Tips on Learning A Second Language Part 1

For the next three days I am going to be participating in the Review Crew blog hop.   I chose "Tips for Learning a Second Language" as my topic to share.  This is what I will be covering  during the next 3 blog posts:

Part 1 -Learning a second language through - IMMERSION 

Part 2 -How to make learning a second language INTERESTING AND APPLICABLE

Part 3 - Great RESOURCES for learning a second language

Let's get started with...

Part 1 -Learning a second language through - IMMERSION 

Ok, so you want to get passed "Yes" and "No" in your second language and become fluent.  How do you do that?  One of the best ways is through immersing yourself in the language as much as possible.  But, how do you do that when it feels uncomfortable or there seems to be no one around that "speaks" your foreign language.  I hope to give you a few ideas today to help your students "immerse" themselves in their foreign language.  In our classroom we are learning two other languages besides our own native language, English.  Whatever foreign language you are aspiring to learn these two helpful hints are sure to help you immerse yourself.

1.  Hear the language everyday for as long as possible....You can apply this through:

 songs, radio, television, movies with subtitles, neighbors, local establishments where the language is spoken (e.g.  language schools, international food stores, etc.)

2. Speak the language everyday for as long as possible.

Make a friend who speaks the language and try to have a conversation,  use an interactive learning program, learn songs, rhymes, ditties, etc.  When you hear someone speaking your language - respond in that language:)

I challenge myself and my students to do these two steps everyday.  Since we are learning three languages (English, Spanish, & Hebrew), we break up our school days to focus on one language a day.  For example Mondays, Wed, & Fri we focus on Hebrew.  Tuesdays and Thursdays we focus on Spanish.  Since we live in Panama, we are immersed in the Spanish language that is all around us.  When we go out and about in town we make it a rule to only speak Spanish.  At home we speak English to each other.  

When we watch movies we try to watch them in either Hebrew or Spanish with English subtitles for more exposure.  I also challenge the kids as part of their homework to keep a small notebook of new words they learn or want to learn.  Everyday they add to their notebook and share with the class the new words they have learned during the week.  We try to incorporate as many fun activities as possible...like the jokes below:)

"Gym for cats"

"He has WiFi"

How do you immerse yourself or your students to learn a second language?

Remember, don't give up because persistence pays off when you are learning a second language:)

Thanks for stopping by!

Psalm 119 Copywork & Kid's Torah Scroll Tutorial (free sample)

I love the idea of making a kid's Torah scroll.  Making a Torah scroll is a great way to learn about the history of ancient writings,  encourage copy work, and give kids their own place to keep their work.  This idea was first introduced to me through My Father's World First Grade Homeschool Curriculum years ago.   The very first Torah scrolls we ever made were made with rolling pins.  This time we decided to use bamboo and a few other embellishments.    In MFW's curriculum it is a suggested activity to teach the history of the ancient Bible writings and as practice for writing the English alphabet. 

 I thought I would take it a step further to meet my kiddos needs.  All of my kiddos need extra practice wiring Hebrew letters, especially cursive Hebrew.  They also needed some Bible memory verse copy work - so I thought I would combine the two.  Thus, our Kid's Torah Scrolls were created.  I decided to use Psalm 119 since it is an acrostic of the Hebrew Alphabet.   First the kids did a review of the letter Aleph and practiced writing the letter in cursive and block with rainbow colors.

 

They then wrote out their Bible verse.  I used the first verse for each letter in Psalm 119 as their Bible copywork.  The younger kids practice writing in print, while my ten year old practiced her cursive handwriting.  The older three wrote out the verse in handwriting on their own and then practiced writing it in Hebrew also.  We examined each word that began with the letter aleph and pondered what the significance of each word could be.  

 

We concluded that just as the ancient letter aleph is a symbol of strength, so each verse talks about strength.  For example the word blessed in this verse is "ashray" אשׁרי .  Blessed, happy, or strengthened are those that are undefiled and who walk in the "Torah" בתורת of  "YHVH" יהוה .  As our Hebrew grows so does our Hebrewlish (Hebrew/English) and we dig a little deeper into the ancient words of the Bible.  If you are interested in trying out the copywork for the letter Aleph, just click any of the pictures to be taken to a free download.

Making the Kid's Torah Scroll was really pretty easy.  Here are the supplies that you will need:

-felt

-Velcro

-foam or wood balls to fit on the end of 2 dowels or bamboo sticks

-paper for your scroll

-string to tie your Torah

-felt and googlie eyes for the outside decorations

-hot glue

-staples

We stapled their papers to two bamboo sticks.  Painted our foam balls and hot glued them to the ends of the bamboo sticks.  We then rolled up our scroll and tied it with a string.  After hot gluing the Velcro onto the felt we decided on our outside decorations for our Torah scrolls.  We decided on a tree of life (etz caim chai - עץ־חיים היא) and a menorah (המנרות).  We will be adding our new letters every day by stapling them to the back of each page until we are done with the whole aleph bet.

