29 Feb 2016

2016, a leap year

Hi everyone!
Today is February 29th and that means that 2016 has 366 days. 
This extraordinary fact happens every 4 years. 
So, why don't we involve our students with this easy Nursery Rhyme?

Also, If you want to motivate and encourage students who have done the effort to study it, you can use Tellagami. It is an easy app to use in the classroom.
Look at this example. You are going to watch and listen to a student who memorized it.

28 Feb 2016

Useful mind maps

Hi everyone!
Mind mapping is a useful visual resource to help students not only with English vocabulary but also with thoughts, ideas or other items. It helps organize the information and develops creativity through constructing it. 
In terms of vocabulary mind maps can include animals, numbers, family members, tenses, verbs and much more. Using mind mapping we are encouraging thinking and we are linking thoughts outside the traditional English lessons.
Furthermore, it can be an incredible tool for teachers. Can you imagine using it for planning our lessons, organize information and projects among different ideas.
Here you have the best mind mapping tools for teachers and students.
However, the best way of understandig how they work is to share two examples: 
1st one, popplet used for an eTwinning project done by IRV
2nd one, basic vocabulary for students done by NOZ



26 Feb 2016

Jazz Chants by Carolyn Graham

Hi everyone! I am very fond of chanting, specially the ones by Carolyn Graham. They have an important list of advantages in oral activities. Let’s list some of them:


  • They allow repetition and children copy sound patterns “safely”
  • In some way, the students are going to develop confidence and try language out one and another time. As children need to do things many times, they will practice in an enjoyable and natural way. 
  • They use rhythm and rhyme that makes children to play with words and to be in contact with the new language. 
  • They can provide patterns that will help children with fluency. 
  • They can improve the mood in the group. As everybody succeeds, they feel they belong to a community.
  • They can be used as an example as writing prompts when students need them.


Here you have an example:




24 Feb 2016

What time is it?

Here you have an amazing activity for learning the English time in groups. You need special dices for this practice. I found them in Abacus. The blue dice is for rolling the hours and the green one is for the minutes. Make children aware that digital hours have another way of writing.

22 Feb 2016

Make learning English fun!

Here you have a listening skill. 
It is a shop where students have to tap on the items that the voice in off says.
Click on the pic below and there it is!


21 Feb 2016

An interesting link

Today is the Mother Language Day.
The picture below is linked with a web where you choose a country and see some cities and the languages that they are spoken there.


16 Feb 2016

Ready for APAC convention?

Hi you all! 
We have an interesting week this one. 
We will celebrate the ELT convention from February 18th to 20th. 
If you want to know about the programme click on the picture below.
I'm proud of going there because after 30 years, English teachers we are still connecting the dots looking bakwards and they will be connected in our future! 
We have the power of doing what we do!

14 Feb 2016

Mental image

Hi everyone! 
Here you have an easy activity for very young learners. 
Read aloud a poem many times while your students draw their mental image in a paper. When they finish, show, share and see the different images. Then you can collect their pictures and upload some of them to the school English blog.
 Here you have an example:

12 Feb 2016

The verb king


The verb is the king in any language, so in English too. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a one-word sentence with a verb, for example: "Go!"
Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true because many verbs give the idea of action, of "doing" something. For example, words like run, fight, do and work all convey action.
But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of "being". For example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belong all convey state.
A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "Peter goes swimming", Peter is the subject and goes is the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or is; they describe:
  • action (Paul plays basketball.)
  • state (Susan seems cheerful.)
There is something very special about verbs in English. Most other words (adjectives, adverbs, prepositions etc) do not change in form (although nouns can have singular and plural forms). But almost all verbs change in form. For example, the verb to work has six forms:
  • to go, go, goes, went, gone, going
Of course, this is still very few forms compared to some languages which may have thirty or more forms for a single verb. 


Activity to introduce verbs: 
First of all, introduce or review the concept of verbs
Give students a few minutes to share examples of different action verb.
Allow them to work in groups or with partners to complete this activity. 
      Give students time to look through old newspapers and magazines to cut out pictures and words that are examples of action verbs.
      Allow each group to share an example of action verbs they were able to find.

    Material you need:
Cardstocks
Magazines
scissors
Felt pens/ markers/ crayons
;

11 Feb 2016

Punctuation

We use punctuation for making a text understable. 
We use it to organise our writings
or some sentences as the example above.
By the way, if you want to know more about punctuation and sentences watch the video below:

10 Feb 2016

Body idioms

I would say that idioms are a combination of words that have a "figurative meaning. They basically work with pictures. Here you have some of them related to body

As a non-native speaker of English, the best way to understand them is to memorize their meanings.

9 Feb 2016

Pancake Day

Hi you all!
We will celebrate Pancake Day Today!
In Britain, people eat pancakes on this day. In some towns there are pancake races. People run through the streets holding frying pans with pancakes. Each runner throws the pancake into the air and catches it in the pan.

Do you know that...?

  • another name for pancake Day is Shrove Tuesday or Fat Tuesday.
  • The world record for the biggest pancake is 15 metres in diameter and weighing 2.980 kilos



(video guide)

5 Feb 2016

Carnival time

This is a video we have to keep in touch with  
"Le Carnaval des Animaux"
Listen to Camille Saint-Saen's piece of music and tried to identify which pieces of music represented the animals and why.
Then we learnt the vocabulary for type of animal, colour and adjectives to describe them.


2 Feb 2016

Happy Groundhog Day!

There's an important legend in Catalonia about "la Candelera" (February 2nd). It's celebrated just in the half winter and people say that "Si la Candelera plora, l´hivern és fora; si la Candelera riu, el fred és viu". So, this legend is about weather.
In Pennsylvania there's another one about marmots or groundhogs. It says that an early spring is on its way if you don't see this animal's shadow, but it's six more weeks of winter if you Do see.
Whatever the weather predicts, families will surely dig these adorable Groundhog Cupcakes. 
By the way, if you are a teacher, maybe you are interested in this pdf. You will find flashcards to work this special day with your students.