A4 pieces of cardboard, one per child. I have used just regular craft cardboard, sold in sets. I had the colourful one but I needed the back side of it, in order to decorate it so white carboard will be even better.
Glue, to be used before the lesson
Markers to decorate
Scotch and scissors or a very good stapler
Something to put inside, for example buckwheat (raw).
Procedures
Partially, the materials had to be prepared before the lesson. I folded and glued the A4 pieces of cardboard into envelopes a few hours before the lesson, to give them a chance to dry completely. Each cardboard sheet was folded into three and glue was applied along the shorter edge.
One model shaker was also prepared before the lesson and then presented in class. We learned the word and we passed it around for all the kids to touch it and to try to use it.
The envelopes templates were given out, we wrote our names on them and we took about 5 minutes to decorate them.
I set up the assembly table with all the other resources and as soon as the kids were ready, they were coming up one by one to the teacher to finish the shaker.
The final stages completed by the teacher went as follows: 1. close one end of the envelope with three layers of scotch. 2. fill the envelope with buckwheat, to about 1/3 of the envelope 3. fold the other edge of the envelope and close it with three layers of scotch 4. try it with the kid
The most important part was our attempt to use the shakers. We tried out two activities. The first one was a simple Listen and Repeat with different rhythms ‘dictated’ by the teacher and, possibly, also by the children. The other one was singing of a song that we all know very well with the instruments. We chose ‘If you happy and you know it’ by Super Simple Songs. For one song we all became an orchestra and we agreed to shake twice (after the words ‘clap your hands’ because, indeed, there are two claps) and once (on the words ‘clap your hands’ because, again, there is one clap there). The same patterned followed in the other verses, with stomping, oh no and take a nap.
Why we like it
First and foremost, I am excitingly happy with the design of this shaker which I came up with myself. The topic of the lesson was Music and one of the activities suggested was making some easy intruments. There are lots and lots of amazing designs that I found on Zing Instruments’ website and I want to make so many of them but, last week was very busy and I simply had no time to collect plastic bottles or to ask parents to give their kids one. I did not want to use plastic cups because I did not have the right kind of glue and I have always had some reservations about collecting toilet rolls that frequently feature in these activities. I spent the whole evening breaking my head over that dilemma, getting angry by the minute because the ideas were not coming. Until I finally gave up and went to sleep. My last conscious thought that day was the answer to my question. This design works. The materials are easy to get, the task is feasible for everyone and it has a universal appeal, too. All my kids were equally excited and involved in the task, the one aged 4 and the one aged 10.
I was a bit dubious about the durability of the shaker but it did last a whole full day of extensive use. We made it in the first lesson of the day but the kids were carrying around and using it throughout the entire day. I cannot guarantee, of course, how many days they would last afterwards but, even if they break later on, they can be easily fixed with a piece of scotch and some buckwheat or remade and although I do not wish it on my educational parents, the worst case scenario will not be a real disaster. The raw buckwheat can be easily cleaned up and I don’t imagine, kids would want to eat it, because it is just not tasty or pleasant to eat.
The cardboard envelope was very easy to decorate, easier than a roll or a plastic cup and we could use regular markers instead of all the other materials featuring on the designs I found on the website, such as the painter’s scotch, decorative scotch, permanent markers or acrylic paints. The kids could draw anything they wanted, either very simple patterns such as stars or hearts or something that was very special to them, for example a blue whale, a white tiger or a skyscraper.
As I have already mentioned above, the shakers became the real treasures almost instantly, to all the kids. ‘Are we going to take them home?’ was, naturally, one of the questions that every single child asked while we were producing them, just to make sure. And yes, we did take them home but the kids agreed for me to take a photo of all the beautiful shakers. Mine does not even feature in the photos, it was definitely the least interesting:-)
The finished product helped us in developing social skills. In the final stages of the lesson we became an orchestra and we worked on doing something together, listening to the teacher to repeat the rhythm and, even more importantly, listening to the song and shaking our shakers to the rhythm of the song. This particular group really really needed this kind of an exercise and I was very happy that we managed to become an orchestra for a few minutes. If it had been my regular, long-term group, I would produce some of these shakers to keep in the classroom and to repeat this kind of an exercise more regularly.
I was a little bit worried about me having to deal with sealing the envelopes but I could not delegate this task to kids as it is quite tricky, for any young learner hands. However, because there were only five children present and of different ages and of different levels of interest in drawing, it all came together. My youngest Sasha completed the task of decoration first and his shaker was the first ready. But then, having had a look at what everyone else created, he went back to his table to add some elements and afterwards he started to play with the shaker. A similar thing happened to all the other students and there was no dead time. However, if we make the shakers again, I will start playing our favourite songs during the time when we all decorate our shakers. This way the kids can start using the shakers with the music as soon as they ready. And, even if they are still working, they can still sing along.
