Rooms in the house, furniture and prepositions of place

 I am personally very pleased when I get to prepare some teaching materials and  then used them for different activities with a different student age. In the following post I am going to present the cardboard items I created and how I used them in my class. You can go to a local shop and ask for some cardboard boxes, then plan carefully and design the furniture. Color the items and find a spot in the classroom where you can create a "home".

1. Arrange the cardboard furniture items in the house and ask the students to move from one room to the next and describe what they see. Ex: There is a chair in the kitchen.. There is a bath in the bathroom.

2. Tell your students that there has been a terrible storm the other day and all of the furniture is in the wrong room. Ask students to rearrange the furniture and then make sentences - The bath is not in the living room, the bath is in the bathroom.

3. Give students words to label the furniture and then present - This is a bed. 

4. Use a teddy bear or another toy to practice prepositions of place. Where is the teddy bear? - It is on the bed. Or give students instructions - Put the teddy bear under the table etc. 

5. Create small houses and furniture items. Students should say the word and then make a sentence. Ex: This is a lamp. / There is a lamp in the bedroom. 

I hope you find my post useful. Use these ideas and let me know how it goes with your students.

Describing Physical Appearance

 This is a speaking activity where the students need to create their "cardboard dolls" and describe them using adjectives for describing physical appearance ( tall, short, fat, slim, big eyes, small eyes, long hair etc.) and also using have got / has got . They are expected to say sentences like: He is tall and fat. He has got short, dark hair and big blue eyes. In order to change the atmosphere in the classroom and make the students more comfortable, I asked them to sit in a circle on the floor. I put the props in the center and the students created the "cardboard dolls". This is a great way for the teacher to grade students' speaking abilities and also for the students to listen to their peers first and then provide their own description so that they don't feel insecure and not able to perform the task. 

Performance chart

 Apart from teaching the students a certain subject, while in the classroom, teachers also need to teach students about the basic rules of behaviour at school. Being responsible and respect others. This is especially challenging when the students are not very eager to cooperate. I found my own way of inspiring students to be more diligent, well-behaved and responsible during the lessons. This is a simple poster that I display on the door of the classroom. It has the names of the students and next to each name there are spaces that need to be filled with a smiley badge. (printed and cut out). Now it is entirely up to you what it takes for a student to earn a badge. It can be for regularly bringing homework, or helping students in class, respecting the classroom rules or winning a game. Once a student fills all of the spaces with a badge, he/she gets a prize. It can be a certificate you create on your own, a medal, a candy or a small rubber/pencil etc.

I have done this many times and it is always successful. The students learn the classroom rules and much more by trying to be the best version of themselves. It is at the same time competitive and inspiring for them.

This is just an idea that some of you might find useful. Let me know what you think of this post or any other ways you can make this work with your students. Thanks!

English Alphabet

 A teacher needs to find various appealing ways to teach young learners. When it comes to teaching the alphabet I always try to incorporate different tasks for students to memorize the letters more easily. One such activity is the following shown in the photos. Once the students are presented with the letters from the English alphabet, they receive a piece of paper on which they need to write the first letter of their name and also represent a word with a picture that begins on the same letter. This can be their favourite toy, animal, food etc. I love these type of activities where students can give their personal touch. It is especially useful to get to know the students better, to learn about their preferences and personalities. They can also see how much they have in common and learn more about each other. 

What is more you can put the papers on display in your English Corner, if you have one.

Weather Forecast

 Hello everyone,

It's been a while since I've posted something new but I'm back with many fresh teaching ideas :)

This is an activity done in the fifth grade - 10 year old students. We learned about the weather and expressing future with going to. After we covered the key vocabulary and grammar I asked my students to create a weather forecast poster. Each student worked individually and then presented the weather forecast to the rest of the students. They talked about the weather and they suggested what clothes would be suitable for each day depending on the weather. In this way we practiced going to, weather vocabulary, clothes vocabulary, days of the week vocabulary.

Also, the students got the opportunity to be creative and make their own poster. I was pleasantly surprised by their creations. What makes this acitvity good for me is the fact that they both practice writing and speaking. They get an opportunity to use the languge and work on theoir communicative skills. 

How you organize your lesson is entirely up to you. You can ask the students to create the poster at home or during the lesson, working in pairs or in groups. You can record them and then publish the recording on the school's website. 

It is very important for every teacher to make the most of each teaching material that is used in class. In that regard you can use the already created posters to teach weather vocabulary to another class. Also, you can create a text for each poster, place the poster on different walls in the classroom and then ask students to match the text with the posters.

There are many ideas how this activity can be extended or adapted. I would appreciate your ideas and suggestions in the comment section below. Thank you!

Simon says and friends

I say that a good seminar is the one when you take away at least one new idea / teaching method/ game etc. The last seminar that I attended a couple of months ago was organized by Oxford University Press and I can say that it was great because I learned many new things that I could use with my students immediately. The most interesting for me was the "updated" version of the well known game "Simon says". I tried it with my 5th grade students (around 10 years old) and I can say that it was really really fun.

This is how it goes.

You ask the class to stand up. It's good if you can organize the classroom so that there is enough free space for the students to move around. It is helpful if you could provide pictures for each character that is involved in the game. First you start with Simon. I forgot the pictures I had had prepared at home so I had to improvise right before the lesson which wasn't so bad after all :) I put the pictures on the board and explained the simple rules to the students. When I say : Simon says touch your nose - everybody should do this, if I don't say Simon says but still say touch your nose you are out of the game. 

This is Simon 

The next character that joins the game is Speedy Suzie. As the name itself implies when the students hear her name they should perform the activity in a fast manner. 

This is Speedy Suzie

Then comes Lazy Lucy and she does everything in a very slow way.

And finally Opposite Jack who does everything in the opposite way.

You can watch the video and see how all of this works in practice. As you can see the students were super excited and we really had a lot of fun.

I hope you'll find this interesting enough to use it in your classroom, too.

I would like to hear from you so feel free to express your thoughts in the comment box below. Let me know if you are familiar with other "updated versions" of other games. 

Here's a link to the video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TduWn7QFsrI&feature=youtu.be

Health and illnesses - booklet

The students worked in pairs and created these booklets on health and illnesses vocabulary. The aim of the lesson was to practice the key vocabulary and the modal verb - should/ shouldn't.
The students provided pictures and gave a suitable advice for each problem. Then they continued working in pairs by asking each other what to do with a certain health problem.