Songs for Students: 50 Nifty United States

If you are featuring the United States in a lesson, this may be a fun song. My private student who loves geography latched onto this song quite quickly, and we have done a number of bonus time fun time exercises just listening to songs, including 50 Nifty United States, and other youtube videos explaining the states. 

Also interested in teaching about other countries to my student, so if you are from another English speaking country and you know a classic song from your elementary education which kids might like, please let me know! 

Lyrics: 

Fifty Nifty United States  

Fifty nifty United States from thirteen original colonies;

Fifty nifty stars in the flag that billows so beautif'ly in the breeze.

Each individual state contributes a quality that is great.

Each individual state deserves a bow, we salute them now.

Fifty nifty United States from thirteen original colonies,

Shout 'em, scout 'em, Tell all about 'em,

One by one till we've given a day to ev'ry state in the U.S.A.

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut;

Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana;

Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan;

Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada;

New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina,

North Dakota, Ohio;

Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas;

Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming,

Al -a -o ming.

North, south, east, west, in our calm, objective opinion,

(name of home state) is the best of the

Fifty nifty United States from thirteen original colonies,

Shout 'em, scout 'em, Tell all about 'em,

One by one till we've given a day to ev'ry state in the good old U. S. A.

Some videos I enjoy to use when teaching this song: 

My student requested this for 2 classes during his free time/game time. 

Classroom Activities 7: Info Gap Monsters and Writing

Teaching 3rd Person Grammar to Elementary Students

The fun way! 

   By the time my students arrive at level 3 in English Land, they have a good working vocabulary and are proficient with I like..., I have..., I am.... So they talk a lot about themselves. I noticed that the switch to talking about others and other items and their qualities is quite difficult for elementary students in the foreign language classroom, and when I first arrived at my job I was intimidated by it. But now I know there is no need to be intimidated by this.

Activity: Info Gap Monsters With Writing
Draw and Write, First Learning of Awareness of the 3rd Person

Corresponds to English Land Series Unit 3 

All you need is some descriptions of monsters (using target vocabulary your students have been exposed to: eyes, ears, nose, mouth, wings, teeth, skin, legs, arms, etc...) written in a way students can easily understand.  Students are also learning important sight words like colors. 

All students can read about the same monster, but in my small language classroom I like to give each student a different monster. In a large class, each group could be given the same monster so that they can work on the reading together. Also fun would be to give them all different monsters and then when they finish drawing, they can find members from the other groups who had the same monster. 

Students have finished reading and drawing. They highlight I have...  and I don't have phrases. By this point they have already drawn their monsters and arrived in their groups if you are working in the group setting. 

Students then should be made aware that I is strange in this situation, because we are talking about the monster. So we change it to it, he, or she. The sentences are then changed from I have to It has. The repetition is good for the students.
They can then present their findings to the class, which is good reinforcement, and this is possible in group and small class settings.  Everyone enjoys to see the resulting monsters and everyone had a good time! 

The students who generated these monsters are 3rd graders. This activity works well for 3rd grade and above. 2nd graders usually read "I have" and draw a monster only, without having to write themselves. 

Prize Chest Haul September/October 2013

Prize Chest Haul September/October 2013

Motivate to Educate! 

That`s my favorite slogan from the English book we use at my school. Here`s my recent stash from the dollar store. More coming, because I have a big stash at my house that I will bring to the school when my prize chest gets a bit barren again. 

Prizes and stickers: Prizes are for when students get 6 stickers for doing their homework each class for 6 weeks, or 6 times if they do not do their homework. For the little kids I just give them small dried fish with almonds, but the elementary kids are really into these animals and bubble gum. I don`t know why they go cuckoo for the bubble gum, but they do, and it`s packaged in these funny square boxes in Japan. I had some fancier stickers but the kids love the strange puffy stickers from the dollar store. Who knew? Everyone was happy. When word got out that the other teacher had plastic animals in his prize chest, I was bombarded with questions of why there weren`t also plastic animals in my chest. So here they are kiddos! Enjoy! 

