Tag Archives: fun

Improving writing skills

Writing, , , , ,

This is an activity I’m going to do tomorrow with my intermediate students and I thought someone might find it useful. It can be done to revise vocabulary and make students write, a skill we often neglect in class. By including visual aid I have made the role of the teacher seem less important and therefore encouraged autonomous learning.

In this activity we will be revising vocabulary, mainly phrasal verbs with “turn” and verbs followed by infinitive or/and -ing.

How to do it:
Ask students to work in pairs and give each pair a blank sheet of paper. Tell students they are going to use their imagination to write a dialogue .Give students a situation they can start with (for ex two flatmates talking about their plans for the weekend; their names Christina and George). The aim of the exercise is to build up a dialogue using the prompt you display in the photopeach slideshow. Once they have written their sentence containing the prompt they have to pass their paper to the students on the left who must continue the story using the next prompt. Sometimes an additional sentence will be necessary to transition form one idea to the next.
Collect their dialogues and stick them on the walls of the class for everybody to read

Revising – Using Prompts to Revise Vocabulary on PhotoPeach

Click here to see a sample of the dialogue. I wasn’t very inspired!

If Jesus taught my students

Funny Stuff,

Then Jesus took his disciples up the mountain, and gathering them
about him, he taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor.
“Blessed are the hungry.
“Blessed are those who mourn.
“Blessed are the oppressed. . . . ”

Then Simon Peter said, “Do we have to write this down?”
And Andrew said, “Are we supposed to know this?”
And James said, “I don’t have papyrus with me.”
And Philip said, “Will we have a test on this?”
And Bartholomew said, “Do we have to turn this in?”
And John said, “The other disciples didn’t have to learn this.”
And Matthew said, “Can I be excused?”
And Judas said, “What does this have to do with the real world?”

Then one of the Pharisees who was present asked to see Jesus’ lesson
plan and inquired: “Is this lesson aligned with state standards? Does
it address multiple intelligences? Where are your objectives in the
cognitive domain?”

And Jesus wept.

From webenglishteacher.com

Road to Grammar

Grammar, Vocabulary, , , ,

Road to Grammar is a great site to practise grammar and vocabulary. One of the best things about this site, in my opinion, is that if you choose the wrong answer in the quiz  and you click on NOTES, it provides  a note explaining why your answer is correct or incorrect.
Apart from these quizzes there’s a section that I love called Games. My favourite one is called FLUENT and it allows two students to play. Be careful if you choose to play, it’s kind of addictive!
I also recommend trying the Extra Practice section and the Downloads, which has some great PDFs for students and teachers. And last but not least, there’s a section called Road to Grammar JR dedicated to young learners

Christmas Carols and Cristmas Cards

Music, Students' Corner, , , , , ,

It’s been quite a long time since I haven’t sung any Christmas Carols with my students . I might be wrong but I’ve always felt that although they might have been willing to learn about some cultural issues , singing Carols was out of the question. But this year …. is my year for all these secret pleasures that I used to enjoy doing when I was in primary or secondary school.

That’s why with my elementary class  there is going to be a Christmas Cards competition  and we are also going to learn the Christmas Carol  ,Jingle Bells . We are going to practise really hard and delight teachers and students with our graceful singing. No kidding , some students sing really well!

Click to see some ideas for the cards.

Craft activities (Oxford)

Making a Pop-Up card (Oxford), Another Pop-Up Card (Artcare), Christmas Tree Pop-Up Card (Staiden)

And this is the carol we’re going to be singing.  Want to join us?