Science is fun II

Hey there!!
As you know, we are trying different experiments related to the human body (in fact, to the five senses, actually). Yesterday, it was the turn of our sense of hearing.
What do our ears perceive? What's sound and how does it work? There's a simple and funny way to answer these questions: the musical bottles.
You need six crystal bottles (same shape and size, if it's possible), water and food colouring (this is just optional, kids like the beautiful colours). You have to fill the bottles with water...but be careful: each bottle has to be filled with a little less water than the previous one. So the first one will be almost full and the last one almost empty. Now, if you want to, you can add some food colouring to the water and shake, so each bottle has a different colour. Kids enjoy this part a lot!
Now that the bottles are ready, tap them with a pencil or a spoon and see what happens. Each one has a different sound!! Why is that? Well, the more water, the slower vibrations travel through it and the lower the sound. It's really cool!! Now, you can try and play some simple songs together (we managed to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "Frère Jacques", but the funniest part was when they tried to create their own songs).
Enjoy!!

Science is fun

Hi there!!
We have started a unit about the human body some days ago, and I have to say it is providing my class with a lot of fun and very interesting situations.
Last day, we tried some easy experiments related to the five senses, as well as funny facts about the human body. The kids had the time of their lives, I can tell you!!

First, we created an artificial lung (just to learn the way this organ works). It's quite easy. You will need: a plastic bottle, two balloons, a straw, an elastic rub and play dough. Once you have it all, just follow this simple instructions:
-Cut the bottle and keep the upper part.
-Cut one of the balloon's top, tie a knot at the bottom and then use the balloon to close the base of the piece of bottle you've kept.
-Put the straw inside the other balloon and secure it with the elastic rub (be careful not to strangle the straw).
-Put the balloon inside the bottle (be careful, the balloon mustn't touch the one at the bottom) and close the neck of the bottle with play dough (again, be careful not to strangle the straw).

If everything's ok, when you pull the bottom balloon (which is acting as the diaphragm), the one inside the bottle (the lung) should blow up, and when you let go it should go flat. It really works!!

Another experiment put us in touch with static electricity. It's even easier. You will need: a bowl, some salt, some pepper and a plastic comb.
-Put some salt and pepper in a bowl and mix.
-Rub the comb against your clothes or hair for a while.
-Put the comb over the bowl (close enough).

If everything's ok, the pepper will go up, attracted by the static electricity in the comb, but not the salt. It's really funny, kids love this one.

Enjoy!!

The 7th art was never funnier

Hey there!!
I've just discovered a new learning tool!! It's called Dvolver Moviemaker and it's really cool. You can create your own little movies just choosing the setting, the characters....The only thing for you to do is typing the dialogues. It's really funny!!
It would be really interesting to have your kids trying, I'm sure they could make really good and funny films. I made this little thing to show my kids how to proceed, I can't wait to see their results.
Enjoy!!


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Tic, tac, tic, tac....toe

Hi there!!

We all know it can be really hard to get kids interested in the English class. So, we must be creative and try to get them involved in everything happening in the class.

This was one of my last strategies. We are reading "Harry Potter and the Philosopher`s stone" and sometimes it gets hard or boring (or both). When these things happen, we try a different approach. Last week, I told them to make a giant tic tac toe board (tres en raya in Spanish) using Harry Potter concepts, characters.... They enjoyed the making off, but they enjoyed playing even more. You can seize the chance to make a lot of revision: for example, I tell them to throw a dice and, depending on the number, I ask them a different kind of question (1 is for comparatives, 2 for past simple, 3 for present continuous....). If they guess the answer, they can put a counter in the place they have chosen.

We had a quiet and funny evening playing the Huge Harry Potter Tic Tac Toe. Why don't you try?

Enjoy!!

Dem bones, dem bones....

Hi there!!

There are many different ways to face the same topic. And all of them can be useful ways to learn about a particular topic.
We have started studying the human body this week, following what we could call the "inside out approach". That means we started talking about the skeleton.
How can we get kids interested in bones and joints? Here you are two different ways of using the same stuff (depending on your kids' age):

We have bought a marvellous articulated skeleton. Older kids were told to build it up following different instructions. Once it was ready, we used it as an X-ray to play a doctor's role play (which was a great way to remember the bones' difficult names).

With younger kids, you may prefer to use the skeleton as a prelude for this highly catching song. Believe me, they will love it!! And there's a dance too!!

Every way you do it, I'm sure it will be fun. Enjoy!!

Clouds that help us see.

Hi there!!

I've just discovered a very interesting website: wordle.net. It's an amazing tool that enables you to create "wordclouds" from a text based on word ocurrence from any text. It's really easy and fast to use (and it's free, which adds to the lot ;D ). 

There are lots of activities you can arrange for your students with the help of these word clouds. You can, for example,paste in short texts that your students have studied recently. Show them the word cloud and see if they can remember what the text was about and how the words were used within the text. You can build up a bank of word clouds over a semester and pull them out at random to get students to recall the texts they have studied and the key vocabulary in them. You could also see if they could rewrite or reconstruct the text based on the word cloud.

I've just tried this tool. I chose a text based on "The little red hen" (a story I'm currently reading with my first primary kids) and this is what came out. You will have to cut and past the link below to take a look.

I hope you find it useful, I certainly did.

Enjoy!!

<a href="http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/6715078/The_little_red_hen." 
          title="Wordle: The little red hen."><img
          src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/6715078/The_little_red_hen."
          alt="Wordle: The little red hen."
          style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd"></a>

Story maker.

Hi there!!!

Today, I want to talk about story makers. It's a really useful and catching software, one that allows kids to explore the many possibilities of creative writing while helping them develop their writing, reading and grammar skills. There are many websites dedicated to story making, but one of the best I've ever found belongs the the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. There's a part of its website dedicated to kids, and there you'll find (among other things) the story maker. It's really good!!!

You can use it to read already done stories, you can tell them to create stories about a certain topic, or using certain vocabulary or grammar structures. They can work individually or in pairs. Either way you choose it, it will be great!!

Here's the link you must follow to enter the story maker: http://www.carnegielibrary.org/kids/storymaker/

And once there, here's the code to access to a little story I've already made. Just to try!! It was fun. I hope you have as good a time as I did!! Enjoy!!

WWD475

We love you, mummy!!

Hi there!!

Today's a special day, and we want to send a huge kiss to all the mummies in the world. Mummies are sooo important!! And it's important to show them we care about them every day, not just one day a year. But this is as good a day as any other to tell them just how important they are and how much we love them. Why don't we tell them...with flowers?

These are the little crafts my kids made for their mummies. They were full of love and willling to please, that's why their flowers are so beautiful and original.

I hope you like them as much as I did!!