#CLILinprimary

All the experimenting fun aka CLIL in the classroom

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The summer is not over yet and there will definitely be more experiments but I wanted to collect in one post all of the experiments that we did this summer during our summer camp. Our students were all between 5 and 9 years old and they were a mix bunch not only as regards the age but also in terms of the language, from beginners to a strong B1. Everyone participated, the language was graded but, of course, the older / more advanced could be more involved cognitively and linguistically.

However, these have a lot of potential, not only because they are very engaging and have a strong WOW effect but also they can be adapted to different contexts and levels. I will include their connection in the curriculum for us, at the summer camp and some potential links to a more traditional EFL curriculum.

‘Refraction’

Last year’s fun

First the experiments that have already been described here, in separate posts:

Refraction, the original post is here. Our connection: black and white things. Potential connection: I can see, optical illusions.

Design 101, you can find the original post here. Our connection: things that are blue and water. Potential connection: colours, emotions, toys, pets.

Skittles, the activity has already been described here. Our connection: colours, prism, sugar in our food, hot and cold water. Potential connection: colours.

Volcanoes, the post is here. Our connection: things that are red and fire. Potential connection: colours, natural world.

The cabbage ‘juice’

This summer’s fun

Some of those experiments I ran myself, some of them were run by my colleagues, as a part of the programme which I designed and which we taught together at our school.

A floating orange, a perfect experiment for the Orange lesson and a great element of the lesson on objects that float or sink. We watch an episode of Blippi (or this one here) and do exactly the same, collect bits and pieces around the school, predict and then test if they sink or float. The orange, with and without the skin, was the cherry on the cake, so to speak. If you need any inspiration, here is the video to help. Our connection: things that are orange. Potential connection: materials, things around us, passive vice.

What colour is the colour black? This was an absolutely fascinating experiment that I found and ran following the example of The Dad Lab. The only thing you need is a range of black markers, from different sets and different brands, a few jars or glasses with cold water and strips of kitchen towels. The results are almost immediate and it is very obvious to see the great variety that can be combined to create the black ink for the markers, not only the browns, greys and blues but also greens and even yellows and reds, depending on the manufacturer. Our connection: things that are black and white. Potential connection: colours, I can see,

What colour is the colour white? This was the other half of the lesson described above and we also looked at how the colour white is created. We produced our Newton’s disc to see how different colours can mix to become white. There is this video here, in which you can see how a proper spinner is made although we used a simpler version, on a pencil. Our connection: things that are black and white. Potential connection: colours.

Cabbage juice or the ph indicator. This was probably one of the coolest experiments ever. On the one hand, we had a real staging and a real topic (ph indicator of different substances in our life) and a real Chemistry lesson. On the other hand, this was an experiment that most resembled proper magic. There are quite a few things that are necessary, all the substances (see the video here that I used as inspiration), a few jars or bottles and, of course, the cabbage jar. Many videos and manuals suggest using a blender but I didn’t have one so I just chopped the cabbage and threw it into a jug of warm water. This was also an interesting bit as the water started to change the colour within the first minute. Even though my students were quite young and with not a very high level of English, we talked about acids and alkaloids and tried to predict how the cabbage juice will behave. Our connection: things that are purple and pink. Potential connection: food and drink, introduction to Chemistry, future with ‘will’ for prediction.

Travelling colours, another very simple craft and very good for the young kids and beginners who have only little langauge but can learn a lot about mixing the primary and secondary colours. Our connection: experiments with water. Potential connection: colours, primary and secondary. The video that I watched to learn about this experiment is here. At first, I used regular paints to colour the water but the dye is not strong enough and although the water wets the strips of paper towel, it does not carry the dye. We repeated the experiment with proper food dyes and that was a lot more successful.

One of the paper towel magic pictures

Why we liked it?

I have to admit, I had so much fun with these lessons! We had a whole day at the camp and we didn’t need to rush anyway. There was time for English vocabulary and grammar, another lesson for the creative activity and then, after the lunch break, one more slot, just for CLIL and Science. It actually helped a lot to put it at the end of the day. The Science lessons were more hands-on and I had a longer break which I could devote to preparations. That came in very handy indeed.

All that meant that preparations were required and, admittedly, not all of the resources necessary are the things that you would just find lying at the school, but, they are definitely materials that can be easily found around the house. That, of course, meant, going to school with a bag packed with the most random selection of things but, hey, it was definitely worth it.

