Winter Lesson Plan

Winter has definitely shown up here in Madrid, therefore it's time to dive deep into this topic with my preschoolers!

I discovered, thanks to a Montessori blog, a Ukrainian folktale called The Mitten written by Jan Brett.

The story is about a white mitten, laying on the snow in the wood, that  soon becomes a shelter for several animals: a mole, a rabbit, an owl, a badger, a fox etc. 

To see how it ends take a look at this video.

The story teaches sequencing and a lot of vocabulary related to forest animals and the winter.

The tale is easy to retell so you can shorten it, printing out the characters cutting out a big white mitten and setting up a little drama time instead of reading the original book. 

At the end sneeze aloud and send the animals flying into the air… The children will be happily surprised!

Some activities to do after the reading and strictly related to the story are: color and decorate your own mitten or color only the animals that appear in the story. 

Here you can find the worksheets.

Then, you can go a step forward and talk about winter clothes, cut them out and stick them inside a handicraft wardrobe to practise there is and there are  

Finally for those of you who have a lot of time to spend in the classroom I would suggest to take a look at this interesting Snow Pack

Happy February!!!

More about WINTER? Take a look at this board game

---> El post en español

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. 

                                                   

Free downloadable game about clothes WEAR or CARRY?

Have you spent the last 2 weeks teaching the difference between CARRY and WEAR? If your answer is Yes, this new post is for you! 

This is an activity I designed for my 6-year-old learners a couple of years ago. 

It's composed by several tiles, on each one the students had something to do to complete it. On one half they had to write the name of the article of clothing / accessory I had drawn, in the second half they had to draw the garments I had previously written.

In those days my class was composed of 15 students, so I prepared, more or less, 3 tiles for each one to complete.

I had also prepared 'Wild Tiles', the green ones you can see in the pictures, to keep the game going in case of some missing word/drawing.

Once they (had) completed the tiles we started to play in teams of 3 pupils each. When they were putting down their tile, they had to say:  "I'm wearing / carrying … " the object they were placing. Of course the rest of the kids had to check if he was right or not. 

If you don't have time to make it by yourself, you can find the photocopiable PDF of the same game plus a suitable version for children who cannot write by themselves yet (4-5-6 years old) on this link: 

Two different sets of free downloadable Wear or Carry Tiles

Enjoy it!

I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.

Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.

It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results. 

You can get my activities on my online store:
http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com

THE MOON IS COLD by Enrich Lluch

Let's keep talking about garments! Winter is almost finished but a nice scarf and a woollen cap are necessary, for example during sudden snow storms like the one that's on Madrid right now…

Actually would it be possible that our moon, over there, were cold?

The Moon Is Cold sweetly answers the question.  Sarah is probably 5 and she likes the Moon very much. So much, to worry about her when a sudden storm starts pouring rain all over the town.

The Moon's expression is not particularly happy under the rain, so the little girl decides to help her new friend and runs towards her wardrobe to look for a raincoat to lend to the satellite in order to avoid its putting out.

Cute book with cute pictures that your youngsters will absolutely love. Especially because it gives a soul to an inanimate thing… a sort of diversion children usually enjoy quite a lot. Actually, yesterday, I had the opportunity to listen to a 3 year-old boy asking ' why didn't the statue speak?'.

Inside the book there are several weather and clothes' items to teach and, at the end of the story, you might ask your listeners to try to draw the moon wearing a raincoat (!!!).

As in At The Fair, you will also find a little cartoon on the top left corner that shows the moon peacefully turning around herself. 

So… Enjoy it!

Lesson Plan: Clothes and More - Part 3

USING VOCABULARY

TIME THE CHAIN

Make a circle with your young learners. Give each kid a flashcard. They have to show it inside the circle. In a chain they will have to say "I'm wearing…" the piece of cloth shown on the card they have. 

Time the entire process and tell them with emphasis how many seconds it took and then something like: "Let's see if we can go faster!" 

Every child has to pass clockwise his card to the next one and repeat the chain. Again time the process and tell them the seconds it lasted (of course, less than the previous time).

Three chains will be enough. Then they'll loose interest and concentration. Celebrate the last performance and step into another activity.

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING?

This game is based on children's natural desire to possess the more cards as possible.

Place all the flashcards on the floor, call out the pupils one by one. They have to choose a card, but to get it they must  say "I'm wearing…" the garments present on the card. 

More games
Clothes Part 1  and Clothes Part 2 
WEAR or CARRY?
Wear or Carry - Tiles

SHOW PECULIAR THINGS!

I would like to talk about a tip I wrote down during the last Cambridge University Press event I attended.

How can you help your students to remember new vocabulary or new structures? 

The equation is: Memory = Repetition x Interest.

Since I'm pretty sure you spend your time repeating things many times I'm going to focus on the INTEREST.

One option is to keep in mind this slogan 'MAKE IT PERSONAL!' constantly. It means you should avoid abstraction and try to contextualize every new element, particularly referring it to your pupils' experience and background.

The second option you have, a complementary one, I would say, is to SHOW PECULIAR THINGS. A curious picture will certainly grab or increase their attention and feedback. 

Here you have a couple of examples that may inspire your creativity. 


Enjoy them!

More Activities:
In the Fridge 
Tiny Garden
Gingerbread People