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. 

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.

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.

Making a fashion catalogue - present continues and clothes vocabulary revision

To revise present continuous and clothes vocabulary we decided to create some fashion catalogues. We used different magazines to choose the clothes for the models in the catalogue and once they were done the student described what each person wore.

Presenting Gerund ( affirmative and negative)

The aim of the lesson is to present the gerund used in forming affirmative and negative sentences.

1. Warm-up activity: I gave the students flash cards showing the verbs that we studied in one of the previous lessons and that we are going to use throughout this lesson. Each student got a card and just named the verb/ activity on the card. ( run, jump, swim...)

2. Then as a lead in to the presentation of gerund we listened to a dialogue from the text book that I use in the fifth grade. We listened, read the dialogue and discussed. I used sentences from the dialogue to present the gerund. Make sure to elicit as much as possible from the students before giving them the full explanation.

3. After the students were presented with the way gerund is used I gave them the same cards from the beginning of the lesson for them to say simple sentences about themselves using I like and I don't like.

4. Finally I prepared these really simple speaking cards to help students practice the use of gerund for the third person singular.

You can find the speaking cards here:

http://www.eslprintables.com/powerpoint.asp?id=90770#thetop

Presenting - Food containers ( Countable and uncountable nouns)

The aim of this lesson is to present the students with the type of food containers and make them realize how they help us to make a difference between countable and uncountable nouns.

1. Warm-up : revision from the previous lesson, the difference between countable and uncountable nouns. The students come to the board, take one strip of paper and put it in the correct column on the poster.

2. For the introduction of food containers I used realia. I presented the words to the students and asked them to repeat after me and then say the words by themselves. In the end to make sure they remembered the words well I gave them some toys representing the key vocabulary and asked the students to talk about what they've got.

3. Then I put a poster on the board with the key vocabulary represented by pictures and by eliciting from the student wrote the key words next to each picture. The students were given time to copy from the board on a handout I provided for them earlier. 

4. As an end-of-class activity I decided to divide the students in two groups, give them pieces of paper and ask them to "write on the floor". Without looking at the poster on the board they are expected to use what they've learned from the lesson and complete the task.