Around Town: activities about shops and places in a city

I suppose every child around the world goes places with their parents. Schools, hospitals, parks, train stations, bus stations, and shops are all around and children learn to recognize them and to interact with the people who work there quite early on.

At the age of five, some of them have certainly already experienced grocery shopping with their parents: asking for food (in our cute Spanish neighbourood shops), asking about the price of it and handing money over to the shopkeeper to pay for the family shopping.

Taking this into account, since my classes are inspired by children's real life and interests, I planned some lessons around this topic. And looking back on the whole experience, I must say we enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to activities involving coloring in, cutting out and pasting, as well as role playing games, the kids learned a lot  and in a reasonably short time.

Step one: I showed them some flash cards and we played flash cards games to remember the different locations. In the first group, the places were either very familiar or had a very recognizable name: school, park, hospital, train station, bus station, gas station… and airport, which at the beginning was logically called… the plane station (my cuties!)

Then we made a paper city: I let them choose which place they wanted to color in, cut out and paste onto the wall of the classroom, where I had previously stuck a long paper street. If you're working with a very small group you could suggest doing a 3D version of the same project, using whatever recycling material you can think of (see pictures).

We also played this game: ' Look!' - pointing in any direction to get the kids attention, of course - 'I can see a train/plane/bus/car/ teacher… Where am I?'

The second step was to introduce the names of shops, such as the butcher's, the fishmonger's (one of the most loved by the kids, probably because it sounded funny) the baker's, the green grocer's, the flower shop, and the supermarket.

We use flashcards games to memorize the words and then we played charades: the players took turns acting it out, without speaking or making sound effects, while the other players tried to guess which shop they were in.

Then we added these shops to our paper city. Everyone got the same paper model of a generic shop. Each child decorated their own shop windows with the typical products of the shop they had chosen to illustrate.

Next we played Shopping List, another Orchard Toys memory game where each player has to be the first to fill their trolley with all of the items on their shopping list. There are also booster packs about fruit and vegetables, or clothes  available which are the perfect way to review a ton of vocabulary.

Finally we practiced real life situations. The last game was a role play about buying  and selling. I printed several items for each shop and fake toy money (which some of the children couldn't resist pocketing, even though they were only pieces of paper, eh eh eh!). Some of the kids acted as shopkeepers, displaying all their products on tables, while the others were the customers.

Here's the dialogue they used:

Customer: Good afternoon! (we usually have class after lunch)
Shopkeeper: Good afternoon! May I help you?
Customer: Yes, please. Can I have...
Shopkeeper: Here you are. Anything else?
Customer: No, thanks. How much is it?
Shopkeeper: It's € ..., please.
Customer: Here you are. 
Shopkeeper: Thank you! See you soon!
Customer: See you!

As you can see I recycled expressions I was sure they already knew (greetings, asking for something, etc.), and added new ones like 'How much is it?', 'May I help you?' and 'Anything else?'. This allowed the kids to think in a logical way about what they were saying instead of just learning it by heart.

First they practiced the dialogue by buying paper bread, paper flowers, paper fish, paper fruit and paper vegetables. Then to make it clear that this dialogue could be used for any kind of shopping, I let them buy real stickers and real candies… to their great astonishment! One even exclaimed ' "What?!?!? You are giving us real sweets for fake toy money?!?! "

They may be young but they're certainly not slow!


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Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted. 

                                                   

Phonemic Awareness - We play with letters!

In my previous post I told you we were studying phonics using both the Montessori and Jolly Phonics methods, but what I didn't tell you is how we literally play with letters to create and reinforce the kids' phonemic awareness. To be honest, I'm pretty satisfied with the results and that's why I'd like to share the games we've been playing in class  with you today.

First of all, make sure you have the letters of the alphabet, preferably matched with pictures, hanging on the classroom wall for the whole time you're teaching this topic. You will also need a deck of alphabet flashcards.

For the first game, divide your class into teams and have all the kids sit in front of the letters on the wall. Show a flashcard to the first team, and say the name of the picture: the children in team 1then have to stand up and go over to the wall to touch the letter that word starts with. If they're right, you can hand them the card, which could also count as  a point. Repeat the same procedure with all your teams and stop the game when you notice either a certain over excitement or tiredness. The winning team is the one  with the most cards at the end.