Classroom Activities 6: Teaching Phonics to ESL Preschoolers

Teaching Phonics to ESL Pre-schoolers

And Beginning Phonics

When are children ready to begin phonics? They are ready to begin phonics when they have a decent attention span, awareness of written language, and a good working recognition of many capital (and some lowercase) letters. Perhaps best is to work on letter recognition of lowercase letters before beginning. My students from age 5-6 are able to do this (in the ESL classroom) but children may be able to start this as early as age 3 or 4 depending on attention span, exposure, and memory.

Start with a solid structure, this also helps keep track of what letters and blends you have introduced. I use the Sounds Fun series. Level 1 teaches recognition of letters and individual sounds. Students at my school already have this basic recognition before we start phonics, so I start them right from level 2. Before we begin phonics we sing alphabet songs and a phonics sound song, and students have experienced tracing most to all letters of the alphabet on activity sheets. 

A unit looks like this. This is Unit 5, and some target words students should be able to put together. But preschoolers may find this activity dull in the group setting, so I created this game for each unit. One unit takes us about 4 lessons, which is about a month to a month and a half at the school I work at.

I keep the letters in a little marked envelope like this. then I know clearly the target sound, and in this unit we especially want to work on recognition of small I. 

                          I create copies of the target letters of the unit, enough for each student to have 1 of each target letter and sound for the unit. Better than writing by hand is arranging fun arrangements of letters they already know, and finding out the sound! Most students take to this version of spelling very easily and feel great achievement when they arrive at words they have already learned: this unit contains the word p i g. Previous units with the short a sound, students were very happy to create the word c a t. Even if they are not perfect spellers or readers, this exercise is great to reinforce awareness of written words and phonemes.

This is what the letters look like, prepared for a class of maximum 4 students. Perfect small group activity. Great in eikaiwa, or home schooling young children.

Come on Pig!

Come on pig! Hurry up and kill the mosquitoes in my room! So they stop screaming in my ears.

If you don`t know how to control mosquitoes at your place, get one of these! 

Classroom Activities 5: No Face His and Her All Ages

Classroom Activities 5

No Face Multi-Language Practice Exercise

And what's great about this activity is that it can be applied to a wide range of language! 


You Will Need: 
-paper, a drawn face

 This could be printed off the internet. Boy/Girl Human/Nonhuman Princess/Pauper... your imagination is the limit! 
-facial features for the face for target words eyes, ears, nose, mouth, 
-tape
-a wall or surface to mount the faces on
-a blindfold if one student or yourself will use it, or multiple blindfolds if you plan on allowing other students to participate for hygiene purposes

  Anyway, this face will also need features. So if you have any way to make a blank canvas... my classroom set has the facial features removable down to the hair! That's right, everything can be put on if you design your activity just so. And the principles of this activity can be applied to any vocabulary set, but the activity I'm featuring here focuses on face parts and his/her he/she and boy/girl. This would even work like the pirates I have previously featured. 

How to do the activity:
 -Think pin the tail on the donkey, with tape and face parts and students must use English
 -Use this activity as review, students must have a good working knowledge of the words, give them a brief refresher before beginning.
 -Students should know boy and girl, and for older students you can also introduce his/her with this activity
 -For the first round through you can blindfold yourself if you trust your class, and if you're good blindfolded and know your classroom spatially you can further clarify the meaning of his and her if your class has never been exposed to the words before
   Students are to say "his/her nose" as they hand the face parts to you one by one
   If they know right and left, you can allow them to say that as well
-For really advanced students, maybe they can learn "turn it" or "it's upside down" etc... a lot of practical spatial words come out when students are doing this activity
 -When all the pieces have been attached, announce "finished", have students tell you "finished" or "that's all" and unblindfold yourself or the student, and admire your work! 

Most students of mine have gotten a big kick out of this exercise! 

The blank face canvases. The hair is also removable. Not the prettiest but at least it gets the kids giggling.

