“I’m fine, thank you.”

One of the most dreaded questions in every English teacher’s arsenal is: How are you?

From an extremely young age, students are asked this question and given the magic response “I’m fine,” which then grows into “I’m fine, thank you,” and stagnates at “I’mfinethankyouandyou?”

(And we are all aware of the vicious cycle known as andyouism.)

The great news is that, with young learners, we can attempt to eradicate this epidemia before it begins. Today, we bring you a new part of your class routine: “How are you?”

With children who are three and four years old, you can already get them telling you how they really are, instead of that they are “fine.” (And if this doesn’t have you jumping on your chair, read on…)

Super Simple Learning makes a wonderful set of flashcards that you can print, laminate, and use every day for this part of your class routine. Find them here.

After singing a hello song and making a circle, we review the emotions flashcards and make hand play for each one that they have learned. So, “I’m good” is one thumb up, “I’m great” is two thumbs up, “I’m wonderful” is reaching up to the sky, etc.

Once we’ve reviewed, we ask the student on our left, “How are you?” and (especially at the beginning) show them the options on a flashcard. They answer and then ask the next student (lots of times, we model the first few times with, “Ana, ask Carlos, ‘How are you, Carlos?'”). Go around the circle before moving on to your next activity.

With three and four year olds, we generally use “good,” “great,” “wonderful,” and “not so good.” With older students, you can incorporate even more emotions.

When a student answers with the dreaded “I’m fine, thank you,” we often try to mimic their answer, but exaggerating their style (very fast, very quiet, very sad, etc.) It gets them laughing and very interested.

When they discover that saying “I’m fine, thank you” is way more funny than “I’m good” or “I’m great,” then we incorporate high fives for those students that answer correctly on the first try.

Soon, you’ll be knowing more about your students’ emotions and hearing less of the dreaded “I’m fine, thank you. And you?”

ESL / EFL Peppa Pig Family Pre-Writing Activities

Happy New Year! We hope that everyone had a great holiday and is back to school and geared up for more fun learning!

We are starting a unit on family members with a group of students ages 3-5, so we wanted to share a few activities with you featuring one of our favorite ESL cartoons, Peppa Pig!

We will start out the unit with learning the names of the family members. We prefer the traditional “Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Grandma, Grandpa” rather than teaching them the names of Peppa Pig’s family (Mummy, Daddy, Granny, Grandpa, etc.) You can explain that there are different names for family members if you wish, but we like to keep things simple at this age.

Here are some great Peppa Pig family flashcards thanks to ISL Collective:

Immediate Family

Extended Family

Copied from http://www.memory4teachers.co.uk

At this point, it would be great to watch clips from an episode of Peppa Pig in English, pausing the video and asking “Who is this?” for different members of the family.

To get students to begin recognizing the family members and tracing the words, use this fun coloring worksheet:

Peppa Pig Color and Trace Family Activity

Copyright http://www.peppapigs.net

Once you’ve reviewed the family members and started tracing the names, your students are ready for a bit of production! Use this simple worksheet to match the name of the family members to the pictures and then trace the words.

Peppa Pig Family Tree Match and Copy

Finally, use this fun worksheet from ISL Collective as a cut-out to practice reading and recognition skills!

Copyright en.islcollective.com

Your EFL students will love these Peppa Pig activities, and you’ll love the ease of teaching the family members.

Beautiful ESL Christmas Activities to Display

It’s that time of year! We are rehearsing “Jingle Bells,” we are juggling exams and grading, and we are trying to teach our students a bit about our English-speaking cultural holiday traditions! At our school, we focus on Christmas, although many of our activities have a general winter theme so that we don’t interfer with anyone’s cultural or religious followings.

Today we’re sharing our three new activities for this year!

1. Very young ESL learners and The Christmas Tree

One of the first things that we teach students when studying about Christmas is the tradition of a Christmas tree. This can tie in nicely with their science courses (the parts of a tree; deciduous vs evergreen; trees around the world; etc.) and the vocabulary is easy enough.

We use the Christmas carol O Christmas Tree as a sing-a-long in the class. Then, each student gets to decorate an ornament (which we found on Google Images and pasted to card to make them sturdy) and hang it on our big primary tree.

