Fra le più belle favole per bambini c'è i tre porcellini, il nostro tema del giorno oggi.  In caso non vela ricordate vi faccio un breve riassunto:

Ci sono tre porcellini che lasciano la casa e vanno a costruire tre casette. Il primo la costruisce in paglia, ma il cattivo lupo  la soffia giù e la crolla. Il secondo la costruisce in legno e di nuovo il lupo soffia forte e la casetta spazza via. Ma il terzo porcellino costruisce la sua casa in calce e mattoni e purtroppo il lupo non riesce a soffiarla giù. Invece si arrampica sul tetto per entrare dal camino ma cade giù in una pentola piena di acqua bollente. Il lupo feroce corre via e i tre porcellini vivono contenti e felici.

Dopo la storia i bambini hanno fatto tre carini burattini dei trei porcellini, poi abbiamo ascoltato la canzone in italiano, clicca sotto per ascoltare.

la paglia    hay

il legno      wood

i mattoni     bricks

il lupo          wolf

i tre porcellini   the three little pigs

la pentola     pot

casetta         little house

costruire      to build

il camino      chimney

 

 

 

 

Ciao a tutti! My name is Jenna Crispo and I am extremely excited to begin as the summer 2012 intern at La Piazza di Carolina! I will be working at the summer camp during my break from the University of Delaware, where I am studying Italian Education and preparing to study abroad in Florence, Italy for the fall semester. We are getting ready for a summer filled with games, music, crafts, swimming and more! The kids are going to love it and I know I will too! I cannot wait to share my passion for the italian language and culture with the children while having a blast!

Hopefully this will be the view from my apartment in Florence! (Ponte Vecchio)

Stay tuned for our own cultural fantasies with 3,4 and 5 year olds as we take on another fantastic summer at La Piazza di Carolina!

Al più presto!

Italian Language Vacation for Families Italian language, Culture, and Gastronomy In the beautiful Tuscan country side Italian Camp for Children 3 and up Caffè Italiano Club for children: 15 hr/wk– Italian made fun through singing, cooking, art, horseback riding, swimming, and more!  Carolina Gengo Di Domenico, Director and Founder of La Piazza di Carolina, is New York’s premier Italian teacher. $400/week early registration $500/week after February 15, 2011 Program available upon request   Italian Classes for Parents 2 hr/day with option for cooking and wine classes $400/week early registration $500/week after February 15, 2011   Accommodations on the sprawling campus of Borgo San Benedetto www.borgosanbenedetto.it Private apartment 1,165 Euro per week Bed & Breakfast 1,099 Euro per week Join La Piazza di Carolina for 1,2 or 3 weeks of language learning for children and parents in gorgeous Montaione, in the Tuscan country side June 25 – July 16, 2011 Borgo San Benedetto A beautiful restored Tuscan farm in Montaione, (outskirts of Firenze) www.borgosanbenedetto.it Nearby excursions to Florence and Siena, plus additional activities are available upon request. Contact Carolina Di Domenico for information (914) 793-2629, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Contact Kathleen Guglielmo, Ease Into Italy & Beyond for airline reservations, www.easeintoitaly.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , (914) 231-5634, (914) 629-8169 cellular, (914) 478-3677, Ext 331(daytime)

L'arcobaleno!

Oggi abbiamo insegnato ai bambini i colori dell'arcobaleno: rosso, arancione, giallo, verde, blu, indaco, e viola. Ogni bambino ha colorato le forme in colori diversi. Per esempio, c'era un quadro con "verde" scritto dentro, poi un triangolo con "rosso" scritto dentro, eccetera. Dopo un po' di tempo libero, abbiamo cantato la canzone di apertura: "Buon Giorno Bambini". Poi, abbiamo cantato la canzone dei numeri per fare la pratica dei numeri. Dopo, abbiamo introdotto la canzone dei colori: "Coloriamo". Abbiamo anche letto un libro dei colori.

 

Due altri ragazzi più grandi si sono uniti al gruppo questa settimana, e un altro ragazzo sta facendo la pratica come un Camp Counselor. Quindi, c'eravamo in tanti ma ce l'abbiamo fatta. Abbiamo messo un altro tavolo per ospitare tutti quanti e abbiamo permesso quelli più grandi fare il craft più velocemente. Così tutti si sono riusciti ad imparare al proprio ritmo.

Blair ci ha aiutato con la danza dell'arcobaleno dove i bambini hanno ballato e saltato sotto l'arcobaleno. Era molto divertente!

