If you like cooking , why not make a festive salad?
Wednesday 4 December 2013
More Christmas activities
Read some Christmas stories...
My favorites for K-3rd grade
Little Robin Red Vest
Harry and the dinosaurs make a Christmas Wish (Ian Whybrow)
When Santa turned green ( Victoria Perla)
The Giving Tree (Silverstein)
The Snowman (by R.Briggs)
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (dr Seuss)
And for older ones:A christmas carol (Dickens)
The little Match Girl (Andersen)
The Selfish Giant (Wilde)
Do some Christmas Fun Writing Activities
MISSING SANTA
Have you seen him? (Describe Santa for a Police Poster - silver alert)
Do Christmas crosswords from www.bogglesworldesl.com
Fill in the Notometer and Kindometer from www.bogglesworldesl.com
Make A Christmas Card or some Cristmas Crackers
Enjoy making decorations for the tree with clay or polymer clay
Bake some Christmas cookies or make a rice snowman...
Christmas Time!
I was very happy to hear that some colleagues were looking for Christmas ideas.
So for the next two weeks
Try some Action Songs from you tube like:
I 'm a little snowman
Snowflakes
Santa Claus is coming to town
We wish you a Merry Christmas
For older kids I like to use:
''The nightmare before Christmas'' We watch the movie and sing the song
So for the next two weeks
Try some Action Songs from you tube like:
I 'm a little snowman
Snowflakes
Santa Claus is coming to town
We wish you a Merry Christmas
For older kids I like to use:
Whats This?
What’s this? What’s this? There’s colour everywhere.
What’s this? There’s white things in the air.
What’s this? I can’t believe my eyes, I must be dreaming,
Wake up Jack, this isn’t fair.
What’s this?
What’s this? What’s this? There’s something very wrong.
What’s this? There’s people singing songs.
What’s this? The streets are lined with little creatures,
Everybody seems so happy
Have I possibly gone daffy?
What is this?
What’s this?
There’s children throwing snowballs, instead of throwing heads
They’re busy building toys and absolutely no one’s dead.
There’s frost on every window
Oh, I can’t believe my eyes!
And in my bones I feel the warmth that’s coming from inside
Oh, look! What’s this? They’re hanging mistletoe
They kiss? Why that looks so unique.
Inspired! They’re gathering around to hear a story
Roasting chestnuts on a fire.
What’s this?
What’s this, in here? They’ve got a little tree.
How queer. And who would ever think?
And why? They’re covering it with tiny little things,
They’ve got electric lights on strings
And there’s a smile on everyone, so now correct me if I’m wrong
This looks like fun, this looks like fun!
Oh, could it be I got my wish?
What’s this?
Oh, my. What now? The children are asleep
But look. There’s nothing underneath.
No ghouls, no witches here to scream and scare them or ensnare them
Only little cozy things secure inside their dreamland…
Aaah…
What’s this?!
The monsters are all missing and the nightmares can’t be found
And in their place there seems to be good feeling all around.
Instead of scream I swear I can hear music in the air,
The smell of cakes and pies are absolutely everywhere.
The sights! The sounds! They’re everywhere and all around
I’ve never felt so good before,
this empty place inside of me is filling up, I simply cannot get enough
I want it, oh, I want it, oh, I want it for my own.
I’ve got to know, I’ve got to know, what is this place that I have found.
WHAT IS THIS?
…Christmas town..? Hmmmm…
What’s this? There’s white things in the air.
What’s this? I can’t believe my eyes, I must be dreaming,
Wake up Jack, this isn’t fair.
What’s this?
What’s this? What’s this? There’s something very wrong.
What’s this? There’s people singing songs.
What’s this? The streets are lined with little creatures,
Everybody seems so happy
Have I possibly gone daffy?
What is this?
What’s this?
There’s children throwing snowballs, instead of throwing heads
They’re busy building toys and absolutely no one’s dead.
There’s frost on every window
Oh, I can’t believe my eyes!
And in my bones I feel the warmth that’s coming from inside
Oh, look! What’s this? They’re hanging mistletoe
They kiss? Why that looks so unique.
Inspired! They’re gathering around to hear a story
Roasting chestnuts on a fire.
What’s this?
What’s this, in here? They’ve got a little tree.
How queer. And who would ever think?
And why? They’re covering it with tiny little things,
They’ve got electric lights on strings
And there’s a smile on everyone, so now correct me if I’m wrong
This looks like fun, this looks like fun!
Oh, could it be I got my wish?
What’s this?
Oh, my. What now? The children are asleep
But look. There’s nothing underneath.
No ghouls, no witches here to scream and scare them or ensnare them
Only little cozy things secure inside their dreamland…
Aaah…
What’s this?!
The monsters are all missing and the nightmares can’t be found
And in their place there seems to be good feeling all around.
