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.

Many of my students have a problem with syntax. Although they learn phrases and language chunks, not only words, they still  make mistakes while rearranging jumbled up sentences into meaningful ones.

To make such exercises more engaging and exciting, I created word clouds with seven sentences. At first I didn't know which online generator I should use. Eventually, I decided to use Wordle, as it can create word clouds with all the words. You just have to mark the option "Do not remove common words".

Last week my 6th graders revised present tenses. Grammar is not their idea of having fun, so I had to come up with some activities that will make it more enjoyable.

I have found cute pictures presenting girl's life and I have created a set of 24 picture cards and 12 word cards.

I divided the class into groups of four. Each student got one picture card. I had to make sure that they know the English phrases to describe the pictures. Then I picked up one word card and read it out loud. The students had to decide which tense they sould use and they had to write the correct sentence in their notebooks. Then they read their sentences one by one. They swapped pictures within their groups, I picked up another word card, and they wrote and read another sentence. We repeated this three times.

They said they liked the activity more than workbook grammar exercises. But what is more important, even the weakest students were able to create correct sentences on their own.

If you like this actitivy and you want to do it with your students, you can download it here:

How to engage students in speaking activities? Let them do a class survey.

The task was meaningful, as the students had to find out how often their friends do different activities. We use it to practice Present Simple, adverbs of frequency and indoor activities vocabulary. My students worked in pairs. Each pair got a chart and a question they had to fill in accoring to the picture. Then each pair had to ask other students the question and to mark the answer on the chart.

Here's the chart template:

What kind of food is countable? What kind is not? To help my students talk about countable and uncountable nouns, I've prepared a speaking exercise "What's in your fridge?"

Each students got a fridge outline to cut, fold and stick into the notebook.

Here you can download fridge front and back. You just have do print it double-sided.

Then I asked my students to choose 10 items from food vocabulary list and to draw them in the fridge. I divided the students into pairs (student A and student B) and one group of 3.

Students A were supposed to ask students B about the items from list A and vice versa. They also had to write down any items that were missing in the fridge.

As you can see, my 5th-graders enjoyed the exercise.

Sitting at the desk for 45 minutes can be really tedious for students. My teacher in secondary school had this saying: "Move your 'bottom' and your mind will follow". Last Thrusday I decided to try running dictation with my 5th-graders. Most of them were very enthusiastic about this exercise. 

I have to admit that I was enthusiastic, too. Running dictation combines: reading, speaking, listening and writing. It also develops vocabulary and grammar skills.

How did I do it?

1. I divided my students into two groups. I asked them to stand in two lines.
2. The first person in each group was the runner and the second person was the writer.
3.  I put two copies of a short text on the wall opposite two desks.
4. The runners in each group had to run to the wall, read the first sentence of the text, run back to the writers and quietly dictate what they remembered. Then they went to the end of the line.
5. When the writer wrote down the sentence, they became the runner and the next person in the line became the writer. 
6. When both teams were ready with the text, I swap their worksheets. They had to check them for mistakes.

We had so much fun with this activity. Next time we will try to do it in smaller groups or we will do it in the hall, so they will have to run.

Coding and decoding can be a lot of fun. Especially, when it is in English. The weather is beautiful lately, so it is difficult to be productive in the classroom. I have to make my lessons more interesting than the spring weather. My idea is to use a secret alphabet code. You can easily find a lot of examples online and choose whichever you like. 

I like the pigpen cipher:

Yesterday I wrote 8 sentences (e.g. It's Saturday. We don't have to go to school.) and then I rendered them in ciphertext. I cut them into pieces (each sentence had its own colour). I scattered the pieces in the classroom, so the students could decipher them and put them in the right order to make sentences.

As you can see, my students were very focused (despite the weather). They even worked in pairs and groups willingly.
BTW, I've tried a new app: Pic Collage to create the photo collage above. It's my first attempt. I have an idea how I can use this app with my students.

Here are very simplified models of sentence structures with the present simple forms of the verbs "to be" and "to have got".

Another wonderful year has just begun and here I am again with my blog entries! It's been a while since my last post. Sorry for that.
This school year I'm lucky to teach amazing 4th-graders. For those kids I would go the extra mile.
This week they learned about question words and wh- questions with the verb "to be" in Present Simple. Here are some online exercises:
(Use them in a full-screen mode.)

For young Polish learners of English it may be not so obvious when do we use Present Simple Tense and when do we use Present Continuous Tense. 

I hope this picture will help you to remember the difference.

I hope this won't be the last part of my Silly Sentences set.

Silly Sentences p8 by kakitis

Last but not least - prepositions. It's the last part of my set that contains words. And tomorrow's one will be with periods and and some extra vocabulary.

Silly Sentences p7 by kakitis

There are 24 nouns in the 5th part of my Silly Sentences set. If it's not enough, I'll prepare more. Just let me know in the comments.

Silly Sentences p5 by kakitis

The fourth part of my Silly Sentences set contains 24 adjectives.

Silly Sentences p4 by kakitis

Here's the third part of the set with definite and indefinite articles.

Silly Sentences p3 by kakitis

The second part of my Silly Sentences set contains possessive pronouns.

Silly Sentences p2 by kakitis

My birthday is in a week, so I've decided to prepare a present for my blog readers. I've prepared my own set of Silly Sentences, but I divided it into 7 parts. Everyday I'll upload one part, so within a week you'll have the whole set.

The first part contains instructions (how to use the set, how the words are colour-coded and how to make noun phrases and prepositional phrases).

Silly Sentences p1 by kakitis

A few years ago I bought a game called "Silly sentences" by DK Publishing. I must admit it's very exciting for elementary learners. Even if they don't understand some words, they can learn them very fast.

 Creating sentences that make no sense is good fun. The sillier sentences, the better.

One of my students is especially eager to build very long sentences. Unfortunately, there are no relative pronouns in the set. That's why I decided to make my own set. I've searched the net and I've found a brilliant blog First Grade Fresh. Morgan Berard has created her own Silly Sentences set with clear instructions (you can find it here).

Inspired by Mrs. Berard I'm working on my own Silly Sentences. I'll try to post my set next week.

I teach mostly young learners. My students need a lot of visual aids while learning English. I usually explain different grammar structures using simple and familiar concepts, such as building blocks or toy trains. It works even with my 5th- or 6th-graders.

Here's a very simplified model of sentence structures with the past simple forms of the verb "to be".

This post is written especially for my 6th-graders. We've recently discussed the difference between Present Simple and Present Continuous, but they still need some help. How to decide which tense should you use in a particular case? Try this simplified "decision tree" (in Polish and English):