Best Activity Book for the Summer

Summer means holiday and a lot of free time that we know perfectly how to enjoy and make the most of, but...what about our kids?

Many parents and teachers think that this time of the year should be employed by our little ones for reviewing, reinforcing, or at least maintaining a minimum level of fluency and knowledge of everything they've been studying during the school year. Furthermore, this 2020 has seen half of the school population at home dealing with online classes for the lockdown, and, perhaps many of you have this feeling that not enough effort has been put into studying and learning. It is then possible that your first reaction is to look for, apparently, simple grammar tasks and download them from the internet just to realize that our sons and daughters, especially those attending the first grades of primary school, are incapable of doing any of that. 

And the first feeling is... Panic. You think that your kids don't know any English and you don’t know how to help them or at least it looks like that what you’re trying is not working at all (?!?!?!?).

High Five 3! - MacMillan - Sample pages.

Well, first of all, the grammar approach to learning languages, especially at young ages, is an old method no longer in use. 

Secondly, open any of the the Stuedent’s books that your children are using at school and observe it. What can you see? Pictures, songs, sometimes links to online resources, speaking exercises to refresh what they already know from previous years, and then… more pictures, dialogues, a bit of new grammar in context and more speaking exercises. 

Finally, take a look at the Activity book: you’ll notice that it is full of written tasks and projects where children can practice their writing skills, always, always, always after having previously used and developed their listening, speaking and reading skills with the Student’s book. 

Why so much preparation for writing? Because we know that any brain, for learning anything, needs to relate the new knowledge to the previous one and, all those listening, speaking and reading activities are needed in order to add the new information to the learner’s mental schemes in a significant and persistent way. Moreover, translation is not an aspect they work at school either, (as I mention in my book) so even if the exercise looks amazingly simple to you, they might not be able to make connections between their first language and English yet. 

At this point, you have already understood that your children do know English, it’s just the way they learn it that is different from what you were taught when you were their age, so, to them your grammar exercise doesn’t make any sense because it hasn’t any context from which a primary school child can deduct and create connections.

Does this mean that you must change into a schoolteacher? Well, not really. Just try to look for the right material or activity books so that your child can work out the meaning of what they’re doing by themselves, using all the resources that are already planned together with the activity.

I hope this post was useful, and of course if you have any question, sen me an email at misslucysteachingfun@gmail.com

Also, more information about how children learn English, but any second language really, is available in my book Mi hijo habla inglés, on Amazon and other ebook platforms. 

>> Quiero leer este post en español

The calm down chair… For the teacher

There are several theories on how to maintain order and discipline in a class of more than 1 student / child. A well-known tool is the time out, a method which nowadays is generating many debates between parents and teachers.

The Time out is a behavioral discipline tool (Pavlov's dogs and Skinner's pigeons, just to be clear), which consists of isolating the child who behaves badly and leaving him a few minutes to, supposedly, think and reflect on what he has done 'wrong'. In the classroom, time out can be translated with the use of a chair (the thinking chair) placed in an isolated corner while at home it can coincide with the option of leaving the child alone in his room for a certain time.

People who are against this measure provide reasons I'd take into account since they claim that this type of solution communicates to the child something like 'every time you make a mistake, you will be rejected and you will have to deal with your emotions by yourself.
'
Now, when you only have 1 child or 2, it may be worthwhile to look for more sensitive and constructive alternatives to solve behavioral issues, however it is clear that in a class of at least 25 students, only 1 child who does not behave properly  can likely generate endless of difficult to manage problems, especially when you have a schedule to accomplish and no time to waste. Having to choose between giving a class or adequately attend to the emotional storms of your students is an undesirable situation and we often tend to opt for the quickest and most effective solution in terms of time and effort.

Anyway, all this reflection to actually tell you that I had a difficult month because of some discipline problems in my classes of 5 years, and, check this out, I only have 7 students. So the other day, after weeks of reflections and useless attempts to solve the situation, reluctantly, I informed the principal that I was going to take a chair down to the class: the thinking chair, too bad! And she told me "Ah, the calm down chair!" And I, who had already accumulated enough stress, I joked, "Yes, the calm down chair for the teacher!"

That very same moment an alternative to the thinking chair came to my mind: I decided that I was not going to force any child to sit on the wicked chair, quite the opposite, I was going to sit on it, myself. I was going to sit there and count up to 3 every time I'd noticed an inappropriate behavior going on for too long: at my 3 everyone had to stay 'quiet and still', in order not to lose any of their 3 points and, therefore, the sticker that I usually let them choose at the end of each class.

I explained everything to them at the beginning of the lesson, showing them the sign where I had written their names and finally we rehearsed it.