Instead of scream I swear I can hear music in the air,
The smell of cakes and pies are absolutely everywhere.
The sights! The sounds! They’re everywhere and all around
I’ve never felt so good before,
this empty place inside of me is filling up, I simply cannot get enough
I want it, oh, I want it, oh, I want it for my own.
I’ve got to know, I’ve got to know, what is this place that I have found.
WHAT IS THIS?
…Christmas town..? Hmmmm…
Saturday 23 November 2013
e-twinning project
I 've been thinking of enhancing my students' learning experience by involving them in a e-twinning project with skype. They will meet other students from different countries and exchange ideas, news, projects. They are very excited about it.
Monday 11 November 2013
Arts & Learning Project
Today was the first day my project students and I met.
We tried a creative ice-breaker holding a ball of yarn and saying something unique about ourselves.
In the end we had a yarn web between us. We talked about sharing, cooperating and imagination, as one student said that to her it looked more like laser beams from a security alarm system!
Then I distributed some quotes about art by famous people. Each one read theirs and explained it.
Last we made a class mosaic with small square paper where each student drew something representative of themselves.
We tried a creative ice-breaker holding a ball of yarn and saying something unique about ourselves.
In the end we had a yarn web between us. We talked about sharing, cooperating and imagination, as one student said that to her it looked more like laser beams from a security alarm system!
Then I distributed some quotes about art by famous people. Each one read theirs and explained it.
Last we made a class mosaic with small square paper where each student drew something representative of themselves.
Sunday 3 November 2013
Thursday 17 October 2013
The Farm Animals
Teach children all about the farm animals using the following activities
1. Use a farm template or picture and let them stick farm animals stickers.
2. Make clay or play-doh animals
3. Sing Old Mc Donald had a farm
4. Read the book "The noisy farm"
5. Use animal masks and act like an animal
6. Tell the story of the "Ugly Duckling"
7. Make animal riddles
8. Use finger puppets
9. Draw farm animals
10. Discuss what we get from each farm animal
1. Use a farm template or picture and let them stick farm animals stickers.
2. Make clay or play-doh animals
3. Sing Old Mc Donald had a farm
4. Read the book "The noisy farm"
5. Use animal masks and act like an animal
6. Tell the story of the "Ugly Duckling"
7. Make animal riddles
8. Use finger puppets
9. Draw farm animals
10. Discuss what we get from each farm animal
Saturday 12 October 2013
A Colourful Lesson
Teaching the colours can be one of the most fascinating lessons.
Here are 20+ activities for young learners
1. Show the coloured pencils or markers or flashcards and say the colours
2. Talk about: What things are ....(green)? Make a collage of things having the same colours
3. Make a colour wheel, talk about primary & secondary colours, mixing colours, warm & cold colours
4. Talk about the rainbow colours
5. Make a fruit loop rainbow necklace and eat it too!
5. Make a fruit loop rainbow necklace and eat it too!
6. Play Hide & Seek: Ask sts to Find sth ...red
7. Colour Race: ask sts to Touch sth...yellow
8. Colour a picture (numbers indicate which colours)
9. Memory : Display 10 coloured pencils or markers or cards and secretly take away a colour. ask sts to find out which colour is missing
10. Sing the Colour or Rainbow song
11. Play Silent balloons: students call out the colour if the balloon reaches them
12. Play a rhyme game with house pictures: Little mouse, little mouse are you in the...red house?
13. Write a Senses poem :
Red looks like, sounds like, smells like, feels like, tastes like.....
14. Fishing game: get as many colourful fish using a magnetic fishing rod
15. Read the stories:
The rainbow fish
How zebra got her stripes
The colourful chameleon
Brown Bear, What do you see?
Polar Bear, What can you hear?
Little Robin Red Vest
Zebra's Rainbow
The Mixed-Up Chameleon
16. Sing the action song:
'We are the pirates with the coloured beards song', You tube song
17. Dress up like your favourite colour
18. Make a mini book about colours
19. Watch the Tweenies show 'Colours are MAGIC'
20. Show sts famous paintings and talk about the colours
Brown Bear, What do you see?
Polar Bear, What can you hear?
Little Robin Red Vest
Zebra's Rainbow
The Mixed-Up Chameleon
16. Sing the action song:
'We are the pirates with the coloured beards song', You tube song
17. Dress up like your favourite colour
18. Make a mini book about colours
19. Watch the Tweenies show 'Colours are MAGIC'
20. Show sts famous paintings and talk about the colours
Saturday 5 October 2013
Early Reading with Sight Word Fun
My nephew, who is 6 years old, has just started A grade at a school which offers an intensive English class. He was struggling to learn his sight words so I offered to help by... playing!!!
The results were immediate and amazingly positive.
So far we have written the words on two sets of cards (red and blue)
We use the cards for various reading games, such as:
The results were immediate and amazingly positive.
