June Intensive Course - Update - Inglés en Madrid con niños de infantil

Hola a todos!

Un pequeño post sobre lo que estamos haciendo, yo y mis brillantes alumnos de 1º y 2º de infantil, en un colegio de Madrid, durante este mes de junio.

Hemos hecho muchas preguntas: What's your name? What's your brother/sister/ mother/father/granny/grandfather's name? What day is it today? What's the weather like? Where do you live? How old are you?

Seguimos con las canciones: hasta ahora hemos leído, cantado, bailado y jugado con The Wheels on the Bus, We're Going on a Bear Hunt y Five Little Monkeys.

We're Going On A Bear Hunt.avi

The Wheels On The Bus Action Song

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed - Original Song

Después hemos visto varios animales de la selva: bear, crocodile, lion, bird, giraffe, zebra, elephant, hippo.

Hemos jugado a Good Afternoon Mr Jones, para aprender esta palabra' afternoon' súper complicada :o)

También hemos jugado a What's the time Mr Wolf? para repasar números y animales ( se dan ciertos números de pasos según el animal elegido) y I can see, I can see…(a red bird) …across the sea, un juego donde se necesitan a captain/pirate y a shark más flashcards (o dibujos), que resulta muy útil para empezar a poner adjetivos delante de los sustantivos.

También hemos explorado las emociones haciendo muecas y por fin…pintado!

Hemos pintado palabras que empiezan por J (jump, jellyfish, jet, juice), K (kite, king, kitten), L (leaf, lemon, lorry, lion, Lollipop) M (mitten, milk, moon, monkey) y P (penguin, pie, pig, pencil). Las hemos revisado cada día con juegos y adivinanzas.

En fin, mucho trabajo! Y mucha diversión!

..............................................

Hi everyone!

This is a little post about my June Intensive Course. I'll tell you what my young students and I  have been up to over these past 2 weeks of English classes.

First we've been asking and answering several questions: What's your name? What's your brother/sister/ mother/father/granny/grandfather's name? What day is it today? What's the weather like? Where do you live? How old are you?

Then we've been singing along to these songs:

We're Going On A Bear Hunt.avi

The Wheels On The Bus Action Song

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed - Original Song

We've been doing many activities to learn them such as reading their books, playing musical chair, musical statue and listening to them during painting time.

We've also seen the words for many wild animals, such as bear, crocodile, lion, bird, giraffe, zebra, elephant, hippo.

We've played 'Good Afternoon Mr Jones' to learn this word 'afternoon' that seems a little tricky to pronounce. 

We've played What's the Time Mr Wolf?' to review the numbers and animals, (every turn we pretend to be an animal, and we walk and produce strange sounds).

We've played I Can See, I Can See… ( a red bird) …Across the Sea, a game that needs a captain/pirate and a shark, to learn that in English adjectives go before nouns. 

We've played Cops and Robbers and Bump the Color, also.

We've explored our emotions by pulling faces and finally… We colored!!!

We painted words that start with J (jump, jellyfish, jet, juice), K (kite, king, kitten), L (leaf, lemon, lorry, lion, Lollipop) M (mitten, milk, moon, monkey) and  P (penguin, pie, pig, pencil).

We've been reviewing them every day through quiz games.

Actually, a lot of work, but also a lot of fun!

CHILDREN SEE. CHILDREN DO. Make your influence positive!

What's education and why is so important?


Our little students are the future.


Keep it in mind and be aware of the influence you have over them.


More Ideas
Rules and Social Skills Development

In the Fridge…There is Food!!!

You have already taught a lot of food vocabulary and now the moment to use it in some sentences has arrived.

Here's a simple but practical craft to improve your students' speaking skills.

Cut out the mock fridge from a cardboard. You can prepare a big one, visible to all your students or make them build their own.

They can draw food items or choose them from supermarket ads; cut them out and stick them inside the fridge. 

If you have a class of less than 10 students, they can, one by one, tell what there is/are in the fridge. 

If your class is bigger you can call out 3 or 4 students everyday to tell in front of the others what there is/ are in the fridge. 

Or make them stick things in the fridge as you call them out. 

The number of possibilities is as big as your imagination. 

Just make sure that everyone has his own scissors, glue and crayons.

VOCABULARY YOU CAN USE:

- There is / There are

- There isn't / There aren't

- Some / Any

- Much / Many / A Lot of / Lots of

- Slices / Pieces / Loaf - Loaves

- Bowls / Jars /  Packs / Bottles / Tupperware / Ice-cubeTrays / Cups / etc.

- Tins / Cans

More Activities:
Gingerbread People
Pot Labels
Action Comecoco

Tiny garden - Pot labels

Do you have a little garden in your school?

So why don't allow your pupils to grow flowers and vegetables in it?

Even if you don't have space, and the only area you can use is the windowsill, few pots and a selection of seeds might improve the enthusiasm of those young learners.

Plants like radishes and lettuce grow very fast. Your students will be able to collect them after few weeks, with great satisfaction. 

Slower plants like charts, strawberries or tomatoes, otherwise, can teach them that there is the right time for everything. 

