HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY

I want to recommend a book today. That is Mrs. White Rabbit, written and illustrated by Gilles Bachelet. It's a funny book where Mrs. White rabbit loves her husband and their children, but living in Wonderland comes with a number of challenges. In addition, Alice usually visits her and there are endless tasks and chores that disturb her. Her husband never notices, and never collaborates with the housework. Because of these reasons, she wishes a cooperative and lovely husband much more the one she has. Luckily, she writes a diary and she forgets it lying around, moment in which her husband can read it and design a sweet end. Worthy to read it!

Ready for an interesting oral activity

Hi there,
Women Day is coming and I am interested in talking to children about household chores before March 8th. Somethimes people think that these chores are for women. Why? My goal in this activity is to change minds and also habits at home. Is it going to be possible?

First of all, I designed a presentation with some chores vocabulary just to refresh and to remember some basic vocabulary.
After that, I will ask students the meaning of chores. If they don't answer, I will describe them as routine tasks that are often done around home. 
Many people find chores unpleasant or boring and they are averse to do them.  When chores are divided among many people, they can be accomplished much faster.
The presentation below will help us to understand better some of the chores.

After talking about the main chores, we will be ready to introduce a conversation about them:
Who does the most chores at home? Is it fair? Is it unfair?

What chores do you dislike the most?
Do you have to do chores as a routine?
Which ones are you assigned?
Both men's and women's chores should be shared fairly. Do you agree? Why?

Close the dream gap!

From this post, I want to thank Barbie for inspiring and encouraging the new generations with this awesome project: THE DREAM GAP! 

Many girls begin to develop self limits when they are kids and they stop believing that their gender can do or be anything. This is the dream gap in which Barbie has developed a short movie sharing many girls' dreams. 

Spiders everywhere

Hi there,
Two weeks ago I introduced Incy Wincy Spider in year 3 English lessons. After that, children were engaged about spiders and they found out many facts about the arachnids. The digital magazine below summarizes their founds.

Spiders for kids

Dickens' Day!

Today, February 7th  is the 207th anniversary of the birth of English author Charles Dickens! Here you have a cartoon to share with children. It is about the famous writer:

I am sure that celebrations and public readings of his work are being held all over the world. I don't read any of his books in my lessons but I am going to introduce him and his most famous books:

Oliver Twist: most people know the story of Oliver Twist. It is one of the most favourite books for children mainly after the movie's production.
David Copperfield: it is the tale of David Copperfield from his birth through to his maturity, what obstacles he faces in life and what friends he makes. With great characters it was Dickens' own personal favourite of all his novels.
A Christmas Carol: it's the classic story of how a bitter miser ( Mr. Scrooge) gets re-habilitated after being visited by three ghosts. The Ghosts' of Christmas Past, Present and Future show him visions of his life and of his influence on the others' life. On seeing things as they truly are, Scrooge changes his whole outlook on the world.

So, from now on, try to remember these three books from this famous writer, Charles Dickens!

By the way, I recommend to you a helpful blog if you want to dive into Dickens

Did you see the groundhog?

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 web. You will find some information to work this special day with your students.

Peace Day

Hi there, 
on January 30th we celebrate PEACE DAY.
One of the reasons for this celebration is because Mahatma Gandhi died on the 30th of January. He was an Indian political and spiritual leader who was known for his non-violent form of protesting. Also, one of his famous thoughts was "It's possible to live in Peace". We have been talking in the classroom about his thoughts and after having a brainstorm, here you have the most important ideas children said for living in Peace:
*Do not disturb others
* Be tolerant
* Be peaceful
*Accept diversity
* Do not revenge
*Live in joy

Anyway,

there are some songs I could remember to celebrate this important day, but I want to suggest you “Heal the World”. 
It's a song from Michael Jackson's hit album, Dangerous.

We should make our world better just remember we are the ones who are living in it! 
So think about it that way and thumbs up the song!

Just in case you work this song in the classroom, 

here you have some activities for year 5/ 6.

Europe, make a move

Many of you know that Catalonia is living difficult moments. Because of this, the Catalan Association of Civil Rights (relatives and friends of political prisoners) has had a new initiative with the hashtag #MakeAMove. It consists of downloading five letters which have to be sent to five European mandates so that everybody can make an urgent call because the soul of EU is at risk allowing that one of its members is drifting into authoritarianism without taking any steps to prevent it. 

Anyway, if you want to know more information, visit this page and download the letters. Besides that, the Catalan Association of Civil Rights have edited the video below to remember Europe our rights. 

Riddles

Hi there,

today I am going to talk about riddles, but do you know what are they?

Riddles are descriptions or questions with a hidden answer.

Students love guessing and language games.

Personally, I use them in my lessons because students have fun and they reinforce writing and reading.

However, introducing riddles with very young children is not always easy.

For that reason, I chose a book to introduce the language game.

After reading them and make children to guess the answers, I pushed them to design a riddle. However, as very young children don't have resources to write, I decided they could draw. Here you have the template.

In this way, they could create their own riddle. After that, we were guessing the asnwers by groups.

Designing blogs

Hi there,
if you are a blog owner or just a follower, here you have a useful link to help you with your inspiration designs.

Good ideas to share

Hi everyone! I just want to share two activities I put in practice. 
You know that children love moving because they involve action. 
So, what about to learn new chants and vocabulary singing while moving?

Here you have a sample:

Another way to make children having fun in the classroom is by giving them some  vocabulary we have just introduced and using a famous tone for them.

As an example, try to repeat the days of the week or the months of the year as the example below:

January, February,
March, April,
May, June,
July, August,
September, October,
November, December,
Then you turn around.

(To the Macarena) 

Tintin celebrates his 90 birthday today!

The young reporter appeared for the first time in 1929 together with his lovely and amazing dog Snowy. 

From this post, I want to celebrate his birthday bringing to my mind an awesome activity that my husband made at his studio and also a drawing  he made in one of his studio's wall . All the pictures were taken while he was working there and at the end of the process I could be in his project.

Tintin will be always in my family's hearts. Thanks Hergé (Georges Prosper Remi)!