Back in the Classroom!

Ciao!

The students of Harvard's Italian 96 are back in the classrooms at Graham and Parks Elementary School. Three teams of Harvard students have been giving half hour lessons in Italian once a week for the last month to G&P's Kindergarten and Pre-K classes. Over the course of the next month we hope to cover basic Italian vocabulary and grammar, in addition to introducing the students to elements of Italian culture.

Check this blog regularly for updates as we move through the semester.

Arrivederci!

Canzone della Festa

Bianco Natale :
Quel lieve tuo candor, neve,

Discende lieto nel mio cuor.

Nella notte santa il cuor esulta

D'amor, e Natale ancor.

E viene giu dal ciel lento,

Un dolce canto ammaliator.

Che ti dice "Spera anche tu

E Natale, non soffrire piu".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7_NIeTK8tw

Jinglebells:

com'e bello andar

Sulla slitta insieme a te.

Con tanta neve che

Dal cielo scende giu.

Tintinnando va il nostro cavallin

e insieme noi cantiamo.

Buona notte, buon natal.

Din don dan, din don dan, che felicita~

Sulla slitta tutti siam e di gioia noi cantiamo.

Din don dan, din don dan, che felicita!

Sulla slitta tutti siam e di gioia noi cantiam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsc9aEqJjGc

Joy to the World

Gloria in terra, e nato il Re

Il mondo esultera.

Apriamo i nostri cuori

Con gioia al lieto evento

E in cielo si cantera,

Sulla terra si cantera,

Ch'e' nato, e nato il Re del Ciel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYwhicY9ADQ

Deck the Halls

Con i rami d'agrifoglio

Fa la la la la la la la la

Adorniamo qui le sale

Fa la la la la la la la la

Canta un coro di bambini

Fa la la la la la la la la

Una nenia di Natale

Fa la la la la la la la la.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGWofpemt-I

O Come All ye Faithful

Venite, fedeli, lieti ed esultanti,

Venite, venite a Bethlehem.

Nato vedrete Cristo Salvatore.

venite adoriamo, Venite adoriamo,

venite adoriamo, Cristo Gesu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvXHjGOcMbA

Change languages, shift responses | Harvard Gazette article

Ciao tutti!

Here's a link to a fascinating article on how being bilingual can affect one's life in more than a strictly linguistic sense:

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/11/change-languages-shift-responses/

The spirit of this article is closely intertwined with the motivation driving our course, so check it out if you've the chance!

Italian Holiday Celebration!

Ciao a tutti!

On Friday, December 3rd, the students and staff of Italian 96r invite you and your children to an Italian Holiday Celebration at 3:30 PM on Harvard's campus (specific location TBD). We will be discussing the holiday season in Italy, and how their festivities differ from our own. Naturally, as part of the cultural experience, we will be preparing (and eating!) delizioso Italian holiday food!






La Befana is an important figure in the Italian holiday season!

Please join us as we ring in the holidays all'italiana!

Arrivederci!

Ciao a tutti! Hello everyone!

Ciao! My name is Chiara Meloni, I am an italian video maker and designer and I recently opened a t-shirt online shop.
My style is naive and ironic and I really love my job, especially when handmade things are envolved (I adore stop motion videos).
I am glad to be a little part of this beautiful initiative and I hope you like the illustration I made for it. I want to thank all of you for teaching and learning my language and culture.


Bye,


Chiara.

meet the teachers of the teachers

Patrizia Rodomonti Duggan and Cara Takakjian

Italian Returns to G & P

Ciao! In a couple of months, we will be returning to Graham and Parks Elementary School for the third consecutive year to teach Italian to the Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten classes. We want to take this opportunity to give you a brief overview of what we are trying to accomplish, and more importantly, who we are. The Italian Department at Harvard University has created a program in which we are given the chance to help teach Italian language and culture in Cambridge Public Schools. In the near future, we will be coming into the classroom once a week not only to expose the children to a new language, but also to give them a taste of Italian culture. We hope to implement Italian in the classroom through a variety of mediums, including books, music, art, and, of course, food! Our class is composed of seven undergraduate students, all of whom have completed extensive coursework in Italian. More importantly, we are all very enthusiastic and excited for the upcoming year at G & P!

