End of year party

"Love is a fruit in season of all times, and within reach of every hand."-Mother Teresa

This is probably one of the happiest and nostalgic day at the same time of the whole school year. Students come for their last reports, share their summer plans with us, and finally we say goodbye; another year has passed. We've seen them grow, learn and mature. They will come back in September with new experiences and stories to tell.

1. Fruit sticks

There is one part of this final day that you can make it really fun. Instead of bringing sweets, chips and soda, tell students to bring fruit. Yes, fruit! I know at the beginning they might say this is no fun at all, but believe me, everything can turn into an activity they all enjoy.

End of year game

"Play is the highest form of research"- Albert Einstein

With the end of our school year approaching and all exams finished, our students feel more and more connected to playing games and having fun.

It is said that " for a small child there is no division between playing and learning; between the things he or she does just for fun and the things that are educational The child learns while living and any part of living that is enjoyable is also play"- Penelope Leach

 Here are some ideas I want to share for next week:

1. Blow a plastic cup competition

  

This is a very simple but fun game. All you need is a long table, 2 plastic glasses, straws for all students and a finish line. Students play it in pairs and they have to use the straw to blow the plastic cup to the end of the table.

Cordoba Fun Fair

"We believed in our idea-a family park where parents and children could have fun together"-Walt Disney

Cordoba fair is the largest and most important annual amusement park here in our city. The fun fair is taking place at the end of May. Every year, tens of thousands of people are attracted by the fun fair. It offers attractions for every taste. Thousands of lights illuminate the fairgrounds.

In Albany we shared some activities related to the fair and children were enthusiastic with the idea. It's definitely one of their favourite holidays.

1. Flamenco dress design

My Basic 6 students created these beautiful designs using plasticine and some pieces of a sharpened pencil. We've learned about colours and polka dotted patterns, hair buns and ruffles.

Earth Day Celebration!

"You cannot get through a single day without an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make"-Jane Goodall

Earth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22 in more than 190 countries. This is the largest civic event in the world, in which people of all backgrounds, faith and nationalities take part.

What can we do for Earth Day? The possibilities for getting involved are endless! Volunteer. Go to a festival. Organize an event in your community. Change a habbit. Help launch a community garden. Do something nice for the Earth, make a difference. Communicate these ideas to your students and Earth Day can be any other day! Commit and protect!
This is a series of activities and crafts done in class yesterday:

Teaching Time

" Watches are so named as a remider-if you don't watch carefully what you do with your time, it will slip away from you."-Drew Sirtors

Telling time can be difficult for some students, so it is important that they have a strong grasp on numbers before teaching time. It's possible that they might not have learnt to tell time in their native language. In this case, we use time reference like "in the morning" or "at night", "today" or "tomorrow". With very young learners we often use the classical song " Hickory Dickory Dock" which goes up to 5 o'clock.

Start by showing students famous clocks around the world and see how many they know.

A: Big Ben (London)
B: Astronomical clock (Prague)
C: Musee d'Orsay (Paris)

Working with Words

" Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation."- Noam Chomsky

1. Words in a row

When working with words, there are lots of different possibilities. Challenging students to work in a collaborative way is also motivating. One activity that students enjoyed is finding words written on a 3 metre-tape. It's just another way of engaging them in being familiarised with spelling, from a postion that is not the typical chair-desk. All you need is a masking tape, space to put it on the floor, and a marker to previously prepare the activity.

 

Easter Crafts

"Easter tells us that life is to be interpreted not simply in terms of things, but in terms of ideals."-Charles M. Crowe

With Easter around the corner, here's a list of crafts our little students have made in the class during this week.

1. Paper grass egg holder

We've used some green cardboard to make these egg holders for our chocolate eggs.

March crafts and activities

"Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. "-Rainer Maria Rilke

With spring around the corner, and exams and evaluations recently finished, there is a wide range of activities that enhance creativity and learning. This is one part of the term that most students enjoy. There is more time to dedicate to what they really like, enjoy nature and make the most of it.

Here is a series of activities that had been done during March. It can be an inspiration for this month's activities.

1. Spring bracelets 

Children love bracelets. It is a new fashion to wear all kinds and all materials. This one uses a paper roll cardboard and it recycles it into various bracelets that can be decorated as pleased.

Message on a T-shirt

"It's a new era in fashion-there are no rules. It's all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and coming designers all together. " Alexander McQueen

This activity came to my mind after seeing how much English is being used nowadays on clothes. Children's clothes are the most prolific at showing funny or positive messages. They are almost always colorful and in fashion.

San Valentine's Day

"Let us always meet each other with smile, for the smile is the beginning of love"

These are two of our crafts done in class both with  younger students and older ones. The result can be used as a bookmark and a reminder of this day.

 

Yoga for Kids

"Yoga is the perfect opportunity to be curious about who you are." 
Jason Crandell

When teaching young learners, one way of involving them in language recognition is also by making them aware of their bodies. I am using a sequence of animal and plant yoga postures, and I believe it is a wonderful resource to start the class or warm up, and it can be expanded further on. 

