#crumbslittleideasfortheclassroom Archives - Page 3 of 9

Teaching Out of the Box. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024February 24, 2024 by Anka Zapart

This article was published in the Modern English Teacher in the March / April issue of 2023 and it is one of my favourite pieces ever committed which summarises my (almost) two years in the classroom as a teacher of English and Art. I have included there all the main considerations and as many as ten different ideas for the classroom. (Although it has taken me a whole year to add it to the blog (rolling the eyes).

I am very proud of it and if you are not a MET member and have no access to the article, I can only recommend all the other lesson ideas that I have shared here, on the blog. You can find them here.

Happy teaching!

Ilya Mashkov and our first still-life. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024February 17, 2024 by Anka Zapart

The language

February is our month of food and fruit and this is what we focus on in the language part of the lesson. With my younger group we listened to a great song from the Singing Walrus and we used a set of wordwall cards to guess the fruit and vegetables from the stencils. We did some drilling, too and we talked about whether we like them or not.

The older students needed a more advanced activity and for that I used my magic bag which, indeed, on the day was full of fruit and veg that I brought for the still-life installation. Kids put their hands into the bag and tried to describe the object they were holding using basic adjectives (big / small, hard / soft, smooth / rough, light / heavy). Despite the fact that some of the kids were as old as ten, they all did enjoy it. We also talked about the fruit and vegetables we like and don’t like.

The artist

Our artist of the day was my still-life here, Ilya Mashkov. I have used his painting in my Art classes before and it was only natural that this time I would want to take it up to another level. I did and I am quite happy how it went.

First of all, we introduced the artist himself and his famous (in my opinion) painting ‘Pumpkin’. We defined what a still life is (‘a painting of things’) and we looked at a few chosen paintings by Mashkov. I put together a set of questions, inspired and adapted from the material online Essential Questions to ask about each still life photographs. My final, go-to set for this topic includes: What colour is it? What objects can you see? What shapes can you see? What is the biggest shape? What is the smallest shape? Is it light? Is it dark? Is it smooth? Is it light?, although in the lessons this week we have gone through only a few of them.

In order to prepare for our creative activity I prepared a special slide for ‘Pumpkin’ made entirely of shapes, one to represent every fruit and every vegetable. I was revealing them one by one and the task for the kids was to call out the object that they represent. In the end, I showed them the real painting and we checked our answers. I was a fun activity and it helped them the kids the basics of the composition of the painting and to prepare them for drawing.

The art

We started with putting together our installations and while I was the one responsible for arranging the items for the younger kids, my older group just took over the bag, the table and all the elements. And, it has to be said, not all the fruit made it to the table. Avocado and aubergine were not deemed worthy of our set. I accepted.

We outline the main stages of the lesson: 1. sketching with a pencil, 2. tracing the lines with crayons (one colour or a set of colours) and 3. colouring in with watercolours. I also showed my students the homework that I did before the lesson: a small still-life I painted at home and a photo of it, for comparison.

Since it was our first lesson with a still-life I did not want to invade too much and to direct the kids for example by guiding them in which order to draw the fruit. I wanted to let them try to face the task on their own and, also, to see what they can do. I was preparing my own copy and moving around, handing in the resources for each step (which also help with staging) and admiring what I was looking at. The only thing that I said to encourage them was something along the lines of ‘Don’t be scared, trust your hand. This is our first still-life. Let’s see how it goes’.

And guess what? It was beyond amazing. Some of my students are already very confident as regards drawing and they have a good eye for detail so I expected some good work but still they managed to surprise me, especially the little ones. They approached the task with curiosity, without fear and they were just working diligently on their paintings.

The only question left to answer is: What are we painting next?

Happy teaching!

Apples and an average Art lesson that sent me directly cloud number 9.

March 30, 2024February 12, 2024 by Anka Zapart

The apples? The apples!

‘What sometimes happens is that an artist, a real and creative person, gets what we call ‘a comission’: someone orders a special piece to be created and the artist agrees although, maybe, they did not really have that in mind. That is exactly what we are going to do today.’

This is how the lesson started. I delivered this little speech and my students were looking at me, puzzled. Apples (thanks to Isaac Newton) are some kind of a symbol of my school and I was asked to prepare some school decorations apple-related. To be perfectly honest, that had nothing to do with anything that I had in mind for February but since that was comissioned I decided to accept the challenge, to look for something and to change the idea for the month to food in art, moving ‘flowers’ to March. Which, actually, might not be such a bad idea altogether, for when we are a bit closer to the real spring. Fine.

Much to my surprise, it turned out that apples are very much present in Art and it is possible to find enough pieces from different centuries, including such gems as Magritte, Cezanne or Raphael and more contemporary pieces from Kusama or the random literal apple carvings. Apple is a symbol and it is a brand, too and we had fun looking at them and talking about them, both with my younger and older group.

