The letter exchange

•  A description of the target group:

Ø  Number of students: 25

Ø  Age: 11 years old

Ø  Level: Medium

Ø  Nationality: Spanish

•  Length of time for the activity à 3 lessons of 45 minutes.

•  Teaching/Learning objectives:

Ø  Awaken in students the interest in learning a foreign language.

Ø  Write and understand brief and simple messages in classroom situations using the information transmitted to perform tasks related to their experience.

Ø  Use basic communication elements.

• Materials used à Pieces of paper, envelopes, pencil, and a pen.
•  Classroom arrangement à The class is going to be organized in rows because they have to work individually.
•  Lessons procedure: explain in detail the steps you will follow, include examples of the students’ expected outcomes, etc.

 

- First of all, I have to say that I have done this activity as a Spanish teacher in an European School in Oxford (England), so it is a real situation and it can be carried out perfectly. Talking about my real experience, I have to say that I had a great advantage and this is that I was living in England and I had contacts in some schools of Spain. So, all I did get in touch with the English teacher of a Spanish school and organize a letter exchange with the main aim of practicing writing skills in both languages (English and Spanish). I think that it is easy to do it if the teacher wants to and children love it. If you want to encourage their motivation, this is the ideal activity.

-  Secondly, I have to clarify that the activity that I am going to suggest here is going to be just the opposite case that I have mentioned before because now I am living in Spain, working as English teacher and I still have the contact with the European School where I worked.

 The activity is going to consist of writing a letter in English to improve our writing skills about “What do we think about English culture and their stereotypes?” and send all of them to England. Teachers participate too.

At the same time, English students of England have to do the same but in Spanish but the topic is going to be “What do we think about Spanish culture and stereotypes?” and send it to Spain, indeed.

- The last part of the activity will be send all the letters back but corrected by the students. Obviously, this is going to take 2-3 weeks but the activity process will be in 3 lessons of 45 minutes. When our letters are received again, we will spend another extra lesson on it.

Animal Crossword

  

  Name of activity à Animal crossword

    Age of children and level à Year 4 (8 years old)

    Skills of English they’re going to practice à Reading and use of English.

    Authoring tool à JCross

  à  Short description of the activity and how you’re going to carry it out in class:

We are going to use the Hot Potatoes application which it lets you create new educational exercises and then you can practice them through the website. In this case, we are going to use the JCross and the activity consists of improving vocabulary skills in a different and funnier way. They are going to work first individually and the second time, they can do it in pairs. They are going to do the crossword twice to settle the knowledges properly.

If they hit all of them, they will get 100 per cent but if they are not able to answer the mayority of them correctly, the porcentage is going to be down and down in such a way that if they don’t know any of them, the percentage will be 0.

à Link to go through to the web:

C:\Users\Alejandro\Desktop\UNIR\ICT\Trabajos\animalscrossword.htm

Little quiz

• Name of activity à Little quiz
•        Age of children and level à Year 6 (11 years old)
•       Skills of English they’re going to practice à Reading 
•      Authoring tool à JQuiz

 àShort description of the activity and how you’re going to carry it out in class:

We are going to use the Hot Potatoes application which it lets you create new educational exercises and then you can practice them through the website. In this case, we are going to use the JQuiz and the activity consists of improving your general culture and knowledges answering the ten questions created by the teacher. They are going to work first individually and the second time, they can do it in pairs. They are going to do the quiz twice to settle the knowledges properly.

If they hit all of them, they will get 100 per cent but if they are not able to answer the mayority of them correctly, the porcentage is going to be down and down in such a way that if they don’t know any of them, the percentage will be 0.

à Link to go through to the web:

 C:\Users\Alejandro\Desktop\UNIR\ICT\Trabajos\Little_quiz.htm

What time is it, Mr. Wolf?

  

•           Name of activity à What time is it, Mr. Wolf?
•       Age of children and level à Year 5 (10 years old)
•    Skills of English they’re going to practice à  listening, speaking or use of English.

  

à  Short description of the activity and how you’re going to carry it out in class:

What's the time Mr Wolf is a classic kids party game for children of all ages to enjoy. You can play along and make this kids activity the highlight of the lesson.

One child is chosen to be Mr Wolf, who then stands at one end of the playing area. The other players stand in a line at the other end. Mr Wolf turns his back to start playing. The players call out, "What's the time Mr Wolf?" and Mr Wolf turns and answers with a time (i.e. 3 o'clock). He then turns his back again while the children advance again chanting "What's the time Mr Wolf?" To which Mr Wolf will continue to respond until the players come very close.

Once the line of players is close to Mr Wolf, he can respond to the chant with "It's dinner time!" at which point, he will chase the players back to the starting line with the aim to catch one of the them, who will then become Mr Wolf for the next round of the game.

à How should we carry out the activity?

Personally, I have done this activity at the end of the unit to check if the know the time and it works.

The first thing that we should do it is work first the use of English and when you are sure that the majority of them are right, we can play this game mentioned before.

After this, all we should do is check the use of English (show different clocks and they have to say “What time is it?” and explain the game through slides (Power Point) and then watch all together a real video showing them how other kids played the same game on other occasions.

Finally, you have to find a proper and huge place (i.e. playground) because they have to run, jump and practice English at the same time. If the teacher organisation is good, they love this activity/game.

Example of a real situation

     

Fill the gaps

•       The aim of this activity is  check the vocabulary seen in the previous lessons and improve their listening skills in a different way, playing a song.

•       At the beggining of the class, we will explain how is going to work the activity and what is the main aim of it.

•       We have to remember that we are going to check all together the vocabulary words worked in the unit and all the steps that they have to follow to complete the “Fill the gaps” properly.

•       After this, we will say the title of the song and we will play just once that song to familiarise it.

•       Once they finished, we will play the song twice. They have to learn that the first time that they listen something, they have to pay extremely attention and just focus on the lyrics and the rest of times, the have to fill the gaps or complete the activity that the teacher says.

•       When the song stop the last time, they are going to check it the content in two different ways, first individually and then with the classmate next to him or her.

•       Just in case they have some doubts, we will write on the board the correct anwers and as teachers we have to try that everyone has to participate in the 45 minutes class.

•       If we have some spare time and our/their aim is done and this behaviour has been the proper one, we can song the song all together.

Example of one of the pieces of paper that we will give to the student

*Link to go through to the song -    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkgkThdzX-8