So far we have written the words on two sets of cards (red and blue)
We use the cards for various reading games, such as:
- Match the pairs
- Memory
- Bingo
- Tic-Tac-Toe
- Hide and Seek
- Race to success (board game with dice and race cars as pawns)
- Parking Lot (BIG card with parking spaces. Race cars park on the right word)
- BANG (Cards in a container.Pick a card.Read it. Keep it. When you get a BANG card you have to put all the cards back. Can be played with one or two players and it teaches you to lose and have fun)
- Make a sentence that makes sense
- Make a silly sentence
- Fishing game (I use a toy fishing rod and laminated word cards with fish shapes, treasure chest shape etc and put them in a basin filled with water SOOO MUCH FUN!!!)
AND
12. Be a word detective (Look for a word that begins with.... or look for this....word in a page)
13. WHITE BOARD (write or erase the word I 'm saying)
14. Magnetic Letters (arrange them to make a word)
15. Play doh letters (use dough to make letters and words, then bake and eat them)
Sunday 29 September 2013
Cooking English Tea Recipes
A fun way to teach children about nutrition is to give them recipes and let them cook in the kitchen.
Teach all about cooking verbs, utensils, food items,countable and uncountable nouns, imperative while having a whale of time.Create magical memories involving all the senses, logic & imagination.
We made cuccumber boats, muffins, pancakes, mini pizzas, tortilla wraps and fruit tarts.
The children worked in groups (3-5) and I only had a couple of minutes to take pictures before they gobbled everything up!
The next day I gave them a worksheet with mixed up ingredients and instructions so we had more consolidation as the tried to figure out the correct ingredients and instructions for each recipe.
The only drawback was that I used too many recipes! Next time I will only make four...
.
Teach all about cooking verbs, utensils, food items,countable and uncountable nouns, imperative while having a whale of time.Create magical memories involving all the senses, logic & imagination.
We made cuccumber boats, muffins, pancakes, mini pizzas, tortilla wraps and fruit tarts.
The children worked in groups (3-5) and I only had a couple of minutes to take pictures before they gobbled everything up!
The next day I gave them a worksheet with mixed up ingredients and instructions so we had more consolidation as the tried to figure out the correct ingredients and instructions for each recipe.
The only drawback was that I used too many recipes! Next time I will only make four...
A zoo diorama project
All children are interested in animals so this project was a HUGE success.
The children created zoo cages dioramas in shoeboxes.Each child painted and decorated the inside of a box using natural materials (pebbles, sticks, sand, leaves etc.) and placed a plastic toy animal in the box
They wrote cards including information about their animal.
They created mini booklet guides for the zoo visitors and learned about animal habitats and animal facts (these included names, characteristics, colours, sizes, food, abilities and possible dangers animals face)
They used special animal profile cards which they glued on the shoeboxes.
In the end they presented their project orally.
They wrote cards including information about their animal.
They created mini booklet guides for the zoo visitors and learned about animal habitats and animal facts (these included names, characteristics, colours, sizes, food, abilities and possible dangers animals face)
They used special animal profile cards which they glued on the shoeboxes.
In the end they presented their project orally.
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Saturday 28 September 2013
Teaching Thematic Units
After 20 years of teaching I think that the most convenient way to organise your materials, resources, books, worksheets and anything else you can use in teaching is by themes.
Using Thematic Unit Activities With Young Learners 16-2-13 Lastppt by Despinalina
Friday 27 September 2013
My Poster for the PEAP conference (14-16 june 2013)
| For the past two years, I was fortunate enough to work with younger learners, my great source of inspiration. We had so much fun in the classroom and ... outside creating magical memories in our learning journey, because, make no mistake, I did learn so much from them, too. I was determined to display their hard work, not only to their parents, but to the whole world. So, I worked extra hard in designing the poster and presenting it at the conference. I am so glad it made such an impression and I hope lots of other teachers will use the ideas in class.  |
| Lapbooks & Dioramas won not only the 1st prize but the hearts of my colleagues and pupils |
Teaching, a textual intervention poem
A few weeks ago, as I was decluttering my desk, I found a worksheet with poems by the greek poet Kavafis. Most of you may have read "ITHACA" as it has been translated into English.
I decided to play with words and intervene on the text, keeping the same syntax. (I have to admit that the original idea was Luke's Prodromou)
Teaching is always on my mind so...
Teaching
As you set out for Teaching
hope your journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
Difficult students and know-alls
angry learners—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Difficult students and know-alls
wild learners—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
hope your journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
Difficult students and know-alls
angry learners—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Difficult students and know-alls
wild learners—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your journey is a long one.