The craft

What was comissioned was some kind of a set of apples to put around the school, made of clay or paper mache or plasticine, but I have given myself a permission to interpret it my way, to create a 2D apple garland inspired by these two finds here and here. We used cardboard for the basis and coloured paper for the front and glue, scissors and crayons. The craft is easy and the base of the apple can be a square or a circle, even if it is not very expertly cut out by the students. The little strips can be glued in a few different ways and they are little hands-friendly, too. Kids can use the strips of one colour or they mix them and everyone can make as many as possible, maybe only one, maybe a few, giving us an even longer garland. And, unlike in the case of the Pollock’s lessons, there is a lot less preparation and cleaning. The teacher is relieved to be taking this kind of a time out.

The lesson went smoothly and now we have two garlands hanging over the arches in the main hall of the school, for everyone to admire. It is an easy task and if you need apples or oranges or any other fruit – here is an idea for you.

The lesson was ‘meh’ but I loved it

It was just an OK lesson. ‘Meh’, I’d say if you asked me if I liked it. I’d shrug my shoulders.

Yes, we prepared the garlands, more or less according to the creative brief, we now have something to put up on the wall and, really, it is a pretty garland, it looks good, especially with the multi-colour apples. My kids worked well, everyone made 4 or 5 apples, getting better as they went along and some students even chose to make one for themselves to take home (always a good sign!).

But we were not impressed. I was not and nor were my students. It really did feel like working on a commission that you just cannot say no to. Everyone was involved but the Muses did not enter the room last week. No one was inspired, no one got excited about their task, no one was calling ‘Miss Anka, miss Anka! Look! What do you think?’ from all corners of the classroom…’Meh’.

And yet I loved it. Even though my kids went ‘Meh’, both the younger ones and the older ones.

Why?

This lesson was a fantastic piece of evidence to prove how much we have developed and how much progress we have made since September. Whatever we were five months ago, we are not that anymore. We are artists now.

We have had a chance to work with a variety of techniques (spatter, print, ironed crayons, watercolours, stained glass paints, acrylic paints, guache, markers, crayons, collage, books and surprises) and we have imagined being in the Shoes of the Great (Warhol, Goncharova, Kandinsky, Picasso, Kusama, van Gogh, Malevich, Levitan and Pollock). Could a simple paper apple be of any challenge or interest to us? Debatable.

There was no challenge in the technique itself (because it was easy), there was no suprise of creation (because it is an apple) and there was no inspiration from the Artist of the Day (because there were too many and because we could not really interact with them).

My kids politely did what I asked them to do but there was no spark. They are already much older and more advanced. They need something else now. The teacher has had an OK lesson but the teacher is OVER THE MOON!

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #76 Magic Bag!

July 22, 2024February 9, 2024 by Anka Zapart

This year’s Magic Bag, Sargent-themed, courtesy of the Tate Gallery in London

Ingredients

a pretty bag, ideally cotton, or something that is not transparent. I am joking, of course, that it needs to be pretty, it doesn’t but it is true that it is better if it is appealing visually. I normally use one of my tote bags.
a set of interesting objects that are safe to touch that fit in.

Procedures

Students sit in a circle, on the chairs or on the carpet, with the teacher in the centre, at a small distance. The teacher revises the vocabulary in question.
I like to take out the bag and make a show of it – take it out of a cupboard or a box, show surprise, shake it perhaps if the content allows it, make a face and ask out loud ‘What’s in the bag?’ etc.
The teacher starts chanting, for example: ‘Anka’s got a secret, Anka’s got a secret!’ and this is a chant that we use for every student.
The teacher demonstrates how she puts the hand into a bag, finds one thing and tries to name it, for example: ‘It’s a lion‘ (topic: animals).
Afterwards, the object is taken out to check what it really is. The teacher asks ‘Is it a lion?’ and the kids answer. It can be also used as an opportunity for additional drilling of the key words.
The students take turns to play the game.
As a follow-up, the kids can do a simple listening activity and help clean up at the same time. The teachers says ‘Sasha, please put the lion in’ etc.

Why we like it?

