The use of classroom space

Young children need to move about, so activities which take part in different areas of the classroom and require the children to be sitting or standing in different places are ideal: standing in a circle for a song, sitting at their tables to complete a worksheet, standing next to their chairs for a chant, etc.

That's the reason because I prefer to have less furniture and more space. I mean, I use the English Classroom with a split group, and when I have the whole group, I use students' classroom. 

Tables in my English space are always in movement. Sometimes they are laying like a U, sometimes in groups of four and sometimes in pairs. Depending on the needs. Ideally, some readings about this topic say that the children should be able to sit on the floor in a semi-circle or in rows in front of the teacher, who may be sitting on a chair, very close to the children. If you have enough space, a large rug or an old blanket spread on the floor will help the children know where to sit.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Thanksgiving is here! 

I want to take a moment to thank all of your support, whether it’s helping children, FOLLOWING this English blog, or giving your support. It means so much for this teacher of English!

Although this tradition is not a catalan one, I wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving!
Whoops! I forgot it! If you click on the picture below you will find a present for TEACHERS: an activity for working phonetics!

Healthy diet

Some of my students are studying food categories. After going to "Fageda Factory", they did a research learning the names of some food terms and grouping them into categories. They did a great job!

By the way, if you click on the food pyramid, you will find a game. Drag each food into the correct group it fits the best. 

Healthy eating from Inès Rosado

I also prepared a ppt with healthy advices. That is a guide of a healthy diet divided into sections to show the recommended items for each food group. Also we have learnt what our body needs. 

Spelling card game

When children have some spelling difficulties, maybe the best way to improve them is playing games. This post is an example to engage students in spelling success.

You can play the SPELLING CARD GAME in different ways. Here you have some ideas:

• The teacher decides the topics for each group of students.
• Select those words in which students have problems (the photo above)
• Give kids the opportunity to decide the topic and to create the cards.

RULES OF THE GAME.

1. It's very important to use English (it's my/your turn, whose turn is it?...)
2. To start, a player needs to put the first letter of a word on the table.
3. There is a responsability to shuffle the cards and to give 5 of them to each player.
4. If a player doesn't have a card to continue, he/she has to take one from the middle.
5. When a player takes a card from the middle, he/she cannot use it until the next turn.
6. If in the same turn the player has several cards, he/she can put these cards on the table.
7. The game is not finished until all the cords are completed.
8. If a player has no cards, he has to continue playing taking a card from the middle.
9. The winner is the player who has no cards to play.

Similes

In fact, similes can be fun.

Look at this poem!

Finally, I want to recommend "Everything at once" by Lenka to work similes with children.

What is gamification?

"Gamification is the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems" (wikipedia)

In the video below, you will listen to Jane McGonigal, a game designer who will be asked about the effect and the advantages of using games at schools.
She comments that the clue for learning when playing consists of the kind of engagement when playing. 

In the video below, you have a real sample. You will see that children are not afraid of making mistakes, and they keep trying until they get it correct. They have fun, they are more motivated and they use the language in a natural way.

I can conclude that students that are allowed to fail, experiment, try on different social roles and  participate more in their own learning, learn more than students who are taught in a more "traditional" way.