Teachers' workshop on games

"Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from a serious learning. But for children play is a serious learning. Play is the work of childhood."-Fred Rogers

On our last Friday meeting our DOS Hyatt, Ana and Beatriz have reunited teachers from different centres who participated in a very active workshop on the use of games in class.

We have explored games as a means of enriching and developing communication. They create a need to ask, examine and assimilate certain skills and content areas. In English acquisition through games, learning becomes effective.

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.