The main reason is a very strong appeal of an activity that is involves motor skills, guessing, an element of mystery and fun. Kids love to put their hand it and try to recognise or to name the objects. It so happens that we use the same bag during the entire year so after the first time, the kids can recognise it and they look forward to it. This week I was walking in the school with my bag (that on that day was ‘just my bag’ and my kids walking past got excited and started to ask if this is what we would do in class on the day).
The other main reason is that this activity can be used with a wide range of objects and for a wide range of topics, from those more obvious ones such as school objects, toys or materials to some less obvious such as rooms in the house or comparatives. I have also used it for colours, in one of the first lessons of the course, although, of course, the children did not know many of the objects that we used and we focused only on sorting them out according to their colours.
There are plenty of variations of the activity and it can be repeated in a series of lessons. It has not happened yet, over all these years, that I would take out a bag and hear ‘Oh, no, not the Magic Bag again!’ from the audience.
As regards the chant, I like to use ‘Anka’s got a secret!’ or a simple question ‘Anka, what’s in the bag?’ which all the kids repeat and which is a great question to know.
As regards the procedures, the kids can simply take out one object or try to guess it in their L1, they can describe it with the adjectives that they have (for example pairs of adjectives such as big / small, heavy / light, smooth / rough, soft/ hard or the materials: it is made of plastic etc) for the class to guess. Recently, I have used it also to practise comparisons and every child had to take out two objects, to describe them and then to compare them when they were both out of the bag. If it is appropriate for the objects, the kids can also try to shake them in the bag to check what noise they make. Another option is of course the most tactile version of the game – kids touching the objects with both hands without taking the objects out, through the fabric.
The age range of the students can also vary. The youngest kids that I have used it with were 3 – 4 years old, the oldest were my teenagers and they also enjoyed it. The language that we expect the students to produce will depend on their level and age. When we played the game last week with my A1 primary year 1, they were able to produce a set of four sentences in one go because we used it in the final stages of the adjectives unit.
Naturally, the objects can be used to introduce the target langauge, to practise or to revise the language, verbally or in writing or even as an introduction to a listening or reading task.
As regards the less obvious topics for example verbs or rooms in the house, it is still possible if the objects are used as symbols. ‘A spoon’ can mean ‘to eat’ or ‘the kitchen’, a pair of socks (a new pair!) can symbolise ‘to wear’ or ‘the bedroom’, ‘a tub of toothpaste’ can stand for ‘to brush your teeth’ or ‘the bathroom’ and so on.
During the pandemic, I also used the Magic Bag in class, although in the online version the bag was much thinner and I was putting one object at a time and demonstrating it to the camera. I also used to make noises with them, without showing them to the camera i.e. dropping them on the table, squeezing them, tapping on them etc or, as the last hint, showing only a tiny little corner of the object to the camera. It also worked very well! And, in the online world, it was also possible for my students to take part and do the same with things that they had at home.
Last but not least, this is a unique opportunity for the teacher to take the most random selection of things to school such as pasta pieces in a bag, a soap, a salt shaker, a spoon, a pair of socks, a tube of toothpaste, seeds in a bag, some flour in a bag, shells, stones, tomatoes, cucumbers, soft toys, an electric torch, a small jar, a pair of earrings, a ribbon, cones…

Happy teaching!

Natalia Goncharova’s lesson about colours. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024January 20, 2024 by Anka Zapart

The language

January is our month of colours, chosen this way to balance up the monochromatic landscape outside the window. At the moment, due to the combination of various factors, calendards and timetables, I get to teach every lesson first with my older group and then to repeat it and to re-do it with the younger kids. This, in itself, is a fascinating set-up for experiments and reflection. The activity with the unusual colour was created for my little ones but it was such a success that I decided to do it again with my older group, too. It was a success and my older and more advanced children were even more involved and more capable of taking part in a discussion and expressing their views on pink teddy bears, brown unicorns and pink chocolate. This was the main language activity in this lesson. The older group were using a wider range of structures, including ‘I really like’, ‘I really don’t like’, ‘I love’ and ‘I hate’ and they could explain why they felt this way.

Because of that I am going to repeat it, once more, with a different set of images in this coming week.

‘Monet & Architecture’ will reveal Claude Monet’s works at London (architecturaldigest.in)

The artist

This week, we invited not one but two artists to lead us through the world of colour and this decision was made specifically with the art project I planned for us for the day and that, in turn, was the result of these creators’ artistic decisions.

My main idea was to show the students how the same object can be painted with different colours and how the selection of the colours can affect our perception of the painting and our emotions. Or, in other words, why would an artist choose specific colours to paint.

Our first artist of the day was Claude Monet and his cathedral, the other Natalia Goncharova and her peacock, or rather, two peacocks because Natalia Sergeevna created more than one and that was exactly what we needed. We looked at the two peacocks and answered a few questions: ‘What colours can you see?’, ‘Do you like this peacock? Why?’, ‘How does it make you feel?’, ‘Why did she choose such colours?’, ‘Which one do you like more?’. We compared the paintings with the photos of the cathedral and of the bird.

In general, the colourful peacock was a favourite although some of my students mentioned that there are too many colours and they are too loud. The black-and-brown peacock was noone’s favourite as very thin, very sad and a bit scary.

We needed these artists also because their colour decisions were rooted in two different sources – the sun itself and the artist’s conscious decision and it is the second approach that we were getting ready to use in our art.

The art

The task was very simple and it came as a natural follow-up of the activities in the first half of the lesson: choose a simple object and paint it twice, using a different set of colours to represent two different ideas or emotions.

To demonstrate how it can be done, in an even more direct and straightforward way, I showed the students the pictures that I created – a flower that I decided to paint using my happy colours, such as pink, green and blue and to paint the same flower using the colours that make me angry (orange, purple and yellow). You can see it above. Below – everything that my students created last Wednesday.

Before we started, we also brought back our earlier project, namely Andy Warhol and Chebourashka that I wrote about here. The previous activity had a character in it and it was, perhaps, easier to associated it with a set of emotions whereas this time round I wanted everyone to be a little bit more open-minded and, at the same time, to focus on the emotions and colours, rather than on looking at the world through the character. However, I did not limit them in any choice and, as a result, some of them decided to choose two different items to paint or to even give up on the shapes and focus entirely on the colours.

It is exciting to see that they paired up their beloved shapes and characters with the colours they love and, in the same vein, they made a decision to combine their less preferred colours with the characters they just don’t like. It seems your beloved goose could just not be painted in the colours you have a strong dislike for.

The kids made conscious decisions regarding the colours and while they were painting, we were discussing their choices and, in the end, the final outcome, too. And it was a real discussion, to a large extent in L2, in some cases also in L1.

This last piece here is special in many ways because we had a new student join our group and try his hand at creativity for the first time. He got the idea and the was happy to experiment with the colours and images and it turns out that his favourite combination is a cat in pink because this is his favourite colour and because ‘Boys like pink, too!’. He is one of the epitome of the cool kid and the would be alpha male in our class so I was surprised and in awe that he dived in and took to everything that we do in our classes. And, even more so, he enjoyed it.

Happy teaching!

Vasilyi Kandinsky, colours and sounds. Teaching English through Art

March 30, 2024January 12, 2024 by Anka Zapart

This time, the whole lesson planning process started with my decision to spend the whole month of January doing fun things with the colour and it was an absolute necessity to start with Vasilyi Kandinsky. This particular lesson did not follow the traditional routine and the painting that is usually the centre piece of the lesson, this time made only a cameo appearance that illustrated what our artist liked to create.

The language

We started in a very relaxed way and in the first lesson we talked about our favourite colours. We also learned some more advanced colours names through a wordwall quiz.

I wanted to get the kids to associate colours with emotions, feelings and music, just like Kandinsky did, and that is why our next stage involved watching a video with the unusual instruments and deciding how we would present each instrument and its sound with a colour. After each short clip, we paused the video and shared our views. Only then did I introduce the artist of the day.

With the youngest group we focused on the basic colours which we revised using two of my favourite songs: What’s your favourite colour? – with looking for colours around us and with My yellow car – with pausing and guessing what product is going to be bought.

Afterwards, to get the kids ready for the alternative approach to colours we looked at the set of cards which I prepared – the everyday and familiar objects in unusual colours. I asked the kids to look and to say what they think of the idea, using a simple ‘I like it / I don’t like it’. It was a lot of fun!

The artist

The reason for that was the fact that Vasilyi Kandinsky spent a large part of his creative life not only using colours but also trying to understand them (‘Effect of Colour’). After we shared our ideas about different pieces of music, we watched a clip of the video ‘What’s the Sound of Colour‘ to check whether we agree with his interpretation. Sometimes we did and sometimes we didn’t.

As a follow-up to that we looked at Kandinsky most famous creation, Composition VIII, but only to have something to represent him with. We did not analyse the painting apart from the title because the name went nicely with the idea of colours and music.

Our lesson with the little kids was so packed with activities that I had to skip the artist stage, in order to make sure that we had enough time for our creativity. Nonetheless, it all worked very well!

The art

I did not want to create anything in the style of Kandinsky not to steer away from the colour itself. For that reason I chose spread painting – it has the colour at its centre, it is not very challenging and it can be done with a variety of different paints.

Before the lesson, I prepared the paints (acrylic and gouache), the pieces of thick cardboard (photocopying paper box cut up into bits) and the paper. I used the thicker paper sheets used for watercolours to ensure that the paper holds up the amount of paint and water and I decided to go for the A3 size, to give the children more flexibility with the spreading movement and the feel of being real artists who work on bigger sheets.

In this kind of a lesson, it was absolutely necessary to demonstrate the technique and in order to do that, I put my paper on the floor, made a decision about the colours that I wanted to use, put a few blobs of different colours and then showed the students some basic movements to spread the paint on the paper (straight, wavy, circular, semi-circular). Apart from that, I also had a few pictures of my own, prepared before the lesson, with different movements, sets of colours and, in some cases, the additional drawings with a marker. These already had titles, too.

Afterwards, we just went on to create. The most important decision to make was the colour selection and we discussed that while I was walking around the room and monitoring. It was great to see how these decisions were made and how the kids were becoming more confident with the movement and the technique. In the gallery below you can what they produced and how their favourite things are reflected in their creations i.e. ‘the rabbit’ created by a fan of rabbits and Malevich or ‘the goose’ that features in many of our lessons because a goose is my student’s spirit animal. I am also extremely proud of the blue – mustard – silver creation which is the title photo because it was a first for one of my students who so far had been only sitting and participating in our debates. He finally felt curious and ready to get his hands dirty and with what result! I just love the combination of colours here.

Initially, I wanted everyone to name their paintings but then I gave up that. After all, this was our first approach at the abstract art and I just wanted them to enjoy the process without pushing them too much. Our paintings are now on display and we can always get back to them and give them their titles later on, when we are more comfortable with the non-figurative art.

It was a great lesson! Next week I am going to get to repeat it with my younger kids and then, there is the rest of January to celebrate colour!

Here are some of the pictures that my little students created! It was one joy of a lesson, with my students discovering the world of the modern art and the brand new technique, experimenting with it and being proud of their creations. Amazingly enough, they really took to looking for ideas in their paintings and trying to name them. This was just precious.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #75 Paul and his gran. One more way of approaching the story in the YL classroom.

July 28, 2024January 5, 2024 by Anka Zapart

Ingredients

One of the YLE Cambridge visuals, Movers speaking (4 pictures), Flyers writing (3 pictures) or Flyers speaking (5 pictures). In our case, this time it was Paul and his Granmother from Flyers from the sample tests booklet (volume 2 p. 96), tampered with lightly (see below)
A handout created to accompany the visuals, you can download it from here

Procedures

Prepare the visuals by covering up the numbers on the pictures and making a copy for each student, cutting these up. Make a copy of the writing handout for each student.
Introduce the story: without revealing too much, for examply by telling the kids that they are going to meet a boy and read a story about his day.
Give out the visuals, cut up, ask the kids to find out the start of the story (aka picture number 1), talk about this picture with the class. The questions to use might include: Who is it? How old is he / she? What is she / he doing?
Tell the kids that this is Paul and his gran (we had different interpretations here but we need grandma for the handout) and their day. Ask the kids to reorder the pictures, check and glue them in the correct order in the notebooks. They number the pictures.
Create the story: kids look at all the pictures, in order to be able to construct the whole story and the plot. This can be easily turned into a speaking activity: the teacher makes sentences such as: I can see a boy. Kids answer with: Picture 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, etc. Later on, the students take over by making their own sentences. This can be done as a whole class or in pairs. This is also the time to introduce or to check that all the kids have all the key vocabulary. The kids are not telling the story yet, they are only getting ready, thinking about the characters, their actions and feelings.
Write the story: the teacher gives out the handwriting handout, the kids glue it in their notebooks, too. The class go together, picture by picture, they read the sentences and think of their own ways of finishing the sentences. They write the words or they ask the teacher to write the words on the board for them to copy. The teacher monitors and makes sure that everyone is going on at the same pace.
Read the story: the groups that I did it with were not very big, only 5 or 6 students, so we could all read our stories out loud and applaud. With the bigger groups, it might be a good idea to put the kids into pairs or smaller groups to read to each other and to applaud. Nonetheless, I still wanted to include this element, purely for the reading practice.

Why we like it

I am quite happy with that activity since all the materials worked well in the classroom.
The kids enjoyed it. Many of the ideas were the same, especially the feelings but there was also some potential for variety in kids’ answers. I accepted everything, for example ‘Parents are angry’ (picture 5) or ‘Paul is scared’ (picture 4). As we always say: ‘All ideas are good ideas’. In that sense it worked very well as ‘the first story we wrote’. I was very proud of them and they were proud of themselves, too.
My students are only 6 and 7 and all of them are in year 1 of primary. Their literacy levels vary and this kind of an activity gave them an opportunity to practise a variety of skills, especially their literacy skills, with more focus on reading and writing. There was enough room for creativity and enough support at the same time. Initially, I was considering including the tracing element but then I decided that it would be too much for one lesson, with five pictures and five short texts to write.
There is a lot of potential for adaptation: the number of pictures can be adapted, if you choose to use the Movers speaking resources or the Flyers writing resources. The number of sentences for each picture can also be adapted, extended or cut short. If there is time and if the kids are ready, they can add their own, sixth part and even to draw their own picture.
I made sure that everyone had the same order of the pictures for the entire story as my kids are quite young and this was the first time we worked with this kind of a materials. Because of that and because of their literacy levels, they are not yet able to work independently on such a task and I decided to keep it more T-centred and T-led this time. However, for more advanced groups (as regards literacy and independent work), there is a lot more potential. They could tell the story in their own way. If needs be, the writing handout, can also be cut up and rearranged, to match the pictures and their order.
One thing that I did not do was to allow creativity as regards the title of the story. We did not focus much on it, I only introduce the brief: Paul and his grandma, but there is so much potential here, especially that the kids are also supposed to learn about a structure of the story and that it includes a title. No harm done, we will be repeating this activity and next time we will write our own titles, too!

Before you go, make sure you have a look at all the other storytelling ideas, here and here.

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #74 Christmas a la Andy Warhol

March 30, 2024December 23, 2023 by Anka Zapart

Ingredients

A3 paper, glue and scissors and a stack of newspapers and journals (gardening, furniture, fashion, kids, music, animals)
music, for atmoshpere

Procedures

This lesson in this format was done with my older primary students whose language is on the level of A2 – B1.
We started with bringing up Andy Warhol whom we got to know in September (more about this lesson here). As always, it was a pleasure to find out that our Andy Warhol Chebourashka was a very memorable lesson. My students did rememember! We talked about Andy again and especially about his love for Christmas (I do recommend reading about it here).
We looked at the Christmas tree he designed and at the technique (collage).
Afterwards, I showed all the materials and I started to make my own collage to demonstrate the technique.
We looked at the journals and newspapers, leafing through to find the theme. I suggested a few (a colour, an object, a topic) and just allowed the kids to think about it.
All this time I was making my own: I drew a big triangle and started glueing the pieces to match my theme (Nature).
Kids were working, cutting out their pieces and composing their collages. They were also looking for pieces for their friends. All this time we were having an open class dicussion about different artistic decisions and the bits and pieces that match or do not match the individual collages.
In the end, we briefly demonstrated all the trees, together with the title.
In order to create a more festive atmosphere, I put on some non-invasive instrumental music, Christmas-themed.

Why we like it

The collage was a success. The students got really involved perhaps because the activity gave them an opportunity to be creative without requiring any real artistic skills, drawing, sketching or painting which sometimes can be a challenge.
It took a while for the students to choose the theme but it is perfectly natural because they needed time to leaf through, to see what is available and to make up their mind and to select something. But I was really happy because it was clear and obvious that they really did make a decision and focused on the colour, one specific item or a general idea to represent. What’s more, I could see that the kids themselves were happy and proud of their choices especially when their pieces were completed.
The task became a collaborative one although only by accident. Once it became obvious what everyone was working on, we all started to suggest and to offer pieces that we found in the journals that we were looking for. ‘I’ve got a yellow sofa here. Do you want it?’, ‘There is a princess here. Does anyone need it?’ and so on. It started with the teacher but the kids picked up on it. It is definitely something that I will be introducing purposefully the next time we do a collage.
We used the A3 paper but the A4 sheets are also an option and the trees will be easier to fill in as the smaller the paper, the fewer the elements.
We started with drawing the triangle on the A3 paper and went on to fill it in with the items. Two of my students did not have enough time (and the chosen elements) to complete the tree in one lesson. We are going to finish next week, we have this opportunity. However, that made me think that it might be a good idea to choose a topic, cut out all the elements and them compile them into a tree, making a conscious decision regarding the size of the tree and opting for a smaller version if time or resources are limited.
I presented the idea of a combined technique: a collage and drawing, to fill up the space with own drawings, if needs be, but, in the end, not one of my students decided to use this option this time.
The decision to put the background music on was a good one, too. It helped to create the atmosphere and, after a while, kids asked for the permission to put on their favourite songs which was granted and we ended up working and singing together.
As regards the language production, a lot was going on because we were chatting throughout the lesson but I have to be honest about one thing – my older group are already a high level, some of them very close to fully communicative in English and even bilingual. That is why I didn’t need to do much to encourage production in the way an EFL teacher would. They wanted to talk and we did, in English. However, there are other options for the lower level and the EFL/ ESL students. I am still to try these in class but off the top of my head, I would go for:presenting the collage with the title, calling out the names of all the elements of the tree (or as many as possible), choosing the character who might like this kind of a tree. I am quite likely to teach the same lesson on Monday next week and, if I do, I will be updating the post soon.
We did it in our Art classes but it might be a fun activity for a regular VYL or YL class, perhaps even with teenagers.

Here are some of the Christmas trees my students created:

Happy teaching!

Crumbs #73 Winter, winter and cheering up Mr Levitan

March 30, 2024December 9, 2023 by Anka Zapart

This is a double lesson, actually. Right now my Art Class has been divided into two, the younger and the older. Sometimes they take part in the same project, graded to their level, sometimes the project takes two different directions. This is what happened to Isaac Levitan this week. Here are all the ingredients and all the activities. Feel free to mix and match as you see fit.

Raised Salt Paintings. Santa. No watercolours.

Raised Salt Paintings. With watercolours.

Ingredients

Winter vocabulary: we used the following Art Winter, as the theme for the entire month.
A recording of Vivaldi’s winter, the first few minutes.
The winter scene craft: glue, scissors, pencil and paper: one big square for the box, green for the trees, white for snowman, colourful for presents and white tissue for the snow. I was considering the following version here but it was too complex for my kids. Instead I recycled what I did last year. You can read about it here.
The raised salt painting: pencil, cardboard, pvc glue, salt, watercolours. You can see the tutorial here.
And, of course, a few of the copies of the winter wonderland according to Isaac Levitan.