This was my later evening class. I lost my touch.

My first time, the students gave me pretty good guidance. 

Underneath the star this little boy is smiling! 

This one too, the thumbs down is actually a good thing little boys love to be disgusted! 

Changes to my Classroom Spring 2013 (March)

Changes to my Classroom: Spring 2013

Now: Days of the Week at center, birthday poster to the side of the white board. 

The space where the blank faces are is reserved for decorations pertaining to current material we're covering and enrichment activities. I will explain the blank faces later.

Decorations from our new preschool curriculum "PLAYTIME" by Oxford University Press.

They came on flimsy, uninspiring and hard to fit to my classroom posters so I cut them up to suit my room and laminated the pieces. 

More Playtime items visible to the right of the Days of the Week poster. we have a weather wheel from something else, but the numbers look really nice and I have shapes and weather too. Counting has become part of our routine. 

BEFORE 

Gross old dry erase poster, days of the week poster was too close to the bookshelf and this became a problem in my larger classes, old posters which hadn't been changed out for a while which I rarely used in the lessons, and didn't seem to engage the kids well to begin with. Overall the decorations have become much more functional to the lessons and are making a marked difference for me in engaging my students of all ages.

Buggy About Spring 2013

Buggy About Spring 2013

Here is our seasonal bulletin! Happy that kotatsu season is almost over! 

This project took about 4 hours with help, but mostly because we were laminating new goodies received from the foreign buyer's club.

This is my door decoration. I remembered tissue paper decorating and, in the washroom one day, realized that the pink toilet paper we use would make a great tree on my door. I could only do half because they are sliding doors and three dimensional would not work for it. 

Detail on the bug. We put our faces on the big ones.

What the full door looks like.

We had so much fun at our school decorating party.  I'm thankful another of our school's teacher, their friend, and my husband were there to help out. It was a nice night. 

Classroom Activities 4: The Prepositions Table

Classroom Activities 4: The Prepositions Table

What you need: a large table drawn on any surface, can be done in front of a large group or in a private lesson, writing utensil 

What to do: You can practice any prepositions: on, in, under, between

Usually I ask students what foods or things they like and don't like, the things they like I tell them to draw on the table. Then I tell them to draw a toilet under the table and they get really shocked. Some of them break out laughing because it is unexpected. Then they are allowed to draw their disliked foods in the toilet. You can give students the option of giving each other the commands of what to draw and where, using correct usage of prepositions! Easy as pie and effective! 

Corresponds to: English Land 3 Unit 4 

Classroom Activities 3: Practicing Can

Classroom Activity 3

Nonsense Animals and Actions

Type of activity: small group activity for practicing animals and verbs, and the grammar "Can it (action)?", "Yes it can" or "No, it can't", ideal for elementary students, for intermediate students

Text correspondence: English Land 3 Unit 5 

"Can a koala drive a car?", "Can a baby quail push a car?" 

What you will need: a stack of animal cards, the more interesting the appearance the better, and a stack of frequently used verb cards. I use animal cards from a set of Go Fish cards we had in the school, and the verb cards from the Great Verb Game, although the pictures on the Great Verb Game were a little ridiculous. Some students love it and some will refuse to look at the cards, saying they are simply too ugly. So strike a balance between interesting and repulsive.

What to do: have enough sets of cards for small groups. My classes are small so I only need one set of action cards and one set of animal cards, but this game is appropriate for groups of 3-4

    -give each group their stacks, after modeling the target phrase "Can it (a bear) drive?" Students usually take to this right away and start having fun. 