Ogni bambino ha fatto un arcobaleno per il craft. Per fare le nuvole abbiamo usato il cotone e abbiamo messo la carta velina per ogni colore dell'arcobaleno.

I bambini stanno facendo progressi. Si vede che capiscono quando parliamo in italiano. Alcuni addirittura rispondono in italiano. Dicono cose tipo, "voglio rosso", "ancora", "finito", e "grazie".

Sono contentissima che loro si stiano divertendo e che stiano imparando allo stesso tempo perché così imparano più in fretta.

Vedremo quanto i bambini si ricordano alla fine della settimana!

Genitori: ricordatevi di fare la pratica dei numeri e colori con vostri figli!

A domani!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Wow can't believe we completed the first week already of our Italian camp in Yonkers. Why does the summer ALWAYS go by faster and faster each year! I love the summer and I really want it to be like 6 months instead of 3 months! The key is to really enjoy every day while you can.

I can certainly tell you that our campers have been truly enjoying their days here learning Italian in fun, creative, and hands-on ways. They still talk about their Italian flags that we made on the first day. Some are still carrying them around and I even received a report that one of our kids even slept with it at night - aw!

Today we sped things up a little and took out all our macchine & atuo, aerei, elicotteri, treni, camioncini (pick-up trucks) and anthing else with wheels or propellers.

We began with a vocabulary coloring page that looked like this.

Our 3 and 4 year olds are still mastering the skill of holding pastelli (crayons), choosing colors, and cloring within the lines. We help them by saying things like, "scegli un altro colore," or "Che colore vuoi?" and "Tieni il pastello così." Our coloring time gives us an opportunity to reinforce the colors in Italian. And by now when ever someone has finished a task we hear, "finito!"

The kids loved when we took out our trenino (train set). I tried and tried to put the binari (tracks) together, but my mind is not mechanical enough. Don't know if it's an adult thing, but the kids had no problem, so I finally stepped aside and let them take over. They were much better and were really into it, especially Vincenzo.

During circle time we learned the vocabolario del trasporto by playing nascondino (hide and seek). Carolina put four objects on the floor - l'areo, l'elicottero, l'auto, and il treno. When Carolina says "Chiudete gli occhi!" the kids close their eyes and she hides one of the objects. When Carolina says, "Aprite gli occhi!" the kids open and have to guess in Italian which object is missing.

We also got aboard the "moving line" and pretended to be in different modes of transportation as we listened to the song, "La metropolitana" from the CD  Canzoni per bambini I.

Dopo la merenda, where the campers continue to put into use their new knowlede of functioning words like, finito, ancora, succo, acqua, etc., we did a craft of stamps and stencils of moving vehicles. It was a little messy but it was art time.

Show your kids these photos and see if they can say the vehicles in Italian. You can prompt them by saying "Cosa vedi nella foto?" "Io vedo...."

Friday was our last day of Italian Camp in Yorktown Heights. So we decided to have a celebration - an Italian Carnevale celebration to be more specific.

In Italia children celebrate Carnevale (usually held in February right before Lent) by dressing up in costumi (costumes) and maschere (masks) much like American children do for Halloween.

They sing and dance and throw coriandoli (confetti) and stelle filanti (like ticker tape or flying ribbons/stars), and eat dolci (sweets).

Although our campers did not come to camp in costume, they did make masks and painted pictures of pagliacci (clowns). All the bambine (girls) were fate (fairies) and the bambini (boys) were conigli (bunnies).

Once we had our maschere, coriandoli, e stelle filanti,  we danced and sang to a wonderful Carnevale song called "Carnevale eccola qua'." We filmed a video but I can't seem to upload it onto Youtube. I'll keep trying though.

For merenda (snack) we had special dolci from the pasticceria (bakery). We had biscotti (cookies) in the shape of dinosauri, pulcini, and farfalle (dinosaurs, chicks, butterflies).

These were the last two biscotti and they were also devoured.

Each day during Italian camp the bambini had time to giocare fuori (play outside) in the parco giochi (playground) where there was opportunity to get wet under the spruzzatore (sprinkler) and play in the sabbia - sandbox.

Our counselors did a great job too! Grazie alla Andrea, Camilla, and Anna. They were the perfect addition to a great two weeks at Italian Camp.

We'd also like to say "Grazie!" to the Rosenthall JCC in Yorktown Heights. Carol and Jennifer were extremely accomodating and molto gentili! Grazie mille!

Arrivederci l'anno prossimo!