I'm pretty sure they took it as one more game (probably the musical statues) and it was much simpler to maintain the control of the class, without stress. Moreover, I have the impression that we all won, because on the one hand I saved a lot of energy, while on the other hand the children, although they had the chance to jump and run (being children, in the end), they were not scolded or punished since at my 3 they were all sitting around me ready to listen to the instructions of the next activity. By making them see clearly the consequences of their actions, keeping the sign with the points and their names in sight all the time, they could actively take their behavior under control.

It was a very profitable and fun class for everyone, all the time and, above all, to prepare the necessary material was not very elaborate since the sign is a laminated A4 white sheet of paper where you can write and erase names and points with markers for whiteboard.

Have a happy and relaxing Easter break!





--> Quiero leer esta entrada en castellano

More about Easter and Spring

Flashcards, because my child doesn't repeat

Hello everyone! Back in the saddle, finally!

I was about to write a post about Social Science - The Capitals of Europe, but I've just found these search terms - in the headline - in the statistics of my Spanish blog, mihijohablaingles.com, so I decided that maybe it's worth giving you some guidelines to solve this little inconvenience: MY CHILD DOES NOT REPEAT.

The first step, as always, is to find out the reasons why your children refuse to repeat the words in English (or any other language you're trying to teach them). Generally speaking, it may depend on shyness, shame, insecurity, frustration caused by a negative event which may have occurred in relation to this type of request or you're just dealing with children who simply don't like to be corrected because they are very competitive and associate the word 'mistake' to 'failure'.

Solution? GAMES

Games where, in order to win, you have to repeat words, read them out loud, say short sentences, ask simple questions, etc. We repeat the word aloud (or only the first syllable when we perceive that they can complete the word on their own) and let our children / students say or repeat them. If we realize that their way of pronouncing it is not appropriate, we repeat it ourselves, again, pronouncing it correctly, without making them notice the mistake. Why? Simply because if the child likes the game, he will want to play it again (and again) and that will give us the opportunity to practice the same words several times, thus he'll be able to learn new vocabulary and its correct pronunciation without pressure. Easy peasy.

While children are playing games they are learning in an informal way and they always want to win, so, while they're playing, they forget their inhibitions, concentrate and try to do their best. Playing games is a powerful tool in the teaching - learning process.

Once they have acquired more self-confidence, being introduced to new contents to play with will be perceived as a natural process.

Which games should we propose to the youngest? In the beginning, we should use very simple games like a Memory or a Bingo and later a Go Fish in order to introduce grammatical structures we want them to learn.

I hope you'll find this post useful and that you'll enjoy playing games and practicing  English together with your children.

More play ideas for children

--> I'd like to read this post in Spanish

Phonics - Teaching Reading and Writing (ESL)

http://dollarstoremom.com/2011/04/make-a-phonics-flip-chart/

In one of my previous posts I wrote that my challenge for 2014 was going to be teaching reading and writing in English to some of my students who could already understand and speak English quite well.

Looking for some ideas and advice I came across such an abundance of strategies and material that I almost felt overwhelmed.

However, I've been able to design an effective plan that is already showing some results.

Everything started to become clearer when I was able to take a look at a collection of booklets specifically designed with the purpose of teaching phonics.

It's published by Collins and it's called Collins Easy Learning Age 5-7

It's interesting because the books cover many letter sounds with examples and colorful drawings. Also, there are a couple of workbooks to keep practicing a little more.

I decided to use them as a sort of guide through the maze of phonics, but also as a 'test' to use at the end of each module.

Then, following my 'guide', I searched the internet looking for entertaining activities linked to phonics, first of all because I wanted to dive deep into the topic and second because engaged kids are the secret to successful teaching.

Well… I would say I found a treasure. 

Look at this page and take your time to explore it, because it's an amazing source of almost anything you need to teach this topic.

The worksheets you'll find here are great! Crosswords, puzzles, cut and paste activities, cards. So far my students have enjoyed them a lot.

Furthermore, it's so nice to see how the children are getting more and more confident with every class.

I can see how they are reasoning about what letters they need to write every single word, making a big effort not to peep at the word bank that follows the exercises.

However, the best of all is seeing their eyes light up with satisfaction when they realize that they can spell correctly.

Below, I give you a list of other things I'm using these days to expand the phonics experience:

- Cards to teach Rhyming words and Phonics

- Spelling Games from Instant File-Folder Games for Reading grade 1-3 published by Scholastic
  (sample pages available)

- Success with Reading Comprehension Grade 1, also published by Scholastic
  (sample pages available)

- Dr Seuss rhyming books (Children love them!)

- Alphablocks cartoons. (Very engaging and fun. Available on YouTube)

As you can see, tons of material is available, so I personally selected those phonics that Spanish children would find the trickiest to recognize. I imagine that kids from other countries will need to focus on different sounds and patterns.

Good luck with your work and, as always, have fun!

More about reading

More about writing

---> Quiero leer esta entrada en español

Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted. 

