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:

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.

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. 

Emotions

"When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion." Dale Carnegie

Students come to the class and one of the first thing teachers ask is how they are feeling that day. Most answers are instant like: "I'm fine, thanks, and you?" But what lies behind this "I'm fine" automated answer? Children experience a wide range of feelings during short periods of time and can switch quite fast from an exciting state to a boring one, but also vice-versa.

This is a series of four activities through which we tried to approach different meanings of feelings.

1. Balloon faces

Each student had to draw a particular emotion on the balloon, then in turns they had to identify them. Afterwards they gave an example of a situation in which they experienced that feeling. e.g " I was happy when I had a party for my birthday."

 

Albany Doodle 30th anniversary

Even if you can't draw, do a little doodle or rip an illustration from a magazine-these visuals will help you bring your idea to life.

 

"Doodles are fun, suprising and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists.

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.

Cool Summer, June 2014: Fruit sticks party

Here's a very dear activity that I have done with my Level 4 students for their end-of year party. After learning about nutrients in food and the pyramid categories in the last unit, I got them really motivated to bring their own fruit instead of chips and sweets. The idea went just great as they created their own food sticks and we identified the fruit, labeled it and in the end just enjoyed eating it!

You are my cup of tea mum! Happy mother´s day!!

As Mother's day is being celebrated here in Spain on the 4th of May, we thought of giving mums a nice British card with tea-bag included .

Alexandra

#AlbanyZocoSchool      www.albanyschool.com

Happy Easter!! from Albany Zoco School

Albany Zoco School    -    wwww.albanyschool.com

Happy Easter!! from Albany Aeropuerto School

Albany Aeropuerto School     -   www.albanyschool.com

Happy Easter everyone! #AlbanyZocoSchool

I love the Easter photos in Aeropuerto school! Good job to my mates! Here's what my higher level students did today: A colourful bookmark! And they promised reading a book over the holiday!

Anyone can be awesome!

Happy Easter everyone!

Alexandra 

#AlbanyZocoSchool             www.albanyschool.com