Thursday, January 21, 2016

How to make a sandwich (food vocabulary revision)

The aim of the lesson is to revise some food vocabulary and learn how to write a sandwich recipe or the steps in making a sandwich.

1. To introduce the topic of the lesson I decided to use realia and demonstrate how I make my favourite sandwich. I tried to elicit the food vocabulary from the students to make it easier for them to complete the activities that followed.

2. In the main part of the lesson the students watched a video with Mr.Bean when he makes a sandwich. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtqpuYvOfHY).
2.1 While watching the video they were given a handout and were expected to work in pairs. There were two activities on the handout - one true/false exercise and one with numbering the sentences in the correct order according to the video. ( http://www.eslprintables.com/cinema_and_television/movies/comedy_movies/mr_bean/Mr_Bean_making_a_sandwich_609185/#thetop)
2.2 During the video I asked the students several questions to point out the answers on the handout.
2.3 When the video stopped I asked the students to take some time and complete the second exercise with their partner and once they finished we checked the answers together.






3. To make sure the students know how to write the steps to making a sandwich I used a nice, simple activity I found on the Internet. ( http://www.havefunteaching.com/worksheets/reading-worksheets/plot-worksheets/peanut-butter-jelly-sandwich-sequence-worksheet/) The students worked in pairs and their task was to arrange the sentences on the piece of paper in the correct order. The sentences described the steps we need to follow to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We checked the sentences together and to make sure everyone got everything right we put the sentences on the board in the correct order. In the end the students were given a small handout to write the steps and the recipe for their favourite sandwich. 






Time for revision (colours, numbers and shapes)

We've just came back to school after quite a long winter holiday. So, the first few lessons after a holiday are the best time to do some revision and get the students back on track. For this purpose I used some really nice ppt games. I downloaded mine from eslprintables.com. It is a lovely site rich in very useful handouts and other resources.
For my lesson with the first and the second grade students I used:
Colours revision : http://eslprintables.com/powerpoint.asp?id=12222#thetop
Numbers revision: http://www.eslprintables.com/powerpoint.asp?id=12194#thetop
Shapes revision: http://www.eslprintables.com/powerpoint.asp?id=24582#thetop









Thursday, January 14, 2016

Asking questions using gerund (presentation and practice)

The aim of this lesson is introducing gerund for making questions.

This lesson follows the one posted previously when the students were introduced with the affirmative and negative form of gerund.

1. I started the lesson by delivering the flash cards to the students from the previous lesson in order to revise affirmative and negative sentences using gerund. Then I introduced how questions are made for each person respectfully. Make sure that you elicit as much as possible from the students while writing down the examples on the board.



2. In order to practice asking questions I decided to do a class survey. I gave the students the instructions and then allowed them to stand up, walk around and interview each other. Once they finished with the survey we put the results on the board. Be sure to expect a bit of a noisy classroom but it's all part of learning and having fun :)















3. In the end we practiced some more speaking by playing a game. I made this paper crown by myself and the cards used in the game too. I got the idea from the game Hedbanz, but I adapted it to my students' needs. It's fun and serves the purpose right. The good thing about it is that you can use it with different questions (tense) and different vocabulary. 



Wednesday, January 13, 2016

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

Saturday, January 9, 2016

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. 















Presenting - How much / How many and their use with countable and uncountable nouns

The aim of this lesson is to introduce how much and how many to the students and their use with countable and uncountable nouns. We are going to revise food vocabulary and discuss what ingredients are needed to make a cake and pizza.

1. As a lead in to the lesson I decided to buy some cupcakes and give to the students to taste so that I can elicit what ingredients are used in the preparation of this dessert. I showed flashcards with different kinds of food and asked the students to agree or disagree with what is used in the cupcakes. I put the food in two columns and the students realize that the other ingredients are used to make pizza.
I wrote examples on the board and asked students to copy in their notebooks.



2. As a next activity I used a dialogue from the textbook we use in class. The students had to listen and write down how many or how much of each ingredient is used in the pizza the children make in the dialogue.

3. As a finishing activity I used the story Timmy goes shopping. The students listen to the story carefully and choose the correct shopping basket. 




You can find the story here:

https://www.scribd.com/doc/200703834/Timmy-Goes-Shopping-story

Presenting has got/ hasn't got

The lesson aim is presenting has got and hasn't got and their use in sentences. Also, revision of body parts. This is a lesson I did in the third grade.
1. As a warm-up activity and a revision from the previous lesson I did a body parts domino. I printed the pictures and words on pieces of paper and I asked the students to arrange the domino on the floor. I asked them to read the words and then perform some activities connected to the body parts ( shake your head, touch your toes etc.)




2. Then, to introduce the use of has got/ hasn't got I put drawings of monsters on the board and created a gallery in the classroom. I gave the instructions to the students and asked them to listen and stand next to the drawing/ monster being described. I recorded some of the students from the other grades describing the monsters and I asked them to make the drawings for me. Not all the work needs to be done by the teacher, students can help too.








3. I the next activity I distribute sentences to students and their task is to look at the pictures and match the sentences with the correct picture. Make sure that you help the students when necessary. Read and explain the sentences and elicit the use of has got/ hasn't got from the students. Ask them to copy one example in their notebooks and then ask them to draw a monster as a group and describe it using the target grammar points and vocabulary.