22.6.13

Anorak - We love Writing... And your kids?


Summer is very close and many children around the world will be soon on holiday--if they aren't already.

Entertaining them during the next long, hot days is going to be quite easy if you're able to get the next issue of Anorak Magazine, dedicated to writing!

Writing is the most fun and, secretly every elephant wishes it could write!

It's true, spelling isn't always easy, but your fingers could become round like sausages if you never use a pen.

Which was the first writing system ever created, who invented it and why?

How did we arrive in the digital era and its keyboards?

Find it out in the history section and then try to correctly answer the writing trivia!

After that, you will have the great opportunity to write something in Russian, just to impress your classmates!

For the youngest kids there's an alpha-forest full of letters A-a, but how many?
There's a ancient Roman inscription to crack besides a coloring page and a 'spot the animal on the bus' activity.

As always you'll find comics, rhymes, drawings and books reviewed by children.

Definitely another Anorak issue for your collection!

More about Anorak - The happy Mag for Kids

More about Writing

16.6.13

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.



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'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!



9.6.13

Free Downloadable Odd One Out worksheets - Homophones


Hi there! 

More odd one out exercises for your students!

This time the new worksheet is about homophones: words pronounced in the same way but differing in meaning or spelling or both.

Challenge your pupils and have fun!!!


If you're looking for more exercises, take a look at the PRINTABLES PAGE of this blog.


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:

6.6.13

CLASES DE INGLÉS PARA NIÑOS EN MADRID



APROVECHA LAS TARDES DEL MES DE JULIO PARA QUE TUS HIJOS 
 ¡¡¡HABLEN INGLÉS!!!

En el mes de julio, por las tardes, estaré disponible para clases de inglés, apoyo, repaso, preparación de exámenes oficiales (Starters, Movers, Flyers, Ket, Pet), clases para mejorar la competencia comunicativa y babysitting (juego, merienda, parque, mínimo 1 hora y media).


Clases individuales o en grupo, en la zona centro y sur de Madrid.

Para más informaciones, puedes contactar conmigo mandándo un correo a:

5.6.13

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: 

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

2.6.13

CAPTAIN NO BEARD! by Carole P. Roman

Shiver me timbers!

Welcome aboard the Flying Dragon, a mighty Frigate that belongs to Captain no Beard and his hearty crew. 

There's Mongo the monkey who climbs the mast every morning to watch the horizon looking for storms, islands or big sea animals.

There's Linus the lion who's in charge of roaring the alarms.

There's Fribbit the floppy frog who can fast reach every spot of the ship whenever it  is necessary.

And, finally, there's Hallie the captain's first mate and cousin.

Together they live fantastic adventures, but also learn important lessons about friendship.

They teach each other what means to be a team and work together, even if you're the captain!

Based on a game the author Carole P. Roman used to play with her son, these books about pirates will surely inspire your children and launch them into their adventurous world of hearty pirate!

But... Look out! Being a captain is hard work!



            

More books for young readers:
THE LORAX by Dr Seuss


THE MOON IS COLD by Enrich Lluch


AT THE FAIR by Enrich Lluch


WITCH HAZEL by Enrich Lluch
 

MARY'S TOOTH by Enrich Lluch

1.6.13

SHAPES FOR TODDLERS


Shapes and colors are the first subjects that a child who attends
kindergarden must assimilate.

I prepared some activities, inspired by Maria Montessori's books, that
will help our toddlers learn about circles, squares, rectangles,
diamonds, stars, hearts and triangles!

Besides the classic counting, coloring tracing and bingo activities,
they will learn how to organize the shapes according to their
dimensions and hue, and about sequences.

Finally, they'll get more conscious about the physical differences
between each shape, by making their own, using some colorful bars and
pins.

You'll find this brand new worksheet (40 pages) on my online store:
http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com/

As always… Have fun!



More activities for toddlers:
THE SHOE BEHIND YOU

JUMPING IN AND OUT OF SHAPES

COOTIE CATCHER