We will be working on the whole Hebrew "Aleph - Bet" during our Hebrew and Bible classes this year from Psalms 119.  If you think this is something that your family or classroom could use just click on the covers below where you will find the full PDF in my store.

 

Have you ever made a Torah Scroll with your kids?  How did it turn out?  I would love to hear about it:)

Shalom,

Word For 2014 - Faith - Looking at the Ancient Hebrew Root

   For the past few weeks, I have been learning a lot about faith. I am learning what it means intellectually and practically. The book of Romans is an amazing book in the Bible that really expounds on it. As a visual learner, studying the pictograph Hebrew letters helped me to understood faith at an even deeper level. Below is how I studied the word with some simple steps you can follow with any word in the Bible:

1.  Look up the word:   Use a Hebrew Strong's Concordance.  ( I like to use e-sword on my computer and it is a free download that you can find here, if you don't already have it.) H529  אמוּן  'êmûn  ay-moon'  From H539;
 established, that is, (figuratively) trusty; also (abstractly) trustworthiness: - faith (-ful), truth.
 

2. Look for the root word (the original 3 or 4 letter word in Hebrew): 

 Sometimes it is as easy as going back a few numbers and the concordance should point you in the right direction. In our case it says "from H539" above.

H539  אמן  'âman  aw-man'

A primitive root; properly to build up or support; to foster as a parent or nurse; figuratively to render (or be) firm or faithful, to trust or believe, to be permanent or quiet; morally to be true or certain; once (in Isa_30:21; by interchange for H541) to go to the right hand: - hence assurance, believe, bring up, establish, + fail, be faithful (of long continuance, steadfast, sure, surely, trusty, verified), nurse, (-ing father), (put), trust, turn to the right.

3.  Look at each root letter's pictograph meanings:
  I used my Ancient Aleph Bet Paleo Hebrew Alphabet Chart I made for the kids.  You can find an adult version here that I really like too. Faith = Aman (Hebrew transliteration)  Letters: אמן (Hebrew reads from right to left) 
1. letter- א -aleph: picture of an ox used for plowing and it's strength in ancient world. 

2. letter- מ  -mem: picture of water used for sustaining life and cleansing

 3. letter- ן - nun: picture of a seed






4.  Look at other references that use the same word:
 Look up H539.  If you are using e-sword make sure you are using KJV+.   Read them in the context of the scripture to help understand them better.  I found 102 references for the word and in most cases they were translated as "believe".    Below is the summary of the ancient Hebrew meaning of the word faith that I found:

Here are some questions that I have asked myself while studying the word faith along with the answers I have came up with:

What does it mean to have faith? 

Having faith is trusting In God for who HE is.

Who or What do you have faith in? 

Sometimes I am looking to the wrong things and I need to 

continually remind myself to look to YHVH and his son Yeshua for everything.

 Do you have faith in God?

Yes 

Do you have faith in HIS son Yeshua for your salvation?

Yes

Do I have faith in money to solve all my problems? 

No, because it will not. It may even create more "problems":) 

Do I have faith in a better house to make me happier?

No, because I am learning to be content in every circumstance:)

Did you know faith can make you righteous? 

 wow...now that is amazing...it's not the things I do, but faith - cool

What is your response to these questions?  What does faith mean to you?

My prayer for you and I is that we will continue to be challenged in our faith and that little seed of faith that we plant and water will grow to bear fruit.

If you would like to learn more about Hebrew or see how we incorporate it at Thetravelingclassroom please visit our Hebrew page. 

 I would love to give away a Ancient Aleph Bet Paleo Hebrew alphabet chart and my Ancient Hebrew Civilizations, Root Words, Acrostic Poems Unit to one of my blog followers. Please leave an e-mail with your comment below if you would like me to send you one:)

Thanks for stopping by TheTravelingclassroom!




I have linked up with the Schoolhouse Review Crew's Word for 2014. If you would like to read some more posts please click on the picture below.

Free Jewish Feast of Trumpets - Yom Teruah Printables

Shalom Chavarim (Hello friends)

As the Fall Jewish High Holy Days are approaching we are busily getting prepared.  Our last big season was in the Spring with the Spring Feasts, so we have had a little break.  Now the Biblical 7th Month is approaching and it is time to prepare for the sound of the Shofar!

 What are we doing differently?  Well cleaning, planning meals, and fun activities - oi vey - I have got a lot to do!

I just wanted to pop in here on the blog and share some freebies with all of you to help you prepare and teach your
little ones too! You know how I  love to give freebies, so I thought these flash freebies
would be appropriate to be  for FREE.....   until the sound of the first Shofar blast (teruah) of the season!

When is that?  Well... at the beginning of the 7th month!  I'll give you a hint how you know when that is ....look at the moon:)  (or you can look at your calendar:)

 Something nice to do for family and friends during this time of year is to send them a card!  So here you go - Fun Cards for you to personalize!