Come hear about Italian and community service TONIGHT!

Come to Ticknor Lounge on the first floor of Boylston Hall tonight, from 5-8pm, to attend the Romance language department's forum on community service. This relates closely with our teaching project, so if you'd like to hear more about what role we'll be playing, come check it out!o

Back to school! Ritorniamo a scuola!

Here is the recipe for the "torta della nonna" in italian for the brave ones.

INGREDIENTI
(dosi per 6 persone ed una teglia del Ø di 25 cm.):

• Per la pasta frolla:
• 300 g. di farina
• 150 g. di zucchero in polvere
• 150 g. di burro (o margarina)
• Tre rossi d'uovo
• Un limone
• Per la crema pasticcera:
• 90 g. di zucchero in polvere
• 75 g. di farina
• 3 tuorli d'uovo
• ½ litro di latte
• Un limone
• Per guarnire:
• 50 g. di pinoli
• Zucchero a velo q.b.

Versare sul piano di lavoro la farina a fontana e mettervi in mezzo i rossi d'uovo, lo zucchero, il burro e la buccia del limone precedentemente grattugiata; impastare tutto molto sollecitamente per evitare che la pasta "riscaldi" troppo e che quindi possa "impazzire" (a tal fine e' bene utilizzare gli ingredienti freddi e, prima di impastare, mettere le mani per un po' sotto il gettito dell'acqua fredda), raccogliere tutto in una palla e, dopo averla sistemata in un piattino ed avvolta con della pellicola trasparente, lasciarla riposare in frigorifero per un'ora.

Nel frattempo, preparare la crema pasticcera nel seguente modo: versare in una terrina lo zucchero e i rossi d'uovo; sbattere con una frusta ed aggiungere la farina e la buccia del limone precedentemente grattugiata.

Mettere sul fuoco il latte e quando sara' piuttosto caldo versarlo a piccole quantita' nella terrina, amalgamando bene con la frusta; travasare quindi la crema in un tegamino e portarla sul fuoco, facendola bollire dolcemente per tre-quattro minuti: essa si addensera' gradatamente perdendo il sapore della farina (mentre la crema si raffredda, per essere poi utilizzata nella farcita, ricordarsi di mescolarla di tanto in tanto per impedire che si formi la pellicola sulla superficie).

Foderare quindi la teglia precedentemente imburrata ed infarinata con la pasta frolla, praticare sul fondo una serie di forellini con una forchetta, coprirlo con un disco di carta da forno e appoggiarvi sopra dei fagioli secchi (che poi si conservano in un vetro per futuri usi di questo genere), cosi' da evitare che la pasta durante la cottura si gonfi e resti quindi lo spazio per la farcitura.

Infornare a 180° per circa mezz'ora, lasciare intiepidire e riempire quindi la crostata con la crema pasticcera, guarnendone la superficie con i pinoli e lo zucchero a velo.

Friday in the Ticknor lounge

Yesterday afternoon we had a nice event at Harvard to meet with the children from G&P and their parents. Kelsey and Susannah from the Sackler museum came too!!! By the way, Susannah is an incoming parent at G&P. Her daughter Stella will be in kindergarten in the fall!!! Welcome Susannah.

There was caprese, focaccia, olives, cannoli, torta della nonna, pizzelle and prosecco.

It was nice to meet with all the parents.

We will be gone shortly to Italy for the summer, keep coming on this blog . We will have pics for you from Italy. We will see you soon at G&P for another italian experience.

Thanks everyone . grazie a tutti.

Have a good summer. Buona estate a tutti voi!!!

la squadra di Harvard (Elvira, Cara, Patrizia)

Ps: I will put the "torta della nonna" recipe in the next post.

le foto degli autoritratti al Museo di Harvard

K104 Preparation for the Museum Trip

Hello, wonderful parents of K104! A couple of weeks ago we took our K-104ers to a museum that they were both familiar and un-familiar with--one right at Graham and Parks! The students behaved so well, and we want to share with you all photos of their experience.

The kids were asked questions about "che colori sono nei dipinti," (what colors are in the pictures?), questions about parts of the face: "quanti nasi hai l'uomo?" (how many noses does the man have?" and questions to review vocabulary words they have learned over the course of this spring.

