THE ENGLISH CULTURE

Learning a new language also include learning the basis of the culture that has made it possible. Refering to the English Language, although being a language that is being spoken in a lot of different places, the UK is the one where it was first spoken (England specifically). As a result, we will work out the British culture to understand all the characteristics that are involved in the English language.

To introduce this subject in our classrooms, we can do it in a visual way. How? We can play a video about it and make our students an idea about what describes to the British Culture or show a presentation of slides. For example, this is one content that we have already made with PowerPoint:

The british culture from Cristina Roldán Miguélez

Then we can talk with our students and do some speaking asking things like:
- Do you remember which colours have the British flag?
- Which ones where the most typical dishes of the UK?

Later, and to reinforce the learning of all this concepts, we can make our students do an activity about it in an interactive way. For example, using Hot Potatoes. If you click to the image below, you will show an example that we have already done.

Another activity that you can do for review the reading skill and the writing is one using the Puzzle Maker. For example, this one that we have already made with Puzzle Maker: 

Finally, we can do an enjoyable activity proposing to imitate the English Accent. For this, you can tell your students to search some words and listen to them. The best option is using this direct link to the Google translator: https://translate.google.com/?hl=ca#en/ca/trifle
You should make sure that the language of the first square is the English one. Now, the students will write different English word, click enter and then, listen to its pronunciation and imitate it.

That is all today. Thanks for following and see you the next day.

MUSIC

Music is really important for a lot of things and, day by day, people is beginning to understand its real benefits and importance. 

It is said that music is not only an artistic language but also it can be used as a therapeutic method, as a social media or even as a way to improve some skills such as the attention capability.

Today we want to reinforce this importance and share with you different ways to work the music using ICT tools. 

The first one we want to explain is the possibility to record the songs or movements that you and your students sing, play or dance to have them saved in your computers or share it with the families, teachers, etc. The recording is, on the other hand, a perfect way for allowing our students to do a self-assessment of the activity so that it is one important to take into account.

Which ways are the ones that we have to record these songs?

We can use the recorder able in our computer or we can downloaded one tool to record whatever we want. 

We can also record it with the input devices like a camera and then uploaded to our computer.

Which ways are the ones that we have to upload our songs?

If we want to share them throughout a media in the internet there are different options that we can bear in mind. For example, web platforms such as Goar or Soundcloud allow us to store and share audio files while Youtube web gives us the chance of uploading and sharing video files. In all the cases, you will be required to sign up in the page but, do not worry because it is completely free.

Now, we are going to show you different English activities treated from the music subject.

Songs

Children normally love singing and that is good for different reasons. Songs allow the learners to develop musical aspects such as rhythm or coordination as well as language skills like listening, use of English, speaking or reading. The young students enjoy a lot having a good time and being the main character of their learning process working through different songs actively.

We want to share with you a video of the song "Five Little Monkeys" that we have been already made and uploaded to YouTube.

Our proposal is listening at first, singing then, including movements later, talk about it and, finally, do an activity related with the numbers to work in a global way.

 

For example, you can show the numbers to the students in different ways (flashcards, image, objects, etc.) and then do an activity on which they have the chance to reinforce it like a supermarket.

This is a collage made with Picasa that could be an option to present the numbers to the students.

De Collages You can require to the students writing a song with the numbers already worked. By this way, you will work the speaking and the writing.  You could give a worksheet with some parts of the song already made to encourage the students starting with it.

The Numbers Song

Last but not least, we suggest doing an art activity that mix the plastic and musical languages using the Paint tool (you could do it in group at the Interactive Whiteboard or in little group or individually in the computer). How to do it? Look for a song or musical piece and ask for do some paint while the students are listening to it. They will enjoy a lot and the results will be amazing.

Some interesting musical compositions are:

Alfred, Tristan, The Colonel, The Legend (Part 2) - BSO Legends of the fall. Recovered from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aUrIED9YtQ&index=1&list=PLAB475B81BAEAFEAC

The Carnival of the animals "Aquarium" - Camille Saint Saëns. Recovered from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyFpZ5MZ7kk

The Grand Finale - Danny Elfman. Recovered from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hULBzzdi5Uw

Bolero - Ravel. Recovered from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwjckBCIPZU

One last wish - BSO Casper. Recovered from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvpSQ8nJmUk

La cabalgata de las Valkirias - Richard Wagner. Recovered from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsRLV5BKFtg

We hope you will enjoy them.

