Caterpillar sentences

CATERPILLAR SENTENCES 

I was thinking of a way to get my students (9-10 years old) to  formulate their own sentences and at same time have fun.  An then I came up with the idea of the caterpillar sentences and they absolutely loved it. 😀😘😎

How to use this idea: Get students to cut down and then stick the caterpillar in their notebooks. Then, get them to write a word and a sentence using the words from the caterpillar (as seen in the example).

DOWNLOAD THE WORKSHEET HERE

Back to School : Part 1 (Week 1: getting to know your students )

So this is it! Back to school.. :) I am pretty excited about it, let's be honest, educators have such a big break :D and I do miss teaching. So these are my top ideas/activities on getting back to school, mainly related to new groups, adults and teens.

1. Find someone who (A2 and above/Adults): love this, just because I get them to stand up, mingle, move around and get to know each other.

• Hand out the sheets (attached below) and demonstrate the first example by asking  the question to a student. Ask students to fill up the information at the same time.

Teacher - Have you got a pet?
Student -Yes
Teacher -Is it a cat or a dog?
Student - Dog
Teacher - What's his/her name?
Student - Klio.

• Ask students to think for a minute on how to formulate the questions and then elicit. 
• Then, get them to stand up, mingle around the classroom to write as many names as possible. Also remind them to ask more question to fill up the 'more information' section.
•  Elicit feedback with students telling you about their findings. Example: Yiannis speaks more than three languages. Persian, Greek, English and Spanish and his favorite language is Persian.
• Adapt this game by making your own questions depending on the level and age group.

PRESS HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE HANDOUT 

2. True or False.

• Write five statements about you on the whiteboard and tell students that 4 statements are True while one is False. 
• Students make their guesses in an open class discussion. 
• Get students to do the same by writing 4 true statements about themselves and one False. Then, get them to work in two's or three's and play the game.

3. About me (A2 above/works well with teenagers)

• Write a set of questions on a handout or the whiteboard related to hobbies, interests, music, sports, holidays e.t.c.
• Give out some empty pieces of papers and ask students to answer each question on a different paper and then folder it. 
• Collect the paper, add it in a box or a jar and get students to pick and guess who's paper might be. If right then he/she gets a point.
• Encourage students to ask a question to find more information and get an extra point. 

PRESS HERE FOR THE QUESTIONS I USE.  

In Part 2 I am going to share some more fun activities after you get to know your group. This one (below) I love it !!! :)
4. Jinx Challenge. (For all levels and ages.)
This can be played after getting to know your students to add a bit of fun. I've attached the YouTube video here that I get the inspiration from. Enjoy it!

 
 

Working with Phrasal verbs 2: Teenagers

When it comes to teenagers I have to admit that my ideas are more creative than my first posts 'Working with Phrasal verbs 1'.

IDEA 1

• I get them to use the phrasal verbs in shapes and graphics. Like this they have all gather in a handout with a definition and an example. They find that useful and memorable. It also works really well with visual learners.

This is an example a student of mine did last week. 

IDEA 2

• I  ask them to use the phrasal verbs in comics. You will be amazed how much they enjoy that and how fast they learn to make comics online by themselves. For the first time I suggest doing one comic together so they can see how to go about it.

>

You can make your own comics online in these websites:

Make beliefs comix
Pixton
ToonDoo
Bitstrips

IDEA 3

Play Games: Mystery Reward Game!!!!

• Teenagers are incredibly competitive. Games and competitions work really well with phrasal verbs and students love it!

One game that we usually play to revise vocabulary is the 'Choose a symbol'. Each symbol means something else. Students however, don't know what each symbol means and I think it what makes it fun and engaging.

Step 1: Divide students into two teams and give each team a copy.
Step 2: Ask the first team to choose a symbol. Then you could ask them to give you an 'example sentence' or a 'definition' of the phrasal verb. (Alternatively you could prepare some sentences and ask them to guess the missing word in the gap)
Step 3: Once they have answer tell them the prize of the symbol.
Step 4: Repeat steps 2-3.

DOWNLOAD THE GAME HERE!!!!!
Some ideas are:

  10+ points
-10 points

  Double points

Swap points

     No points

5+ points

Play again (no points)

3+ points

Swap points.

Hope you enjoyed this post, feel free to comment and share more ideas about teaching phrasal verbs to teens :)

Gaming: Clash Royale

Quite recently I've realised that the only way to get my students enjoy learning English outside the classroom is through gaming. Games like Minecraft, Clash Royale can get your students to learn and improve their vocabulary outside classroom. There are so many advantages to Gaming. When I first thought of this post I wanted to list so many benefits but I'm going to stick to the most important ones: 

Benefits of Virtual Gaming

• Vocabulary learning can be significantly improved.
• Writing skills can also increased significantly.
• Gaming can help in motivating students to engaged in activities relating to the learning of a second language 
• MOST IMPORTANTLY: LEARNERS LOVE IT!

In this posts I have also included an activity on Clash Royale. STEP 1: I think that you should first download the game yourself, just to get a general idea what is it like and you never know,  you just might like it :) . STEP 2:  Get your students to change the game's language to English.
Step 3: Let them know that soon you'll have an activity on Clash Royale and they should learn the names of their cards (in English of course!)


DOWNLOAD THE WORKSHEET HERE

 Activity 1:
Before: Divide students into pairs. Ask them, to come up with as many cards as possible. Go through the cards and help them with pronunciation.
Activity 1: Give Ss two minutes to complete Activity 1 individually and then check in pairs.

Activity 2: 
Before: Check the meaning of the underlined words.

Activity 2: Allow 3-4 for students to complete the sentences and then ask them to check in pairs.

Activity 3: 
Before: Tell students that now they should think of their strategy and write few sentences about it. Then, they're going to present their strategy in the class. *if you are allowed to use mobiles you can get them to demonstrate their strategy. 
Activity 3: Allow 6-7 minutes and help students with vocabulary. Encourage them to use words and expression from Activity 2. 
After: Students take turns to present their strategy and vote for the best one at the end of the presentations.

Hope you enjoy this post :)

Extr@ Series

Episode 1
Why Extr@?
Extr@ it's cool TV series, a funny sitcom, and an English course, all wrapped in one single package to make Extr@, the perfect way of learning natural English having fun.

Annie and Bridget share a flat. Their next-door neighbour Nick is a disorganized, humorous macho fellow. Bridget's Argentinean penpal, Hector, comes to London to visit her. His limited command of English serves as the central dynamic for the language learning content of the series. His trying to get to grips with the daily English is highly amusing (and enlightening).
You are going to:

• watch the first episode of the series 'Extr@ English' 
• and complete the following activities. 

You can find the link of the video here. Enjoy :D


You can find activities here:

Episode activities