We had a still life section as well as portrait and watercolor paintings. In preparation for our trip on Thursday, we want to remind the students that they should be quiet at the museum, be attentive to their guides and to non toccare i dipinti (not touch the paintings!) We have included a video here for this purpose.

See you Thursday K-104, and we hope you liked the cupcakes from the little girl inside the castle inside the museum! Maybe you'll get to meet her there!





See you soon!

Wacky-Jackie, Teddy and Stacey

Last Lesson in Claudie's Class - April 30

Ciao!

I can't believe this semester is coming to an end already and that we had our last lesson in Claudie's class. It has been so much fun getting to know the G&P Kindergardeners and teaching them Italian! For this last lesson we decided that it would be appropriate to end our time together with a party, but we needed everyone's help to get it going!First, we needed to figure out what decorations we needed. So we took suggestions from the class: we got balloons (palloncini) and hats (cappelli) to start. Then we decided that all good parties need delicious food, so the kids brainstormed pizza (pizza), cake (torta), and ice cream (gelato). As the kids gave their suggestions we posted cutouts of the items on a posterboard that represented our party. If we weren't prepared for one of them we would draw it onto the posterboard. For each word the kids suggested, we would have them repeat it after us in Italian. Here's an example of the cake we posted on the posterboard:

After this we started asking the kids about what kinds of activities happened at parties. One of the kids suggested that we dance (ballamo!). We decided to play a FREEZE dance game with an Italian song and they seemed to really love dancing around tog

ether and freezing when the music stopped. Below is a picture of the kids dancing to the music:

Next we talked about how at parties often people play games, so we played a game of Bingo that would help everyone review what we've learned over the last several weeks. It was amazing how many of the words the kids retained, and if one of them didn't remember what a word meant, another kid at the table would remind them. Eventually a few of the kids got five in a row and were able to call "BINGO!" As you can see these kids were hard

at work filling out their Bingo cards:

After a fun round of Bingo, it was time to mangiare (eat). We brought mini-cupcakes as a treat, because honestly, would it really be a party without cake?! The kids loved it and were relieved to find that the party wasn't just

pretend! We were able to get them to say "Mi piace" (I like it) and we closed by teaching them to say "Io parlo Italiano" (I speak Italian). At the end we took a lovely group photo, as you can see below:

It has been such a joy teaching at the Graham and Parks School this semester and we're really looking forward for our final time together at the museum. We hope it's been a great experience for the whole family and we will keep you posted on how the museum visit goes.

Arrivederci!

Alex, Brennan, e Nick

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

JK105 Parents and children in the North end

news form the Sackler

I will share this e-mail with the italian students and the parents of the children at G&P. Please, go see your child's artwork at the museum. You can tell your friends that your kid had his first big show at a museum when he was 6!!!

here the email:

Dear Patrizia and Cara,

We got the go-ahead from our deputy director to put together the display of the
Graham Parks students' self-portraits!

We'll be able to put together a display that will be up the weekend of May 15th.
The display will be in the space outside the entrance to the Sackler Lecture
Hall - there is a large bulletin board we can use, and we will set up an
additional table so there is space for all 58 art works and a description of
the project.

...to be continued, but wanted to share this good news!

Kelsey

Italiano al Sackler - by Matthew Da Silva

The students of Harvard’s Italian 96 class are taking a field trip. However, they won’t be alone. Students of the advanced language class are taking Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students from Cambridge’s Graham and Parks School on a field trip to the Sackler Art Museum.



The Harvard students have been teaching the "bambini" Italian all semester long as a part of their class. In a few weeks, the semester’s work will culminate in a field trip to the Sackler.


To integrate the Italian language with the beautiful artwork the Sackler, the students have been rehearsing lesson plans that are both engaging and educational. From playing Italian “I-Spy” with still-life paintings to pointing out the parts of the face on a little girl painted by Van Gogh, the students have managed to make the artwork of the Sackler come to life – in Italian!