The summer is not over yet and there are still a few lessons to come and a few more experiments. I will be adding to this list but I am already ready to say it out loud: Science is cool!

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #71 Refraction aka Catching up on Physics in the YL classes

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Ingredients

  • A glass of water, if you have a big group, the bigger the glass the better.
  • A set of visuals (I prepared my own based on what I found googling refraction), you can see them in the photographs. I used an A4 piece of paper, folded in half as I wanted it be able to stand on its own on the table.
Through the glass and On their own

Procedures

  • Before the Science / Lab lesson, we started the day with the poem dedicated to colour blue, modelled on the poems from the Little Learning Corner, we looked for the blue items around us and we had a whole section of the lesson devoted to adjectives, describing and guessing the objects in our Magic Bag. All of which were blue, of course. In the Art lesson, the kids also made a beautiful craft with the bottle caps.
  • In the beginning of the Science lesson we talked about water and the clever ocean animals. We watched some cool videos about the clever octopus, the flying birds and the orca.
  • Afterwards I presented the three experiments. The first one was the experiement with the cold and hot water (aka Melting the Skittles aka Checking How Skittles Are Made of Sugar and Food Colouring). More of it in an older post here. The there was the Surprise Experiement (check it out here) and the Illusion Experiment aka refraction.
  • We went into our Lab (the dining room) where I prepared all the ingredients and tools.
  • I showed the kids the glass of water and the first picture with the arrows. We talked about the direction of the arrows and we demonstrated and practised ‘left’ and ‘right’. Afterwards I showed the picture through the glass of water and, of course, the arrows changed the direction, almost magically. We learned the term ‘refraction’.
  • Afterwards we proceeded with the other two pictures.

Why we like it

  • Just like the previous crumbs post, devoted to red, fire and volcanoes, this one is about the experiments we did as part of our Autumn Camp. The second day was devoted to the colour blue and water. This was one of the experiements we did.
  • It is a super simple experiment, in its simplest forms it involves only a glass of water and a piece of paper with two arrows.
  • Again, it was fun. For me, because I could realise that I never ever heard about it in my Physics classes in high school and it felt good to be catching up on my primary or secondary education. For the kids, because it looked like magic)
  • It helped to make this whole experiment kinesthetic by showing the direction of the arrows with our arms, by naming the colours of the clouds or by holding the side of the card where the blue cloud was with my hand and checking how the cloud moved to the other side or by showing the direction of the stripes, on the paper and as seen through the water.
  • It was also a lot of fun to experiment with the distance between the glass and the paper to find the best angle.
  • As with the other experiment (Crumbs #70), this one also can be used with a variety of topics and lessons: water-themed classes, blue-themed classes, black and white and optical illusions lessons or, simply, Physics that, can, actually, be fun! Basically, you can make it as scientific or as magical as you want!
  • We did not have time for that but this lesson also has some potential for creating our own drawings that can be used in the experiments to give the kids an opportunity to be creative and to experiment with different designs. It is also possible to dip the pictures in water and see how they change. See the links here and here, here (experiment at 2’04) and here (really cool ideas!) Next time!

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #70 The many uses of a volcano!

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Ingredients

  • A bottle, plastic or glass, we have used the small ones.
  • Vinegar (a few spoons, I did not measure), baking soda (again, did not measure) and a few drops of the washing up liquid for the foam
  • Different websites usually advise using food colouring for the beautiful lava but I didn’t have any so I just used a few drops of the regular guache paint
  • A big plastic box or a tub (if you are doing it inside)
  • A few pieces of A4, an old plastic bag and a piece of scotch for the outside of the volcano
  • Someone to help you film or photograph because it happens very fast
  • Anything accompanying elements: I have used a short cool video about volcanoes for kids, my personal photos from Kamchatka and an episode of Peppa in which Peppa (hooray) is making a volcano at school (hooray hooray)

