House Theme Resources for Elementary ELL

LINK to the Resource: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/House-Theme-for-Elementary-ESL-3420723

The Resource is also available here:   https://www.bilingualmarketplace.com/products/house-theme-for-elementary-esl?variant=37508217634980

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. So, starting playing the house unit board game featuring the furniture in the house.

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 graph 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:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/House-Unit-BUNDLE-for-Kindergarten-and-Elementary-ELL-6438009

                                          

Nature or Garden Theme for Elementary ELL

And here is the link to the resource:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Nature-or-Garden-Theme-for-Elementary-ELL-3339351

It is also available at this other store:

https://www.bilingualmarketplace.com/products/nature-or-garden-theme-for-elementary-ell?variant=37418809131172

                              

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: 

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Garden-Unit-BUNDLE-for-Kindergarten-and-Elementary-ESL-6969853

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