 Another thing you can do during this time of year is give a gift.  Some people like to give money but this year we are giving personalized pens with their name inscribed on them.  Then we are going to put these fun labels on them!  (You could use pencils or pens)  There are more than a few styles and sizes to pick from and even a bigger label to put on the holder of all your beautiful pens & pencils when you are done!

Last but not least an interactive notebook for Yom Teruah!  I made this with all my kids in mind (ages 4-14), so you will find coloring sheets, writing prompts, and other fun stuff.  You pick what is age appropriate for your little guys!

So there you go all kinds of fun stuff to help get you prepared for this awesome holiday!  (The Fall Feast Cards, Greeting Cards, pencil toppers, and notebook printables can be found by clicking on the above pictures)
Enjoy!
May your name be inscribed in God's book and may you be sealed for all eternity!

Calming the Chaos

Welcome to the Calming the Chaos Blog Hop hosted by 2peasandadog.

All of us bloggers have come together to share our top tips for making the last month of
school run smoothly.

Visit each of our blogs to learn something new and catch a freebie or two!

Happy Hopping

To keep my kids engaged in learning I try to make it fun!

 (Some of the activities I share are a part of a product that I sell in my stores. If you are interested in them, please click on the picture to go to the store link)

Here are some ideas that work wonderfully:)

1. Games:

Flyswatter-

for math facts, alphabet facts, sight words, foreign language facts, etc.

Players lay a fact card down, say the correct answer and swat it!  The first to swat it wins the fact (works with any flash card or manipulative...letters, shapes, etc.)!   Winner with the most facts in the end wins!


Manipulative Eggs: 

1-3 player game. First player takes an egg, reads the fact on the egg, and uses the manipulatives in the egg to find the answer. Second player checks the answer. (In the picture below the game is used for multiplication facts and a calculator is used to check the answers)



Each player gets their own set of eggs with manipulatives inside all held together in their own (soap) dish! (All from the dollar store!!!)



Manipulative Game in a bag of gelle:

Choose any manipulative facts your kids need to learn and add it to a bag of gelle (cheap hair gelle from the dollar store!) Each player takes a turn finding their fact and records it on a recording sheet (paper, dry erase board, etc.). In the picture below there is dice in the bag along with addition math fact families. The player rolls the dice answer(5) and finds the math fact numbers that can make the answer(4+1=5). This is a great tactile activity to reinforce any fact your kiddos need to learn!



Go fish or Matching game using spoons or cards:

Use facts of your choice and have the players take turns asking for the match that they need. Use either as a go fish or matching game.

In the picture below each player takes turns matching the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter. Use any color spoons along with clear spoons.



Another example is using facts to match to the correct answer on a mat or chart. Below the students take turns with two different letters to blend a word. They can then record their answers on a recording sheet.



The example below is a matching game with cards. The students take turns matching the correct Spanish Word to the Correct English word. The cards are also color coded.


or matching the number card to the number on the mat. (This can be done in any language to practice vocabulary or number order)

2. Art projects & hands on activities:
Use play-doe to make words, numbers, letters, shapes, etc.



Singing to learn a lesson



Reenacting stories or facts from a lesson using masks (learning about rain forest toucans)



puppets (retelling a story)



Making edible models of different concepts:


Below the kids used cheese balls and tooth picks to show the parts and sizes of each part of an atom.



and then made a model of each...when they were done they could eat it if they wanted!



Chemical reactions and Color Wheel lessons: Use colored vinegar with an eyedropper to drop different colors into baking soda.



Art: 

 Use art when teaching concepts and you need your students to sit quietly and listen. When children use the right side of their brain (creativity) it has a calming and quieting effect. I allow my students to work on art while we are discussing or learning something new. It keeps them quietly busy and engaged.


The art below is a mixed media using oil pastels and water colors. They were specifically drawn using oil pastels crayons and then filled in using old markers dipped in water(watercolor.



This is a drawing with a 3D effect, using straight lines and curved lines. To do this have your students trace their hand or draw any object on a piece of paper. Then draw straigh lines across the paper using a curved line over their drawing (the fingers and hand).




Finding Secret codes:

Use hidden codes to teach subjects your students need to learn. I taught my students about the Egyptian alphabet using the activity below.


The students were given a name code in Egyptian hieroglyphics along with the code. They had to decipher the code to find whose name card they had. If you would like to do this with your students you can find everything you need here.



Here is a freebie that teaches the ancient Hebrew letters through their pictorial meaning. The students have to find the hidden ancient Hebrew letter in the picture! This is included in my Ancient Hebrew Civilizations, Root Words, Acrostic Poems Unit- common core unit.  I hope that you found something in my examples to inspire you to make learning fun for your students. If you did please leave a comment I would love to hear what your ideas and thoughts are!

Here is a little freebie (ribbon calendar numbers) and another little freebie (more ribbon calendar numbers) and another little freebie ( a sneak peak into abc 123 100 party on TPT) for you that I hope you will find useful! There is also a giveaway you can enter below!


Don't forget to visit the other blogs to get more ideas and FREEBIES!


Remember keep it fun!


Thank you for stopping by!

Calming the Chaos Participants

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