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.

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.