Classroom Activities 2: Prepositions Treasure Hunts

Classroom Activity 1

Prepositions Treasure Hunts
Corresponds to English Land Level 3, Chapter 4
OR
Good for: beginning prepositions (Elementary School Age) 

You will need:

- Paper, Scissors, laminator (if you want to make a long lasting treasure hunt set)

-An item representing treasure, or real treasure to give to the students if they gather all the cards for their assigned treasure hunting quest

What To Do: 

-Number the Cards 

The Treasure Hunt can be as long or as short as you'd like, each card describes the location of the next item, and should be unique to your environment or classroom

(ex. #6 is under the clock) 

-Hide them before the class, retaining the first card as a hint

-For Larger Classes: Prepare color coded treasure hunts for small group hunting: groups are only allowed to take the cards for their color           

                                                                and should do it in order

For more practice: 

Do this as a warm-up activity or an extension of the lesson. I feel it really engages them and gets elementary age students thinking about the structure of preposition sentences, as they often mutter the locations under their breath as they search. Students can take turns reading the cards or a reader can be assigned. However, I have seen even shy students take to this activity. 

This could be used for any foreign language.

Classroom Activities 1: Missing Parts Characters

This is my classroom. That is basically all of it. The table can be pushed back a few feet if it's standing. Like three feet maximum. Or, the table is collapsible and allows for more space for little kids class or active class. But it's still a small room and keeping those kiddos engaged week after week becomes a priority, and yet, no easy task at all.

I recall my predecessor telling me that the best part of the job is that no work comes home. That is not true. Even if I am not working I am always thinking of students: the good, the bad, the engaged, and the disengaged. Oh, genius-kid would love this. Or, I wonder if I can involve this problem student if I did such-and-such in class. My classes are small enough that I have all their names memorized, and even then, all my students have nicknames in my mind.

At any rate, this post is the first in, hopefully, a series that can help out other teachers of activities I have created for my classroom to help spice up classroom work for students who come see me week after week, some who have now been with me for upwards of a year and a half. 

Today's Activity: Classroom Activity 1

Missing Parts Characters

What you will need: 

-clipart of characters, a simple google image search will do you just fine

  some topics which may be of interest: pirates, zombies, princesses, One Piece, Pokemon, blow up the image during printing

  (You are not selling this, you are merely using it to engage student, let your imagination go wild or your target vocabulary drive this search, if you are studying clothes choose an image with interesting and complicated clothes and accessories. If you are teaching body parts, choose something a little more exposed.  When students are engaged and curious about other items they might see, such as the pirate's sword or the zombie's brain, I find they become motivated to ask the vocabulary and retain it pretty well. )

-cardstock cards

-optional: laminator, laminator sheets

-scissors

-printer

This is the set I made for "Pirates", it reviews clothes, "bird", and face parts.

What I did: 

-print out enough copies for your class plus one to show as the model image as the students try to piece the character together: I have maximum three students so I chose to go with three, plus one 

-cut out the student characters, and then cut out various parts which clearly show target vocabulary, laminate the bodies and the cut out parts, the cut out parts are now game pieces which students will race to find under the card stock cards (you will need 8-10 cards, to have 8-10 items in play at a time) 

-cut up cardstock for a size which generally fits over the body parts you cut out

The Game: 

How to have fun with this in class

-elicit or teach new vocabulary with the full body image before beginning the activity and review I have/I don't have, or He/She/It has, doesn't have 

-pass each student, or each group of students, their altered copy of the goal image. Encourage them to shout out "He/She/It doesn't have... (x)!" or "He/She/It has (x)!" 

-tell students to close their eyes, and hide the various cut out parts, 8-10, depending on how many cards you cut out

-students only get one chance to look under a card, and must decide "He has/He doesn't have", each player or team gets a chance. When the game starts to reach its end some of the cards will be "empty"

-The first team to gather all it's missing parts wins! Routinely check in with students by eliciting what they still DON'T have so that they will know the vocabulary word to draw their card! 

Some of my kids were scared of this one.

                                        One of my Pirates, close up

                                         

 One of my classes requested a "Stinky Baby" character

Zombie edition

Don't stress finding the perfect size image, they can easily be blown up and the kids will have fun with the game, not how perfect the image is
. The better you know your kids, the better you can make a game that will engage them!  Just go wild. 

Happy Teaching! 

Corresponds to: English Land Level 2 Chapter 5
English Land Level 3 Chapter 3