The second game requires the use of the Jolly Phonics chants:
Divide your class into groups and give each group a whole deck of alphabet flashcards.
Then play the chants one by one. The groups must find the letter mentioned in  each chant. So, for example, when they hear "The snake is in the grass, the snake is in the grass…Ssss, Ssss, the snake is in the grass", they have to find and show you the letter S.

Game number three is the circle game I told you about in this  previous post about toys.
Have your kids sit in a circle and give each of them a card to hold. When you say a letter (or the sound of the letter), the children who have the card with the picture whose name starts with that letter must swap places.

We also played the "Alphabet Lotto" several times. It's a board game which can be played in 4 different ways: matching picture to picture, letter to picture, picture to letter, or letter to letter.

Another good game you can use in this phase is "Pass The Word", where you have word cards (with pictures) and letter cards shaped like pieces of a puzzle. The kids take a word card and must find all the letter cards they need to 'write' the word. This game is especially useful because they have to recognize lower case letters…not quite yet an easy task for a 5 year old so they have to put a lot of effort into it.

To stick a little bit more closely to the Montessori's principles I would also suggest a couple of manipulative activities: the first one requires the use of colorful pipe cleaners and the second one the use of plasticine. In both activities, the kids could use these materials to physically make the letters.

The last game is the most popular and the easiest to think of, because is the old classic 'Tell me a word that starts with the letter…' game, however before playing it I'd suggest preparing your students by doing all the previous games so that your kids will be ready to play this one and to enjoy putting the vast knowledge and phonemic awareness they've previously acquired into practice.

And for those of you who have the chance to use a smart board, at  http://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com you'll find a really entertaining video game focused on phonics.

As always… Have fun!

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Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted. 

                                                   

 

 

Auxiliares de Conversación in Spain: an Interview

The Auxiliares Program, officially called Language and Culture Assistants in Spain, gives the opportunity to anyone to teach his or her own native language here in Spain for 8 months, basically for a whole school year. 

Candidates will work in a bilingual school and help students improve their listening and speaking skills for the most part.

But, what do assistants really do once they are inside a Spanish classroom?

I asked some questions to my friend Jessica, who worked here in Madrid, in order to enlighten parents and anyone who might be interested in applying for this experience.

Take your time... It's long and really interesting!

Here it goes!  

How long did you work as an 'auxiliar de conversación'? In which kind of school?

I had the opportunity to work with the public school IES Manuel de Falla in Coslada, Madrid, for one school year.

We know from the web page  of the Comunidad de Madrid that the assistant's basic duties are:  
-To assist the regular staff at class
-To conduct conversation classes in the foreign language
-To supplement the classes with exercises in reading, dictation and oral composition
-To give pupils an insight to the way of life in his/her country.
-To prepare material.
-Assistants may also be asked to participate in extra-curricular activities such as workshops, field trips, music and theater performances, or sports events.
What did you really do?

I assisted the main teachers in Art, History and  English Literature classes. This included creating presentations or activities to supplement the existing coursework and textbook lessons. Often times I would work on reading and speaking skills with small groups while the main teacher taught the rest of the class. One of my favorite lessons in the upper level art class was going over design vocabulary and having the students create their own logo. It was great to use my graphic design background in class and the kids really loved being able to create their own business idea/logo. I was also responsible for holding an after-school conversational English class for any teachers that wanted to improve their English skills.


Let's talk about students for a moment. How did they interact with you? Were they engaged by the whole experience of having a real native speaker who was there to talk about her own culture?

Most all of the students responded really well to having a native speaker in class. They were all very inquisitive and loved to learn about the U.S. Some of them were shy or a bit embarrassed when trying to speak English because it was a challenge for them, but they did get more comfortable with time and by the end of the year I saw a lot of improvement in all of my classes. 

What was the best part of your English teaching experience?

My favorite part about teaching in Madrid was definitely helping the students to get excited about language learning. I personally love to learn new languages and know what it’s like to be in a boring class with endless grammar lessons. Being able to engage students and see them use their creativity to explore the English language was incredibly rewarding. It was also wonderful to be able to give them a new perspective on my country, the kinds of culture the U.S. exports aren’t necessarily the best representation of America, so it was neat to teach them about some of the less well known figures and places.

In your opinion, what should be taken into account, from a student's point of view, to enhance the program? 

