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

The resource is also available here:https://www.bilingualmarketplace.com/products/breakfast-and-lunch-food-unit-for-kindergarten-and-elementary-efl?variant=37250563932324

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.

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:

https://www.education.com/activity/article/Rainbow_Name_Puzzles/

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 !