag Readers plus books that focus on phonemic awareness, vocabulary building, comprehension and other key reading skills. Teachers agree to integrate Tag and Tag content into their classroom curriculum and to give feedback on the program. (Read whole article and FAQ's)

Application Deadline is November 11, 2009.


Let us know how it went! (and maybe they will develop a Tag reading system in Spanish!)

Yo quiero un 'snack-o'

¡Hola todos!

I've totally slacked off in doing Spanish Discovery Time with my kids.

I guess with them being in school most of the day, by the time they get home from school it's homework, eat, ready for bed.

They do somehow manage to get Spanish in themselves, though. Earlier today, they were playing with Dora action figures and the dollhouse. And they were playing pretend in Spanish, saying things like "hola" (hello), "pase, pase" (come in, come in), "Yo quiero un snack-o." I know, 'snack-o' is not a Spanish word, but my oldest daughter corrected her younger sister and said, "Oh, not 'snack-o'. You mean, 'Yo quiero una merienda.'"

I also have her read her Spanish books to us, when she does her homework.

So, that's what we've been up to.

!Hasta pronto!

Our Spanish Alphabet Song on You Tube

¡Saludos todos!

I'm inviting you all to check out a video/slideshow my daughter and I did and put up on You Tube. This was our first multimedia project for Spanish. Please write a comment and let us know what you think.

Dual-Language School, Aquí Vienen!

In September, my 3 girls will be off to school-FULL TIME. This is an exciting year for our family because the twins will be starting kindergarten, and now all of them will be in a dual language school.

My eldest daughter will be entering 2nd grade and she'll be continuing the bilingual model of one day English, next day Spanish.

The kindergarten classes operate differently. As of last year, the school day is conducted in English with a portion of day in Spanish with a Spanish teacher. I had spoken with the dual language coordinator who said they're thinking about changing the model to 90/10 - Spanish/English. I told her that I am for that because I do believe immersion is the way to go.

So, I will find out later this month how the K class will be handled.

As an aside:

Even though I believe immersion is the way to go, it was a challenge for my family to do that totally for even 30 minutes. And immersion schools were out of the question because of the cost. That's why I sought other ways to create a bilingual environment in our home. And I'm proud to say that everything we've done and are doing at home have been good for the girls and my son: they embrace Spanish, they're familiar with the language, they question how to say words in Spanish, and they have fun with it.

If you like to learn more about what I've done with my children so that you can do it too with yours, visit www.ourspanishlessonplansonline.com

¡Hasta pronto!

How I'm Improving My Spanish in 15 Minutes with a Study Partn

I have a Spanish study partner. Her name is Ino. She's from Puerto Rico. She's a friend I've known for a long time through my husband's friend. I've been very slow going in calling her just to practice Spanish.

Last Saturday I called her. We talked about our kids, she mentioned that she took them to the circus, and she talked about plans for a birthday party for her daughter. The conversation was great, but it was all in English. I told her, "Ok, how are we going to do this Spanish practice. I would not have a clue on how to talk about what we just talked about in Spanish."

So, she reviewed everything we talked about in Spanish and had me repeat words and phrases. If I didn't understand what she wanted me to repeat, I said, "No entiendo." Then she helped.

I enjoyed it.

She also gave me study and practice help:

1. Watch the news in Spanish or telenovelas. She said that's what she did when she was learning English, and that's all she would watch.

2. Have a Spanish word of the day and create as many sentences I can using that word. For example, house. The big house. The little house. The pink house. The house is over there. Come to my house. So, in Spanish this exercise would be casa. La casa grande. La casa pequeña. La casa rosa. La casa está allí. Ven a mi casa. (The next time I speak with her I'd ask her about using allá and aquella for over there.)

3. She also recommended a website called Live Mocha - where you can study Spanish (or any other language) for free and have community members help correct your usage. I'm trying it now, and will write a post about it later.

¡Hasta luego!

Comment on Tortilla Española Recipe Video

¡Saludos a todos!

For those who are subscribers to my Spanish Discovery Time! e-newsletter, I just sent out my very own video recipe on como hacer tortilla española. This is the first recipe video of many that I plan to do with my girls.

So, let us know what you thought about it by leaving a comment below.

¡Gracias!

And if you have other simple Spanish recipes you'd like us to do a video on, please write your suggestion below.

Finalmente, if you're not a Spanish Discovery Time! subscriber, you can sign up by filling out the form to the right of this post. It's FREE and it's FUN!

Let's Play Chess - Juguemos al ajedrez

Let's Play Chess - Juguemos al ajedrez

This summer my girls (ages 7, 5, 5) are learning to play chess with their dad. He's tried to get them into the game for about a year, but now they're really into the pieces and how they move. They play Chessmaster on Playstation 2 and are actually having fun doing the tutorials.

They were able to visit a chess club once at a local library before the club closed for the summer. My husband was impressed with how the chessmaster (that's what the girls called him) there was able to keep Jaida focused. And then when they played at home, he was thrilled that she was using what she learned on him.

And of course, I seized this chess learning opportunity to weave in Spanish.

Beginner's Chess Terms in English/Spanish
chess - el ajedrez
chess board - el tablero de ajedrez
chess pieces - piezas de ajedrez
king - el rey
queen - la reina
knight - el caballo
bishop - el alfil
rook - el roque
pawn - el peón

checkmate - el jaque mate


Visit here for more (advanced) chess terminology in English/Spanish