Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Μήλα με τα μικρά

It is a challenge to find meaningful and level appropriate books in Greek for kids in the United States. I wish there was a Greek Barnes and Noble to browse for books that my students would enjoy.  So many times I have ordered books from Greece, only to be disappointed because the story itself was too long, or the language was so beyond my student's level.  

These past few weeks in PreK,  the English teachers have been focusing on apples.  Besides the song Μήλο μου κόκκινο, I really didn't have anything age appropriate for 3-4 year olds.  So I took English books and translated them for the class.  One of my all time favorite books by Dr. Seuss,  Ten Apples up on Top, was a great success.  The kids loved counting the apples and following the actions of the silly lion, dog and tiger.


.  To review we made these cute characters from the book with apples on top of their heads.





A few days later we read the book Apple Farmer Annie, which describes all the different things we can make with apples. 



All week the students were asked "Πώς προτιμάς τα μήλα σου;" Then the little 3 and 4 year old toddlers began asking each other.  They had so much fun, we decided to make a chart to see what apple product was the most popular.

As you can see from the photo below, it was a tie between apple pie and apple juice. 




Friday, June 26, 2015

Greek sandpaper letters and milk cap letter manipulatives


Spent the day today finishing off these Montessori inspired sandpaper letters. Can't wait to see my students use these in the fall.




After collecting these milk caps for over a year,  I was finally able to make these Greek alphabet manipulatives to use in Kindergarten and 1st grade.  Using vocabulary cards that I created that go along with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Curriculum, Τα Ελληνικά μου, students will spell out and practice reading these words.  Did a trial run with my goddaughter today and she loved them!  


Saturday, June 13, 2015

Τα Ελληνικά μου




Last year in Kindergarten we began using the
 Τα Ελληνικά μου workbooks developed by 
the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. 
 These are wonderful and engaging books.  

To supplement the lessons in the book, I created review worksheets like the one below for each letter.
  

Friday, June 12, 2015

Ταξίδι στην Ελλάδα 2015

Ταξίδι στην Ελλάδα is the final project for students in PreK through 8th grade at the Greek-American Day School that I teach at.  This year our theme was the environment.  Students in PreK learned about bees, the Kindergarten learned about flowers and 1st grade learned about butterflies.  Older children completed projects on recycling, the seasons and various natural wonders of Greece.  





Summer break is here!!

Alphabet matching cards
School is out for the summer, but as we all know, teachers keep working all year long.  My goal this summer is to create five "centers" a week for my Greek classes.  This is my first completed center, uppercase and lowercase alphabet matching cards.