A lot of paper, in general, in the form of a shopping bag (see photos), cut-outs of food items to be used, one of each per child and a small cardboard rectangle per child for the credit card
Some furniture for the shop, possibly a poster to put up on the board
Markers and glue for the group, for colouring and decorating the shopping and the bag
The video to set the context. I used the cartoon from Playway to English which is available on youtube.
Procedures
Introduce and practise the vocabulary. I have used it with different groups, ages and topics such as: food, fruit and vegetables, toys, big numbers, with pre-schoolers and primary.
During the city camp, this was the final part of the day (project), in our regular classes this was usually the last lesson of the unit.
We started with watching the cartoon and showing the kids our ‘shop’, which is usually just a table with a chair, in front of the board which is also also as the display for all the products available.
I showed the kids my shopping bag and gave out the templates for them to write their names and decorate it in any way they wanted. The kids glued the sides of their bags together.
Afterwards, I gave out the small cardboard rectangles and we prepared our credit cards. I cut them up before the lesson and wrote ‘credit card’ on each. We looked at my credit cards and tried to make sure ours include the same information, namely the name and the number.
Afterwards, all the students were taking turns to come to the shop to do their shopping, to pay, They they went back to their tables to colour the cards. We repeated this stage a few times.
This time round, I did not include any special preparation as regards the functional language because we were only using the basic forms that we use everyday (Hello, How can I help you, I want / Please, can I have…, That will be, Thank you).
Why we like it
This was a lovely, communicative lesson. All my students produced a lot of langauge, both as regards the key vocabulary and the functional language. The kids were involved, they kept coming to the shop until they bought absolutely everything.
The best thing about this activity set up in this way is that despite very moderate resources (only paper, only black and white copies), they kids were fully engage. They took it seriously, they stood in line, they were taking time to make a real decision what to buy. They were also very serious about the payment. I did not want to include any real counting and prices but we did have the moment of the payment being completed, every time the teacher said ‘beep’. And all of it was real despite the fact that our credit cards were made of cardboard and that our terminal was simply my computer mouse. It didn’t matter. The magic did happen with some paper and the careful set up. One of my students commented ‘This is the first time I have gone shopping’. She did not talk about ‘playing shopping’, or ‘pretend play’, she used the verb ‘go shopping’ and she was really serious about it. Looking back, I actually do think that although I had done this activity before, only now, it was especially successful and I believe it was due to the introduction of the credit cards.
There is a lot ofpotential for extending the activity, with more complex structures if possible and with elements of maths if we add prices, for older kids. With some groups, I also managed to make it more SS-centred because I was involved only in the first round, for everyone to do their shopping once. In later stages, that is the kids were taking turns. Student A was the shop assistant and student B was the customer. Afterwards, student B would sit down and student A would become the customer, with student C taking over as the shop assistant.
A lesson of this type can also be used in a variety of lessons: with different topics (clothes, toys, food, furniture), to introduce the idea of money, to teach the kids about the value of coins and notes, although, actually, at this point, the majority of transactions are done via credit cards.
Here is a most random post of a kind that I have never tried to get involved in: one long, constantly updated, written-throughout-the-entire-summer post, with all the fun things I did in class. A kind of a Summer 2023 Diary.
A little bit of a background: this summer I am teaching at a non-residential summer camp, for primary school children that has a special curriculum and a set of materials that were prepared by the educational management team at my school. Naturally, we, the teachers, are allowed to adapt and supplement these and, naturally, I am doing a lot of that. Here are my favourite bits so far.
I really like to swim
This is a small case study in the theme of ‘How to use a song effectively to teach vocabulary and to practise a grammar structure’ and I am very happy to share it here. Here is to hoping that the framework and the pattern can be adapted and re-used with other songs.
The song that we used was the amazing Milo and ‘I like you’ from Super Simple Songs. I love this song not only because of Milo but also because it includes a long beautiful list of verbs (hobbies and activities) that, as a result of the song, become a part of the kids’ vocabulary.
We started with the vocabulay introduction, with the teacher and kids miming, drilling the verbs and the structure (I like to read books) and playing Mime&Guess, with the teacher leading the game. I didn’t have flashcards to represent all the verbs that feature in the song so I prepared a set of my own mini-flashcards. Afterwards, we worked in pairs and the kids were miming the verbs for their partner to guess, each pair with their own set of cards. This way, the kids got a chance to get ready for the song itself. We listened to it and watched the video. At this point, I was singing but I didn’t push the kids to do so. I wanted them just to watch it and to enjoy it.
The following step was a proper pairwork. Each student got their copy of the handout and they were instructed to mark the activities they liked and didn’t like with pluses and minues. When this step was ready, we paired up, compared our lists and reacted (Student A: ‘I like to count stars’, Student B: ‘Me, too / I don’t’). This was something that we had already done in our lessons so it all went quite smoothly, including re-grouping. With six kids in that group, every student had a chance to talk to three different students.
