K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.
8.5.12
Trying a Reading and Math program - K5
K5 Learning has an online reading and math program for kindergarten to grade 5 students. I've been given a 6 week free trial to test and write a review of their program. If you are a blogger, you may want to check out their open invitation to write an online learning review of their program.
6.5.12
Months of the Year - Song
How do you teach your Pre-K students the months of the year?
They can't read or write so what about teaching them a nice song?
Here you can find a couple of them very easy to learn and teach.
(Jazz Version)
(Rock Version)
To make it easier: clap your hands to keep the rhythm.
I usually repeat the first verse several times, during the first class.
The next class, I repeat the first verse again and introduce the second one.
Again, I repeat both several times.
The third class, I sing the first 2 verses and, finally, teach the last verse.
Once you have taught the whole song, repeat it many times, during coloring activities for example, to keep your children from chatting in their native language.
They will be singing it in a couple of weeks.
2.5.12
Lesson Plan: Clothes and more - Part 1
To teach them how to say what they are wearing is the 'mission impossible' of pre-school teachers.
That is why I'm going to tell you some games related to it that will make it easier.
1 - Let's start with VOCABULARY INTRODUCTION games.
- THE TREASURE CHEST, part 1:
If you have a basket, a chest or a simple box in your classroom don't be afraid to fill it up with all kinds of clothes. Ask your students' parents to bring old garments and costumes left at the bottom of their children's closets. Then take your time and let pupils go digging in the box to choose their favorite outfit.
In this first phase you will only ask them, after they have got dressed up: " What are you wearing?". Certainly they aren't going to know, so you will tell them and make them repeat the words you have said.
- JUMP!
I have a little step in my classroom next to the wall and I used it to facilitate the learning process. I made my students line up on the step, in front of me. Then I showed them clothes on flashcards, one by one, saying: "I'm wearing trousers!" If they really were wearing trousers they had to jump down off the step.
They loved it!!!
After a couple of times you can say only the first part of the sentence: "I'm wearing…" and let them finish the sentence with the name of the picture shown, while jumping.
Great results achieved!!!
P.S. If you don't have a step in your classroom they can jump anyway, for example inside or outside a circle drawn on the floor.
- THE TREASURE CHEST, part 2:
During this second time, after the jump game, you will lead the dress up game asking them what they want to wear. It will be a good way to activate their memory and have them making an effort.
More Games:
Clothes part 2 and Clothes part 3
WEAR or CARRY?
Wear or Carry - Tiles
More Games:
Clothes part 2 and Clothes part 3
WEAR or CARRY?
Wear or Carry - Tiles
30.4.12
THE LORAX by Dr Seuss
If you are a 'green' teacher or parent and you'd like to introduce the issue of sustainability to your 'cubs' without being pedantic, I warmly recommend that you see 'The Lorax.' Based on the Dr Seuss book of the same name, this animated movie tells, with the simplest words ever, what happens to the environment when we don't take care of it.
"Truffula trees", cute hairy plants, were chopped down, many years before our story begins, by "The Once-ler", a young fellow who wanted to become a successful businessman by producing 'Thneeds', his invention. The Lorax, a small orange creature, who "speaks for the trees" had warned the guy about the consequences of his behavior, but Once-ler ignored him and soon the once beautiful valley became polluted and desolate.
The protagonist of the film is a young boy, who lives in a city completely made of plastic, right next to the deserted land. Helped by his family, he will be able to start the process that will remake the link between people and Nature, despite the obstacles he faces along the way.
"Unless someone like you...cares a whole awful lot...nothing is going to get better...It's not."
The film is an easy ecological metaphor of what will happen to our own planet if we don't preserve it.
The message is absolutely clear : each one can do his part, or at least start the change.
The photography of the movie is amazing, animals are cute and can sing and interact with people. The dialogues are clear. The adventures are thrilling.
Songs and rhymes enrich the whole story.
So, don't wait, it is going to charm your young students!!!
More stuff:
THE LORAX ECOLOGY LESSON PLANS
AND MORE BOOKS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:
AND MORE BOOKS YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN:
PETER PAN by J.M.Barrie
LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE by Laura Ingalls Wilder
27.4.12
SHOW PECULIAR THINGS!
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
Enjoy them!
More Activities:
In the Fridge
Tiny Garden
Gingerbread People
22.4.12
THE WONDERFUL WIZARD of OZ by L. Frank Baum
What's the Land of Oz?
It's a kind of beautiful and enchanted green island surrounded by a great desert and ruled by the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
In each direction there is a land inhabited by a Witch: the Wicked Witches of the East and the West, and the Witches of the North and the South.
Nothing to do with the dry grey prairies of Kansas. But Dorothy, who has just landed with her house and dog, Toto, right on top of the Wicked Witch of the East, killing her, brought by a cyclone, only wants to go home as soon as possible, because Aunt Em and Uncle Henry will surely be worried.
Unfortunately nobody can help her. She is told to go to Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz lives, and once there she might be helped by Oz himself to find her way home.
She only has to walk along the yellow brick road.
With the Wicked Witch of the East's silver shoes and the shiny kiss mark of the Witch of the North on her forehead, to protect her, Dorothy starts her adventurous journey toward Emerald City.
On the way, she first meets the Scarecrow stuck in the middle of a cornfield . Once she sets him free, he decides to go with her to ask Oz for a brain, since he is made of straw and he doesn't want to be considered a fool.
In a wood they find the Tin Woodman, rusted and incapable of moving his joints. After being oiled, he also decides to go to see Oz and ask him for a heart.
The last companion is the cowardly Lion who makes his decision to meet the Great Oz and ask him for some courage.
To reach Emerald City, where everything is green, is not a big deal, apart from a field of poppies that almost kills the lion.
After meeting the Wizard a lot of dangerous and peculiar adventures are awaiting the four friends: a pack of wolves, a flock of wild crows, a swarm of black bees, the winged monkeys, the Wicked Witch of the West, the golden cap, the missed hot air balloon, a new trip toward the South, the Fighting trees, the China country, the Hammer-Heads, and finally…
It seems unbelievable to read such a great number of adventures that catapult the reader into the middle of a bewitched land populated by enchanted characters. Exactly like for Dorothy, every line is a discovery of something unusual and totally different from reality.
Even though it was written in 1900 it's really easy to read. The pages run one after another like Dorothy's steps on the yellow brick road.
Here again, like in James and The Giant Peach http://bit.ly/IhPVpr we can recognize many Propp Functions: an heroine who has to clear many hurdles, helped by a magic object and several friends, before fulfilling her desire to go back home. It's a classic structure that teaches our youngsters that many efforts are necessary to reach their established goals.
Here you can find some rally interesting activities based on the book, designed by Nancy Polette:
7.4.12
IRREGULAR DOMINOES
Here you are! Is it already time to get your students to learn irregular past tenses? Every real teacher knows that to contextualize words is always better than to memorize them. But the official school program says clearly: KNOWLEDGE OF IRREGULAR VERBS!!! All together and in one month!
Don't you feel some pity for those 7 or 8-year-old pupils of yours, who are going to spend their afternoons trying to remember boring verbs?
I usually do and that's why I prepared this customizable domino to print and play.
It works quite well, apart from waking up the competitive spirit, that sometimes overheats the classroom a little more than I expect.
Once they have played several times, give them an extra point if they can say a sentence using the verb on the tile.
That way you'll achieve two goals in one activity. Furthermore they will acquire not only the above mentioned 'knowledge of irregular verbs', but also their proper use in the real world.
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:
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