CHRISTMAS TIME AT LOS OLIVOS SCHOOL

Christmas, apart from all the lights, gifts and meals, is the time of the year that invites us to renew our feelings and emotions, and develop in ouselves attitudes of generosity, love, and peace.
Living Christmas in a proper way means reflecting on how we can improve as human beings.
That is how we live Christmas at Los Olivos School, and that is why we would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Welcome back to school

"Our promise to you"

"We promise you everyday your child will learn something;

Some days they will bring it home in their hands,

Some days they will bring it home in their heads,

and some days they will bring it home in their hearts"

-Valerie Welk-

HAPPY BACK TO SCHOOL!

Reading poems and tongue twisters

We could say that pronunciation is one of the most common and difficult problems that non-native speakers have to face when they learn English. In our classes we take pronunciation very seriously but also believe it's important to have fun while you are learning. 

Reading short poems is a great way to develop our vocabulary, pronunciation and reading skills. Tongue twisters are also an excellent educational tool that will help students improve their pronunciation and fluency, and they are so much fun! 

The two below are just an example of what we have been doing in our second grade classes this last year.  

Making a "Time Capsule" with children

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favourite things

– ‘My Favourite Things’, The Sound Of Music

Our favourite things. As we get older, the fluctuation of what our favourite things tend to slow down and level out. They may flicker here and there but our main ‘favourites’ stand fast from year to year, perhaps only changing slightly every few years. For children however, these favourite things swing like a pendulum. The speed that the pendulum swings seems to simply depend on the day, or if we are being really honest, even the hour! 

They are so busy all the time and are still exploring the world and discovering new things. New tastes, new smells, new toys, new friends, new films, new music, new loves and new dislikes! It’s fun to note down your child’s preferences at the beginning of the year and then see how they have changed over the course of that year or two! 

As a young adult, I was always a little envious when reading or watching stories of those digging up a time capsule that they had buried 10 years previously. It must be so exciting seeing what you had left inside. I bet some might even be a little nervous to see what their younger selves may have written. So, let’s not be envious anymore, let’s get to it! 

Today we shall be creating our own Time Capsule with our children! It is really so simple and can be adapted in various ways to suit your family’s needs. 

So join us in bottling your favourite things in the present, to be opened in the future!

What you will need:

• Shoe box/ glass jar/ plastic container
• Paper and or printer
• Pen and pencils
• Scissors
• String
• Stickers

Instructions: 

1. Firstly you will need to decide if you are going to bury it or keep your Time Capsule in the house. That will decide what sort of container you will need. We will be using a simple shoe box as we will be keeping it in our garage. If you want to keep it outside or underground you will need a non-decay case, like a closed glass jar.
2. Once you have your container you can decorate it in any way your children would like to. Some ideas are; stickers, paint, decoupage, sharpie pens and spray paint.
3. Now it is time to think about what you would like to put inside it. First off, we measured how tall the children were. Get your child to lie down on their backs with their legs together. With a piece of string, measure how tall they are and cut. Attach it to a note stating the name and age of the child. When you open it in the future it’ll be a fun way to see how much they have grown!
4. Now on a piece of paper, get your child to draw around their hands. Now allow them to cut it out. This will illustrate how much their hands have grown by the time they next open it. 
5. Do the same with their feet and write what shoe size they are inside. Cut them out.
6. On a third piece of paper, ask each child to draw themselves within a large oval frame. This is a fun way to see how much their drawing skills have developed when they next open the box.
7. Lastly, type/write/print out a list of questions for your child to write the answers of their favourite things. This will be age dependent so altering the questions for each child is necessary. You can make your own, or use our Favourite Things Questionnaire!

Take a look to Los Olivos' time capsule here!

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DRAMA AND SPEAKING

Theater is an educational activity where the students bring to life a fantasy world through oral expressions and acting. Theater is a teaching tool for the development of creativity, interpretation, memorization, expressive and personal abilities, etc. All of these characteristics are essential for communication among us. The students developed both individual and group creativity, they were stimulated as a whole during the development of the theater, and gained a classroom bond as well as personal confidence.

During the year, primary students have been reading and practicing in class a drama that corresponded with their grade:
In 1º primary... Neon the fish
In 2° primary... The Little Red Hen
In 3° primary... Toy Story
In 4° primary... Aladdin
In 5° primary... The Jungle Book
In 6° primary... The Wizard of Oz
In the 2nd evaluation, students began to memorize their scripts for each role. For the 3rd evaluation, the students could say their lines without looking at the paper, since they had them memorized. They began bringing their costumes to school and selected classes practiced in the auditorium, in order to become familiar with the stage and set.

The classes selected to perform with an audience in the auditorium were:
3°D, 4°A, 5°C and a mixture of students from 6°A-B-C-D of primary. We believed these selected classes and students were the most prepared and knew their roles the best.



Also, throughout the year we have been talking during each evaluation about traditional holidays and celebrations, especially those celebrated in The United States: Thanksgiving, Christmas, The Three Wise Men day, Valentine's Day, Holy Week/Easter... We did fun presentations and activities related to the holidays, such as Thanksgiving word searches, Christmas posters, and Easter discussions.

Two American Language Auxiliars have assisted in the development of the theater throughout the year. Miss Elizabeth from Atlanta and, of course, Miss Merissa from Pennsylvania. These Assistants have helped motivate the students throughout the year, training them and preparing them for the theater, while also including entertaining and fun lessons, activities, and games. We will miss them very much and are appreciative of their work.