At the very end of the lesson, we played the song again and, this time, I tried to encourage the kids to sing. Today, when I am writing this post, we have had only one lesson with this song and I am convinced the next time we meet in class, the response to this song will be even more active and productive.
Elephant
This is not a new idea. I have created this activity for my English and Art classes, again, with my pre-school students. However, the interaction of salt, water and paint is interesting in itself and it has a lot of potential for the older kids, as a science experiment and it was a part of a lesson with three experiments (together with the other two mentioned here, static electricity and the rainbow Skittles / M&Ms).
We went on with the drawing just like we did with the younger students, but the version for the older students included the following: learning the names of all the ingredients involved, trying to predict what we will do and what will happen (‘We will…’, ‘It will…’), describing the experiment while it was happening (Present Continous) and assessing it afterwards and grading it on a scale from 1 – 10.
Sugar Rainbow
No matter how old they are, the kids and the adults are simply in awe when they see the rainbow in a plate. Even if they have done this experiment before. Even if they are teachers. Speaking from experience here.
This is a very well-known experiment and you can find all the details here. I have used it so far in a lesson with my super advanced primary school kids to introduce and to practise the zero conditional. This time, since it is camp, we used it as a proper science experiment. The younger levels focused on the colours, the older and the more advanced ones could predict and assess and talk about the sugar dissolving fast and slow in the hot and cold water.
My little monster
I really love the folding surprise drawings and I have used them a few times in class already, although so far it has been done mostly with pre-schoolers and the follow-up activities involved a simple presentation, saying hello and a few Q&A, depending on the structure that we were practising at the time. It was an interesting experience to try to bring into the classroom with the older and the more advanced kids.
First of all, I decided to make it more creative and instead of a drawing dictation, with all the kids following the teacher and ending up with the same puppy or kitten, we all went our ways and created the monsters we wanted. One group used the collage technique using old newspapers and markers, the other opted for creating their own drawings and, indeed, in a short period of time they were actually able to draw their own beautiful monsters.
Second of all, I wanted a lot of language to come out of it. For that reason, as soon as the monsters were were, we sat in pairs and talked about them. The lower level group focused on describing the monster using the same structure (‘My monster has got…’), in a few rounds with different partners. The more advanced group had a set of questions starters (‘Has your monster got…?’, ‘Is your monster…?’, ‘Can your monster….?’ and ‘Does your monster like….?’) and they were able to keep up the conversation for a while themselves. The only requirement from the teacher, apart from the sentence starters, was to ask 20 questions.
Storybird
Storybird is a wonderful tool to develop kids’ imagination and the love for telling stories. You have to subscribe to be able to use it extensively but if you do, you get the access to a multitude of stories written by other users and their students and, even better, the access to a multitude of illustrations by budding artists which you can use in your stories. There is also an option of the trial period so you can start playing with everything that the website has to offer without investing and then you can make a decision whether you really like it or not. As for me, I haven’t even managed to go over everything that it has to offer but I am going to tell you about the one feature that I have used many times in my classes and why I love it.
We use Storybird to encourage the kids to express themselves more freely, in writing, without the hassle of actually having to write or type, during this delicate period when the students already have something to say but they do not yet have the fluency in writing, holding the pen, typing up or, in case of some my students, they do not write in English at all because they are still in pre-school. With the use of Storybird, I select the pictures and then kids talk and the teacher (yours truly here) is their secretary with quite a reasonable WPM (word per minute) numbers.
So far, I have used it in four different formats
The oldest learners, in a group of 1-1s: a set of thematic pictures, with the same characters, that we look at, figure out the story, order and then tell the story, slide by slide. This can be done at any point during the course.
Any group of learners: a set of any pictures, as the Year Book, at the end of the academic year, with the students choosing a picture to represent themselves and they can include anything they want about themselves, as they would in a year book.
The younger learners in a group: a set of thematic pictures for example toys or animals in which a student chooses one for themselves and then talks about it, using a set of structures, depending on their levels and skills. Students take turns to talk to the teacher and there is also a need for a task that all the kids will be doing alongside such as a colouring page or a wordsearch
The younger learners 1-1: a set of thematic pictures, for example toys or animals, with a student choosing 5 or 6 or how many of their favourite and they talk about every single one of them while the teacher is typing up.
Kids talk, either producing a discourse or a narrative with dialogues, the teacher types it all up, we publish it privately, we read it together, with either the students or the teacher reading the text and then, and this is definitely the best part, the book can be pdf-ed and downloaded and shared with everyone. There are even two modes for that: a simple e-book or a craft-version, for the kids to print it and assemble it into a real book which they can later read together with their parents.
