Our Tri-Lingual Classroom!

We landed in Africa on our adventures around the world this week! We took some time to study the continent as a whole and then stayed for awhile in Kenya and Tanzania to explore! Yesterday morning, I presented my students with some photos from my trip to Meru, Kenya. I had the opportunity to work at a school, teach a few English lessons, stay with a wonderful family, and go on the most amazing safari while I was there! During the presentation the students completed the following phrases in their "Thinking While Reading" notebooks.

1. One thing I learned about Kenya is...

2. One that surprised me is...

3. A question I have is...

Here are some of the photos I shared :)

A little culture...

Some natural resources...

Some animals...

And some fun!

To continue our adventure, this afternoon we went on a "counting journey through Tanzania". 

The best part is this text comes in English and Spanish! (and shares numbers in Swahili of course!)

I cannot tell you how fast my kiddos picked up the numbers in Swahili. They had them down pat before we finished reading the book! I'm tellin ya- they love language- and language learning is there thing! They were just eatin it up. They begged me to let them copy down the numbers to share with their families. Luckily, I already had a plan in mind! Enter our "Swahili Counting Books".

To make these I used pieces of the larger construction paper and folded it in half. Then traced lines ahead of time for my students to cut to create their flip book. They wrote their title on the bigger space at the top and them the numbers in Swahili (1-10) on each little page.

Then underneath they had to write the number and then draw pictures of animals that live in Africa (based on what they saw in my photos and the book) to correspond with the number.

One of my kids even insisted upon writing the names of the animals in Swahili. He found some in the book, others he challenged me to search for a Swahili/English dictionary online! I didn't want to stifle his desire to learn the language, so I went with it!

By the end of the activity the students were using their newfound number vocabulary for everything. I would share "class you have five more minutes" and you would not believe how many responses back I had- Srta. Carlson- that's "tano minutos". haha. Say adios to Spanglish- we've got "Spanili" goin on!