Procedures

  • For us, this time, this was a part of the Autumn Camp with every day dedicated to one colour. Monday was ‘red’ and before the got to the Science / CLIL part of the day, the kids had a chance: to talk about all the things red, they wrote their own poems modelled on the poems I found here which were perfect for our pre-school and year 1 kids (and here are the more complex ones, for the older kids). They also had a proper Art class in which they made very simple but amazing collages of a volcano.
  • By the time we got to the Science slot, the topic was already familiar to them. We looked at the video, we watched my photos from the trip to Kamchatka, including the volcanoes and the black sand on the beach and we watched Peppa. During the entire lesson, I wanted to draw their attention to some of the elements / words related to volcanoes especially: magma, lava, gases, temperature.
  • I also introduced all the ingredients and I explained that we will try to create the gas and the lava.
  • Afterwards every child prepared an A4 piece of paper by colouring it with black and brown crayons and then by crumpling it. Afterwards we relocated to our Lab (aka the dinning room).
  • I divided the group into three teams and each team prepared their own volcano: a bottle, wrapped in a plastic bag (for volume), scotched around, then the A4 pieces of paper, wrapped around and scotched over. Even if in the clumsiest of ways. While the kids were preparing the mountains I prepared three jars of water with the colouring (aka paint).
  • I showed the kids all the ingredients and I demonstrated the experiement the first time, trying to encourage the kids to help me name the ingredients. Afterwards, we repeated it with the other volcanoes.

Why we like it

  • Well, simply, it was a lot of fun, especially in connection with all the other things that the kids did on the day.
  • It is a very simple project, with minimal resources (although, yes, I am aware of the fact that vinegar or soda is not something that is normally available at school). All class is involved, everyone is putting their shoulder to the wheel and it is feasible even with the youngest kids as everyone can colour a piece of paper and crumple it. I had the help of my TA with building of the volcano so that’s why we could do it with three volcanoes simultaneously but they can be dealt with one at a time or all the kids can build only one big volcano, together.
  • We have three different volcanoes with three different colours but I have also found the version of three bottles scotched together with a tri-colour lava…
  • If you have an opportunity to do the experiement outside, you can build a mountain around the bottle using sand or snow but our camp falls in the middle of a very rainy autumn week so we had to do it inside. I have to admit, though, I liked it even more as we turned it into a team project and it worked really well.
  • This same experiement can be used with the older students and they can benefit even more from the vocabulary input or learning about the whole process in a Science lesson. Essentially, by mixing vinegar and baking soda, we are producing some CO2 which is one of the gases produced during the volcano eruption, too. There is also some potential of including it in a regular EFL course. Superminds 5 by CUP has a whole unit devoted to volcanoes and the history of Pompeii.

Happy teaching!

The diary of a desperate teacher: young kids and ‘advanced’ grammar: 5 activities

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The background: a group of 7-8-9-year-olds, who have been learning English for a number of years (some of them even for 5+ years), in the EFL context, currently in the A2 level and supposed to deal with the grammar structures that are quite advanced for their age and the current level of cognitive development. Plus an experienced teacher, ready for a challenge.

The challenge: practice activities that do focus on the target language but in the context appropriate for YL (sadly, quite a few of those that we have in our coursebook are just junior or even adult practice activities with kiddies characters’ names, we use them but there is very little joy, our last resort).

How to use this post: read the description of the types of activities and then look at the handouts we did use in class, with my A2 kids while in the unit on the zero conditional.

Type #1: Something is wrong here

This is usually the first practice activity with a new structure as this type of an exercise does not require any real knowledge of the grammar structure. Its main aim is the extended exposure to the structure that is our target language. The students are to read the sentences and find the problems and sort them out. These are usually the logical inconsistencies and they can be corrected in many different ways. It is an open ended activity. According to my kids, some of the sentences contain no issues as, apparently, ‘If you run in the hallway, the teacher runs with you’ is exactly what happens in their school. LOL.

This activity can be follwed up with a quick memory game in which the kids word in pairs and try to recreate the original sentences with only some hints from their partner. For example, student A calls out ‘ice-cream, the sun’ and student B tries to produce the full sentence.

Type #2: Find a mistake

This type of an activity is a good idea because it helps the kids develop the linguistic awareness in the very limited area of the chosen and practised grammar structure. We have found those very useful since the kids are slowly becoming aware of the structure and they are slowly being introduced to looking at grammar in a more adult way.

The handout is basically a set of sentences, with some grammar mistakes. In the sample sentences you can see in my handouts, these can be: missing words, additional words, incorrect froms.

