Phonics

Hi everyone!

Before I switch my "school activity" off, I want to update you on the last activity about phonics I worked in an English lesson. Phonetics are sometimes dull to work in our lessons but I think that the activity I introduced to children, was a way to have fun with them.

At the beginning, the activity consisted in following the sounds by colours. After that, children had to identify in groups each word with a sound. At the end of the activity, kids realized that they had played with phonics matching them with colours. 

Another challenge achieved!

Hi there,

the post today is not about English resources or activities. The one today is a personal post.

Like any mother, I am very proud of my daughters and yesterday was a magic day for one of them. Maria finished her microbiology degree in 2016 and  she has been studying a master about clinical microbiology along this school year, developing an incredible task at a lab in BCN where she has been researching different phenomena.

One of them, it has been the "Acinetobacter baumannii", the aim of Maria's investigation. As you can imagine, I have no idea about the methodologies and experiences in a lab, but I had the opportunity to listen to her yesterday morning. She told the "tribunal" what the hypothesis, the process and the results had been. She faced the challenge bravely and it was incredible being there and listening to what Doctors in the tribunal commented about the research. They congratulated her for doing an excellent work and, as a mother, I felt really happy and very proud of having such an outstanding daughter, as I am of her sister. I wanted to congratulated Maria and say her that I hope she believes in herself as much as I believe in her. 

Alice everywhere!

Hi there,

most of you know what I love Alice in Wonderland 's book by Lewis Carroll.

In fact, I worked around the story with 4th graders some years ago and the experience enriched me a lot. After that, the world celebrated the 150th anniversay of the famous book's first publication in November 2015.

Someway, that famous story is always with me. When I walk a long my town, there is always something that reminds me something from the story. Nowadays, we have Alice everywhere. Last Sunday, as an example, I went to Salessians' School in our town where Alba Serrano and her mates made an incredible version of the story.

Thank you very much Alba, Dori and Toni for thinking of me.

and now, we have a new book with new characters which is highly recommended:

The Rabbit is David Cameron Camerabbit, who on June 23, 2016, on the day of the referendum in Great Britain, hides into a hole, the Brexithole. The Caterpillar is Jeremy Corbyn, Corbyn-pillar, who from the top of his mushroom is giving lessons and advice to everyone. Humpthy Dumpthy is Donald Trump Trumpty Dumpty. He is at the top of the wall that splits Mexico from the United States, and from that point he is affirming that he is delighted with Brexit. The Cat of Cheshire is Nigel Farage, who is drinking English beer and he is against those who make Britannia no longer as before.

When Alice leaves the tears' sea and comes to the coast, they ask her where she comes from and what she is wearing, and when she says she does not know it, she has nothing, and she has never worked, they try to immigrate and illegal (: D) who comes to take the jobs from the English.
The Queen of Hearts is Theresa May's parody, who wants and does not want to be in the European Union. In the end Alice is in Parliament, where she begins to grow, she destroys ... and she wakes up a few years before today,
The author is Leavis Carroll (what a coincidence!) , pseudonym of Lucien Young.

Thoroughly enjoyable! My only regret is that unlike Alice we can’t all wake up and discover that Brexit was just a bad dream :(

Summer time!

Hi there,
today is an important day!
Summer is here and it's also the end of the school year.
Here you have an energic summer song:
enjoy this time of the year with the summer jive!

Happy Birthday Cristina!

We celebrated a special day today at home. It's my youngest daughter's birthday.

From this post, I want to wish her all the best for her life. 

21 years ago Cristina and I lived a memorable adventure: after having my B2 English exam, Cristina wanted to arrive before our plannings. So, there she was at 00:00 a.m. after swimming and living into my body for 39 weeks, she was looking at me, relaxed, trying to say with her eyes that she wanted to be with her sister and parents.

Nowadays, Cristina is pure energy, she loves music, she is good at arts and an expert in designing (she won a Barça balloon signed by all the football players after designing a poster for a celebration at St. Cugat- photo below-)and also she is excellent at English. In few days she will fly to Cork (Ireland) with a group of teenagers for the second time on her professional life. She will go on excursions with them around Cahersiveen and she will help children to interact with the native Irish people and families.

Cristina has her second family there. She has gone many times and she loves Ireland.

We were very lucky to meet David Sabatés, Turas language's Director, who was the person who introduced us, as a family, into Kerry County.

Cristina, I wish you could keep your good memories, take lots of photos, show your happiness, write your feelings, look at the irish stars, think about what you have, breathe, and enjoy a lot your 21st year.