Copyright lessonplansesl.wordpress.com

Copyright lessonplansesl.wordpress.com

Finally, help them read the lyrics to O Christmas Tree that you’ve printed out on a piece of paper. Add a color-by-number Christmas tree to half of the paper and fast finishers can color another beautiful decoration!

Copyright http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

2. Dextrous ESL learners and The Recycled Snowman

This activity is great paired with a cute story about a snowman or playing in the snow. We found three appropriate stories in English in the youth section of our local library, and Amazon.com and Abebooks.com has lots of possibilities! (Don’t forget that you can download lots of ebook options if you have a projector in your class!)

Then we make a little snowman out of a recycled toilet paper roll (ah, the neverending craft supply box!) and a recycled sock. Googly eyes and white stickers that can be painted as buttons and then stuck on quickly help this activity to run smoothly. This requires a bit of preparation, but this website walks you through it. These are super adorable but not for tiny fingers!

Copyright lessonplansesl.wordpress.com

Copyright lessonplansesl.wordpress.com

3. Late Primary Students and The Snowflake Wonderland

Moving away from the traditional themes of Christmas and more towards the theme of winter wonderland, this activity allows us to talk about the science behind snowflakes. Why do snowflakes form (lesson on solids, liquids and gases)? How many sides do snowflakes have (lesson on geometry and symmetry)? Where can we see snowflakes (general winter vocabulary lesson)? Have you seen any films with snowflakes (our students are going crazy – in a good way – when they sing “Let it Go” from the film Frozen and then gap fill the lyrics)?

As a craft, they can make their own paper snowflakes and create a winter wonderland in a room or corridor. This website teaches you how to make them (depending on the age, your students might need a bit of help with the last step before cutting).

Copyright lessonplansesl.wordpress.com

Copyright lessonplansesl.wordpress.com

All of these activities will please parents and other teachers, decorate your learning space (think less bulletin board duties for you!), and give your students a great use for their pre-holidays energy.

What’s your favorite Christmas activity? Share it with us in a comment! And have a happy holiday season!

Nine Favorite Teaching Supplies for Hundreds of Classroom Activities

Gearing up for a new school year often means lots and lots of lesson planning, professional development courses and shopping for teaching supplies. In the US, many schools started last week or this week, but in Spain, August equals vacation, and schools won’t begin until at least September 1.

Of course, that means that teachers are already thinking about the next school year! Today, we thought that we’d share nine of our favorite new teaching supplies for young learners and a few activities that you can do with them! They are our favorites because they so versatile that you can get hundreds of activities out of these 9 toys.

Nine of our favorite new teaching supplies for 2014-2015!

Let’s start with a description of each product from left to right (top to bottom), where you can buy it, and prices:

1. Ikea Lekkamrat Toy Bath Set – We found these on clearance at Ikea for 3.99€ per set. 
2. Magnetic Capital Letters – This set of 48 letters was purchased at Dideco for 5.52€ (including teacher’s discount of 20%. See details here.)
3. Ikea Titta Djur Finger Puppets – This set of 10 animal puppets was found at Ikea for 4.99€. I’ve used these with toddlers before, and they are amazingly durable!
4. Rainbow Mini Soft Plastic Animals – This tube of 8 rainbow animal puppets was purchased at Dideco for 8.21€ after teacher’s discount (about 1€ per animal).
5. Portable or Mountable 40x60cm Magnetic Whiteboard – Purchased at Dideco for the amazing price of 6.26€ after teacher’s discount. This is perfectly transportable for those of us who teach on the go! Also available in 60x90cm for about 12€.
6. Learning Resources Farmers Market Color Sorting Set – This amazing and versatile set of toys and buckets was purchased on Amazon.com for $22.99. This item will ship to Madrid, and though it’s one of more expensive investments of the year, it’s awesome!
7. Julia Doll – This 23cm tall little blonde was found at Dideco for 12.60€ after teacher’s discount.
8. Animal Sponges for Painting – Also from Dideco, this set of 10 sponges was a steal for 4.87€. They also have modes of transportation and other common objects!
9. Fabler Björn Teddy Bear – At the steal price of 0.99€ per teddy, our budget stretched to allow each of our seven very young learners (2-3 year old class level) to have their own “baby” for class activities. They fit into Ikea’s small Kassett boxes (2/2.99€), which means that they can be a surprise for every class!