The instructions are super simple, the kids work together or individually (depending on how independent your kids are) and underline and correct the mistakes. In this and in the previous activity, my students adore taking colourful markers and play the teacher here, treating these as my tests which they correct and give back to me. With marks that are not necessarily the best one.

Type #3 Your ideas!

This kind of an activity gives the kids even a greater opportunity to produce personalised sentences and to express themselves. It is entirely open-ended especially that the kids also have a chance to choose the sentences which they want to complete. In the handout available, there are ten sentences in total and the students were asked to complete five they like most.

The kids complete the sentences in any way that is true for them. In the follow-up stage, they work in pairs, read their sentences to their partner and explain why. The most important part of is the written sentence with a strong focus on the TL but this is only the springboard to a lot more productive task. If there is time, the students can change partners and to produce a lot more language. Another opportunity is to keep the handouts and ask the kids to complete the remaining five sentences in the following lesson and to repeat the pairwork, with the same or with different partners.

Type #4 Caption this!

This is a slightly more productive task, but still a very open-ended one. The kids are required to create their own captions to the images provided and, of course, the selection of the images and the language used has to be relevant to the topic of the lesson.

It can be set up in (at least) two ways: either at the desks with the students working together and writing the captions which we compare in the feedback session or with the images displayed on separate pieces of A4, with one image per page, which are circulated in the classroom and with the new ideas being added by the students as we go along.

If there are appropriate conditions in the school, the kids can also be invited to walk around the school, look at the visuals and add their ideas to the visuals that they like most. This offers more freedom as it is not a given that they will write something under all of the visuals (unlike in the activity when the cards are circulated when we are sitting) but this set-up requires proper stations (aka any horizontal working space which allows for comfortable writing) as the young kids might struggle with writing on the posters displayed on the walls.

The visuals can be very specific or, like in our handout, they can simply help to narrow down the topic.

Type # 5 Role-play starters

First of all, kids prepare the conversation starters. They can work in pairs or individually and they write one sentence for a specific situation (see the handouts). Ideally this is done in the end of a lesson. The teacher monitors, encourages and suggests. The kids are put in pairs, they read the sentences to each other and choose the funniest ones or the most interesting ones. The teacher collects the handouts.

For the following lesson, the teacher cuts up the sentences and divides them into sets. It does not quite matter if a set has more than one situation of the same type. The idea is that the kids will work with a set of random sentences.

Kids work in pairs. Student A takes out a sentence and reads out the situation. Then they start the role-play in which the sentence should be included. Student B reacts, as appropriate. Then they swap and student B takes out one of the cards and starts a conversation.

And this is, more or less, how we roll, me, basically, throwing things at the walls and see if it sticks. So far it has. Then, onto the next one. Although, of course, we will have to wait and see about the long-term results.

Bonus tasks. A grammar-focused project: How we became scientists

These particular activites are very specific to the particular topic or the target langauge here and they will not be easily transfered into other contexts and topics. However, they were very effective and they did help us practise the target language and for that reason I am including them here.

We have already practised a lot and this handout was set a homework task. I was very open-minded (or almost very reckless) about the mode of completing this tasks. The kids were asked to complete the handout but, because they asked, I also allowed them to complete the questions with mistakes (which we would correct later), in Russian or just to think about these situations. The only thing I had to highlight was for them not to do these experiments at home.

I had to choose the experiements following a few criteria (something we can do in class, something that does not involve any fire or potentially dangerous materials if the kids decided to do them again at home, something that will not involve any langauge or structures that are too advanced for us) and to prepare the materials and the classroom set-up, too, with all the desks in a semi-circle and a table in the middle.

In the following lesson, we went step by step, using the following framework

  • the hypothesis and the ideas from kids, introducing some of the key vocabulary, mostly verbs
  • doing the experiments, highlighting the results, producing the key structure
  • asking additional questions and follow-up questions, letting the kids play, when appropriate ie with spinning the eggs or mixing the water etc.

Some of the experiments have been completed in the same lesson (skittles) and some of them will be completed and finalised in the following lesson (we have used the lemon juice to write and in the following lesson we will see if these letters show after we have ironed them).

Despite the fact that the experiments meant a lot of work for me, I am very happy with the outcomes because we did manage to create an almost perfect context for the target language and the students really did produce a lot of language. I might not do it in every unit but it was definitely worth it.

Happy teaching!