How Being Bilingual Rewires Your Brain

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/02/how-being-bilingual-rewires-your-brain/?utm_content=bufferf1bc7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

It’s well known that being bilingual has cognitive benefits: switching between two languages has been compared to mental gymnastics. But now, research suggests that mastering two languages can fundamentally alter the structure of your brain, rewiring it to work differently than the brains of those who only speak one language.

“Bilinguals are a really a model of cognitive control,” Pennsylvania State University cognitive scientist Judith F. Kroll told Quartz, citing bilinguals’ ability to both hold two languages in their head and expertly switch between them at the right times. Kroll presented her work at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting held in Washington, DC last weekend (Feb. 13). If you speak two languages and have ever found this task to be difficult—choosing the “right” tongue based on the context you’re in—it’s because both languages are always “on” in the brains of bilinguals, as Kroll and other cognitive scientists have seen. In other words, the brain is continually processing information in both languages.

The mental struggle of selecting and switching between two languagesactually helps reshape the brain’s networks, according to Kroll. One study looked at four-month old, eight-month old, and one-year old infants—60 of whom were bilingual and 60 monolingual—and found that, as they grew older, infants who were exposed to both Spanish and Catalan started looking at speakers’ mouths instead of their eyes when listening to someone talk. The monolingual infants, however, only looked at mouths more than eyes when they were listening to someone speak their native tongue.

Kroll told Quartz this study is a great example of how being bilingual can improve speakers’ cognitive abilities. “Babies who are listening to two languages [growing up] become attuned to those two languages right away,” said Kroll. “It’s not confusing them or messing them up developmentally—the opposite is true.”

This rewiring doesn’t happen the same way in every bilingual brain—it’s different for each person, just as each person has their own language experience. But Kroll’s research demonstrates that no matter how effortlessly other bilinguals may seem to switch between their two tongues, there’s a lot going on under the hood. That should come as a small relief for anyone attempting to pick up a new language.

https://www.facebook.com/worldeconomicforum/videos/vb.7746841478/10153629419691479/?type=2&theater

Santa Claus Came to our Town for Christmas

The last day of School Father Christmas decided to come and pass by. It was very very exciting for the children. 

Someone told us that Father Christmas was coming this year so the children got ready and very excited as well for the fact.

They were writing their letter during a week to make sure that every single sentence made sense and also to let Him know how good they were during this year and what they wished for the next year coming. 

And then at the end, Father Christmas came on the last day at school. Kids were sending their letters to the letterbox that Father Christmas brought with.

The History of Santa Claus is Coming to Town song

MyMerryChristmas.com

The History of Santa Claus is Coming to Town

Jeff Westover Christmas Features, Christmas History, Christmas Music, Christmas Television September 24, 2015Christmas music, Christmas song history, Christmas television history  5 Comments

Eddie Cantor, a comedian from the 1930s was given a new Christmas song to sing for his radio audience in 1934. Targeted at kids, the songwriters were frustrated at their inability to get it recorded and sold. Record labels thought the appeal too narrow to be successful.

Cantor sang it live in a performance that was never recorded. The song proved such a hit it was recorded later by Tom Stacks in this memorable arrangement:

The song was written in October 1933 by Haven Gillespie and J. Fred Coots, reportedly on a New York subway car while traveling to a music publisher’s office.

Gillespie, known for his children songwriting talent and charged with Coots to come up with a children’s tune, jotted the melody and the lyrics down on an envelope before reaching the publisher’s office.

Santa Claus is Coming To Town became the big hit of Christmas 1934 – radio audiences went wild for the song and requests for sheet music were off the charts. What followed from Cantor’s radio show would eventually make a millionaire of Haven Gillespie.

This swinging version of the song from Perry Como in the mid-1940s was another popular version of the song that keep it at the forefront of Christmas celebration into the 1950s:

Through the 1950s and 1960s the song kept coming back. It was recorded, it seemed, by nearly everyone. Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Sammy Davis Jr and scores of others took it on and made it their own. It never fell from the Christmas spotlight.