"The cards can support the development of focus and attention by encouraging the child's awareness of their body and helping them to regulate their emotions."-Dr. Jedda Graham.

 

New Year's Resolutions

"You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream..." C.S. Lewis

Imagine with all your mind,

Believe with all your heart,

Achieve with all your might.

A new year has just began, a new school term to start, and new things to learn. As a first activity in class we've shared our own resolutions for 2015.

Fun Xmas Photo Booth Props

Q: What do you call Santa's helpers?
A: Subordinate clauses


Here are some fun moments we have shared in class with our hand-made Christmas props:


Q: What do you call an elf who sings?

A: a wrapper! 

Xmas crafts

"Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love!"

 Christmas is just round the corner. Our students are preparing their carols and we are all engaged in recordings and getting into the spirit. Here are some easy crafts to be used in class. Children will feel proud to take part in these crafts and afterwards take them home and share them with their families.

1. Jar lids

All you need is to reuse some jar lids and some colorful paper to glue inside and outside. Then, nice messages can be written inside. 

Advent Calendar

" Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time" -Laura Ingalls Wilder

First day of December has already arrived and we have prepared an Advent Calendar to share with everyone.

An Advent Calendar is a special calendar used to count or celebrate the days in anticipation of Christmas. It originated in the 19th Centurty from the protestant area of Germany. Protestant Christian families drew a chalk line for every day in December until Christmas Eve. But not long after, commercial entrepreneurs started replacing the ephemeral chalk lines with printed calendars. The first known Advent Calendar dates back to 1851. Nowadays it is usally a thin rectangular card with 24 doors. Each door is numbered 1 to 24 and behind each door there is a Christmas scene, a poem, a small gift or treat like a chocolate item.

 

Home ideas and crafts

"It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home"

This is a series of three different activities that have been used in class with our level 3 students. There is always something special when teaching and talking about your own personal house. Most students live either in a flat or a house and they feel secure and enthusiastic when they describe their own places. 

But outside their universe there are many other ways of living. Some homes float on water, some can be found up trees and others are made in underground caves.

This is a presentation of houses around the world. It can be used as an warm-up and starting point:

http://www.oddizzi.com/teachers/explore-the-world/global-knowledge/homes/

1. Home moving

Students are given different instructions on where to locate each piece of furniture in our little wooden house. After putting each item in its corresponding place, a memory game is played and different pieces are moved around the house, so that students have to identify where their original place was and make a statement on it. For example: There was a wardrobe in the bedroom, but now it's in the living-room.

Halloween crafts and activities

"When witches go riding  

And black cats are seen, 

The moon laughs and whispers,  

'Tis near Halloween."

This year Halloween has been celebrated with great enthusiasm. Both teachers and children have turned this holiday into a great opportunity to learn about traditions and enjoy a wide range of activities.

Here's a list of different crafts and activities that have been used in class:

1. Find the ghost/spider/witch/bat.

• Select a series of Halloween characters and hide them in different places of your class.
• Make a list of sentences (clues) for each hidden character.
•  Students read the clues and try to find them. It works well with two students at a time.
• They love finding the characters, and they can hide them again for the next class. They will be more than happy to help the teacher hide them.

Bringing Art inside and outside the class

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up” 

Pablo Picasso

Art has various shapes and forms and can be interpreted in so many ways.
Sometimes we forget how near it is to us or how much we can learn from it.
Children have great imagination when dealing with art and this activity works well with various levels. It's never too late or too early to learn about Art and explore it.

The idea came to me one day as I was walking with my friend Lisa along one of the main boulevards in Cordoba. Our children were pointing to some statues that were being exhibited in the street, so we approached them and started a guessing game. We tried to say what each sculpture represented. Now, every time I pass by with my son, he points to the horse or to some other figure he likes.
So, here it is: an activity that can be used in class both with young learners and teenagers. And why not, give it a try with adults as well!
First, introduce the concept of Art and its different forms. After that, focus on sculptures. Show students this first photo and see how many have seen the exhibition already or know where it is placed.

Total Physical Response (TPR) and Memory coordination in class

"The main idea is that a second language can be learned in the same way as the first using the same natural processes."

TPR 

is a method that was developed by James Asher in the late 1960s to help students acquire a second language. It has been long seen that the TPR method is a valuable tool in teaching a language especially to very young learners. At the beginning, the teacher says a single word or command such as "jump" or "point to the window", demonstrates the action and then students will be able to follow the command. This can develop into more complex language while still keeping the instruction direct and visual. "Simon says"is a classical example of TPR or "Charades" using action verbs such as: "You are playing basketball."

All you need to play these fun games is some space and a masking tape (also known as sticky tape, an easy-to-tear paper that leaves no residue on the surface to which it is applied).

WELCOMING DAY!

"Summer ends, and Autumn comes, and he who would have it otherwise would have high tide always and a full moon every night."

First day of class is always full of emotions, expectations and challenges: adapting to the new rhythm, meeting new people, opening up to them, exchanging experiences and then building up little spaces full of new projects and ideas, all supported and coordinated by a great team of teachers who are ready to share their best knowledge. This was the spirit of Albany these first days and probably everyone around was able to feel it: students, parents and teachers.