The only thing that I have a love-hate relationship with on Storybird is that since it was not created for the EFL teachers per se, it has a huge range of illustrations sets but in a rather random order. It gives me a lot of joy to be going over them and admiring the artword BUT it is time-consuming and you can use only the illustrations of one author in a book, without the options to collate different pictures. On the plus side, there are so many different styles and approaches represented that it can be used to teach Art, too. And, once you have found your favourite bits, you can reuse them with different groups.
Apparently, the best transport in the world…
The best transport in the world
This type of a speaking activity can be adapted to any set of vocabulary. We did it with transport because that was the theme of the day but I have already tried it with animals (‘The best animal in the world’), professions (‘The best job in the world’) and cities and countries (‘The best place in the world’), with different age groups and levels. This week’s camp group were kids aged 8 and 9 who are somewhere in the A1 level, mixed ability.
Before we started the game, I introduced the question (‘Which one is better?’) and a few comparatives to use while describing different means of transport (faster, slower, louder, quieter, more beautiful, more interesting, more expensive, more dangerous) and it is important to highlight that the students already knew all of these adjectives as we used them in some of the previous lessons of the course.
There is only one resource necessary and that is either a set of flashcards in a pile, a set of word cards or even a set of the electronic flashcards such as these, anything that guarantees that the words will be coming up at random.
The teacher or the students taking turns pick up two random cards and compare them, i.e. a boat a nd a bike, answering the question ‘Which one is better?’, they justify their answers and choose the one. Then we proceed to another random pair and so on, until we go through all the cards. The ‘winners’ or ‘the better ones’ in each pair are kept separately as they have qualified for round 2. The activity continues until there is one winner, the best transport in the world.
There are a few variations to the activity, for example, with bigger classes, the students can be divided into smaller groups and they can do the whole activity on their own, choosing their best trainsport. As the whole class feedback, the groups present their results or they can have the final of the finals. Another solution is diving the cards among the groups and having them run the qualifiers for the whole class debate to choose the winner. For the classes where the students don’t know each other very well or when they do not quite get on with the group, to avoid any kind of competition or peer pressure, the final stage can be replaced with choosing your Top Three, individually. Last but not least, there is the option of extending the activity into choosing the worst of the worst from among ‘the losers’. That is also a lot of fun.
I am pretty sure I have already described this activity somewhere here because I have been using it successfully for ages but this summer I am revisiting it and with a lot of joy, too.
Preparing the activity is very simple as you need only a picture to colour with a copy for each student and a few sets of pencils, crayons or markers, one per pair. As for pictures, I usually use the YLE Cambridge Starters, Movers and Flyers listening materials (without the audio) or, even better, the black and white clip art. Googling ‘toys’ or ‘zoo animals’ or ‘clothes’ will give you a nice set of pictures. If there are some more complicated and less common words, I create my own pictures, also with the black and white clip art.
The more important aspect here is the setting up of the activity as its success (maximising production) will depend on it. I start with putting the students into pairs and assigning roles (‘a teacher’ and ‘a student’). Afterwards, I give out the copy and the pencils but only to the students as they will be the ones working hard.
The next step is modelling. In an ideal world the real teacher can do it with one of the stronger students, at the board: The teacher says ‘The rocket is green’ and the student colours the rocket green, then they continue with the other toys. ‘The teacher’ is the one making all the decisions, the student is listening and colouring. That’s the ideal world. I have had classes in which it was necessary to have a round of the teacher starting the activity in all the pairs, one by one and only later monitoring. It is not the most efficient as some pairs will be just waiting (and only possibly obsesrving) but it has been the most effective way of setting it up with new groups and students who have never worked in pairs before (yes, they do exist).
The students continue speaking, listening and colouring for some time and then they swap roles. They can continue colouring the same picture or the teacher can give out another set of copies. It is important to note that not all the items have to be coloured in. The roles swap can take place after 5 minutes, for example, depending on the group and the remaining items, toys, animals or clothes, can be coloured in later on. The kids can finish the picture in any way they want, without their partner’s instructions.
The best thing about this activity is that it can be done with even the lowest levels as the structure used is pretty simple but it gives everyone a chance to practise the key vocabulary and to listen and to speak. There is another way of extending it, in the feedback stage. Since all the kids will have a different picture, with different colours, they can share what they have either in a whole class feedback (Teacher: My giraffe is green and yellow. S1: My giraffe is pink. S2: My giraffe is yellow. etc) or, with another partner after they have been regrouped. A lot of production:-))
This is the lesson that I designed while trying to come up with an activity that could become a fun project lesson, something else than just a poster or a role-play. It is not my original idea, I have come across these online but I needed something that would be feasible with a group of primary beginners.
The main idea of the project is a kind of a role-play in which one student interviews the other in the format of a test. Our days was space-themed and that is why the kids were taking a test for an astronaut, answering the questions about themselves and about their skills (‘Can you…?’) because this was our target language on the day. However, this can be adapted to many topics such as a test for a traveller / explorer, a test for an athlete, a test for a student of English and so on.