May there be many a winter morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into classrooms seen for the first time;
may you stop at students’ desks
to check fine homework,
reading and writing, listening and speaking,
creative ideas of every kind—
May there be many a winter morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into classrooms seen for the first time;
may you stop at students’ desks
to check fine homework,
reading and writing, listening and speaking,
creative ideas of every kind—
May you distribute many worksheets
produce videos and plays
produce videos and plays
Write newsletters and create posters
as many imaginative projects as you can;
and may you visit many foreign countries
to gather cultural knowledge from their inhabitants.
Keep Teaching always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you gain lots of experience and memories
and may you visit many foreign countries
to gather cultural knowledge from their inhabitants.
Keep Teaching always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you gain lots of experience and memories
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Teaching to make you rich.
not expecting Teaching to make you rich.
Teaching gave you the marvelous journey.
Without it you would not have set out.
It has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find it poor, Teaching won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then
what educational matters mean.
Without it you would not have set out.
It has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find it poor, Teaching won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then
what educational matters mean.
Ice-breaker with a Twist
Every September I usually get a temporary post at a school for a few weeks and have to work with mixed ability classes and with learners of different ages. So I came up with a roleplaying and writing activity to revise vocabulary, trying to involve everyone.
I ask students to write character profile cards (sort of ID cards).
They have about 10 minutes to provide as much information as they can.
Advanced students fill in all the information required.
Intermediate students fill in less information.
Beginners fill in even less.
I collect the cards and make a mark "B" on one of them (B stands for burglar)
I explain to the students that there has been a burglary in the Castle of Schooledge (our classroom that is)
and that a valuable painting has been taken. As I randomly redistribute the cards one of the students gets the
marked one, so that person knows he or she is the burglar the rest of the students will be looking for.
I give out three to five clues (ex, nationality, hair colour, vehicle, special feature, shoe size). Before the lesson starts if it is possible I also have some forensic evidence planted ex. a piece of gum, a note, a scarf, an airplane ticket, a key or a lock of hair etc...)
Then the students are allowed to get up and interrogate one another until someone finds the culprit.
As you can imagine time flies while lots of vocabulary revision is taking place through speaking and writing.
As an alternative, students can fill in imaginary information or describe favourite cartoon characters.
I ask students to write character profile cards (sort of ID cards).
They have about 10 minutes to provide as much information as they can.
Advanced students fill in all the information required.
Intermediate students fill in less information.
Beginners fill in even less.
I collect the cards and make a mark "B" on one of them (B stands for burglar)
I explain to the students that there has been a burglary in the Castle of Schooledge (our classroom that is)
and that a valuable painting has been taken. As I randomly redistribute the cards one of the students gets the
marked one, so that person knows he or she is the burglar the rest of the students will be looking for.
I give out three to five clues (ex, nationality, hair colour, vehicle, special feature, shoe size). Before the lesson starts if it is possible I also have some forensic evidence planted ex. a piece of gum, a note, a scarf, an airplane ticket, a key or a lock of hair etc...)
Then the students are allowed to get up and interrogate one another until someone finds the culprit.
As you can imagine time flies while lots of vocabulary revision is taking place through speaking and writing.
As an alternative, students can fill in imaginary information or describe favourite cartoon characters.
Name
Age
Height
Build
Nationality
Address
Country
Hair colour
Eyes colour
Shoe size
Special features
Zodiac signs
Occupation
Hobby
Vehicle
Dangerous object
Clothes
Pet
Favourite food
Favourite drink
Motive
Alibi
My Teaching Philosophy
This is an educational blog that aims to offer practical, innovative and creative teaching ideas to foreign language teachers who are willing to integrate the Arts into their Language Teaching.
I have always tried to Teach English Through Art ( I call this my "TETA" approach) and had awesome outcomes. All learners (including reluctant, hyperactive or ADD children) were magically transformed whenever I used the Magic Wand of the Arts and were highly motivated and positively involved in the lessons. The flow of ideas was never ending, the enthousiasm was ever growing, the sastisfaction was immense. Learning English became their favourite subject. Through the TETA approach they had the opportunity to acquire knowledge about interesting topics and obtain valuable life skills.
For more information about arts integration you can visit: http://artsintegration.com
I hope you will find the integration of arts into your teaching as rewarding as I have.
I have always tried to Teach English Through Art ( I call this my "TETA" approach) and had awesome outcomes. All learners (including reluctant, hyperactive or ADD children) were magically transformed whenever I used the Magic Wand of the Arts and were highly motivated and positively involved in the lessons. The flow of ideas was never ending, the enthousiasm was ever growing, the sastisfaction was immense. Learning English became their favourite subject. Through the TETA approach they had the opportunity to acquire knowledge about interesting topics and obtain valuable life skills.
For more information about arts integration you can visit: http://artsintegration.com
I hope you will find the integration of arts into your teaching as rewarding as I have.
Welcome to my EFL teaching blog
Follow my footsteps in finding inspiring and creative activities for teaching English.
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