Decorate the pots with labels to remember which plant is in it and how to take care of its life. It could be a craft activity to teach them new vocabulary.

You can also teach 'responsibility' handing tasks out to each one (or to each group if they are very young).

Tiny Garden - Pot Labels

An example of simple labels that your kids can easily make. 

Cover them with a plastic film so you can avoid that water damages the drawings and the paper.

GARDEN SCRAPBOOK

This activity is suitable both if your school or house has a garden or even a little park in front of them. It consists of drawing or taking pictures of a part of the green area during the different seasons to observe how they change depending on the weather. 

Your kids can put leaves and flowers in it. You can provide them a seed catalogue, so that they can cut out pictures of the plants their seeds are going to grow into. 

They can draw, cut out and label every kind of wildlife they see. It will make the work even more exciting!

Here, an example!

These activities, apart from keeping the task of learning a little bit more participatory, also raise their awareness about the environment all around. That's the first very important step towards growing up to be sensitive human beings.

More 'green' stuff: THE LORAX by Dr Seuss
TINY GARDEN AND THE ERBARIUM

Magnetic Moments!!!©

Here we are!!!
Another trick to get your students involved in learning English.
You can do it by yourself, buying:
"stacks" (little squared magnets) at the newsagent's and white sticker paper, so you'll be able to draw, colour and write on it.

Game example:
These Magnetic Cards could be used for many different classic games: Dominoes, Bingo, Memory, or, simpler, throwing the matching pair at the magnetic board from a certain distance (my students, currently do it with their "staks" of Star Wars).

It’s a MODULAR GAME, rechargeable like ‘Trivial Pursuit’, for example.
You ‘buy’ the first box with the base and one or two subjects,
then when you need another one because you’re explaining it in class,
you can buy the "recharge" that contains Cards dealing with the subject you need only.

Subject Areas:
Clothes, Body parts,
Seasons and weather,
Days, months, holidays,
Sports, Professions,
House - furniture,
City, Telling time,
Park, The classroom, Animals, Verbs, everyday routine, Food and Drink, Colours, Adjectives (opposites) Verbs.

Functions:
Combine words with their
correspondent pictures.

Combine present tense with past tense.

Connect verbs with subjects, or objects,
words with definitions.

LITTLE BLUE and LITTLE YELLOW by Leo Lionni

Little blue and little yellow share wonderful adventures. One day, they can't find one another. When they finally meet, they are overjoyed. They hug until they become green. As a single green shape, they play and then go, first to Little Blue's house and then to Little Yellow's only to be rejected and unrecognized.

When you read this passage try to emphasize the dialogs between the colorful parents and the green ball!!!
You will notice all the eyes of your pupils gazing at you with a mixing of suffer and curiosity, it's great!!!

In the link below you can find a downloadable pdf with some activities concerning the tale:
http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/profbooks/blueyellow.pdf

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. 

                                                   

Numbers and balls

This morning my students had a review of numbers.

I brought a yellow ball in class, I moved all the desks to create a space where they could stay in a circle and I threw the ball to one of them shouting 3!!!

The first part of the game was quite simple, they have to throw the ball to a classmate shouting the numbers in ascending order.

When they got bored I complicated the game in many different ways:

Tell the numbers in a descending order

or

Add 2 (or 3, 4, 5...) to the number you've just said trowing the ball

or

Subtract 2 (or 3, 4, 5...)

or

Don't say the numbers that contain 3 or 4 or 5 etc...

The game is quite useful because apart from using numbers, they'll improve their knowledge of multiplication table and mathematical calculations as well.

Where is the playground?!?©

Where is the Playground?!?!?©

Ok, I discovered that my 8 year old spanish pupils have a problem with left and right.

So, today, I started the class making them raise their left hands than the rights.

Finally I told them to fold their left sleeves (to have a visual reference).

The second step was explaining them how to turn left or right (it's not obvious for them).

Finally we played Simon Says with this (now easy) 4 commands:

Go down 1st (or 2nd...) street

Turn right

Turn left

Go on

Stop

Where is the Playground?!?!?©

This is a game to experiment street directions, let your pupils interact to acquire language skills and practice useful English.

Use the space between the lines of desks as streets (1st Street, 2nd Street, etc...) and write on the blackboard some easy street directions:

- Go down 1st Street, 2nd...
- Go on
- At the 1st, 2nd desk..
- Turn left
- Turn right
- Go straight on

Call on one of them and start asking him where one of his classmate 'lives' and..

Start the game!!!

P.S. Call first one of your best students:

the fact he'll be right will encourage the others on taking part in the performance.

More Activities:

In the Fridge and Tiny Garden

Shapes+Material!!!©

Subject Areas:
Clothes, Furniture,
Materials, Seasons, Rooms.
Language Items:
What is your belt made of?
It’s made of leather/ fabric/ etc.
What are the shoes made of?
They are made of ...
What is the table made of?
It’s made of wood/ plastic/ etc.
What are the curtains made of?
They are made of...