I was considering a few different set-ups for this activity but since my group was a mixed ability group, my two strongest students did a lot of interviewing, with the kids taking turns to come up to the table to answer the questions and to demonstrate their skills. In the end, they also interviewed each other. All the kids who completed the test, were getting their passports with a stamp and they could sit down to decorate and to colour them. In the end, we had a small awards ceremony, with the appropriate music and applause.
I was happy because everyone really did practise the language and the kids were very excited about completing the tests successfully. So excited, in fact, that during the follwing lessons, on seeing some templates in my hands, they would ask again and again whether we would be doing the passports again. If you are planning a similar lesson, you can find my template here.
Going shopping
There is a separate post describing this activity and the resources necessary. You can find it here.
Making instruments and making music
This activity and this lesson has also become a post. You can find it here
Monster bookmarks
Again, there is a separate post devoted to these beauties. You can find it here.
One piece of A4 paper per child. It can be the regular photocopying paper or a sheet of the drawing paper, of regular texture, from a drawing album that kids use at school.
Markers or pencils, scissors and glue.
My elephant was inspired by the design I found at Creative Family Fun website, which I adapted to the needs to my group.
Procedures
Show the kids the finished product. I do not always do it but in case of this craft it seemed important to help the kids see the final product and to visualise how they are going to proceed during the entire activity.
Check that everyone has all the materials by going through the list, picking the items up and showing them to the camera, asking ‘Have you got…?’
Fold the A4 paper into halves, crosswise. Open the paper and draw the line in / along the fold. Cut into two.
Put one of these halves aside. It will be used later for the trunk and the ears.
Take the other piece of paper, hold it lengthways (with the longer edge on the top), draw a line along one of the shorter edges
Closer to the top edge draw two eyes. It might be a good time to decide if the elephant is a boy or a girl and add eyelashes and / or a bow on the forehead.
Open the glue and apply some glue along the line that has just been drawn along one of the shorter edges. Roll and glue into a tube. Put it on the side.
Take the other piece of paper. Draw a circle. Cut it out. It is ok if it is not a perfect circle.
Fold the circle into half and draw the line in / along the fold. Cut into two semi-circles.
Draw the line along the diameter of the circle, on both semi-circles.
Apply the glue on the line, on one of the semi-circle and attach it to the side of the head of the elephant. Press. It might be a good idea to show the kids how to press it here – with the fingers inside the tube and the fingers outside of it.
Repeat with the other one.
Prepare the strip of paper that will be used as the trunk. It will be glued under the eyes and it might be a good idea to check its length and perhaps cut off a bit.
Roll one of the ends of the strip around a marker or a pencil. It will twist it a little bit and it will make it look a little bit more like a trunk. Apply the glue under the eyes of the elephant, attach the top of the trunk and press.
Why we like it
This is a relatively easy craft that can be completed by children online, although I would not choose this particular activity as the first craft of the year. However, it is appropriate for five-year-old children, half-way through the academic year or the children who have taken part in some craft activities before.
It is a simplified version of the original craft and it requires less preparation on the part of the teacher. It was ‘designed’ and tested with regular A4 photocopying or drawing paper, without any real templates or special resources such as the cardboard tubes and goggly eyes.
If the students are younger, the teacher might choose to cut up the paper before the lesson (one big rectangle for the body, one small rectangle for the trunk and a circle for the ears).
It is an online-friendly activity.
The finished product can be easily used as a puppet (if it is put on the two or three fingers of a hand). One of my students also turned it into a bracelet, only because she chose to use a bigger square and, in the end, it was big enough to be worn on the wrist. As such, it can be used in simple role-plays.
It definitely has the WOW element and kids get very excited to be able to make a real toy out of a piece of paper.
It can be used to accompany a story, for example ‘Elmer’ or ‘Dear Zoo’ as one of the animals.
Our elephants were very simple and white but they can be made colourful, very much in the theme of the elephant party we know from Elmer in which all the grey elephants ‘get dressed’ for the occasion. The teacher can use the colourful paper or the kids can decorate their squares before glueing them together into a tube. If there are some leftover stickers available, these can be used to decorate the elephants in the end.
We used the elephant as a part of our unit Animals in Art and English classes and apart from making the elephant we also looked and talked about different elephants created by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso and Henri Rousseau, among others.
We also had a lot of fun playing with the semi-circles. We used them as our mouse’s ears, cat’s ears, sunglasses, monkey’s ears and wings. ‘I am a butterfly’ as a lot of fun!
One A4 piece of cardboard paper, ideally in colour but if that is not available, the while cardboard will do, too.
Markers, scissors, glue
Something to use as a template for a circle i.e. a small plate for the bigger circle and a small glass for the smaller circles
A link to inspire you. Mine came from supersimple.com, after some adaptations for our online classes.