As far as my school was concerned I think I had one of the best experiences of any of my friends that did the Auxiliares program. Other students complained about not being paid regularly and having little to no direction. Most of the teachers I worked with were incredibly helpful and the school fully supported me and gave me all the materials and direction I needed.

However, one of the few things I struggled with was learning some of the material that I was expected to teach, particularly in the history classes, rather than helping with activities or conducting conversations I was expected to teach for an entire class after being informed of what sections of the book I would be teaching just the day before. For someone that doesn’t have a great history background this required a lot of reviewing and often I didn’t feel that I knew enough to really teach a class effectively. Working outside of the classroom wasn’t the issue, I knew going in that I would have to prepare lessons and activities after school hours, it was more that the teacher didn’t know how to incorporate me into the classroom so they just split up the lessons and when I was there they let me teach. It would be great if the teachers could have more training on what to do with English assistants.

Another challenge was helping some of the students in the lower level English classes. We were instructed only to use English when in class, but for the lower levels many students had come from middle schools where their core classes were not taught in English so they had a very hard time keeping up. I found myself having to use Spanish at points so that I could quickly explain things, but even then I think that there are a lot of kids that are caught in the middle and did not get good grades. Not because they couldn’t handle the material in most cases, but because they couldn’t learn well in English. Right now the Spanish school system is transitioning into having more bilingual schools and it’s hurting students that can’t keep up. I suppose that’s more of a problem with the system than with the Auxiliares program though, but perhaps there could be better ways to use English assistants in lower level classes. Otherwise my experience was really wonderful. The teachers made me feel very welcome and the students were great!
 

Intriguing, isn't it? Are you thinking of applying for the position? 
Read a little bit more then...

While I had a wonderful time teaching I think that there are a lot of students that go to Spain with unrealistic expectations of what they’ll have to do and how much time they have to dedicate. It is not easy to teach a class, especially one with 20 or more students so I think having English speakers that have some training in Education or language learning would vastly improve the quality of the program, or at least giving them spots first when they apply. 

There are a ton of people who I know in the US that applied to the program and didn’t get in because it’s first come first serve. Spain could be a lot more picky with the selection process, or at least provide better training for the assistants and it would help everyone involved. I received my TEFL certificate before going to Madrid and think that I would have struggled a lot more without that experience. 

Also, the program should tell students to expect to do at least half an hour of work outside of class for each class they teach. Some assistants think they’re just have to show up and speak, when really to give the best experience to the students the position requires you to prepare outside of class. Yes it is a fun job, but the program should be a bit more realistic when describing the duties so that students know what they are getting into when they sign up.


Download the Language Assistant Handbook for more details

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Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted. 

                                                   

 

Spring - Lesson plan1 - BUGS

Spring is definitely my favorite season and this time I decided to teach a little bit of science to my preschoolers. Bugs, plants, flowers… 

They are all around and it's interesting for the kids to take a closer look at them, in English too.

I started with the famous, but not environmentally conscious, bumble bee song and then we played that phonic game Bees and Flowers I told you about several posts ago. This time I drew daisies, tulips and sunflowers to make sure my students would learn flowers' names. 

At the beginning the kids were using the more general word flower they already knew and I had to explain them that flowers are like children: each one has a different name.

They seemed kind of enlightened by the concept. It was so cute!

After buzzing around for a while I introduced vocabulary about bugs like, spiders, ladybugs, snails, bees, dragonflies, caterpillars and butterflies, using flashcard games.

To help them remember a couple of the names in the list above you can use these two songs: One about ladybugs and the other about the spider and… prepositions of place!

This second one is not only catchy but also really useful.

To make the most of it and also review numbers from 1 to 20 we played a card game you'll find here on page 13 and 14. Instead of the trowel card my students were hiding and looking for… a spider!

In addition, I used some pages  from these two books: 

- Color and garden. Flowers 

- Daily Learning Drills. Grade K 

Finally we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Actually, we read it again because I had never realized before that it also shows the butterfly life cycle. 

An ESL teacher isn't expected to teach such scientific facts, so I usually use that same book to teach food, days of the week, numbers. It has been surprising to discover a new use of the story after owing it for 6 years.

Here you can download a cute picture of a butterfly life cycle to cut and use as a puzzle.

Next post… flowers and plants!

Meanwhile enjoy the springtime!

        


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Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted.