martes, 3 de octubre de 2017

House Theme Resources for Elementary ELL



Board games are a fun time in class. The classic board game can be played to activate speaking in a less stressful setting, they can participate without worrying if they said it wrong. Children get to compete to win, but they have to know the vocabulary.
You can have the students play by just counting the spaces that are in the die and read the phrases: Go back, Go ahead, Miss 1 turn and do the actions. But you can place the small cards along and have each player move the spaces in the die if the word in the card is read correctly or if the picture cards are identified .
 I used funny house items as markers, so each player can be a house object, such as a chair or a sofa. I put them in a binder clip so each marker can stand on board game without falling.
Graphing.  I made three different graphs for vocabulary building.
 The first one, Who lives in your house ?
Give children a house and have them write the family members who live in their house. Or Have them cut from the templates their family members. They should also write their names. Then they have to make a total count.
Graph the results on the board. Make a chart in advance with the student´s names and the numbers on the other.
The second one is related to: How many pets live in your house?
 And the third one is, How many rooms are in your house? This kind of graph will help identify the rooms in a house.
I like to have some cards for student interaction. Here are the ones that I made for this House Unit. I chose the most frequent words in the Book Series that most of you use. I also included some British words for the same objects, since I noticed that in some countries teachers use the British methods. I can make some more cards if you ask.
Picture and word cards are just matching, well yes, but do more things with them.use them for interactive lessons.
The cards give learners more opportunities to hear and speak English.  The games cane be played alone or in small groups. I saw this idea on Pinterest of using plastic plates. You can write on it with dry erase markers and then wipe it off with baby wipes. You can write the word on each plate or have a student write the word and the other has to find the picture.
If it is possible, have your own bulletin board for a word wall. Place the letters from A to Z and have the students put all the pictures under each letter.
Or  place only the words. I made letters in black and white just in case you want to print them onto colored cardboard and save some ink.
It can also be picture and word cards for the home hands-on learning game.
 If not, have them make their own Pictionary as fun engaging activity.
The flashcards! I made more than 270 House Objects Flash Cards to use as a visual aid.
                            Ideas for using the flashcards.


Use 3. Place students in groups of 2. Hand them 4 flashcards. Tell them to write several sentences using all the words in the flashcards. Model your own example.

Use 4. Describe the flashcard. Model  one and hand each student a flashcard. Have them write as many sentences as they can to describe a picture. Start with: This is my bathroom

Use 5. Play give me by Spelling. Students play in groups of 4. Hand in more than 8 flashcards, try that they start with the same letter. One student is the speller. The others have to find the flashcard. Model on the board.
Teacher: S-H-E-L-F
The students shout SHELF!

Use 6. Cut the word part from several flashcards. Then cut the word in several pieces. Put them in a bag and have students put the word back on each flashcard as in puzzles.
Use 7. Label the flashcards. If you place each flashcard in a plastic sheet they can label with a dry erase marker and then erase it for other students to use.
Use 8. I made additional small word cards. They can be sorted in each room of the house
I also included a worksheet to do the same as with the flashcards. Students will say where the pieces of furniture are: The bathtub is in the bathroom.

And a complete house.
Furniture catalog. Introduce the catalog to the students by asking where does their family buy furniture, if there is a furniture store that they have been to. Tell them that they are going to make a group furniture catalog. I added several ways to do it.
 One, is that I provided all the pieces. Tell the students to glue the furniture pieces in the spot of the appropriate heading. The catalog´s cover is in blank for the students to write the name of their store.
Students can cut pictures from old magazines that they bring in to school and create their own version. When the catalogs are done. Have them share their work. They can also role play with other groups that come to buy from their catalogs and take orders.
Scrabble Tiles. I suggest you print a template for each student or several templates for a group. Have them come up with a crossword.  This game is good for Spelling practice. It also works for the students to identify  pieces of furniture.
Spelling Bingo. I usually include this game because I know that students love it and are willing play many times. I made a house template for it. It is harder to teach ELL students to spell than to read. Some teachers think that Spelling is not important while others focus too much on that area.
I have found so many Verb Clipart in old Cds that I included them. Games for social interaction? 

1.      Go get it. Stick several verb Flashcards on the board. Make several teams that have to line up in front of the board at a considerable distance. Say a sentence that describes the flashcard. The first student to get the correct flashcard from the board wins it for the team.
Teacher: The girl is eating ice cream.
Students should be able to state where people are: She is in the kitchen.
Use the flashcards to ask questions: Where is Grandma? 
Students. She's in the living room.

1.    
  The flashcards are used to prompt writing. Have students sit in pairs and hand them several flashcards. Have them come up with a story, but first model a story as a  class on the board. Start with: Mother and Father are in the kitchen.


And I bundled up all the House Unit Resource for Kindergarten and Elementary English Language Learners. Check it here:
                                          

miércoles, 16 de agosto de 2017

Nature or Garden Theme for Elementary ELL

And here is the link to the resource:
It is also available at this other store:

                              
Use the Flashcards for Speaking activities. 

Place several flashcards on the board and write a number above each one and ask questions.
Teacher: What is number 3 ?
Students: It´s a plant.
Teacher: Is number 4 a cactus ?
Students: No, it isn´t. It´s a tree.
Have students make sentences.
Students: Number 1 is an acorn.
Have students draw the nature items and write sentences on their notebooks.
This is an acorn. This isn´t a stick.

Students can talk about numbers. Write the numbers 1 to 6 on the board. Have  2 students come to the front and place the flowers flashcards under the corresponding number.
Teacher :How many flowers are there ? Pointing to number 1
Students: one. One flower.
Have the students continue counting.
Students: Two flowers, three flowers, four flowers, five flowers, six flowers.
Teacher : What color is flower number 1 ?
Students: red.
Teacher: It´s a red flower.
Students: It´s a red flower.
 Continue with all the other flowers.

I found these great clip art for There is and There are sentences.
Place one or more on the board and model the sentences.
 Place more flashcards on the board for the students to say what they see.
 Then hand out all the other flashcards and have them make sentences on their notebooks and share with the class.
Review prepositions with the flashcards. Write the prepositions on the board and have the students sort the flashcards.
Ask questions:
Point to the first flashcard,
Teacher: Where are the flowers ?
Students: They are on the cactus.
Point to the second flashcard,
 Teacher: Is the butterfly on the flower ?
Students: Yes, it is.
Have students make and write a sentence for each flashcard.

And some Verbs related to the theme. Select the flashcards that you want to students to come up with phrases. Place them on the board and start from the picture.
Teacher: What is he doing ?
Students: He is planting a tree.
Suggest that he can plant any kind of trees. Have them think of other trees and write their answers.
Students: an apple tree, a big tree. They may come up with diverse answers.
 Here are the Verb related flashcards

With the flashcards you can have the students classify them into verbs or nouns.
Place a flower flashcard on the board, review the parts of the plant that the students remember, if not, place the flashcards on one side of the board to remind them.
Draw an arrow with the words for each part of the plant. Ask them which parts are missing, they might have to say the roots and the seed. Draw them under the flower. (LABELING)

Go to this link and download this easy worksheet made by Wendy Gilstrap.
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/FreeDownload/The-Parts-of-a-Plant-1823426
As dictating all the color for each part of the plant, which is a good listening exercise. I had each word cut out and each part. Then the students had to line the words in alphabetical order and glue the part next to each word.

If you want to go further with the verb planting. I suggest you do, because you can introduce the words, first, then, next and finally that can be used for writing a text in the future.
Teacher: First, get the flower seeds.( emphasize the word first, use your finger as in number 1)
Then, bake the seeds with a little salt .( emphasize the word then, moving your hand or finger forward)
Next, put the seed in the soil.( emphasize the word next) Ask students, what does the flower need to grow. Show them the flashcards of soil, sun and water.
Finally, watch the plant grow.( emphasize the word finally by showing with your hands the end.)

And the trees change within the seasons. Remember that some countries don´t have all the Seasons. It is good to review the Seasons with the trees and see how they change.

Some games to end the theme.

First, a board game. I made one with the most common words and a blank one for your or the students to fill out with the words that will be playing.I added 8 game pieces. The students can select who or what they want to be at the game. I make the pieces stand by placing them in a binder clip.
And the other game is the traditional Bingo. I added the Bingo grid but you can do the Bingo List on their notebooks. I like this kind of game to practice Spelling.But for a twist I got a flower pot which I turned into a pocket. I used the flower template to make the flower words and glued them onto a craft stick for Bingo calling.

There is a Garden Unit BUNDLE resource here: 
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viernes, 21 de julio de 2017

Recycle your old CD cases- Food Theme for ELL

Just putting things in order in my studio I found some old Cd cases. I didn´t want to throw them up and started a Pinterest search. Teachers have some genius ways to use them and that gave me some ideas.
Link to the resources:  
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Breakfast-and-Lunch-for-ELLs-2393252
Please leave a comment  when you download the product!
It comes with the resources from the breakfast and lunch blog post.Check it.
https://eflelementaryresources.blogspot.com/2016/02/brunch-breakfast-and-lunch-theme.html

My very first idea was to create a traditional Spinner, yes, not a fidget spinner, which are popular between children.

I would suggest that you use cardboard for printing the template. Use an X-acto knife to make a small cut in X on the center of the circle where the Cd inserts. Carefully grab the arrow and the template with a brass fastener, leaving a little space for the arrow to spin.
 The spinners can be used by two students. It is a good idea to laminate them. There are 32 food items for breakfast and lunch. I can add more if suggested.
Student 1: ( spins the spinners and lands on pizza) pizza!
Student 2: looks for the pizza and puts it under the word.
I am sure that the students will invent more games.

I found a second idea of making a board game. I had these food people clipart which are so nice that I had to bring them to the game.  I used colored binder clips for the food people counter and a die. The good thing is that all the pieces can be kept inside the Cd case. Students can choose the character and count in English, besides learning the phrases: miss 1 turn, go back, go ahead and roll again.
Board games are fun. Use them as a reward system or after a test with those 5 minutes left.

The good thing about the Cd case is that it is erasable. I made this shopping list template and used dry-erase markers. A baby wipe is good for cleaning. Have the students write a shopping list and then exchange with a partner. Each student has to line up the food right next to the list.
Writing skills are essential to advance in their English learning. They can make sentences or a short paragraph to finish the activity.

And if you want to role play, use the Cd case for the menu. The case can be decorate with fun foam objects, buttons or anything that you have for recycling.

And more writing practice. Tracing is a good way to memorize words and how to write them. Besides, tracing creates better writers, handwriting is still an essential skill to develop in the tablet age. Tracing is an important step when writing in another language.
I saw an idea about an accordion book in the Cd case. I grabbed a book that I had made and never included in any product. I made the accordion and a final page has to be glued onto the cd case to hold the book.
Review the vocabulary words in the book, point to them in the pictures. I made it black and white so children can color the food vocabulary and you can continue dictating how to color the children.
Teacher: Look at Pete! He has blond hair and a blue party hat.  Then have the children color as assigned.

When students move on to Elementary we stop sorting. By sorting food we are doing math in the English class. Students can identify the similarities and the differences in the food, such as, juice can be either for breakfast or lunch. Thinking skills are active while sorting and the food vocabulary will make sense to the learners.

Sort the small cards into breakfast  and lunch food items.

I used the food theme but any theme can be used with the Cd cases, let me know if you want me to create something. And ideas from you are welcome as a blog post here or post  them directly in any of my Facebook Groups.



jueves, 6 de julio de 2017

Education.com

Days ago I was contacted by Education.com, and I was asked to publish one of their activities that could work well 
for EFL, ELA or ESL teachers.  I am so happy for this honor.

Here is a short description of their web page.
Education.com aims to empower parents, teachers, and homeschoolers to help their children build essential skills and excel. With over 12 million members, Education.com provides educators of all kinds with high-quality learning resources, including worksheets, lesson plans, digital games, an online guided learning platform, and more.
Link to their resources:

Here is the Activity: Practice Reading with a Rainbow Puzzle!

 Puzzles are fun, and guess what? They're also a great way to help your child learn to read! Your kindergartener is probably already learning about sight words--short words that appear again and again in our language that children should recognize instantly. With this activity, you can easily turn sight words into beautiful rainbow puzzles for your emergent reader to reassemble. It's fun for your child, and you'll rest assured that she's getting some important practice in reading!


I couldn´t help  but to get inspired by this activity and off I went to buy some things to do it. Then, I started thinking that there is no official list of sight words for EFL students. I created one for this activity:
I, am, Let´s, Yes, No, a, an , What, is, this, It, not, here, color, and, can, we, be, you, are, can, in, on, under, the, where, who, she, he, my, there, they, like, so, much, How, many, your.

I bought lined/ruled cards so the students can write the word or you, glue it onto cardboard and have students outline the word with crayons or markers. Then cut it out and place it in a bag with the word written on it as a reference for the students. I used markers that are for writing onto plastic.

And bought some 3D stickers for the students to create the word, then do the outline with crayons or markers. Continue with the puzzle.


And with big craft sticks you can make a bigger puzzle. Students will write the word, outline in a rainbow manner on cardboard or white paper and then cut it. Glue onto the lined craft sticks and then wait to dry. Cut carefully with an exacto knife each craft stick.


Loved these foil letters that are for the bulletin board. You
 can give the students all the foil letters and a list of words 
to make on a cardboard. Then, have them glue the word, 
outline the word and create the puzzle.


There are so many options for just one activity at www.education.com.
Visit them !