A link to the song which this craft usually accompanies. This is my favourite rendition of the song.
Procedures
The teacher starts by demonstrating the finished product to facilitate the whole process. I do not use this kind of an approach but it might come in really handy with this particular craft activity.
The teacher and the class go over the all the resources necessary for the lesson. The teacher calls them out and shows them to the camera. The kids do the same.
The teacher demonstrates how to draw a big circle on the piece of cardboard. If the kids are ready, they can draw a circle themselves. If not, the teacher shows them how to draw around a plate. It is a good idea to use the paper economically, in order to ensure that there will be enough paper left for the small circles. The kids do the same and show their circles to the camera.
The teacher cuts out the circle. The kids follow suit.
We fold the circle into half and we draw the eyes and a smile at the front.
The teacher demonstrates how to draw two small circles (or how to circle the smaller object twice). Afterwards, these are cut out, too. They are folded into halves and cut into halves, too.
Two of these half-circles are used as fins. They are glued to the side of the shark. The teacher demonstrates that, step by step.
The third half-circle is to become the frontal dorsal fin. It is glued to the top of the shark, at the back.
The remining half a circle is cut into two pieces (in any way) and these are are the tail (or the caudal fin, what a pretty name!). Their ends are glued together to form something resembling the letter V and they are glued inside the folded circle.
Why we like it
It is a perfect craft to accompany the song or to be included as a part of the life aquatic-themed unit.
It is easy enough to make, even online. It works well in the offline classroom, too and the teacher can adapt it to the younger students by preparing the circles before the lesson or even by folding them beforehand.
Even if the circles are drawn by the kids themselves and they do not turn out perfect, the sharks will look good.
The sharks are 3D and are a lot of fun.
They can be used as a puppet and they can be used in role-plays.
The kids can decide if they make a baby shark or a mummy or daddy shark and they can decorate the sharks accordingly.
The most important thing is a set of words to represent each letter / sound of the alphabet. Some teachers like to use the set from a song to make it possible to use and reuse the same set of words and to help the students memorise and practise them in an easy way, in class and outside of class. One of these more popular songs is this one from Kids TV 123, Phonics Song 2. I use the song, too, although I created a different set of words for myself and for our teachers with b is boy, g is for girl etc. What is more, in our exercises we use a wider range, too, as an opportunity to revise all the words that the kids already know. Sometimes b is for boy and sometimes b is for banana, ball, blue or black.
The other thing that is necessary is a place to display the words. It can be a whiteboard, a noticeboard, a powerpoint or, as in the case of my online classes, a miro board. All the photos presented here are the screenshots from my miro board from the past two weeks.
Depending on the type of display, a different set of resources will be necessary. In the classroom, I simply draw and write on the whiteboard. As regards miro, I duplicate pictures and post-it notes. It would be possible to do the same using a set of specific flashcards and letter cards. In this case, the words could even be displayed on the carpet or on the table.
Procedures
The teacher chooses the word(s) for the lesson and prepares the visuals to represent them.
The pictures are drawn on the board or arranged on the miro board.
In class, the students, aided by the teacher, sound out all the pictures (‘What’s this?’ ‘Apple’ ‘Ok. Apple starts with …aaa or ooo’ ‘A’).
The teacher writes the letters as the kids call them out.
When all the letters of the words are on the board, the students try to read them as one word, supported by the teacher.
Why we like it
This game is introduced as a part of every lesson, as a starter or as a final game and normally two or three words are used.
We start playing the game only when the kids are familiar with all the letters / sounds of the alphabet and alongside the traditional phonics and sight words work, not instead of it. It is a way of encouraging kids to read the familiar words that might not and do not fall into all the patterns of the phonics system and which are not going to be as frequently used as the sight words.
In a way, it is a decoding activity that is made fun and achievable with the use of the familiar visuals and it has worked well as a transition from sounds to letters through an intermediary of the carefully chosen images, before we are ready to decode words using only letters.
Kids enjoy this activity and they quickly improve their skills. In our lesson yesterday, my student Sasha started to call out the sounds in the sequence of the pictures so fast that I could not catch up with typing the letters. Recently, we made even more progress. She just looked at a series of pictures and called out the hidden word out loud, not even bothering to wait for me. I guess that means that we are ready for the next step.
The next step and the development of the activity will be decoding secret words with a mix of letters and visuals before we finally move to reading only letters.
The choice of words used is up to the teacher. It makes sense to start with the easy, short words, the students’ names, the familiar cvc words or the frequently used words such as sight words or the functional words (‘Hello’, ‘Bye’, ‘Thank you’ etc). The decisions made here are in no connection with the phonics or the sight words that we currently work on. Most frequently, these represent some of the target vocabulary or the words that are interesting for the student (hence all the Frozen characters here).