Now what can we do with these toys (ahem, teaching supplies) that make them amazing for ESL young learners?

For example, the Farmers Market Color Sorting Set has so many functions that it makes the steep price tag worth it. With very good reviews and made of quality materials, this set will last a long time with a bit of care. You can wipe down the fruits and baskets with baby wipes without worrying about the color running (like it would with other cheaper sets and wooden food sets). With your very young learners (2-3), you can:

• Count the number of each color fruit or veg that you see to practice numbers.
• Play the game the intended way and sort each piece by color. Hide the pieces around your learning environment, and this will be even more fun!
• Begin to introduce basic foods. The size of these pieces means that you can mime “eating” your favorite fruit or veggie and let children do the same (“Would you like an apple?” “Yes, please.” / “An apple, please.”)
• Introduce like and dislike with foods. The following really funny video is easy for very young learners to learn and understand, and you can use the foods included in this set to make up your own funny combinations!

• Set up a “play market,” where students can shop – with recycled ecological bags – for their own meals. You can give them fake money, but be careful of small plastic parts!
• Play toss and catch with a piece of fruit. The student that catches it must say the name in order to continue throwing. If they get it wrong, they go in the middle of the circle until another student makes a mistake!
• Use the fruit and veggies as realia to accompany learning songs, like this one:

As you can see, there are so many possibilities from one object!

For older young learners (5-7 years old), you can do even more activities because of their increased memory skills. For example, combine the fruits with the magnetic whiteboard and the magnetic letters, and give a student a piece of fruit or veg and let them spell it out for the class!

You can really maximize your minimal (or non-existent) teaching supplies budget by choosing products that have more than one use in the classroom.

Let’s take a look at one more of my favorite products: the Ikea Toy Bath Set. Very young learners are learning all about hygiene in their own homes, so this is a chance to capitalize on knowledge that they already have! With this one toy, you can:

• Pretend to bathe Julia, baby Teddy, or any other toy that you have in the classroom. Students with good behavior can bring in their favorite doll to get a bath! This allows you to review vocabulary related to the bath in the classroom, even the rubber ducky and shampoo! Let’s expand on that idea with a favorite song:

• You can emphasize that some dolls are big, big and others are babies by how they sit down, stand up, and lie down in the bath!
• You can practice washing body parts with a set of sponges. If you put Teddy and a bath sponge (very cheap investment at Dollar Stores or Bazaars) in a small box and give one to each student, they get a fun surprise inside the box and they can copy your example with a bigger doll in the bathtub. Let them wash (“wash, wash, wash hands, hands, hands”) hands, face, tummy, legs, arms, etc. This can go a long way when you are teaching basic face and body parts!
• You can practice wet and dry! Put a plastic bin inside the bathtub – the bathtub is not waterproof – and let students bathe the Rainbow Soft Plastic Mini Animals. Then dry them with a towel. Practice the words “wet, wet” and “dry, dry.”
• Read any children’s story about taking a bath (here are a few examples) and pretend that Teddy is afraid to take a bath. Help him over his fear and get him to enjoy the bath! Let your students follow your example.

As you can see, the trick to having a diverse and fun ESL class with young learners doesn’t depend on how many toys you have in your bag, but how many different ways you can incorporate familiar toys into the class routine. By keeping things fun and exciting, you and your students will love toys that they’ve seen countless times! 

Now it’s your turn: what activity would you do with one of the above toys? Leave us a comment!

Going Bananas for Numbers!

If you’re looking for a way to spruce up your lessons on numbers 1-10, just go bananas!

It’s a great idea to incorporate different types of materials into each theme. For example, if you just practicing counting 1-10, both you and your students are going to get pretty bored, pretty quickly. But if you include a song, a story, a craft, a game or an activity where students get to move around, then they are going to learn the lesson in the context of the activity. They’ll be having so much fun that they won’t even realize that they’re learning, and you’ll be one happy teacher!