“Is your cap made of silver?”
“Yes, it is”
“No, it isn’t”
N.B. Combinations Material-Furniture/Clothes
made by kids could be really bizarre.

'When do you usually wear a scarf?'
'In which room of your house can you find a sofa?'
'What is it made of?'

Functions:
A visual (and tactile) experience of different materials their world is made of, and talk about it.

Combine seasons with clothes and materials,
Furniture with rooms and materials.

Answer yes or no questions.

More Activities:

In the Fridge and Tiny Garden

Shapes+Material!!!©_Game example:

The proposal of the game is make students learn the different kinds of material, so I prepared some pre cut outlines images of kids bedroom’s furniture. And I gave to each one a small book with the drawings of the furniture. Then I prepared a table of materials, and I brought in class some sheets and yarns. So they trace out on the sheets the furniture they have in their bedrooms with the help of the outlines and stick the images on their books.

When they finish their activity of cut and stick, you can call every one to the blackboard with the book to describe the furniture they completed with the help of the table of materials.

Shapes + Material!!! Possible Book/Activities pages©

Fun in the Kitchen with Gingerbread People

Subject Areas:
Food, Body parts, Clothes, Family tree।
Language Items:
GINGER DADDY
is wearing a pair of striped trousers,
a white belt made of pink icing, etc.

GINGER MUMMY
is wearing a long dress, with two purple buttons
made of chocolate and a white belt made of icing, etc.

What are GINGER DAUGHTER/SISTER? GINGER SON/BROTHER wearing ?
What colour is her SKIRT?
What is her MOUTH made of?

Functions:
Describing people.
Make questions about their appearance, their clothes and colours.
Use types of candies and food.
Listening (the tale of the gingerbread man).

Game examples:
Give your pupils a paper’s template of the gingerbread men, women and kids, this way everyone will be able to draw his own family tree.

Show them a list of ingredients, previously prepared at home, that can be used to decorate their drawings.

Sketch the ingredients on the blackboard, so kids can copy them.
And then call and ask each one about one or two members of his ginger family.

More Activities:

In the Fridge and Tiny Garden
Body parts Cootie Catcher

Gingerbread Boy - The Recipe

The recipe and the instructions for baking the Gingerbread cookies together with your sons and daughters.

Be careful and have fun!

Ingredients:
50g butter or hard block margarine
50g golden caster sugar
100g golden syrup
1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger
200g self-raising flour

For Decoration:
Icing pens
Chocolate buttons

Almonds

Coconut

Azelnuts

Method:

1. Ask your grown up helper to pre-heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4.


2. Put the butter, sugar and syrup in the saucepan. Heat it gently until the sugar has

dissolved. Do not allow the mixture to boil.


3. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in all the flour and ginger until you have smooth

manageable stiff dough.


4. Put the mixture in a bowl and put it aside to cool for 30 minutes.


5. Meanwhile lightly grease your baking sheet.


6. Take the cooled dough out of the bowl. Sprinkle some flour on a surface and roll out until it's about 1/2 cm thick.

7. Use your cutters to cut out your biscuits. If you can't get hold of the cutters cut the

shapes out of card and use them as templates. Lift the cut out figures gently using a fish

knife and place them on the baking tin.

8. Put them in the oven for about ten minutes.


9. When the figures are golden and slightly risen remove from the oven. Let them cool for 5

minutes on the baking tin before placing them on a cooling rack.

Decorate the figures with icing pens and chocolate buttons when they are completely cold.

from www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies

Gingerbread man tale

One day an old woman baked a gingerbread man for her husband.
Suddenly, she heard a voice from the oven.
"Let me out! Let me out!" it said.

She opened the door and the gingerbread man ran out.
The old couple ran after him, shouting "Stop! We want to eat you!"But the gingerbread man ran away singing:
"Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"

A horse saw him and said: "Stop! I want to eat you!"
But the gingerbread man ran away even faster singing:
"Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"

A cow saw him and said: "Stop! I want to eat you!"
But the gingerbread man ran away even faster singing:
"Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"

A fox saw him and said:
"Stop! I want to talk to you!"
The gingerbread man ran on singing:
"Run, run as fast as you can, you can't catch me I'm the gingerbread man!"
But the fox chased him all the way to a river.

The gingerbread man didn't know how to swim.
"I can help you," said the cunning fox.
"If you jump on my tail, I'll carry you across."
The gingerbread man jumped on the fox's tail and the fox started to swim across the river.

But the fox said:"jump on my nose. You are too heavy for my tail."
When they reached the river bank the fox tossed the gingerbread man high up into the air.
Down he fell and the fox gobbled him all up!
And that was the end of the gingerbread man.

Lesson plan based on this same story available here.

Let's go Shopping!!!©

This first activity is a simulation of a 'street market'.

In two days the children drew 5 shop's sign and many different products, then I divided my class of 15 pupils in 5 groups. There were a couple of shop assistants in each 'Shop' and the rest of the children was allowed to roam around with a shopping list, in order to go to the different shops and do their shopping.

 








Below you can read the language skills your kids could improve.

More Activities:

In the Fridge and Tiny Garden

Let's go Shopping!!!©