¿Cómo te llamas?

Featured | Posted by Maria Hinestroza

I have been looking for ideas to build community with my pre-school non-readers around their names using Seesaw. Thanks to the wonderful contributions of the Seesaw community to the activities library, I decided I will adapt these two so that my students and especially I learn how to pronounce everyone’s names properly:

I imagine the homeroom teachers might be doing something similar in their classes and I need to find out before doubling the work for our kids and their parents. This is plan “A” so far. Once I learn to pronounce all my students’ names, I want my kids to find their names while getting used to the Seesaw tools and their possibilities. I will see my students face-to-face for two weeks and then they will work independently for two more. I imagine my students would feel proud of me when they hear me saying their names properly or at least feel willing to help me pronounce them better 🙂

These are not my students’ names but just a template for you to adapt your children’s names if you decide to try the activity. I learned from Kris Szajner how to add the recordings in this video. You can only add up to 20 recordings per activity and would need to use Chrome to adapt the activity.

This activity not only involves clicking on the speaker icons or tapping on the markers but also tapping on the video. It also includes tracing names. I used one of Seesaw handwriting backgrounds and the feather font style which might not be what your kids are used to in their classes but which I found practical since they were all in Seesaw. I ran into this website https://www.handwritingpractice.net that offers “Handwriting practice worksheets custom made by you in – PRINT – D’NEALIAN or CURSIVE”. I was not sure I could use a screenshot for my students’ names because I could not find a way to contact the owners and ask them. It really looks like a great resource to print and send worksheets home.

My goal with this activity is for my students to get familiar with the question “¿Cómo te llamas?, review the chant and a game we will play to learn our names, find their names while listening to their classmates’ and then trace their own. I am not requiring my students to answer “Me llamo” unless they want to give it a try.

I hope you find these activities and ideas practical and can ease your workload somehow. All the best for you and your community this new school year!

Greta Thunberg No hay activista pequeño.

Featured | Posted by Maria Hinestroza

I cannot believe it has been a year I just read about this amazing girl and all she has done for all of us in such a short time. I was so lucky to see her when she came to talk to the UN and I could see for myself what a big responsibility and sacrifice she has been putting on her shoulders.

I created a story last year to introduce her to my students and I am happy many more students got to meet her because of this story. Because of teachers of other languages were interested in having a version they could use, two teachers translated it for me in French and German, and I translated it into English. You can find all the versions available in my Youtube channel and the ebooks in Spanish and English in the links below.

Along with the book came an “Action Drive” we ran at my school last year. Our school community was invited to collect actions for the Earth taking selfies/photos based on a series of small actions we could and needed to do more of, and label them in as many World Languages as they could. The response from everybody was amazing, and encouraged a lot of writing in different languages. You can see pictures from students, faculty, and our community in general below.

I transformed the Action Drive into a Seesaw activity I hope can help us think of the Earth on Earth Day and on. Click on the picture to add the activity to your library.

All my admiration and gratitude to Greta Thunberg💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

Los Koalas, animales en peligro de extinción

Posted on March 26, 2020 by Maria Hinestroza

My second graders had finished studying about Koalas before our Spring break and that would be the first thing I would like them to review on our first week back right after they get to see me greeting them in a video and wishing I could also see them all.

We will start Distance Learning next week and we will see how our plan works and the modifications we would need to incorporate. I am planning a Seesaw activity for each one of my classes for them to access asynchronously. I teach Pre-K to fifth grade and I am a little nervous but excited at the same time to be back and figure out what our new adventure brings. One thing I know is that once the Seesaw activities are ready in my account and in the library, I can decide when I want to use them and that gives me some peace of mind.

Click on the link to access the activity and add it to your classes. Please let me know how it works for you.

New Seesaw activities contributed to the library

Posted on March 20, 2020 by Maria Hinestroza

Although I still have one more week for my Spring Break to go, I am planning for my online classes and hope the activities I added to the Seesaw library can help lessen your workload, somehow.

For most activities, I created a video for my students to watch as input and in preparation for the task. I am sharing the link to the video on the picture and the link to the activity on the caption. The video is included into the Seesaw activity, too. The calendar activity will be updated every month in case you are interested in trying it regularly.

Calendario