Sounds box for reading stories

By Laura Benito

A motivating way for students to listen to a teacher reading a story or a book is the use of this sounds box.

While my colleague was reading a book to the students I was pushing the bottom of the corresponding sound. The story became alive and the children lived the story as if they were inside the book. 

Laughs sound, music sound, ideas sound, clapping hands sound... It is a fantastic device that you may find on different online shops. However, I bought mine in a physical shop called TIGER. It's cheap and I'm sure you would use it very often.

Christmas QR Advent calendar

By Laura Benito

This is an example I've found on the Internet of how to enjoy a different activity each day of December until Christmas day comes.

It is and advent calendar made by QR codes. Each day we scan the QR code and we find a "surprise" on the screen of the digital board (a Christmas song, a Christmas story, a Christmas craft...).

We can use this idea for any other month of the year to teach and learn different topics.

This is made for printing in PDF format but we can make one using CANVA which allows you to create and insert QR codes and put them on the poster you design.

I think it is a great and very creative idea.

Hope you like it!

Hand-made piano

By Rebeca Pérez

I use hand made materials (aluminium foil and paper card to build a floor piano)  connected to a circuit board and alligators clips to produce music. My students  learn about the properties of conductors and insulators at the same time they have fun.

Christmas Crazy Reading

By Beatriz Santos

Today I want to share with you an activity I found on Twitter entitled: CRAZY READING by @AzaharaZayr. I have changed it, so that it can be used in the English classroom with secondary students.  However, it is very easy to adapt it to primary students. 

It is ‘crazy’ because as our students’ reading pace is different, at some point some will be singing carols, while other people will be dancing, another person will be writing his/her 

 new year resolutions, and the like.

It might be the perfect level of craziness for the last day of school, don’t you think? 

Decoration of classroom doors

By Laura Benito

I love decorating my classrooms' doors when a festivity or a special day is coming. 

My pupils always help me.

I post here some examples of my classrooms' doors.

First week of the school-year: WELCOME! DOOR

HALLOWEEN DOOR

CHRISTMAS DOOR (INSIDE)

CHRISTMAS DOOR (OUTSIDE)

BOOK DAY DOOR

Relaxing corner

By Laura Benito

4 years ago I was the tutor of 4ºB Primary in a Village in Valladolid. The coordination with the tutor of 4ºA was continuous and we tried to make the same things, activities, classroom layout... Moreover, I was the English teacher for both classes.

One of the fantastic things we made was the "Relaxing corner". It was a corner in the classroom where fast-finishers could go for relaxing, reading or playing a board game. However, we also used it when we all finished an activity soon or for doing co-operative activities.

It was a different corner because of its decoration. We made a big tree where the leaves were the initial letter of the name of each student.

Then, we made personalized cushions. I bought 24 cushions for 1 euro in a street market and my colleague made the cushion covers. Then, each child decorated his/her cushion and wrote a positive sentence using textile markers.

And these are some of the games we used in our "Relaxing corner".

The funny thing is that, although the school was not bilingual, I made my class bilingual anyway.

Christmas advent calendar

By Laura Benito

The fist day of December I hang these advent calendar in the classroom.

Some days before December starts, I tell my students to bring papel rolls to class.

I use paper rolls (one for each day of December until 23rd) which i fill with lacasitos, gummies, small rubbers... small gifts for my students. I put inside the same number of elements than the students I have in the class. Then, I wrap each paper roll with long pieces of wool.

You can see it in this photograph.

I have a helper each day, so at the end of the English class or at the end of the morning before they go home (if I am the tutor of the class) he or she opens the paper roll of the corresponding day. Then, this super helper gives one "gift" for each classmate.

It's great to see their faces while the helper opens the paper roll of the day!

What's in the Christmas Present?

By Raquel Ortega

Taking advantage of the science lessons dealing with textures and the 5 senses, I'm going to try this activity on adjectives in my English class. It's a guessing game where students need to guess 12 presents just by giving them a descriptive adjective: light, heavy, soft, hard, ...

The idea is to have the 12 presents in realia inside 12 different boxes, so that kids can touch, feel, smell, etc beforehand. Once they get familiar with the objects, the students are given 12 different cards with a drawing of the presents. With the help of the descriptive adjectives in the cards, they need to guess what the present is. 

I think it's going to be fun!

I attatch the file I took from Teacherspayteachers, It's a free one, so you can download it if you have an account.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Interactive-Book-for-Christmas-Descriptive-Language-WH-Questions-5075891

Creative classes in the playground

By Miriam Escalante

I teach English at the first level of Enfant Education. I've used these ideas to reinforce colours: yes, at the playground!_as you can see at the photo_after their creation with buckets:

I've also used sand from the playground (they took it some days before) to introduce the vocabulary of shapes: circle. 

I think that when they have a creative experience, they learn more and more.

Road Dahl's "The Twits"

By César Martín Pisonero

In our 1st year of bilingual Compulsory Education, our students read Roal Dahl's "The Twits".

The main characters in this book are everything but neat people, so at the end of the year we prepare two activities:

1- They need to think of a disgusting recipe that only Mr and Mrs Twit would attempt to taste. Then, they take it down on a paper and they work in art class so as to produce it with art craft materials.

You can see an example here:

2- After having dealt with persuasive language, they need to produce a radio advert in order to convince potential buyers that these meals are the most appealing ever and that they really are missing out on a must-eat if they do not purchase them

Once all of this has been done, we exhibit their handcrafted recipes with a QR code that takes us to SOUND CLOUD, where listeners can access the adverts.

Spooky recipes: Master Chef contest for Halloween

By Verónica Aguirre López

This is the Halloween Master chef contest that we had! They had to create SPOOKY recipes in class for Halloween. They loved it and we had so much fun in class!

Flashcards to support teaching "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"

 By Elena de la Puente

What is it? 

MANIPULATIVE MATERIAL: Flashcards to support teaching "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". 

What do you use it for? 

I use it for working the vocabulary that appears in the story. 

After reading the story, students can put the days of the week in order according to the story. Afterwards, we could classify the healthy food and the unhealthy food. You can also work the spelling of the food through games like the snap, the hang man, what's missing...