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.

A little help to learn the names of six school supplies.

The beginning of a school year is always a good time to practice the alphabet. It's quite easy to learn it by heart and to recite all the letters in the specific order. It's getting difficult when it comes to pronuncing letters randomly, e.g. to spell a word. Mastering a skill requires practice.

I've found an interesting website where you can not only listen how to pronounce particular letters, but also practice your listening and speaking skills. Click on the gear icon to change the settings.

Some people may say that reading is a waste of time, you should just live your life and experience things. But I read a lot and I'm quite happy with that. There's always a book on my bedside table. I'm just looking for a bookcase to store a huge amount of books I have.

I'm not that kind of reader who can read a few books at the same time. What I need is a good story (rather fictional) I can read from cover to cover without interrupting. For a few years I've been choosing series, such as Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. And since I met my husband I have read a lot of fantasy. I've never expected I would be fond of such kind of books, but to my surprise I am. 

What makes books so powerful that we feel scared or excited reading them? I believe it's the story itself. People love stories. Some of us like reading stories, while others prefer listening to them. And of course, there are many gifted people who can tell really good stories.

It's amazing that we can even share our feelings while reading stories, e.g. when we are reading them aloud to children.
Today I'll present you my favourite sites to listen to and to create stories.

READ / LISTEN TO STORIES

Oxford Owl - Library

You have to Sign in to read eBooks, but it's free.

Storyline Online

 
I bet you'll love this site! Would you like to hear a story read by Betty White or Elijah Wood? If yes, it's the perfect place for you!

CREATE STORIES
If you would like to write your own stories or inspire your students to write theirs, there's no better site than Storybird.com.

You can create free classroom acount (up to 35 students). You can give assignments, keep your class activity private or share it. Making storybirds is easy, and students will be inspired to write by beautiful art. 

Listening is one of the most important and difficult skills. When we listen to various recordings in the classroom, my students usually complain that the speakers are talking too fast and it's difficult to understand them. And I always say that they have to practice more.  Nowadays, we've got plenty of opportunities to listen to English speakers outside a classroom.

One of my favourite websites with listening online activites is ELLLO.ORG, which stands for English Listening Lesson Library Online. It was created by Todd Beuckens, an English teacher based in Japan.

Elllo offers a variety of free activities, such as Games, Scenes, Views, Videos and Mixers on different levels of difficulty. Each audio is accompanied by the audio script (which you can hide). 

For beginners I recommend Games (SixPix) - just listen to the audio and choose the correct picture :) It's a good exercise to practice listening for the main idea and key words.

And those who loves music and singing should try:

 

How well do you know lyrics? Pick up a song, choose the level of difficulty, listen to the song and type the missing words.