CHRISTMAS 2012

Sometimes teachers think that we are the only ones that have the key for teaching and we don't realise that we have  little experts in some aspects in our classes. I thought about it and discover, that one of my students with some behaviour problems was an origami expert and I asked him if they wanted to be the teacher. He was so happy and he did this work. It was a vey nice experience. Try it!

HALLOWEEN 2012-2013

We did the finger puppets activity, as you can see in the video, and then students have introduced one of their characters using English.

STARTING ART IN ENGLISH

When English teachers start a new school year, we always think about reviewing vocabulary. This year I thought to do this activity through art. Why not?

 First, for remember numbers and the alphabet and for explaining students how important is ATTITUDE in my class, I spelled the word ATTITUDE; they have to write it using big letters.

Then instruct students to write on the line the number that corresponds to each letter's position in the alphabet (for example A = 1, B= 2, C = 3 ...). Finally have students add up the numbers on the lines. What is the answer? The answer is 100, proving that attitude is 100 percent -- attitude is everything! Use this activity to lead into a discussion about the importance of attitude. Why is having a good attitude important? How do you recognize a "good attitude" in a person?

The second activity is reviewing vocabulary:

-          Divide the class into groups

-          Explain them that we are going to say a topic and they have to write as many words as they can remember since I say stop

-          Say to the students as many topics as groups you have in the class

-          When teacher finishes with the topics, he/she writes on the blackboard a letter for each group and asks them how many words they have for each topic.

-          Each time teacher has the results for the topic asks to the winner group for say the words they have written and ask the other students if they are correct, if the answer is yes that group is in charge of that topic.

-          Give each student a piece of A4 white cardboard, where they have to draw the shape that represents a word in their topic. (they can draw two or three in each cardboard)

-          Students have to cut out the inside part of that shape creating a stencil

-          When the group has finished all the stencils, give them a big cardboard where they write in big letters the name of their topic.

-          Give students watercolors and a toothbrush. Students put the stencil on the cardboard; they dip the toothbrush in the watercolor, they dab off any excess and they use their finger to make the paint spray over the stencil shape

-          When the stencil is cover, carefully they lift it off so they see the shape on the paper. They use another stencil shape somewhere else on the cardboard until they finish.

-          They let the paint dry

-          They can use a marker to draw the outline of the picture if it’s not very clear and they write under each picture the word in English

With this activity you can cover a lot of aims in the curriculum and they have fun.

You can watch this video about the activity:

WE START TO WORK ON THE COMENIUS PROJECT

Our school is involved in a new comenius project titles: CLIL "LEARNING LANGUAGES THROUGH SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION", and I've created materials for working the Recycling unit. I've started working Materials and here you can see all the things we have done about this unit.