Many happy returns Cristina!!!

Sunday, June 11th at 12:30p.m. St. Cugat

Basic vocabulary for young children

Hi there,
this is an easy quizzlet to review some basic vocabulary. 

Click on the picture below and start the activities in order so that you get familiar with the vocabulary. 

Have fun !

Check how much you learnt

Hi everyone,

the end of the school year is coming and I am very proud of our work. In order you feel confident with your learnings, click on the pic below and follow the steps to do all the activities. I'm sure that you all will have good marks!

Web 2.0 applications

Larry Ferlazzo is a high teacher in Sacramento. He is also an expert in searching good websites to help EFL and ESL teachers. Here you have the best web 2.0 applications he considers in 2016.

Take care of our planet!

Hi there! 
As many others, this post is worth it. 
You will see why in a few minutes ;D

As many summers, we see people leaving their trash on the beach :((

whether it's from a tourist or a local, it's ugly and damaging to our environment. This video is fun and an effective way to show those people to clean up after themselves. Hopefully most of us don't need a reminder.

Plastic Change International points out that every year 10 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean. PCI produced this video.

You can help fight plastic pollution here.

 HAPPY WORLD OCEANS DAY! 

Thinglink & OCEANS DAY

Thinglink is a webpage that enrich your images. How? Introducing information, putting notes, links, more images or even videos from youtube.
First of all you have to register, choose the free version. You shouldn't have any problem. After that, tap on "+" create at the top on the right and introduce the URL where your image is or upload it from your computer.
Then, you just have to tap twice on the image and introduce the information you want.
Here you have an example that I uploaded today making promises for celebrating
the Oceans Day (June 8th)
Drag the mouse on the picture below and you will find children's promises.

Non native English teacher or native English teacher?

Hi there,

some days ago, a friend of mine uploaded to my facebook wall an article where it was recommended to have native English teachers in Kindergarten and primary school.

Well, at the very beginning I was disappointed because that friend didn't believe that I am doing a good job.

After that moment, I thought a lot about the article and I concluded with different ideas that I want to share in this post.

Someway, I would say that this idea is a myth. What I find troubling is that many proficiency teachers assume to be good teachers, trivialising many other important factors such as experience, innovation and personality. While profiency might be a necessity at our schools, proficiency by itself should not be treated as the deciding factor that makes a teacher. It is SO MUCH MORE, It is to know your students, the culture, habits, to anticipate some problems while learning the new language and many other factors.

Anyway, having a native English Teacher is good for students when they are at a higher level, like B2 or C1. However, with lower levels, from beginner to intermediate, a non-native-speaker but fluent in the language, is better, at least in my opinion, because we have gone through the same experience and we can moderate our speaking speed and style easily. 

I would appreciate if you write your opinion down and share it with us. Thank you !

Ocean's Day

We will celebrate the World Oceans day next Thursday, June 8th.

As fifth graders are working on oceans and marine animals, why don't we make a promise in order to have better Oceans and to protect the sea animals? 
Meanwhile, here you have a cute video where two children go from their home to places around the world before returning home to tell their friends about the adventure and all they have learned. By the way, the accompanying song of ocean celebration is a parody of Gotye's "Somebody that I used to know"

World Oceans Day is celebrated by millions of people all over the globe! Visit  http://worldoceansday.org

Pronunciation

Today I want to work on common difficult sounds at English . Some words are pronounced incorrently by many of new learners. This is because the combination of sound is difficult or because there are silent letters and syllables.

Watch the video below and try your best with phonetics.

Story Jumper

Hi there,

I had an incredible student doing her English Practicum this school year. In fact, she is going to finish it next week but I want to write a post about her Teaching Unit.

She decided to do it around legends. After introducing different resources and activities to students, they had to design a cooperative story with students from another school.

The task was an important challenge for kids but at the end, they have written good stories.

Here you have two samples.

Proud of all of them and Carla's effort. 
Thank You very much for being so enthusiastic!

June is here!

Hi you all!
Today is the first day of June and I feel really excited because the end of the school year is coming.
For that reason and because the excellent weather we have at Sabadell, I want to share a song by Pharrell Williams that makes me feel very, very happy ;D
However, it is not going to be just a song, it will be an English listening exercise ;D

So, tap on the pic below and choose your level. Then, you will be ready to start the activity. 
You can press the BACKSPACE button to listen to the words you don't understand. If you have no idea, press on the TAB button to jump the word.
Enjoy it!