                                                   

                    

On Engagement, Flow and Education

ALAMY. By Graeme Paton, Education Editor

In the Early Childhood Education course I took last month there is a section dedicated to engagement that might be interesting to talk about, as well as children's optimism of course (see my article).

Let's start with the definition of engagement: 

We are engaged with something when we are involved in some activity, that might be challenging, and once we succeed in doing it we feel a great pleasure. 

Using simple words it's when we are doing something that we feel we are really good at, and we enjoy doing it a lot. 

It is a state of mind strictly connected to the psychology of flow.

But, what's flow? 

Flow is a mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does (wikipedia article).

It has been studied and proposed by Mr Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Flow's presence has been detected in many fields of the human production and it is connected with happiness and creativity.

Here you can watch a TED conference about it and if you go to minute 14:09 you'll see a summary of the main points that describe flow.

Now the question is: How do engagement and flow have an impact on children's learning process?

Imagine 2 axes on a graph. On one of them we have the level of challenge of a supposed activity and on the other we have the level of skill of the child.

If we assign an overly-challenging task to a child who hasn't got the right level of skill he needs to accomplish it, the kid will feel anxiety and fear.

On the other hand, if we assign a less challenging task to a child who is overly-skilled for that activity then it is likely that he will feel boredom.

However when we give the task with the appropriate level of challenge, maybe just a little bit higher, to the child who has the appropriate level of skill, then we'll witness flow and engagement. In addition we will have provided them with a real learning experience.

And that's really true. Very often we can see children who don't pay attention or aren't doing what they are supposed to do in our classrooms. 

However when we would investigate those 'issues' we can easily find out that, most of the time, they are caused by the fact that the task the children are assigned is too easy or too difficult according to their skill.

Time is another important aspect: children should be given time to develop the whole process. 

So far, a more flexible education model seems to be the most effective tool for improving the unique learning experience of each child. Mr Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has demonstrated in his articles, where he analyzes the flow experienced in traditional, nontraditional public and private schools around the world, that a different and adequate approach to teaching would produce a greater learning experience. 

This one specifically talks about Montessori schools and this one provide an analysis of a wider number of schools.

--> Quiero leer este post en Español

Lucy dedicates a lot of time and love to thinking about and writing the posts she shares with all of you. Because she believes that a better teaching is the key for a better future. If you find any help, value or joy in this blog, please consider becoming a supporting reader. A donation, in any amount, will be gratefully accepted. 

                                                   

  

Free Downloadable Odd One Out worksheets - Homophones

Hi there! 

More odd one out exercises for your students!

This time the new worksheet is about homophones: words pronounced in the same way but differing in meaning or spelling or both.

Challenge your pupils and have fun!!!

Download them for free!

If you're looking for more exercises, take a look at the PRINTABLES PAGE of this blog.

I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.

Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.

It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results. 

You can get my activities on my online store:

http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com

Teaching English Through Games: GUESS WHO?

Over these years of teaching children I got the clear idea that every single structure of grammar or word of vocabulary learnt using textbooks must be put into practice.

Why?

Because the use of the language during situations that require an extra effort to express themselves to reach a goal will make those structures and words stay in their brains forever.

How?

If your students don't have any possibility of having 'real English experiences' in their lives, what you can do is to provide them with games.

Yes, GAMES!

Playing any games in English is an excellent strategy to get them involved into the real use of English and you'll reach two important goals at the same time:

on the one hand you can get their full attention and participation with practically no effort, and on the other hand you'll have them practicing what they have previously learnt in a more natural and relaxed way.

One of my favorite games is 'GUESS WHO?'. 

It's really useful to work on questions using the verb to be, the construction have got and the present continuous in the 3rd person, besides vocabulary about physical appearance and articles of clothing.

"Is your person a man or a woman?"

"Is he/she fat/old/young/middle aged?"

"Is he bald?"

"Has he/she got blond/fair/dark/red/white/long/curly/ straight hair?"

"Has he got a moustache?"

"Is he/she wearing a hat/ eyeglasses?

I also recently found another "Guess Who?" , a kind of a copy, which is even a little more complex and complete than the original one because it shows pictures of whole children, not only their faces, wearing a larger variety of clothes and playing some games. 

So my students can practice more vocabulary about colours and clothes, and use the present continuous with the verbs wear and play.

100% engaging! I promise!

It would be so amazing to find even more versions of this game!


       

I design series of activities based on a communicative method that will help children to practice the grammar they're learning at school.

Many ESL activities, I see, are nothing more than 'fill in the blank' exercises that only teach kids how to fill in blanks and miss the whole point of learning to speak and understand a new language.

It's much easier and more fun to learn by doing, and you'll be surprised at how quickly you'll see valuable results. 

You can get my activities on my online store:

http://childreneslworksheets.bigcartel.com