Last week me and my sudents had the chance to talk about the European Day of languages. We explored the following siteEuropean Day of Languagesand found out some really interesting information about different languages as well as many quite entertaining activities.Since I teach in multicultural class ,some of my students, who come from different countries ,shared with us words and phrases from the country that they themselves or their parents were born.So we learned some Bulgarian ,Albanian ,Russian and German words.
Some students are also learning a second lnguage (besides English,that is),so they shared with the rest of us French ,Italian and even Spanish words. Some of them had also relatives in foreign countries and were able to find words from those countries too. All of my students participated and enjoyed the experience as much as I did.
Although we spent only two hours on this project , I ‘m sure they realised the importance of learning a new language and most of them will do so in the future. They also associated each language with the people and the culture of the countries that every language is spoken.Finally they tried to find differences and similarities between various languages as well as words which are unique in each language.
We laughed a lot trying to pronounce numerous words in different languages and finally decided to create a poster that included projects they created in groups in order to celebrate the European Day of Languages on 26th of September!
In our school, the parents’ association has drawn ‘snakes and ladders’ in our school yard for the pupils to play during the break! Today though, my 4th graders had the chance to use their favourite game in a different way! I thought that it would be nice to use the game for extra practice on numbers , so we went out in the yard and played for a while! We used it in different ways.
First one student was telling a number to another student and he had to move to the right square. If the student chooses the wrong square , he loses and he has to leave the game.
Next each student picked one square standing still on it.Then I introduced the words “plus”and “minus”.In this stage I was giving the orders (shouting plus 3 or minus 5) and the pupils had to move accordingly.If a student makes the wrong move he has to leave the game.The last one is the winner.
Moving around ,bumping on one another or stepping on the same square was quite entertaining for my pupils.We laughed a lot and everyone, even the weakest pupils participated in the game.In addition, they were motivated to use numbers again and again .
Of course, as I mentioned above, we are lucky enough to have a ready made “snakes and ladder” game in our yard.
However you can use” snakes and ladders” in the classroom as a board game , make groups of four and play the game, encouraging the students to read the numbers aloud or count before they move in order to npractice numbers.
I suggest this activity for Unit 4 of the school coursebook (5th grade) ,as it is a nice way to practice the grammar of the unit (Present Continuous vs Present Simple). It also familiarises students with the format of a postcard (short ,inclusive ,informal kind of writing) and actually motivates them to learn in a creative way using their background experience or travel through their imagination to a holiday destination of their choice. Here are some examples.
Both projects are a nice way to revise Alphabet words used in Magic Book 1,in 3rd grade.We did Alphabet books last year while this year we created a poster with pictures representing words from letterland . Both activities motivate young learners, as they have the chance to learn the words as well as being creative and imaginative. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and at the same time make FL learning more appealing.You can see some of my students’ work.
One of the stories included in Magic Book – 3rd grade is “The Wind and theSun”by Aesop. It is one of my favourite stories in this book because it gives us the opportunity to talk about ways to improve ourselves , to behave kindly and trying to persuade other people without showing off our physical strength or using violence.After having done lesson 1 and 2(Unit 4) ,we also watched a similar animated video which helped us understand the story .I also used it to catch their attention. You can watch it here:The Wind and the Sun: Learn English (UK) with subtitles – Story for Children ). Then we decided to retell the story.
We devided the story into scenes and the students drew and painted their favourite scene, some in groups ,others individually.We decided not to write the words on the pictures. Instead we chose to assign roles and narrate the story in Photostory 3,retelling the story digitally.
The students were highly motivated by this project.They found out the procedure of making a video (taking photos of the scenes,importing and editing the pictures) and of course recording their voices ,which they absolutely adored. I never thought they would all respond in such short notice and the result was more than satisfying for me.
Special thanks to my colleague Dimitra Philipopoulou , for inpiring me with her comics and illustrated stories based on kids art.