Here’s a great idea for a few ways to teach numbers 1-10 using the context of a banana…

Let’s start with a song. This song is great for very young learners, and you can expand on it for slightly older students (6-7) by asking what each group of bananas is doing:

Now let’s go for a game to reenforce the numbers that they have learned in the song. This game is great for small groups, but if you want to do it with a larger group, you just have to duplicate (or triplicate) the materials. I call this the “Banana Clothespins Game,” and it requires a little bit of preparation. You’ll need:

• 10 half-sheets of card or paper, each decorated with 1-10 bananas (you can draw the bananas or print them on a computer)
  • These will be your 1-10 banana flashcards!
• 55 clothespins (full-size clothespins work best for little fingers, but recycle them from home if you have them!)

Once you have your materials prepared, you’re ready to play!

Example of banana flashcards. Image Copyright Super Simple Learning.

• Begin by showing the students the 1 banana flashcard and put 2 clothespins on it. Ask if it’s correct and let them help you fix it. Repeat with another banana flashcard, first giving the incorrect number and letting the students help you. Then give them two correct examples.
• Now put all of the banana flashcards face-down and shuffle them. Deal them out evenly among students. Tell them that it’s a surprise and not to turn them over!
• Put the clothespins in the middle of the group.
• Explain the gameplay: Each student turns over his or her flashcards and puts the correct number of clothespins on the card. The first to finish all of his or her flashcards correctly wins (so you might want to make sure that you deal each student some high and low numbers to keep things fair).
• Children love this game, and it can be played several times to review the numbers!

Now that students have practiced the numbers, let’s tell them a story about a little banana who falls out of a tree and wants to return to his family! This story is called “Fruit Story: ESL numbers/colors/fruit.” It also incorporates other fruits as well as colors!

If you are lucky enough to have a big budget for your classroom, you can also invest in this awesome monkey counting game that can be played in small groups. It’s available on Amazon!

Now that we’ve talked gone bananas over numbers, let’s make a craft! What animal loves bananas more than anything else? Monkeys! Let your students make a monkey mask, helping them to cut out the eyes carefully. You’ll need a little yarn to tie on the mask.

Courtesy of craftjr.com

You can print off some bananas with this image and let each student “feed the monkeys.” Try to print 10-15 on one page so that you can give students different numbers to practice! This is a great way to review counting again, as you can ask how many bananas they are feeding each other. Let them show the rest of the group and then do it in pairs!

These activities will give you several fun classes to learn and review the numbers 1-10 with your young learners! Just don’t go bananas when you hear students ask again for the banana song!

 

Hooray for our first eBook: “The Little Book of ESL Ideas”

Today is a big day! After lots and lots of work, our first eBook is available for sale!

I started slowly writing an eBook when I realized that I had notes on a lot of different activities under several general (and very widely used) ESL topics. I wanted to produce a resource that would help new teachers get off to a great start with a ready-made list of class ideas and that would provide new inspiration for more experienced teachers!

The eBook includes over 35 activities and is great for both teachers in the classroom environment and those who give private classes. It’s divided into six topics (Numbers, Colors, Days of the Week, The Four Seasons, Basic Shapes and Family) and contains activities like songs, videos, stories, crafts, games and vocabulary ideas. The book is focused on students aged 2-10 but contains easily adaptable ideas for different ages! They have all been used in the ESL classroom environment and have had great results! We’ve included the most popular and fun activities so that students and teachers enjoy the class!

It also contains lots of great information readily available on the web all in one book. I include a lot of links to videos and songs that are already prepared, so that class prep time can be dramatically shortened! (Of course, copyright information is cited for each activity.)

The introductory material to the book focuses on teaching ESL classes in Madrid, Spain, but the activities can be used in any learning environment and in any country!

You can purchase “The Little Book of ESL Ideas” in our Etsy shop, ESLIdeas. The first 20 books will be offered at the introductory price of 5.95€ and are available for Instant Download! That means that, for less than the cost of a fast-food meal, you can have months of private class class ideas, all in one resource!

Here are a few previews from the book: