Time flies when... you are busy

Hello y'all!  😁

I'm alive and well, as Katniss would say (from the Hunger Games, of course). Last year, COVID entered our 'normal' lifes and revolutionized them, showing no mercy. In March 2020 I was teaching phonics to my preschoolers, helping kids being more fluent, writing posts about it, enjoying the center of Madrid day and night, literally. At the same time, I was studying this Master degree about bilingualism and international curiculum that was being pretty intense but absolutely woth it. Life was busy, but pleasant, until COVID bursted in and all my routine and future plans changed. 

The studies could 'easily' go on because of the online mode, but my extracurricular classes had to be abruptly interrupted. Moreover, September didn't look bright and, because of this uncertainty, I had to opt for teaching English as a school teacher in order to assure myself and my elder dog (she is 15!!!) a decent lifestyle. After sending CVs to all the International schools in the area, I finally got a call which turned into a job as a homeroom teacher in the immersion line of a private school in Boadilla, where I had the opportunity to teach English almost as a first language. It was pretty cool! 

However, waking up at 6 in the morning every day since the 31st of August until last Thursday, dealing with all the pandemic school issues in addition to the current school duties, and arriving home at 6:15 pm every afternoon has been exhausting and that's why you haven't heard from me for so long. Besides, I had to finish my Master degree and take care of my own life during the pandemic, which also has been a bit stressful. 

Anyway, here we are! Thanks to the vaccination campaign we all feel a bit safer even though this feeling of uncertainty never leaves us really and I wanted to make the most of this summer break for saying hello again, and for letting you know that the many things I've learnt about bilingualism are now published in the 'Mi hijo habla inglés' book. Yes! I used the Easter break to update it. So, even if I haven' had the time for applying the 'Second edition' label to the cover of the book, I can assure you that there's new interesting content that is worth reading both in the digital and the paper version of it.

I wish you a safe and relaxing summer!

Bye for now 

Best Activity Book for the Summer

Summer means holiday and a lot of free time that we know perfectly how to enjoy and make the most of, but...what about our kids?

Many parents and teachers think that this time of the year should be employed by our little ones for reviewing, reinforcing, or at least maintaining a minimum level of fluency and knowledge of everything they've been studying during the school year. Furthermore, this 2020 has seen half of the school population at home dealing with online classes for the lockdown, and, perhaps many of you have this feeling that not enough effort has been put into studying and learning. It is then possible that your first reaction is to look for, apparently, simple grammar tasks and download them from the internet just to realize that our sons and daughters, especially those attending the first grades of primary school, are incapable of doing any of that. 

And the first feeling is... Panic. You think that your kids don't know any English and you don’t know how to help them or at least it looks like that what you’re trying is not working at all (?!?!?!?).

High Five 3! - MacMillan - Sample pages.

Well, first of all, the grammar approach to learning languages, especially at young ages, is an old method no longer in use. 

Secondly, open any of the the Stuedent’s books that your children are using at school and observe it. What can you see? Pictures, songs, sometimes links to online resources, speaking exercises to refresh what they already know from previous years, and then… more pictures, dialogues, a bit of new grammar in context and more speaking exercises. 

Finally, take a look at the Activity book: you’ll notice that it is full of written tasks and projects where children can practice their writing skills, always, always, always after having previously used and developed their listening, speaking and reading skills with the Student’s book. 

Why so much preparation for writing? Because we know that any brain, for learning anything, needs to relate the new knowledge to the previous one and, all those listening, speaking and reading activities are needed in order to add the new information to the learner’s mental schemes in a significant and persistent way. Moreover, translation is not an aspect they work at school either, (as I mention in my book) so even if the exercise looks amazingly simple to you, they might not be able to make connections between their first language and English yet. 

At this point, you have already understood that your children do know English, it’s just the way they learn it that is different from what you were taught when you were their age, so, to them your grammar exercise doesn’t make any sense because it hasn’t any context from which a primary school child can deduct and create connections.

Does this mean that you must change into a schoolteacher? Well, not really. Just try to look for the right material or activity books so that your child can work out the meaning of what they’re doing by themselves, using all the resources that are already planned together with the activity.

I hope this post was useful, and of course if you have any question, sen me an email at misslucysteachingfun@gmail.com

Also, more information about how children learn English, but any second language really, is available in my book Mi hijo habla inglés, on Amazon and other ebook platforms. 

>> Quiero leer este post en español

Let's play with phonemes!

Hello, everybody!

It's been a long time since my last post, because I've been a little busy designing some entertaining activities to review all the phonemes we saw last year, among other things because new children were enrolled in the classes. I also wanted to take advantage of the fact that the children were one year older to introduce simple crafts in which they could practice a little more their fine motor skills and manual oculus coordination... so much mental work and so little free time!

Today I wanted to show you the 3 board games - soon there will be 4 - with which I work the phonemes, together with the official material of the Jolly Phonics method such as the Activity Books and more material that comes to mymind as I go along in accordance with the needs and inclinations of the different groups.

Pass the Word

The first game is called Pass the Word #ad and consists of pieces that fit together like a puzzle, some of which contain a picture with their respective word and others contain letters of the alphabet. The game is about taking a piece with the image and looking for the letters that make up the word, as you can see in the photos. With this game, in addition to the visual recognition of the letters, you can check whether children already can 'write' the words in the right direction, ie from left to right or in the right order. In any case, it helps children to develop these skills through a manipulative game which entertains them a lot.

Alphabet Lotto

The second game is called Alphabet Lotto #ad and is essentially a phoneme lottery consisting of 5 double-sided boards, with drawings or with letters, 30 cards with drawings and 30 with letters. Thanks to this design it is possible to play in 4 different ways: by matching those cards that carry drawings with the boards that carry drawings, by matching cards that carry letters with the boards that carry drawings, by matching cards that carry drawings with the boards that carry letters or by matching cards that carry letters with the boards that carry letters. Here we help our pupils to practice both auditory and visual recognition of phonemes and, in addition, they learn vocabulary, improving their mnemonic skills.

Match and Spell

The latest member of the family is called Match and Spell #ad It contains 12 double-sided boards with three-letter words, 8 double-sided boards with four-letter words and several cards with letters to 'write' the words that appear on the boards. It presents 2 levels of play: in the first, the children, once they have chosen the board they want to complete, look for the letters one by one and pronounce them until they read aloud the whole word.  The second level of the game consists of choosing a board with the side that does not show the letters face up, only the image and the blank spaces, and taking the letters as they are pronounced. Here we also work on the visual recognition of phonemes, phonemic awareness when they use the boards without the letters and begin to develop the first reading skills. I especially like this game because it is very similar to some Montessori reading and writing preschool activities, which is one more guarantee of its usefulness...

The fourth game I'm going to buy soon is another Match and Spell, but NextSteps, #ad in which the boards and the cards come with words containing the 'digraphs' we're reviewing these days, such as sh-ee-p, b-a-l-oo-n, t-r-ai-n, qu-ee-n, and so on.

Have fun!

--> Quiero leer este post en español

Have a great summer!

Vacation at last!

It has been a year full of experiences and has enriched us with a lot of knowledge, especially about the processes behind each learning.

We have talked about the fundamental role that emotions play in the teaching-learning process in this post.

We have given very practical indications on how to make the most of every subject taught in English in bilingual schools in this second post.

We have presented very valuable tools to improve our children's level of English with a view to the official Cambridge exams, but also to enjoy reading adapted classics and more contemporary stories: the 'readers'.

And finally we have concentrated on the processes of acquiring English literacy through the Jolly Phonics method: we have told you how I organized the classes, underlining the importance of the use of fine and gross motor activities, which should always accompany any learning, along with playful activities, since they have the great advantage of capturing 100% of the attention of the youngest; and finally we talked about pre-reading, first with short word blending exercises and then enriching the experience with stories and games.

I hope it was useful and that you enjoyed the process as much as I did.

See you in September!

>> Quiero leer este post en castellano