Blood oranges

Mamma mia! Oranges that have red juice!
Ciao Tutti
In the Upper School the students are learning all about Italy and especially the north of Italy. We watched a DVD about an unusual festival. The townspeople had a festival in which teams of people threw oranges at each other. The oranges were blood oranges from Sicilia. We showed the children a blood orange. Mamma Mia! It was rosso instead of arancione. Toby said that he buys Aranciata Rossa (Blood Orange) drink at a cafe at Doreen.

A presto! (see you soon)

Signora Nac
Signora Di Sera

Learning Italian is fantastico!!!!

A photo from Barcelona. Signora Nac fell in love with the city and especially the amazing buildings designed by Gaudi. She also discovered the Spanish way of eating many delicious tapas.

Hola! (Ciao in Spanish)

Throughout the year we have aimed to expose the children not only to the Italian language, but languages in general. We have used the travel experiences of our students and staff to highlight the need for our children to be bilingual in a modern world. By learning the basic structure of the Italian language, children can then apply this to the other Latin based languages such as French and Spanish. As Signora Nac found in her recent travels to Spain and Portugal, Italian was very useful. We also keep reminding our students that children in other parts of the world have a first language and learn a second and third language.

MEAL TIMES

In the Middle School we were discussing types of food and when it would be eaten.

la colazione breakfast
la merenda snack
il pranzo lunch
la cena dinner

The children placed the foods they would eat within each meal time.
We compared this to other cultures. In Japan "il pesce" is eaten at all meal times. I spent nearly a week in Japan recently and I had "il pesce" per colazione!

Mamma mia!

BUON APPETITO!
SIGNORA NAC

GRAMMAR IN ITALIAN

GENDER OF NOUNS
All nouns in Italian are either masculine or feminine. (Ask an Upper School student to tell you more.)

Are there any other languages where nouns are masculine or feminine?
Most singular nouns ending in -0 are masculine.
Most singular nouns ending in -a are feminine.

MASCULINE
libro book
giorno day
ragazzo boy

FEMININE
zia aunty
penna pen
matita pencil

In English the definite article THE can be used before all nouns. But in Italian the definite article has more than one form.

THE can be:
il, lo, l', la

MAMMA MIA!

Italian really makes our students think about how languages work.

PARLO ITALIANO SCOUT BADGE

LOTE NEWS
One of our Upper School students Matthew Fraser is a scout. Last week he attempted to get his Parlo Italiano badge. To be successful he had to write a one hundred word essay, translate a passage, and have a simple conversation for ten minutes. Matthew prepared for this by himself using his Italian book. It was with great pride that Matthew told us he passed the test and got his badge. We were also so proud of him. We think Matthew will truly be a future citizen of a world where bilingualism is the norm. BRAVO MATTHEW!!!!!!!!

SIGNORA NAC AND SIGNORA DI SERA

OOPS!!! A Magpie!

Accidenti!!!!!!!
Mamma mia!!!!!!!

Perbacco!!!!!!!!!

What's a magpie doing on the LOTE blog?

ciao Signora Nac

Venice
Did you know some of our students have been to Venice? Isabella and Chloe have returned to our school. While they were away they visited Venice. Isabella told me her parents paid a lot of money to go on a gondola. Gemma, Connor, and Koby have been to Venice too.

When I went to Venice I realised that everything had to travel on the canals. This is a photo I took of the Italian police in a police boat. I have also seen the rubbish truck/boat, the coca cola boat, and the ambulance boat. Amazing!

Where are our students travelling to?
Mika is going to America. So is Nikki. I am going to Spain and Greece soon. Where have you been recently? Have you learnt any words in another language? I am learning a bit of Greek. Maybe Melissa and Daniel can help me with my Greek.

Ciao Signora Nac

autunno

AUTUNNO
Fa caldo un po.
Fa freddo un po.
Piove.
Tira vento.
C'é il sole.
É nuvoloso.

Fa bel tempo. Mi piace molto l'autunno.

It's a little bit hot.
It's a little bit cold.
It rains.
It's windy.
It's sunny.
It's cloudy.

It's nice weather.
I really like autumn.
Signora Nac

Pasqua

BUONA PASQUA!!
We hope you all have a fantastico Pasqua. In Italy the Easter eggs are different. They are traditionally made of dark chocolate with the words Buona Pasqua written on them in white icing. They are covered in clear cellophane so they words can be read. Inside there is a "sorpresa". (Just like in the Kinder Surprise.)

This year my Macedonian Easter will be celebrated this coming weekend too. My mum will be colouring eggs red and making the sweet Easter bread. How will your family be celebrating Easter?

Saluti Signora Nac

Did you know that Italians have been driving small cars for many years. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, petrol is much more expensive, and in the historic centres of the main cities the roads are very narrow. They were originally built for people, not cars. Italians tend to ignore parking restrictions. Anywhere will do! Mamma mia!

fichi d'india (prickly pears)

Ciao
Last week we showed the children a food eaten by some southern Italians. They were prickly pears. We discussed where they would grow in Italy, and where they would grow near Yarrambat. Most children did not realise that the fruit of the cactus was edible. We discussed the need to wear strong gloves if they are to be picked since they have many very fine prickles. Signora Di Sera said "Non mi piace."
Signora Nac said "Mi piace un po."

Learning Latin

Did you know that one of our Middle School students wants to learn Latin? I would love to learn Latin too. Italian is based on Latin along with Spanish, French and Portuguese. Many English words are Latin based too. I told my student that he could learn Latin at high school but in the mean time he could read the Asterix books and the botanical names of plants. He was already reading Asterix. Mamma mia, this student loves to read and learn. Who could it be?

Ciao Signora Nac

La Famiglia

 

La Famiglia

La Famiglia

We are learning La Famiglia words.
The basics are
la mamma
il papa
la sorella
il fratello
la nonna
il nonno

We used a famous family to construct sentences. La Famiglia Simpson.
Lisa e la sorella.
Abe e il nonno.
Bart e il fratello.
Homer e il papa.
Marge e la mamma.
Maggie e la sorellina.

( The word "e" should have an accent above it to give it the meaning "is". Unfortunately Signora Nac can't find an accent on BLOGGER. Can someone help?)

Antipasto

Ciao tutti!

This week all the grades made anitpasto. (We hope to have photos soon.) As one Prep student said "We ate the Italian flag."

We began with rosso - tomato
bianco - boconcini
verde - basilico

It was great to see most children trying something they may never have tried before. Bravi!!

Ciao tutti!

The Preps have learnt their first song and first greetings. I hope you are helping them practise. Junior School have the complete colour chart. Grade one children are learning the extra colour words. Middle School and Upper have begun their conversations.

Extra words for everyone.

Capisci? Do you understand?
The answer is si Signora or no Signora

Fa caldo It's hot
Fa freddo It's cold (magari!!!!!!!!! if only!!!!)

Ciao!

We are cooking in Week 3. The ingredients are tomatoes, boconcini, basil, olive oil.

What are we going to make?

A presto!!!!

Ciao everyone.
Welcome to Italian 2010. Signora Nac and Signora Di Sera are excited about Italian in our classroom and cucina.

I wonder what we will be tasting first?

Do you remember your numbers?

Do you remember your conversation words?

Do you remember your colours?

Ci vediamo!