Any set of new vocabulary, at the stage when it is introduced or when it is practised.
A set of flashcards, electronic or paper, to support the clarification and building the connection between the word, its visual representation, its meaning and the gestures and phrases chosen to represent it
The teachers and their face, hands and voice
Procedures
The teacher introduces the vocabulary, as usual, with a set of flashcards or realia
What follows is a set of practice activities appropriate for the students’ level, age and interests
The teachers add miming but apart from gestures accompanying the key words, there are also simple phrases for each of those i.e. ‘a doctor’ represented by a flashcard, a gesture (for example, putting on the stetoscope) and a phrase (‘Open your mouth and say ‘aaaa’).
Students look, listen and say the words.
In the later stages, students also mime and produce the language for the teacher or the other students to guess.
Why we like it
First of all, this particular trick (I would not dare to use the term ‘an activity’ here) was simply a coincidence. We were practising the vocabulary in the unit of professions and, as part of the revision stage of the lesson, I was miming jobs for my student to guess, just like we had done many times before, with other sets of vocabulary. It was then that I realised that there are certain limitations and that miming some of the jobs might be confusing for the students. ‘A ballerina’, ‘a singer’, ‘a photographer’ were easy enough but I got stuck with ‘a firefighter’, ‘a doctor’ and ‘a teacher’. Until I realised that to my miming and gestures, I can add a word or two.
The main aim here is still the same – the gestures, the TPR, the miming are supposed to help the children understand the target vocabulary better and remember it better, for example, while miming the word ‘firefighter’ the teacher can pretend to be directing the hose and the stream of water at the invisible fire but, to make it more obvious and visual and rich, the teacher can also say a simple phrase, for example ‘Look! A fire!’, to illustrate the word and to create associations with it. All in all, the combination of different learning channels is beneficial for the language learning.
This added linguistic element to our TPR means an extended exposure to the target language and an opportunity for more listening practice.
The set of phrases used with the specific vocabulary should be kept the same in the beginning, not to overcomplicate and to overburden the children, but, naturally, there is a lot of potential here for a wider range of the structures later on.
Initially, it is the teacher who is going to be producing the language here, however, with time, the students can also be encouraged to take over. We have only been doing it for about two weeks at this point but I have already noticed that my students started to pick on the language and start using it. And that means a lot more potential for maximising language production.
So far we have been using this approach in two different activities: Guess my word (miming, as a revision of the target language in the beginning of the lesson) and Abracadabra (setting a word for the other students / teacher to mime, with a wider range of vocabulary).
Since I am teaching online at the moment, my main resources are digital. To create this material and this activity, I used my Miro Board although the same could be done using a regular powerpoint. In the classroom, the activity could be recreated with a set of flashcards and wordcards, on the board or on the floor.
Three sets of cards are necessary: the key phrase, the numbers, the objects.
Step 1
Procedures
We start with revising the key structures and the vocabulary. We read together all the cards.
We read the first sentence (I’ve got’) and add one of the food items. Once it is added, the card changes the colour to match the first one. The same activity is repeated with all the cards.
We read the sentences again but this time the students choose the number, the teacher add the number and changes the colour to match the colour of the sentence. The same procedure is repeated with all the cards.
We read all the sentences together.
We play in pairs and we call out the colour of the sentence for the partner to read out loud. The teacher is monitoring and helping.
Step 2
Why we like it
This kind of an activity is introduced in the middle of the unit when the students are more familiar with the key structure (I’ve got) and the vocabulary (food and numbers 1 – 20) and its main aims the literacy development.
I have only used it with 1-1 online students but there is some potential for adapting this activity for a group of even for pairs (with a multiple set of cards or colour-coded handouts).
The activity helps the kids deal with the written form of the vocabulary and structures and to read the words in sentences. In a way, they are also involved in writing because they put the blocks together and make decisions about the numbers, too.
The colours help to make the activity more fun and to help them deal with a text that for them will be long and potentially scary. The activity uses only one structure at a time which will be also an early reader-friendly approach.
The activity can be made more or less challenging by adding food illustrations to help the kids read, extending the number of sentences or extending the sentences ie I’ve got 4 cakes and 3 apples, etc. When the students are ready, the teacher can also introduce a variety of structures in one set i.e. I’ve got, I like, I can etc.
The activity is easy to prepare, it can be recycled and it can be used with a variety of structures.
A4 paper, one sheet (for the leaf) and some coloured paper, I have tried both cardboard and regular craft paper and they both worked very well. The smaller caterpillar in the photo was done with the cut-up cover page of the drawing album and it works well, too. Some of my students were using ultra-thin craft paper and it worked, too so I presume cut up colourful pages of glossy magazines could be recycled this way, too.
Glue, scissors, markers and crayons.