The last week of May, we were able to perform the shows in the auditorium with large audiences. The students proudly showed off their hard work as they acted and everyone enjoyed seeing the plays. A great round of applause to all the dedicated actors and teachers who helped make each play become a reality!
                                                                                                         

                                                                                                                                                           Merissa(Pennsylvania) and Rafa Morillo

ENGLISH SPEAKING CLASS

Usually when we think of learning a new language we picture textbooks, grammar lessons, and practicing vocabulary flashcards. While writing and reading are essential elements in learning a new language, the hearthbeat of a language is most often overlooked: speaking it. To have conversations and be capable of expressing oneself is what it means to truly "speak a language".  Thus, in recognition of this fact, here in El Colegio Los Olivos a specific "English Conversation" class has been implemented across the board from Kindergarteners to Secondary Schoolers. These children focus on giving presentations, having debates, class discussions, and learning native phonics(for the younger). The activity people enjoy doing the most is talking with one another. Consequently, these conversation classes are made to be fun. Students can participate in games designed around practicing conversation, learning to sing songs native to the United States, and most impactfully, having weekly contact with American Language Assistants. These assistants have traveled from the U.S.A. to listen and observe the students speaking, to correct their pronunciation, and provide new definitions, vocabulary and expressions to develop a native accent and diction.

                                                                                                     - Elizabeth (Atlanta)

LEARNING ABOUT THE UNITED STATES CULTURE.

At the begining of the year, we have been with our mascots, Kely Kangaroo, from Australia,, Flash Fox from UK and Bobby Bear from the USA. 

With Bobby we have learnt about the most importan symbols from North America like the Statue of Liberty, we have been to NY, and the most important symbol for the Americans, their flag.

READING PLAN "LOS OLIVOS SCHOOL"

Reading is a key tool in the development of an individual. It is a complex process that facilitates the development of skills to acquire knowledge.
For all these reasons, at Los Olivos School we carry out a reading plan that allows us to achieve the following objectives:

- Encouraging reading in English as a means of acquiring knowledge and as a cultural source.
- Exploring different types of texts.
- Learning to express yourself in English through reading.
- Acquiring vocabulary and idiomatic expressions in English.
- Learning the use of a library as a source of information.

To achieve these goals, we have a great school library. Each week, our students read a new book, getting different reading cards throughout the school year.

SPELLING BEE 2019 LOS OLIVOS SCHOOL

Since we believe that learning the Alphabet and having to spell words in English are helpful and good for the students, we have been practicing in class for Spelling Bee. After weeks of preparation, we celebrated the best spellers from each grade in the auditorium. Below is the list of participants:

2º A Antonio Cáceres Romero y Francisco Del Castillo Pérez

2º B Pablo Montes Mota y Jaime Navarro Sanjaume                

2º C Álvaro Jordán Degara y Jorge Vallejo Sánchez

2º D Hugo Rodríguez Fernández y Javier Villanova Meca

3º A Javier Bautista Pérez y Fernando Del Valle Zamora

3º B Javier Fernández-Lomana Brasa y Carlos Jiménez Becerra

3º C Marta Alés Alvarado y Jorge Mayor Sánchez

3º D Sara Morales Jiménez y María Victoria Núñez Méndez

4º A Pablo Blasco Gil y Jaime Torres López

4º B Elsa Gaspar Sánchez y Jorge Mestanza Montiel

4º C Marina Ortiz Gómez y Manuel Sánchez Fortes

4º D Adriana Paz Castillo y Omar Rais Ramírez

5º A Sira Altamirano Muñoz y Marcos Cabello Triviño

5º B Manuel Montoro Rios y Beatriz Pérez Ariza

5º C Laura Molina Moreno y José Ortega Alcaide

5º D José Antonio Ureña Torres y José Bravo Marin

6º A José Antonio Albarracín Gámez y Laura Mª Jurado García

6º B Beatriz Mª Martín Calzado y Sergio Robles Primo

6º C Carlos Arrabal Romero y Nora Pérez Gómez

6º D Carolina Giambirtone Gutiérrez y Mª Belén Sarria Párraga  

 It was an excellent day for the participants and their classmates, who were both nervous and excited for the contestants. The finals were done over the course of three days. On Friday, March 8^th students from 1^st and 2^nd grade did the Spelling Bee contest in the morning and students from 5^th and 6^th did the contest after break.

On Monday, March 11^th the students from 3^rd and 4^th grade participated in the Spelling Bee contest. At the end of the day, four students remained and had to continue with the spelling bee the following day, on Tuesday March 12^th where we finally had a 1^st place winner.

It was a real success thanks to help of our two assistants, Merissa and Elizabeth, the English teachers in the school and all the other who helped make our event a fun and educational day!

And the winners are...

Hugo Rodríguez Fernández.

Jaime Torres López.

Beatriz Pérez Ariza.

They will represent our school in the AMCO Spelling Bee National Contest on May 11th 2019 in Madrid.

CONGRATULATIONS AND GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL!!

In the National Contest celebrated on May 11th, 2019 in Madrid, the students that represented Los Olivos School did a great job! They passed two rounds but were eliminated in the "Extra words" round.
It was a very positive, fun and enriching experience for the students. They all received an AMCO participation diploma.

ERASMUS+ "LOS OLIVOS SCHOOL"

Los Olivos School is already part of the International Project "English for Social Entrepreneurship".

An initiative funded by the Erasmus + Program and the European Commission that aims to develop the entrepreneurial spirit of students as well as knowledge of foreign languages, with special attention to English.

This project lasts two years, and our 4th grade students of Secondary School will participate in collaboration with other schools in Romania, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey and Italy.

Here is a brief summary of the work done by our students in the transnational meeting in Lithuania.

ReADinG Is FUN!!!

At Los Olivos School, Reading skills are seriously taken into consideration by teachers.
Reading is important because it develops the mind, the imagination as well as it allows us to discover new things.
Children who read, improve their concentration, vocabulary, language skills and it also develops empathy.
Reading is FUN!!!