Thanks for following and see you soon.

THE BODY

Working the body is important not only for the specific vocabulary that it gives but also for the development of the self-knowledge. 

Today we want to share with you different activities to work this subject in your ESL class.

First of all, it is important to know what we are talking about. We think that showing a video, for example, is a good idea. This one could be interesting and enjoyable for the young learners.

Then, we can reinforce this learning with some activities using for example the JClic tool. If you want to work with materials created by yourself, you will have to download the tool to your computer. However, there are a lot of activities have already done available in the library of the web (http://clic.xtec.cat/db/listact_en.jsp).

For example, this one could be a good one although some of the activities that it includes require a higher level of English.

zonaClic - activitats - The human body

We have already done one project for this subject with JClic but you will only be able to open it if you have downloaded the JClic Author to your computer. This is the link to show this content:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o3qat6vxja637w6/thebody.jclic.zip?dl=0

With this kind of tools, the teacher can prepare different and more personalized activities, making sure that all the English skills are being worked.

Finally, this is a game that will show if the students recognised the words learned.

And we finish with it. 

Thanks for following this blog and see you soon.

FRUIT

The English teacher has to take into account that the learners have to develop different skills required for language learning. We are talking about the reading, listening, writing, speaking and use of English skills.

We want to share with you some activities that will allow the students to use all the skills mentioned for the purpose of enriching and personalizing their learning process.

These activities are focused in the subject of "Fruit" but you could take the idea and adapt it to the subject that is being given in your class.

We hope that you find them interesting and useful.

At first we will present to our students the subject in an attractive way. It is important to mention the specific vocabulary that we want to treat. For this purpose, we have made a PowePoint presentation in which the vocabulary is given through two different ways: oral and reading. We have uploaded this content to Slideshare, a web platform that allow us to share it with all interested in. 

Fruits from Cristina Roldán Miguélez

Now, that our students have known the subject we are going to work with, we can begin with the activities to learn and reinforce this content. 

We have done an activity with HotPotatoes that requires to the students the ability of matching images with their names. In this case, there is no reading, but the information is given through a visual and oral way. 

We have uploaded this content to the HotPotatoes web using a demo user to have the opportunity of sharing it.

The next activity is to reinforce the vocabulary at the same time that the learners will work with the writing and use of English skills. 

It is a Word with two different activities. The first one is about the spelling of different words while the second one is about the order of different letters to make sense of the word. 

We have uploaded this content to Scribd for sharing it whith those who are interested in.

Writing Fruits

  

Last, but not least, we have prepared a Voki in which you could hear someone talking about the fruit that he likes most and why. We encourage the learners to try to do the same but giving their opinions. As a result, this activity develops the speaking skills of the students. 

If you want, you can make your own Voki just going to the web http://www.voki.com/ and using the free options without any register.

 

That is all folks!
Thanks for following this blog and see you soon.

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD

Working with the tales allows us to develop different skills in an attractive way for our young learners. 

That is why today we have prepared some activities related with the tale of the Little Red Riding Hood but, as always, you could take the idea and adapt it to your target group.

At first, we are going to explain the tale to the students. We have planned it in a different way, paying attention, specifically, to the listening skill. The students are going to listen to the story while they look at the image given. Then, they should try to understand the story and talk to each other to make some conclusions about it.

We have used the Audacity Software to record the tale. With this tool we can change our voice depending on each character and add different sounds to make it more amazing.

When we have done the recording and we have save it as MP3 file, we just have uploaded it to SoundCloud, a web platform to store audio files. 

Finally, we have copied the embed code that this platform gave to us to share the content.

Then, you could reinforce the learning of the content to make sure that the students have understood it. For example, you could make your students do some matching exercises using different tools that allow the teacher to create them. For example, Task Magic offers a wide variety of activities to create. However, you have to bear in mind that this tool has to be downloaded to your computer (that is why we can only share with you an image of the one that we have done for this subject).

In this case, the learner is developing reading skills and also preparing for the writing one. Therefore, you could continue with a writing activity like this:

Finally, we recommend doing a creative writing to have the chance of developing the writing skill and the speaking one. We can tell to our students that they have to think about an invented story.

Here is one activity made by Word for the creative writing (we have uploaded it to Scribd for sharing):

Creative Writing by CrisuMadalenuna

 
That is all today. 
Thanks for following this blog and see you soon.