I am back with new ideas and new materials.

Let me show you my version of the game "I have who has". The rules are the same, but I made a few changes. Instead of the phrase "I have" I used the phrase "I am" and the name of a profession. I also replaced the question "who has" with the question word "who" and the definition of the profession. 

Have fun :-)

I promised to tell you how I teach English to my little daughter. Well, teaching is a big word in this situation. I just try to speak Polish and English to my daughter as much as possible, so she could pick up both languages. As you know I read and tell her stories but lately she prefers songs. I'm not the best singer but my little baby doesn't mind for now. When it's time to sleep I sing her traditional Polish lullabies or calm songs in English. And when we change diapers or when we play she prefers more energetic songs. Our favourites are some songs from Super Simple Songs, such as "Baby Shark", "Five Little Ducks" and "The Ants Go Marching" - they are easy to sing and the lyrics are easy to remember. We have recently discovered a new one: "My Teddy Bear".

This song is so simple but it offers endless possibilities to use it for teaching English. A few days ago I came up with the idea to change the lyrics and sing it to my daughter after changing her diaper. Here's my version of the first verse (in fact, it could be the second or the third verse):

Then I change "blue eyes" to e.g. "small ears", "one nose" or "two hands" and so on. As you can see,  the order doesn't matter. I just sing about different body parts in each verse. And I use different adjectives or numbers. What is more important, I also use movement by pointing to particular body parts while singing. For example, when I'm singing: "My baby girl has small ears.", I gently touch her ears. And I always hug her when I'm sining: "I love my baby girl."

If you have a baby boy, it's very easy to change the lyrics ;)

And what about you? Do you have your favourite English songs? Do you sing them with your own lyrics?

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I have been a teacher for more than 10 years now. I had never planned it before I started working at school. When I was in high school, my English teacher (btw. my fav teacher) asked me about my futer plans. I told him that I wanted to get a master degree in English philology. He asked me if I wanted to become a teacher but I denied it. Back then I was convinced that this profession wasn't suitable for me. I couldn't be more wrong.

Now I know that teaching is not only profession but most of all it's my true calling. I love teaching, although it's so difficult sometimes. I don't want to write a long post about the advantages and disadvantages of being a teacher. On this special day I just want to tell you why I love my professional life. There are at least 3 reasons, and they are interconnected.

1) PERSONAL RELATIONS 

As a child I was very shy, so I have never considered myself to be a people person. At first I wasn't very confident in the classroom but my profession requires a lot of human interaction and that made me open to people.

2) ENDLESS CREATIVITY

Being a teacher, I am always in touch with my inner child. Preparing new learning activities or projects helps me to flourish my creativity.

3) PERSONAL GROWTH

I also discover new passions and gain new abilities. A few years ago I started my journey of learning how to code. And last year I returned to drawing or rather doodling ;)

Being a teacher isn't easy but it can be very rewarding if you're passionate about it. Happy Teacher's Day.

Last year I changed my classroom arrangement, so my students could easily work in pairs and in groups. At first some of them didn't like it, and their behaviour was disruptive but I was persistent. I wanted them to talk in English, so I tried to prepare attractive speaking activities for almost each lesson.

This speaking activity was inspired by my post "What's in your fridge?" from 2015. This time I gave my students ready-made cards. They were divided into groups of four and each group was divided into two pairs. Each pair was given a picture of a fridge but there were some differences in the content of fridges. The task was to ask and answer some questions, such as "Are there any apples in your fridge?" to find out the differences.

You can download and print my fridges here:

1) front:

2) back:

 

You can use it to practice different grammar structures: to have got, there is/there are, some/any etc.

Do you have any other ideas how to use my printable fridges? Please, share them in the comments.