Our Last Day (in the class) with Liz and K104!

Dear Parents,
It's hard to believe that the term has come to an end -- we've become so used to visiting Graham & Parks every Wednesday afternoon! Last Wednesday, we made the last trip out there and finished up with a lesson on direction words and a review of everything we've gone over. We started out by showing the class a still-life (also in preparation for a still-life activity at the Sackler Museum next week!) We pointed out various objects in the still-life and placed the actual picture at different points in the room as a way of introducing "direction/location" words. For instance, ABOVE Lam's head is SOPRA. (Dov'e la natura morta? È sopra!). The apple is BELOW the book. (La mela è sotto il libro.) Other words we introduced were "Qui" (here), "Li" (there), "Destra" (right), and "Sinistra" (left). Best of all, without our even asking them, the kids were calling out lots of words they remembered simply by looking at the still-life: "Rosso!", "Due!" and "Bianco."
After this large group session, we broke up into circles of 5-6 students and did some more review with the still-lifes. Each of us has a still-life we had made with many of the cut-out images we had been using all semester: food (latte - milk, mela - apple, uovo - egg, etc.) and face parts (occhi - eyes, boca - mouth, naso - nose, etc.) for instance. We went through the still-life and asked about the various locations of the objects: La boca è sotto o sopra della mela? (The mouth is below or above the apple?) We also used this chance to review numbers and colors: "Quanti occhi sono? (How many eyes are there?) Quanti occhi hai? (How many eyes do you have?) It was amazing how many words the students remembered - they were so eager to demonstrate everything they had learned. It was also great to see how responsive the kids were even though we spoke almost exclusively Italian to them -- they picked up a lot simply based on body signals and sounds.
At the end of the class, we reconvened and made a big circle. Then, we introduced the most important phrase of the semester:
"PARLO ITALIANO!" (I speak Italian!) We did a big cheer and the students seemed to feel quite accomplished in saying that. We then took a group photo - un "serio" one (serious) and un "felice" one (happy/silly).
Even though we will see everyone one more time next week, we wanted to tell you how much we enjoyed our time with your children -- they were so enthusiastic, quick to pick up on things and curious. At home, try asking them: "Parli italiano?" or "Che lingua parli?" (What language do you speak?) Hopefully, they'll remember, "Parlo italiano" and continue to speak it!

Arrivederci!
Julia, Lam e Giancarlo