The song took on new life in 1970 when it was animated in a production by Rankin Bass by that same name became expanded version of the story of Santa Claus. The story teller in that version was Fred Astair and Kris Kringle himself was portrayed by Mickey Rooney, now a member of the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame:

In recent years the heirs of the songwriters have locked horns with publishers over copyrights and royalties. It is clear to everyone that this song will forever be in the public eye as a beloved staple of the season. It is a complicated case that will no doubt earn lawyers for either side a lot of money.

The song continues to be used by major motion pictures, appearing in everything from Elf to The Santa Clause franchise by Disney and artists such as Michael Buble continue to make the song perpetually a favourite.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnA52s7qceM

"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas song. It was written by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie and was first sung on Eddie Cantor's radio show in November 1934. It became an instant hit with orders for 500,000 copies of sheet music and more than 30,000 records sold within 24 hours.

Santa Claus is comin' to Town

You better watch out 
You better not cry 
Better not pout 
I'm telling you why 
Santa claus is coming to town 

He's making a list 
And checking it twice; 
Gonna find out who's naughty and nice 
Santa claus is coming to town 

He sees you when you're sleeping 
He knows when you're awake 
He knows if you've been bad or good 
So be good for goodness sake! 
O! you better watch out! 
You better not cry 
Better not pout 
I'm telling you why 
Santa claus is coming to town 
Santa claus is coming to town

Swimmy, the black little fish

The youngest students in Lope de Vega School learnt and worked on Swimmy Story. It was fun and they had a very wonderful gift at the end.

A theatre company came to Casariche and they played the story of Swimmy. They really did a great job and the kids had too much fun. It was amazing!!!

Story of SWIMMY by Leo Lionni

Deep in the sea there lives a happy school of little fish. Their watery world is full of wonders, but there is also danger, and the little fish are afraid to come out of hiding . . . until Swimmy comes along. Swimmy shows his friends how—with ingenuity and team work—they can overcome any danger. With its graceful text and stunning artwork, this Caldecott Honor Book deserves a place on every child’s shelf.

Children in Lope de Vega School did Trick or Treat

The school is full of monsters

The school is full of monsters

monsters everywhere

spiders up and down

monsters on my head

Happy Halloween, I'm not scared!!

Halloween, Halloween 

The sky is blue

The sky is green,

Have you got something for Halloween?

Halloween, Halloween,

ghosts, ghosts, can be seen.

witches, witches, ...

(pumpkins, bats, vampires, cats, spiders, skeletons, ...)

Trick or Treat 

Trick or treat, trick or treat  give me something good to eat, ...

Halloween fingerplay：The Ghost Fingerplay

www.youtube.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPoGJvz7Ji8

I saw a ghost, he saw me, too. I waved at him, but he said, "Boo!"

Trick or Treat Tradition

Trick-or-treating is a Halloween custom for children in many countries. Children in costumes travel from house to house asking for treats such as candy (or, in some cultures, money) with the phrase "Trick or treat". The "trick" is a (usually idle) threat to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given to them. It typically happens during the evening of October 31. Some homeowners signal that they are willing to hand out treats, for example by putting up Halloween decorations outside their door. Others might simply leave treats on their porch.

 In North America, trick-or-treating has been a Halloween tradition since the late 1920s. In Britain and Ireland the tradition of going house-to-house collecting food at Halloween goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as had the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween. In 19th century Britain and Ireland, there are many accounts of people going house-to-house in costume at Halloween, reciting verses in exchange for food, and sometimes warning of misfortune if they were not welcomed.^[1] The Scottish Halloween custom of "guising" – children disguised in costume going from house to house for food or money – is first recorded in North America in 1911.^[2] While going house-to-house in costume has remained popular among Scots and Irish, the custom of saying "trick or treat" has only recently become common. The activity is prevalent in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Puerto Rico, and northwestern and central Mexico. In the latter, this practice is called calaverita (Spanish for "little skull"), and instead of "trick or treat", the children ask ¿me da mi calaverita? ("can you give me my little skull?") where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.