ART AND ECOLOGY IN SPANISH
Ideal
for family vacations or school partnerships.
Los Colibríes
(the hummingbirds) Children’s
Program: for 6 – 12 year olds
Los Venados
(the deer) Youth Program:for
13 – 17 year olds
3 two-week sessions in 2008:
- June 23 - July 4
- July 7 - July 18
- July 21 - August 1
Program:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday,
Friday: 8:00 to 11:00 – Spanish Classes
at UNIVERSAL (focus on art and ecology)
11:00 – 1:10 – Outing
(walking to nearby sites, parks, museums, etc.)
1:10 – 4:00 – Lunch
with families and free time
4:00 – 6:00 – Culture,
Sports and Arts Activities (3 days a week – afternoons
are free on Fridays)
Wednesdays:
8:00 to 11:00 – Spanish Classes at UNIVERSAL (focus
on art and ecology) 11:00 – 7:00 – Outing
to a nearby mountain community (Huitzilac – half
an hour north of UNIVERSAL) where Loraine does environmental
work. There they will participate in an environmental
program with local children and youth, coordinated by
Loraine, including visits to productive projects, hikes,
and reforestation. Students will learn about local environmental
problems, discuss them with people from the town (with
translation if necessary) and contribute to making improvements
through reforestation and other activities that might
emerge from the groups’ observations and discussions.
They will bring a sack lunch and enjoy a bonfire at
the end. Parents are invited to join us on these Wednesday
outings.
Los Colibríes
Children’s Program: Children will participate
in classes together with Mexican children from the neighborhood
of similar ages. Themes will include composting, planting
vegetables, cooking with local ingredients, paper maché
and other traditional local crafts, swimming pool games,
racquetball, relays, ping pong tournaments, soccer games,
preparing and presenting a puppet show on ecological concerns
(all in Spanish, of course).
Los Venados Youth Program:
Students will
leave Universal some afternoons to participate with local
youth in soccer practices, art and dance classes, swimming
tournaments, etc. (Students will be transported and accompanied
by Universal teachers). Other afternoons, local youth
will be invited to Universal to participate in activities
offered on site for this program, making use of Universal’s
recreational facilities.
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Program
Overview:
Day 1 - Saturday - Participants arrive and settle in
with homestay family
Day 2 - Sunday - Orientation at Universal and city walk
in downtown Cuernavaca
Day 3 - 12 - Program as described above, with optional
weekend trips or the weekend is on your own.
Day 15 - Saturday – Bid farewell to new friends
and leave for the airport
Cost and Conditions:
The cost for these programs (either Los Colibríes
or Los Venados) is $400.00 per session (registration
fee of $100 will be waived for these two programs if
parents are also taking classes at Universal). Fee includes:
- All language instruction
- All materials for classes and
activities
- Transportation and admission
fees,
Wednesday trip included
Price does not include airfare, room or board, transportation
to and from airport, optional weekend trips, which range
from $20 - $40 US for most day trips. Please ask about
what specific trips are planned for the dates you are
considering. We recommend that the families do a Universal-sponsored
homestay together.
Children must be accompanied by
an adult during their stay in Cuernavaca, who will be
responsible for the minor/s outside of the program's
scheduled activities.
FORMS OF PAYMENT
You may pay for registration, tuition or housing
with traveler's checks, cash or credit card. An extra
fee of 2.5 % will be applied if a credit card is used.
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Program Description:
Children and youth will improve their Spanish through
classwork and many dynamic activities and outings. The
students will spend part of each day with their Mexican
peers, engaged in activities related to art and ecology,
which will include reforestation and visiting family
farms. The goal of this program is for children from
other countries to learn and practice Spanish while
making real, human connections with their Mexican counterparts.
This will help them to understand cultural differences,
gain an awareness of local environmental and social
problems and do some volunteer work that will contribute
to help solve these problems.
The program is set up so
parents can take classes at UNIVERSAL while their children
participate in this program, if desired. We recommend
that the family do a Universal-sponsored homestay with
a Mexican family together.Three levels will be offered
and classes will include activities related to art and
ecology, featuring art projects, experiments, etc. Books
on these themes will also be used for reading and writing
practice. All four skills, listening, speaking, reading
and writing, will be taught at all levels. Students
will make marked improvements in their oral conversational
skills due to the wealth of oral Spanish they will be
exposed to during the two weeks of the program.
Each session will run as scheduled if a minimum of
five participants sign up.
Optional Weekend Trips:
(for an extra charge) vary and are offered every weekend
during the summer for Universal students. They may include:
One day trips:
Las Grutas de Cacahuamilpa –Incredibly
large and impressive underground caverns. Guided tours
are offered.Ecotourism – river rafting, rappel,
biking, hiking.
Las Estacas – a lush, ecological
swimming park with a spring and river with crystalline
waters. Rafts or inner tubes can be rented to float
down the river.
Tepoztlan – A beautiful
indigenous town tucked in a valley, with a popular hike
to see pyramid ruins on a mountaintop.
Taxco – A quaint, colonial
town with many artisans that work with silver from the
local mines.
Mexico
City – Its many attractions include the Anthropology
Museum, Frida Kahlo Museum, National Palace and the
Zócalo (main square)
Pyramids at Teotihuacan and Xochicalco
Two or Three Day Trips may
include Oaxaca, Michoacan, Acapulco, San Miguel de Allende,
and others.
Program
Coordinator: Loraine Woodard. Loraine is a
middle school teacher from San Francisco, CA, and has
a Master of Arts in Teaching Global and Environmental
Literacy. She has lived in Mexico for ten years, just
outside of Cuernavaca in the beautiful mountainous protected
area called Huitzilac, where she works on environmental
popular education projects. She coordinates Universal’s
children and youth programs, provides appropriate materials
and feedback to the Spanish teachers (all native Spanish
speakers and trained Universal teachers who have experience
working with children) and accompanies the children
on outings and activities.
School Partnerships
We encourage school partnerships and can accommodate
student groups who come accompanied with their teachers.
If you have particular interests, let us know and we
can arrange activities accordingly.
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