This lesson was a part of the series of lessons devoted to spring so among all the other materials that can be used there are: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, the book or the video, the story or the video from Playway to English 3 about 6 Hungry Caterpillars, a video about the life cycle of a butterfly, the garden craft and the butterfly craft. It can also be a part of the Art lessons on the topic of weather and seasons. More about it – soon!
Procedures
Check that we all have all our resources, one by one showing them to the camera and, more often than not, finding the missing bits.
Show the kids the final product. This is not something that I do in every lesson, sometimes this element is left out for the surprise element. This time, however, I wanted the kids to understand exactly what we are doing and why.
Draw the leaf on the A4 paper, colour it green and cut it out. Demonstrate each step to the camera and wait for the kids to complete it before moving on to the next one. During this particular lesson I have also came up with a little chant that we started to sing while colouring and cutting (‘It’s a big, big leaf for a very hungry caterpillar’)
Ask the kids to prepare the strips of the coloured paper, of any colour they want. The paper can be cut sideways (probably the easier option as it involves less cutting) or lengthways (in this case each strip needs to be cut in half). I didn’t tell the kids how wide the strips should be. We have been doing craft online for a few months now and my kids are now able to make such decisions themselves. I assumed that everyone will choose the width themeselves (as wide as they can handle).
We glue the strips into a ring by putting the glue on one end and shaping it into a circle. We glue all the rings first.
Glue all the rings together by applying the glue and attaching the rings and pressing them with two fingers.
Cut out one circle for the face, draw the eyes and the smile, glue the circle onto the caterpillar. If possible, the little antennas can be added, too.
Sit the cateripillar on the leaf, introduce the caterpillars, say hello, use them in a dialogue etc. We sang the song about the garden that we had been practising for a week then.
Here are the caterpillars made by my kids. Courtesy of FunArtKids
Why we love it
It is very easy to make.
It is beautiful and sweet. Whenver I choose and prepare activities for my groups, I always wonder if my kids will simply approve of it, if they just like it. When I showed them the caterpillar, simple as it is, I got this very special ‘Ahh!’ and big smiles.
It can be done in the offline classroom but it is also possible in the online classroom.
It gives the kids some opportunities to make decisions about the creative content, the size of the leaf, the colours for the caterpillar etc.
It can be easily combined with any spring lesson or with any story lesson.
The level of challenge can be adjusted. In the classroom the teacher can prepare the strips of paper or the parents can be asked to pre-cut them if the lesson is taught online. We used five strips / rings but the caterpillar can be made longer or shorter.
There is some potential for the literacy skills development – kids could write the key words on the outside or on the inside of all the strips before glueing them together.
A set of cards with opinions, for example those that have been used with adults or those that have been used with teenagers.
A list of the discourse tricks displayed on the board or on the screen (see below) if the activity is done in pairs OR a set of six thinking hats if you want the students to debate in groups of 3 – 6 people. I have created two versions of these here and here. If you are interested in the orignal thinking hats that this activity was inspired by, you can start here.
Procedures
Pairs: student A expresses an opinion which, in the earlier stages, can be limited to only reading the opinion off the list or cards) whereas student B reacts to it using one of the approaches. Afterwards, they swap roles. It is good to highlight that student B has to use a different approach in every round.
Small groups: student A expresses an opinion (see above) and the other students in the group react in accordance with the hat that they are wearing in this round. Afterwards, they swap roles and the new hats are assigned. In the original activity, in the real classroom, we have been using dice. In the online world these have to be replaced with the wordwall spinner.
Regardless of the format, it is better to play the first few rounds with the whole class and with the active participation of the teacher to show the students that it is in fact easy to switch from one hat to the other and that the hats really help to generate ideas.
Why we like it
The main aim of this kind of an activity is for the students to develop the habit of reacting to what their interlocutors say and to give them a range to tools (or tricks) to contribute and to develop the contributions of other students. Hopefully, with time, my students will be able to participate in a debate and opinion exchange without any support of the spinner or the display.
This activity also encourages the students to listen to what their peers are saying. This has been more useful with the teenagers and juniors who are more likely to space out and start daydreaming in class.
The list of all the tricks can be limited to only the two basic ones (I agree / I disagree) and, later on, when the students are ready, further extended.
The wordwall spinner in the online classroom was a bit time-consuming for my liking but it turned out to be very beneficial for my shy / withdrawn / panicky adult students because it gave them the additional time to think and to assume the new role. Later on, we were able to switch to a simple list which served only as a reminder of all the options out there.
The same goes for the whole class and teacher participation. With some of my adult groups, I had to be involved more in the beginning, to model both the activity itself (to help with the speaker’s block (does it even exist) and, at the same time, to model the ways of getting involved in a debate. Otherwise, they would be just ‘politely’ waiting to be nominated to speak, even at the C1 level.
I have been using these with my adult groups and with my young learners, too, with teens and with juniors, when appropriate.