One student plans to create an entire story about a statue that is filled with seemingly random objects, while another will help the story of Aphrodite come to life. In each student’s presentation, integration of the Italian language is key. As the students they are working with have only been taking Italian for a couple of months, it is a difficult task to blend Italian into exciting lessons that the preschoolers and kindergarteners will find engaging. However, the students of Italian 96 have constructed brilliant lessons that combine the museum’s artwork with the Italian language in a fun, interesting manner.


While teaching youngsters a foreign language can be difficult on its own, policing a group of four and five year olds in a fine art museum is no easy task. However, the students, with help from their instructors and museum staff, have worked hard to ensure no mishaps will occur.


With excellent teaching, an exciting lesson plan, and beautiful artwork, the Italian 96 field trip to Sackler Museum promises to be one of the highlights of the academic year – both for the kindergarteners, and the college students.

Alezandra's Class 4/11/10

Hi Parents!

Today Stacey, Jackie and I started to speak more Italian to the children. While they seemed confused at first, they eventually got the idea and seemed to understand all of our instructions in Italian. It’s amazing how quickly they’ve learned!

After our customary song, “La Bella Lavanderina”, we read the story of “The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum” as a class. We read it in English but repeated all of the nouns in Italian (eg. “Once upon a time there was a girl-ragazza- who lived in a castle- castello- inside the museum- museo”). Many of the words were repeated multiple times, so by the end of the story the children had most of the basic vocabulary nailed down.



After the story, we introduced the parts of the face, using the front cover of the book in a simple “say and repeat” format. When we felt that the children had learned the words, we played a game of “Simon Says” in Italian (“Simone dice”). In this part of the lesson, there was absolutely no English, so the kids had to follow instructions (eg. “Simone dice tocca il tuo naso”- Simon says touch your nose) and remember the vocabulary that they had just learned. They did a great job!

Lastly, we drew self-portraits, with the kids again following our instructions in Italian. The teachers would say “Ora dessiniamo la bocca” (Now we’re going to draw the mouth), and all the kids would draw the mouth on their self-portrait. They managed to remember the vocabulary really well and follow all of the instructions. It’s great to see how much progress they’re making!



Teddy, Jackie and Stacey

Claudie's Class 4/16

Hi again! This week in Italian class we continued to prepare for our visit to the Harvard Sackler Museum. As always we began our lesson with Giro Giro Tondo- the kids all know the words by heart now! Here is a picture of some of them while playing... Next

Next we read a story about a little girl in a museum- The Girl in the Castle Inside the Museum by Kate Bernheimer.

While we read the story there were five Italian words that we learned- castello (castle), museo (museum), bambina (girl), musica (music), and sole (sun). Every time those words came up in the story one teacher held up the corresponding image and all the kids said the word in Italian. This was a really fun way to have everyone involved and by the end the kids were doing so well the didn't even need to wait to see the image!

When we go to the real museum we are going to look for something from the little girl because she told the Italian teachers she is going to leave something special for us there! After finishing the book we played Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes (Testa, Spalle, Ginocchia, Piedi) again. The kids were impressive in their ability to both say the italian words and sing the song faster and faster each time! Here is a picture during the game...

For parts of the body we learned playing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes we also learned action verbs that will help us when we go to the museum.

Occhi (eyes)- guardare (look) At the museum we will look at lots of paintings!

Mani (hands)- toccare (touch) At the museum we cannot touch the paintings!

Orecchi (ears)- ascoltare (listen) At the museum we must listen to instructions!

Bocca (mouth)- parlare (talk) At the museum we must speak softly (parlare piano)!

Piedi (feet)- camminare (walk) At the museum we should walk, not run!

Each action verb had a gesture or a motion that we also learned. Then we played a memory game where we, the teachers, would say either the body part or the action verb and then the kids had to say the partner word that we didn't say. This was challenging to begin with but the kids caught on. Afterwards we looked at the self portraits (autoritratti) that the kids drew last week. We went through each one and asked questions about colors, numbers, parts of the body, and family members. The kids did a wonderful job responding in Italian- they have learned so much and are ready to learn more! Finally we played Giro Giro Tondo one last time to close. The thing that impressed me most about this lesson was the amount of italian the kids understood. We had two teachers speaking only in Italian this week and all the questions we asked were only in Italian. The kid understood and were able to respond! This was so amazing! Keep up the good work!

Ciao,

Brennan, Alex, Nick, Alex