 

 

Today marked the first day of the second session of the Italian Camp, this time set in La Piazza di Carolina in Yonkers. It was exciting to have a new group of children eager to begin learning the Italian language. This group is younger- the children are all between 2 and 4 years old so we are modifying the lessons as we go along to make sure they are at an appropriate level for the children. A few had already been exposed to the language and had taken various classes offered by La Piazza di Carolina so I was interested to see what they had retained from those experiences. We started the day off by decorating red and green folders with pictures and stamps of places and famous buildings all around Italy. We then did circolo where we sang the "Buon Giorno" song to each child. We had the campers choose uova or bastoncini (types of maracas) to use as they sang. There were various colors of the instruments to choose from so the children learned the different colors in Italian: rosso, verde, blu, azzurro, rosa, and viola. The song is sang to the tune of the "Happy Birthday" song:

Buon giorno bambini

Buon giorno bambini

Buon giorno bambini

Buon giorno a voi!

Buon giorno Angelina

Buon giorno Angelina

Buon giorno Angelina

Buon giorno a te!

Inspired by the torrential rain we had today, we decided to focus the lesson on la pioggia and other words associated with this theme. We did an activity where we placed il cielo (a blue tablecloth) on the floor and had the children place le nuvole, la pioggia, la neve, il sole, la luna, and un arcobaleno onto il cielo.

We sang a song about all of these words associated with weather called "Su nel cielo", by La Fata Italiana, and then we sang the Italian verson of "Rain Rain Go Away":

Pioggia, pioggia

Vattene vita

Torna un altro giorno

Vincenzo vuol giocare

Pioggia vattene via!

We then had craft time. Each child painted a paper plate with yellow paint and placed due occhi neri and una bocca rossa on the plate to make il sole.

Luckily the rain eventually let up so after la merenda the children played outside in the spruzzatore and piscina.

We did another circolo to review everything we had learned that day and then sang the "Ciao Bambini Ciao" song.

The children were very enthusiastic today and I am eager to see the progress they will make over the course of the next two weeks!

Gli insetti sono sicuramente parte dell'estate. Allora ci propongono un'occasione opportuna di fare una lezione. Giovedi' allora, abbiamo introdotto diversi tipi d'insetti: la farfalla, il bruco, l'ape, la coccinella, la cavalletta, e il ragno. "Quante gambe ha il ragno?" abbiamo proposto ai bambini. "Come fa l'ape?" era un'altra domanda, con la risposta dandoci l'occasione di introdurre la parola, "ronzare" (to buzz). Poi, c'e' la discussione della farfalla e il suo ciclo: dal uovo al bruco alla crisalide alla farfalla.

Adoperiamo sempre la canzone nel nostro insegnamento, e sappiamo che c'e' un sacco di canzoni che si trattono degli insetti. Alcune delle nostre preferite sono: "Il piccolo ragnetto," e "Farfallina."

Qui vediamo Carolina insegnando i bambini la canzoncina "Il piccolo ragnetto" con i gesti.

Ecco i lirici:

Il piccolo ragnetto
va sul rubinetto
viene la pioggia
e il ragnetto se ne va...
Poi ritorna il sole
guarda cosa fa:
il piccolo ragnetto
di nuovo arriverà

Ecco un video coi bambini come farfalline con ali e belle farfalline sulle bacchette

">

Farfallina
Bella e bianca
vola vola
mai si stanca
gira qua'
e gira la'
passa un bacio

e se ne va

Abbiamo inoltre creato dei bei craft: un'ape e una farfalla.

Se conoscete altre canzone per bambini che si trattono degli insetti, per piacere raccontatecele pure!

 

Wednesday we talked about la frutta! The children started off by doing a coloring page of pictures of fruits labeled with its name in Italian.

Then we passed around plastic fruit toys and had each child repeat the name of the fruit in Italian. We talked about la fragola (strawberry), la ciliegia (cherry), la pera (pear), la mela (apple), la banana (banana), l'uva (grape), la susina (plum), l'anguria/cocomero (watermelon), and l'arancia (orange).

Additionally we would ask the children to say the color of the piece of fruit as well. Doing this exercise, the children learned that in the Italian language an adjective must agree with the noun it describes. For example, una fragola is rossa, as opposed to rosso, because la fragola is femminile and not maschile. Learning this very important aspect of the language brought up a different question pertaining to pronunciation. To differentiate rossa ('red' when describing a feminine noun) from rosa ('pink'), you have to make sure to pronounce that extra s in rossa. Rosa is pronounced as if the s was a soft z. The campers also learned the difference between arancia (the fruit, orange) and arancione (the color, orange).

