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.

HERBARIUM

Introduce your pupils to the magical world of plants!

As we already well know they will enjoy doing some crafts, more than a boring explanation, so why don't make them start by exploring their gardens and taking notes on what they can see?

The first activity could be making a book, called an Herbarium, used in Botany to classify plants. They can pick flowers, dry them and stick them in this book made of sheets of heavy cardstock.

I personally prefer to leave plants where they are and take pictures of them, and so will some of your students, while others will enjoy a direct contact with the plants best.  

Here there is an example of my Herbarium made of pictures and drawings that your students can also do. 

It's a good exercise to improve their ability to pay attention!!!  

If they have a good level of English, they could find interesting a little research on the plant and write a summary of its most important characteristics. 

Here http://www.education.com/activity/article/Herbarium_Sheets/

is a page where you can find out how to make a traditional one.

The Beatles

Beatles songs are very useful to teach English.
They are easy to listen to, to remember, and to dance too!!!
Kids will enjoy the entire learning process.

I brought the lyrics to my class, one photocopy for each student, and the CD with the song. The first 3 times I explained the song and I sang with them. Then I let them mix freely in the classroom with the text...
It was really fun, they started marching to the sound of "we all live in a yellow submarine..." and ended with a conga line.
After 2 months I heard someone of them singing it.

You can propose a second activity to go into the lyric in depth.
Take a Beatles song, divide it in verses and write them with a pencil
on different sheets, possibly one for each student, underlining words they could represent with drawings.
Then pass out the papers and:
1st let them go over the words again with a coloured marker
2nd hand out pieces of coloured papers where they will draw the underlined items.

you can find a specific CD entitled ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE - BEATLES SONGS FOR KIDS
(produced by Music For Little People - www.mflp.com) if you want to save time on searching for the most appropriate songs.
I bought it on eBay for 10 euros more or less.

🍪 Fun in the Kitchen with Gingerbread People

Who belongs to the Gingerbread Family? What are they wearing? What are their clothes made of? And, most importantly, what yummy ingredients can we use to decorate them?

Let's create our very own Gingerbread Family Tree and have fun describing people, clothes, colours and food in English!

🎯 Subject Areas

Food and sweets
Body parts
Clothes
Family members and family tree

🗣️ Language Focus

Let's describe our gingerbread characters!

GINGER DADDY

He's wearing a pair of striped trousers.
He's got a white belt made of pink icing.
His buttons are made of chocolate.

GINGER MUMMY

She's wearing a long, colourful dress.
She's got two purple chocolate buttons.
She's wearing a white icing belt.

GINGER DAUGHTER & GINGER SON

What is Ginger Daughter wearing?
What colour is her skirt?
Is Ginger Son wearing a pair of shorts or trousers?
What is his mouth made of?
Are their buttons made of sweets or chocolate?

Encourage children to use their imagination and come up with their own delicious designs!

💬 Communication Goals

By the end of the activity, children will be able to:

Describe people and their appearance.
Ask and answer questions about clothes and colours.
Name different sweets, candies and food ingredients.
Talk about family members.
Listen to and understand the story of The Gingerbread Man.

🎨 Let's Make a Gingerbread Family Tree!

Ready for some sweet creativity? Here's how to set up the activity!

1. Meet the Gingerbread Family

Give each child paper templates of gingerbread men, women and children. Explain that they are going to create their very own Gingerbread Family Tree!

2. Choose your ingredients!

Prepare a list of ingredients and sweets that can be used to decorate the gingerbread characters. Think icing, chocolate buttons, colourful candies, sprinkles, jelly beans and much more!

3. Let's decorate!

Draw the different ingredients on the blackboard so children can copy them and use them to decorate their gingerbread characters.

4. Time to talk!

Invite children to show their Gingerbread Family Tree to the class. Ask each child to describe one or two family members.

You can ask questions such as:

Who is this?
What is he/she wearing?
What colour is his/her skirt?
What are his/her buttons made of?
Has he/she got a chocolate mouth?

Let the children ask questions, too!

❤️ A sweet little challenge!

Can your pupils introduce their whole Gingerbread Family in English?

Let's see how creative (and delicious!) their families can be!

👉More activities about the gingerbread man

In the Fridge and Tiny Garden
Body parts Cootie Catcher

🌟 ¡Learning English doesn’t simply mean filling in the blanks!✨

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) activities rely solely on “fill-in-the-blank” exercises ✏️… but the real goal should be to help children speak, understand, and use English naturally. 🗣️💬

🎨 Learning by doing makes it much easier, more fun, and more motivating!

And you’ll be surprised at how quickly children can start achieving real results. 🌈🚀

📚 If you’re looking for creative and engaging activities to make English learning more dynamic, check out my online store! 🛍️💕

👉 ESL Children's Worksheets

✨ Learn, play, speak, and grow! ❤️

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📍Do you struggle with a challenging class, where many of your students get distracted and their academic performance doesn’t reflect all the effort you put into preparing and teaching your lessons? 

📍Does this situation frustrate you, and would you like your students to learn more while enjoying the process? 

👉Something similar happened to me during my elementary teaching internship, and in my latest book, Pygmalion in the Classroom: A Real Experience—based on my senior thesis and my internship at a primary school in Madrid—I’ll tell you how we managed to turn things around and achieve resounding success! 

Don’t miss it! 

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