Welcome to my life, Jumping clay!!

Hello again!!

We all know that when dealing with little kids, some times a little bit of "crafting" is unavoidable. Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter... special dates when we all welcome a way out of routine. But it happens more often than not that we teachers aren't skill at arts and crafts at all!! What can we do? Jumping clay  has come to rescue us all!!

It's a soft and light material, something between plasticine and clay but without their inconvenients. It's not toxic, it smells nice and it dries really fast.It's very easy to manipulate (believe me, I'm the clumsiest person in the entire planet and even I can get good results using Jumping clay). And it isn't messy at all, you can work for a whole afternoon with it and you won't even get your hands dirty.

I strongly recommend you to try it. Here you have some little figures I was able to produce (very simple ones, but you can see amazing things if you go to their web http://www.jumpingclay.co.uk/). There are several shops in Spain where you can get it, so don't worry about it!

Enjoy!!

What time is it, Mr Wolf?

Hello again!!
Telling the time is one of the most difficult topics your kids have to face in ESL. The way we tell the time is completely different from the way English speakers tell the time, so they usually need a long time to master the subject... as well as every help you can possiby offer.
One of the strategies I recommend you to help them here is "what time is it, Mr Wolf?" It's an easy and funny game they usually enjoy very much, and it really helps them remember how to tell the time. You draw on a bord several clocks (each indicating a different time). Your students go to the far end of the classroom (so it's better if you have a small group). They ask "what time is it, Mr Wolf?" and you choose one of the clocks you have drawn. You turn your back on them and count to three (they start approaching the clocks as you do so), then, you look at them again (so they stop). If you catch anyone moving, they are sent to the back and they have to start again. They game ends when one of your students is able to reach the right clock before you can catch him. So, you can start all over again!!
Why don't you try? They learn and they have fun, it really does the trick.
Enjoy!!

Design your dream home.

Hiya back!!

This is a interesting game to practice house and furniture vocabulary, as well as structures. It's great if you can use an Interactive Board, so everybody can take part of this activity.
You can give kids instructions about what they must do or the other way round (you can ask them to guide you through the designing process ^^). Once the house is ready, you can ask them questions about every room, tell them to ask questions to one another, describe a particular room... I recommend you to try, you'd be surprised at what you may get.
Enjoy!!

http://www.dressupgal.com/dollhouse.html

We all go travelling by.

Hi there!!
This is a great song to practice vocabulary related to ways of transport (as well as adjectives). I use it with kiddies from 4 to 6 (it's too childish for older children).  While kids don't master it enough to sing along (yet) you can distribute flashcards of ways of transports all along the classroom and make them run to touch the one you are singing about. It's really funny and helps them remember all the new vocabulary!!
Enjoy!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSw50Jw0H34

Cooking together

Hey there!!

We've talked sometimes about what teaching and learning mean when dealing with kids. For children, doing is the same as learning, so the more interactive activities we can provide, the better.
Cooking is a great thing to do with kids. We can practice food and cooking vocabulary as well as listening skills....and have fun at the same time!! It's something we can do with big and small groups, we just have to take care of every detail...because kids tend to get a little overexcited when we break the routine.
A fruit salad is something easy every child can deal with. Every kid can take part of it: one can wash the fruit, another one can peel a banana, others can cut some fruit, add sugar...and then the best part: we can eat it all together!!
Here's a picture of my kids enjoying their fruit salad. I had to put a filter to it because of the Privacy Laws, of course, but we can still see they are having fun!!