We then read a few books about la frutta and had the children recognize and say the names of the different pieces of fruit in the stories.

This book is available for purchase from La Piazza di Carolina for $12.

Our merenda was, you guessed it, la frutta! We had anguria/cocomero and mirtilli (blueberries). We also passed out some grissini (breadsticks) which the children enjoy very much. They always ask for ancora!

The craft dealt with la frutta, naturally. Each child colored in various pieces of fruit and then pasted them, along with little decorative flowers, onto a yellow-painted piattino. The finished product was a cappellino di frutta. We tied these cute fruit hats to their heads using decorative ribbon and they all looked adorable!

Today was Italian alphabet day in Italian camp.  The children sang the alphabet song in Italian. We use the song l'abc that is on the CD Canzoni per babmini Volume 1.  We read IMPARA ALFABETO con PANDI (Dami Editore). The children practiced saying the letters out loud and listened to several words for each letter. Then we made name mobiles. We bought fun cards from the teacher store, wrote their names on it, then hung the letters of their names from the cards with string. The children colored in their own letters. We always review the lesson just before going home. Each child also received a small Italian alphabet book to take home to continue their practice.

 

Italian is a phonetic language, which means that it is pronounced as it is written. Italian and English share the Latin alphabet, but the sounds represented by the letters often differ considerably in the two languages. The Italian alphabet has 21 letters compared to ours which has 26.  The letters, J, K,W, X, and Y are excluded from the Italian version. However, Italian children do learn them in school as they are used in foreign words adopted by the Italian language. Also, they have their own pronunciation:

J = i lunga

K = cappa

W = doppia vu

X = ics

Y = i grega, or ipsilon

Italian children also learn consonant combinations that are treated as their own letters:

GLI as in figlio, moglie, conchiglia and pronounced like ll in million.

GN as in gnomo, ragno, lavagna and pronounced like the ny in canyon.

CHE/CHI as in chiesa, chiave, barche, and pronounced like  kay/key.

GHE/GHI as in streghe, laghi, ghianda, and pronounced like gay/ghee.

SC as in sci, scivolo, pesce, and proncounced like sh.

 

At La Piazza di Carolina we love teaching the Italian alphabet and are always looking for new, creative ways to do so. Share your ideas and activities with us!

 

Here are some of our favorite Italian alphabet learning tools.

Italian wooden alphabet blocks

Italy ABC's

Italian ABC coloring book

Several selections from Giunti Italian books for kids

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abbiamo finalmente cominciato il primo giorno di camp estivo in italiano a Yorktown Heights, un piccolo villaggio al nord della contea di Westchester a New York. E' il primo anno che portiamo il programma a Yorktown. Abbiamo sempre la sede a Yonkers, ma quest'anno abbiamo anche portato le classi d'italiano per bambini al nord perche c'e' una popolazione di italo-americani a Yorktown. Il programma ha avuto successo quindi avevamo anche deciso di fare il camp estivo.

Il primo giorno era un po' angosciante perche c'era chi voleva la mamma, chi voleva il biberon, e chi non voleva entrare. Pero come al solito, dopo quindici minuti le lacrime si sono smesse, e tutto si' e' calmato.

Per il primo giorno abbiamo fatto "una gita in Italia."  Per primo era necessario prendere il passaporto, quindi "abbiamo compilato i moduli appropriati."  Dopo, i bambini hanno conosciuto la carta geografica d'Italia, e hanno imparato dire "Italia." Poi, ciascuno ha creato la bandiera italiana e imparato dire i tre colori, "verde, bianco, rosso."

Infine hanno finito con un ricordino dall'Italia, cioe'  una colanna fatta della pasta dipinta in verde, bianco e rosso.

 

Giorno due era piu' tranquillo. Il tema del giorno era "i colori."  Abbiamo letto quattro libri che ci introcudevono ai splendidi colori e poi creato dei bellissimi arcobaleni fatti dalla carta-velina e cotone per assimilare le nuvole.

Abbiamo anche giocato un gioco molto divertente: "Carolina commanda il colore!' Io in cima una panchina, chiamavo un colore, poi i bambini dovevono trovare qualsiasi oggetto nell'aula dello stesso colore e toccarlo.  E' funzionato molto bene. I bambini hanno capito i colori.

Il mio colore preferito e' viola, le bambine - rosa, ed i bambini - giallo e blu. Qual'e' il tuo colore preferito?

Domani: l'alfabeto.