Tag Archives: Italian

Summer Vacation! (Last Day Picnic)

29 May 2011

Oscar’s last day of actual Kindergarten was Thursday.


Here they are lining up for the last time :) awww, so sentimental.


This is Barbara, Oscar’s Italian teacher. She put their years work into a book for them to keep.

Then Friday we went to Golden Gate Park for a bbq and picnic. The spot was beautiful – just adjacent to Stow Lake. So many flowers were blooming, and the waterfall rushing. Nana tagged along for the fun. The sun came out and it was awesome. Both Ruth and Suzy’s classes were there – which was great because there will be a mixing up of the classes in the fall! I know Oscar really likes a few of those guys (Hugo, Sonny, Dominic…) Thanks Ms. Ruth, it was a great year!

BIG Thanks to Philip Sabes, Jacob’s dad, for 5 or 6 of these photos! He took that last one of Amanda, (Tamir’s mom) walking with the crew. I love it!

Carnivale Masks

14 Mar 2011

Oscar’s class celebrated Carnivale last Tuesday (the Italian Fat Tuesday).
(I gave Oscar a bunch of Mardi Gras beads to share with his classmates,
but of course he forgot and they stayed in his backpack all day. Ces’t la vie!)

After school with his friends, Oscar, Elena, Shayan and Tamir:
(click to see larger)

Thanks for the photo Shideh!

La Befana

05 Jan 2011

Oscar is learning about La Befana. Keep an eye out for her tonight! Here are excerpts from wikipedia:

In Italian folklore, Befana is an old woman who delivers gifts to children throughout Italy on Epiphany Eve (the night of January 5) in a similar way to Saint Nicholas or Santa Claus. This Italian gift-giving spirit is also known as Saint Befana, La Vecchia (the Old Woman), and La Strega (the Witch).

The character may have originated in central Italy, then spread as a tradition to the rest of Italy. In popular folklore Befana visits all the children of Italy on the eve of the Feast of the Epiphany to fill their socks with candy and presents if they are good or a lump of coal or dark candy if they are bad. Being a good housekeeper, many say she will sweep the floor before she leaves. The child’s family typically leaves a small glass of wine and a plate with a few morsels of food, often regional or local, for the Befana.

She is usually portrayed as an old lady riding a broomstick through the air wearing a black shawl and is covered in soot because she enters the children’s houses through the chimney. She is often smiling and carries a bag filled with candy, gifts, or both.

Kindergarten Update

08 Oct 2010

We got a schedule this week! I was just thinking how nice it would be to have one, and then one came home in the back pack! I usually ask Oscar what he did each day when we’re driving home, or at dinner. Now that I have the schedule I can prompt him a little.

Some of the reports are probably only interesting to parents, but here are some examples just in case.

  • “Jacob is getting better, but Robbie is still really bad. He still does that Roaring thing and gets in trouble..  And he still tells Jacob to get Ashley. So now he got Ariel and Jacob in trouble.” {FYI, Robbie is an adorable little blond headed sweetie pie that stands in front of O. at the morning bell.}
  • “Math is numbers. From Italian we know how to count from Uno to Dieci.  Okay it goes like this: “Uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove, dieci. That’s it.”
  • “So PE. We have new games, and some games we’ve played before. My favorite one is Monkey in the Coconut Tree.”
  • “We don’t have very much Free Choice. It matters if we’re being good, we can have it, and if we’re being bad we can’t have it.”
  • “So Journal. I don’t usually get to do that because I have work to finish. Most people have to finish their work during journal time. The work we’re finishing is from some other day. Like if we’re doing a connect the dot, and we didn’t get to finish coloring it.”
  • “Cafeteria is too loud.”
  • “The last thing I want to tell you about is Recess.  Today, at the last recess, I was looking around for children who were playing violence and doing bad things. I’m helping my teacher see people who are doing things that get them in trouble. I’m trying to help Ruth so no one gets hurt from the violence. {How much violence was there today??} Nothing. I mean none. But I was looking for it anyways. Because you never know when it will happen.”
  • {And did you sing about pancakes today?} “Uh huh. It goes like this….