Procedures

The lesson for the younger kids started with the vocabulary introduction and practice. We did a bit of drilling and some miming. We are going to be working on these in the weeks to come. So far we have only used the simplest ‘it is’ and ‘they are’ but I am hoping to take it further as regards description (It is big / small. It is hot / cold) and Present Continuous (Santa is running, reindeer are jumping) and hopefully towards picture description.
With the older kids, I wanted to introduce a new element, namely music. I told them about Vivaldi and his ‘Four Seasons’ and then we listened to the first two minutes of ‘Winter’. The kids were asked to listen and to think about their associations with the music. Afterwards, in the open class discussion, we talked about their impressions (Do you like the music? Vivaldi thought that it show what winter is like. Do you agree with his vision?).
Afterwards, we introduced the Artist of the Day and both groups looked at a few examples of the winter landscapes painted by Levitan. As usual, we talked about our impressions (Do you like it? Is it sad / happy? What colours can you see?)
Next, I presented the finished product to the kids. I showed them how the winter scene can be changed by adding kids’ toys, with whatever the kids had on their tables and in their bags.
With the older group, I showed the kids the final product and showed all the materials needed to complete the task.
We made the scene in the following stages: drawing and cutting out the snowman, drawing and cutting out two Christmas trees (aka triangles), drawing and cutting out the presents (aka squares). We prepared the pyramid (cut and glue) and started glueing in the figures. The task finished with tearing up the tissue to glue it on the floor.
The older kids were given a complete freedom as regards the choice of the design. I prepared a snowflake but they were more interested in representing their favourite things in this drawing, and I allowed for that. We did everything in a few simple stages: giving out the cardboard, drawing the design in pencil, covering the lines with the glue, sprinkling it with salt, using watercolours to add colour and leaving them to dry.

Why we like it

Both lessons were successful and, again, we managed to combine English, creativity and some interesting techniques. I used two different approaches with both age groups but I am actually very curious how the younger ones might react to Vivaldi and what kind of winter wonderland my older students might create. There is the following week, so who knows? And, naturally, when my little kids saw the drying salt paintings on the window sill, they immediately started to demand that we do it, too so we will have to. I have already promised.
The winter wonderland is relatively easy to prepare. To make it more achievable for my younger kids, some of whom are preschoolers, I prepared and folded the squares before the lesson. All of the parts of the picture are simple shapes (circles, squares and triangles) and, if the kids are ready, they can add the little elements themselves or just draw them with a pencil, for example the ribbons on presents. We didn’t do it but snowflakes can be added to the picture, too, for example with a white marker or a pencil. That has to be done before assembling the pyramid, though, otherwise it is a bit tricky to draw on and it can be destroyed by accident.
I was demonstrating the activity, step by step and we took our time, to make sure that everyone could finish their cutting, before moving on. If the kids are younger, the task can be made much simpler by limiting the number of trees, the teacher preparing a simple snowman cut-out beforehand. If the kids are ready, Santa or the reindeer can be added to it.
The raised salt painting was a lot of fun to create. No matter what you draw, the colours seeping through the salt make it all look amazing.
The process is easy to stage and to manage as the teacher gives out and collects materials needed for every stage and kids themselves can grade it to their level by drawing something very basic or something more intricate. They drew their favourite animals, they wrote their names or prepared signs with their favourite things.
There is a danger that the salt will make it a bit messy but if you have a big box, a bit bigger than the size of carboard you are using, everything will be great. With the older kids, we used paper plates, from which we took the salt and where it shook off the excess. Please don’t remember that it is not a good idea to touch the paint and the salt, turning the paper upside down and gently patting on it will make the excess salt fall off without destroying the picture.
The watercolours can be added before the glue dries which makes it all feasible within a lesson time. The pictures can be left to dry overnight and taken home or put up on the following day.
Upd: I did the activity with the younger kids, too and I simply loved how teacher friendly it is. Because of the number of the materials needed and the process, the activity practically stages itself.: cardboard and pencils for everyone, pencils away, glue for everyone, glue away, salt for the kids, one by one (I did use a big box! See the photos.), watercolours for everyone, watercolours away.
The finished product (especially if done on the recycled carboard) looks like gingerbread cookies. So pretty!
I really liked how the older kids interacted with the art and the artist. I have a very creative group and some independent kids who already have developed a taste for Warhol and Malevich. For that reason, I was a bit worried that they might find Levitan, well, boring and too unimaginative. However, that’s not what happened. My kids were stunned that a painting so realistic could even be created and some of them came up to the screen to check and to confirm that it was, indeed, a painting and not just a photo.
I was also very happy that we added music to our lesson. They listened with interest and they were involved in the discussion later on, sharing their views, although, actually, they did not agree with Vivaldi’s interpretation of the winter-themed music. Apparently, it is too energetic and too loud and winter requires peace and silence. I will be experimenting with adding music to our lessons. The younger group first, with Vivaldi himself, and then some other tunes for the older group, too. I hope that, eventually, we will be able to find someone who wrote the good winter music that matches my students’ tastes. I will be very curious to find out who that is, because I, myself, love Vivaldi’s winter.

Happy teaching!

Celebrating 23 000 hits with my favourite posts ever*)

July 28, 2024November 18, 2023 by Anka Zapart

*) Not any more. It is 25 000 now. OMG.

Well, it is one of my guilty pleasures to open the blog dashboard to have a look how many hits, visitors and visits there have been since the last I check. I do it regularly, of course, sometimes a few times a day, but I write down only the certain hoops, like every thousand of views. Recently, in the last few months the blog has been very active and I have registered a whole thousand of views within two weeks only…

I have just checked the most recent ‘celebration post’ and it turns out that it was written in January this year and I was rejoycing the fact that I crossed the line of 15 000 visits. Which means 8 000 since. Not too bad, I have to say!

It’s been very rewarding to see that the blog has had a growing number of readers and that, perhaps, there is something useful and necessary about what I do in the classroom and at the keyboard.

The most popular posts so far

In the post mentioned above, you can check the top ten most popular posts in January 2023. Today, this top 10 includes:

My favourite posts…

Here are my top ten favourite posts and why I really like time out of those 246 posts committed so far:

Much Ado About Nothing: realistic flashcards vs illustrations in the EFL world: I love it because it started with a not very pleasant conversation on the social media but because what I said was met with derision and mockery, I decided to prove to myself that, indeed, I am right. And a lovely and very interesting research followed.
All you need is…a picture! This is a post that was written after an online conference presentation which had my biggest audience so far (almost 700 people) but I really like because it is the post that really reflects what I do in the classroom. I love using pictures and visuals and illustrations and I am happy that I can share my ways of doing that. There is also the part two because the new ideas keep coming!
Setting up the routine. A diary, week 1. This is one of the newest post because this one (and the whole series) was created at the start of the current academic year, in September. I started two new groups of primary, of brand new kids, in a brand new context, for them and for me, and I thought that it might be a good idea to keep track of what we do in the classroom during those first weeks. I am hoping that it might come in handy for all the teachers who start in the area and are on the lookout for ideas and solutions but, surprise surprise, it was also an amazing opportunity for me to reflect on the activities and to understand the process even better. I loved writing it so much that I decided to keep this series going, only now the reflection takes places only once a month, at the end of it. If you haven’t read it yet, please check it out! It definitely deserves more hits than the 33 it has got so far.
Tell stories! Please do! This is another post that was written with pure love and this time the object of my affection was storytelling and I wrote it for all the teachers who need a little bit of convincing to start using stories in the classroom or to start using them more, not only because of their impact on the students emotional and cognitive development but, mainly, because of the amazing potential for the linguistic development.
A balancing act. Non-competitive ESL games for kids. This post started in the teacher training classroom during the YL course this summer. I shared my long-held opinion that our lessons are overflowing with games that are competitive and that there is no appropriate balance of games and activities that promote cooperation and collaboration. And in response to my trainees’ slightly desperate question (‘But how to do it?!’), I did another research and an article came out of it.
What an old dog learnt. A YL teacher goes back to the YL classroom. This post came about as a result of one of the adventures (or, rather, ‘adventures’) of my professional life and a real case of making lemonade of the lemons that the world throws at you. One of the things that I learnt in this Lemonade Year was that my classroom is the classroom full of kids and, I suppose, it is amazing that I was given a chance to check and to double check it, to confirm and to confirm it again.
A lesson in structures. Notes from the classroom. Here is a post for all the VYL teachers and for anyone who is wondering how much language pre-schoolers are able to produce in the EFL setting. In one word: LOTS. If you are intereted in details, please have a look at the post. These are simply the notes I took about our everyday lesson procedures at the end of the academic year with my level 2 kids. A lot of possible if you want to and if you apply appropriate techniques. Really. I loved writing this post not only because it gave me an opportunity to be really (really) proud of my babies and myself for doing a good job, but also, because only through this reflection and the list, I could really understand the progress made. I have said it here, on this blog, but I will say it again – there is so much happening in the classroom that we simply forget! It is good to take time to look back at your lesson and lessons to remember and to see it in a better light and in a more realistic way.
Jerome et al or how the EFL world started to scaffold. This is one of the oldest post, one of the 2020 lockdown posts and one of the first research posts. It is dedicated to one of my professional gurus, Jerome Bruner and the original research done together with Wood and Ross, about the role of tutoring in problem solving (which is the actual title of the article). I do believe that all the YL teachers need to read this one and my post can be the first step to it.
How to see a city. From the series: Teaching English to Art. This one is where it all started for me, with teaching English through Art. It involves the following: a long, long time ago, my teenage group, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kalho and New York. If you haven’t used any Art in class, this is a good place to start.
And I love absolutely all of the posts in the Crumbs series, the little ideas from the classroom. These are just the activities that I have created or adapted for my classroom and things that worked with my students. I have to admit that I am quite proud of the format of a recipe with the ingredients and the procedures but upgraded with the ‘why we love it’ section. So far, there have been 72 crumbs worth sharing.

A few words from the human behind the words

I love teaching and I love writing and it is a just precious that I can combine these two things here, on the blog and I have been doing it for almost four years now (short of a few months). The funny thing is that I started this post as a way of celebrating another benchmark, 23 000 visits, but, somehow, due to the magic in the world, before I was able to finish it those 23k turned into almost 24k overnight. And, over the next two weeks (as in: 14 days) it became 25 000.

I don’t get it but I am happy)

That means, that somewhere out there, in the US, India, Canada, Russia, Spain, Hong Kong, Japan, Egypt, the UK, Germany, Finland, Israel, Cambodia, Italy, Latvia, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, Kuwait, Poland and Ghana, there are people who decided to click and to read about my classroom life. And I hope that they took something out of it.

Thank you, dear readers!

Happy teaching!