Show and Tell

In the last week have started Show and Tell sessions in class.

The pupils bring in some photos from home and can prepare some comments about them. The main objective is to just speak clearly about something familiar and simple.

The pupils work in groups of about 5. While one of them speaks the others have an assessment sheet. They have to evaluate their classmates on several key areas -  interesting photos, speaking clearly, interesting information, "correct" English and a final mark.

(las hojas de evaluación solo sirven para enfocar el interés de los alumnos mientras escuchan a sus compañeros)

5B show and Tell 1 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5B Show and Tell 2 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

And thank you Martín for your humorous "Ninja Cat" presentation ...

5B Show and Tell (Martín) from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Reading Aloud: Dialogues

In the current work unit we are focusing on different ways of writing down spoken words.
In this video the students have used different "speech verbs" to write a very simple narrative which includes some dialogue.
Students volunteer to read aloud the completed text. This is a difficult skill as they have little time to prepare and must think of the intonation required.
In this activity we are not aiming for perfection. We are aiming for building confidence, improving intonation and fluency.

Text for 5ºA:

"How are you?" asked Brendan
"I´m bored" groaned Zaida "We have too much work!"
"Rubbish!" yelled Héctor "I want even more work"
(written by class together)

Reading Aloud 5A from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Text for 5ºB:

"How are you David?" asked Brendan
"I´m not happy" replied David
"Why not?" asked Brendan, looking at David with interest
"Because it´s the literacy class" groaned David. "All right, hmmm" yelled Brendan "Go and sit down!"
(written by class together)

Reading Aloud 5B (1) from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Reading Aloud 5B (2) from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Holiday Drawing Activities

Ideas for the holidays: Why not try drawing your favourite animal or cartoon character?

This is a link to "Art for Kids Hub" playlist on youtube. The same one we used to draw the Kookaburra.

Running Dictations

5ºB Running Dictation from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

We went outside on a cold friday midday to do a "Running Dictation". Working in teams the students have to pass a written message from one end of the playground to the other via a chain of communication. Sentence by sentence, bit by bit. The final writing is never the same as the original but it is interesting and fun to see the end result then discuss which parts are "easy" and which parts cause difficulties.

Photos from 5ºA:

Dictionary Work: Alternatives Verbs.

We are working on different ways to write the words that a person says.

(página 17 en el libro de texto)
We are going to use lots of alternatives to the verb "say" (said). Today we used dictionaries to check the meaning of a number of verbs and we need to select the ones that can be used for speaking

List of verbs with those we can use for speaking in red:

• grumble - quejarse

• shake

• go

• moan - quejarse, gemir

• whisper - susurrar, hablar muy bajo

• look

• groan - gemir, quejarse

• shout - gritar

• do - hacer

• yell - gritar, chillar

• ask - preguntar

• smile

• murmur - murmurar, susurrar

• croak - croar, decir con voz ronca

• jump

• start

• cry - gritar, llorar, llamar en voz alta

Who Am I? (actualizado)

Pupils have to guess their "new identity" as a famous person in this speaking activity. In this video there are very good examples of :

• Self-correction, 
• Question formation
• Listening and speaking in context

... and excellent interaction between pupils. Well done!

5ºB:

Who Am I? from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5ºA:
5A Who am I? from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Types of Questions the students asked:

• Am I a man? Am I a woman? Am I an actor? Am I Spanish? Am I a singer?
• Can I speak English? Can I run fast? Can I play the piano?
• Have I got long hair? Have I got a famous wife?
• Do I live in Hollywood? Do I play for Real madrid? etc etc

Reading: Winter Birds

In this link the students can read about common birds which are easy to see in the UK in wintertime. From the BBC cbbc children´s website (abre en una ventana nueva).
Esto es un recurso que se utilizará en el aula
En este momento hay un problema con el link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/joinin/10-birds-you-can-spot-this-winter

Story Time: The Iron Man

On fridays we usually have our "Story Time" when we read poems, section of novels or short stories in a group. In the first term we read the first chapter of this famous story for children, "The Iron man" by Ted Hughes.

Open the video below to see an excellent and atmospheric, animated version of the first chapter. It is from the BBC children´s channel.
(1. Esto es un recurso que se utilizará en el aula)

Below that there is a video of the students in 5ºA doing a follow-up activity.
(2. Alumnos de 5ºA hablan del libro en el segundo video:)


The Iron Man from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

5A The Iron Man Review from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.


Listening Practice: This is an abridged version of the story, we will be doing some comprehension questions based on this listening. Practice reading the text to yourself as it is read by the narrator.

Esto es otro recurso que se utilizará en el aula:

Him Her Me Us Them ....

Working on pronouns is often difficult. But eventually after hearing and saying thousands of things in English they begin to sound right. Sometimes we do short "games" to check and revise.

In this activity the pupils from 5ºA are playing "Sergeant and soldiers" and have to think quickly (while practicing the use of object pronouns).

  
5A Pronoun Soldiers from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Draw a Kookaburra (Art)

We have been working on birds in Literacy. Our next project in Art class is going to be building 3D models of birds from Oceania. Before that we practiced drawing this super bird that is found in Australia: The Kookaburra

Here is the video with step by step instructions that we watched in class. (Message to pupils: If you don´t like your first version do another one!)

The Magpie Poem.

We are working on "scientific" and non-fiction texts at the moment. To coincide with the research on different types of birds we had a bit of fun with this traditional poem about the magpie (the urraca or "pega"). Throughout history the magpie has been the subject of superstition and folk stories.

In the first video the pupils of 5ºA have been given the words of the poem as a puzzle. They are deciding the logical order for the words by working out the "value" of each element and which of them rhyme.

5A Magpie Poem Class from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Here the pupils of 5ºB recite the poem in groups:

5B Magpie Poem 1 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5B Magpie Poem 2 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5B Magpie Poem 3 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

There are lots of variations on this traditional poem but this is the most commonly known one:

One for sorrow
Two for joy
Three for a girl
Four for a boy
Five for silver
Six for gold
Seven for a secret never to be told!

Jovellanos Museum (Art)

We went to the Jovellanos Museum in the centre of Gijón (Casa Natal de Jovellanos). In the first part of the visit we looked at portraits ...

and then in the second part we did a portrait workshop and made our own pictures using photocopies of faces of famous women and collage materials (photos 5ºA):

And a video from the 5ºB session:

5Bjovellanos from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

The Strange Life Cycle of the Cuckoo.

This is a video that we watched in class. It was the introduction to focus our interest on the life and behaviour of a very strange bird: the Cuckoo.

Día de la Paz (Art)

Every year we celebrate "Peace Day" in school. This year we made a copy of Picasso´s Dove of Peace". We made a collective artwork with all the Atalía pupils making hand prints around the dove silhouette. In class each pupil also made their own versions of the Picasso drawing.

In this video the pupils from 5ºB are painting around dove templates which they had made by copying from the original drawing. Then they used their fingers to create a similar effect to the whole school picture which can be seen on the floor.

5Bpeacedayart from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Teatro de Halloween (octubre 2015)

Para coincidir con la celebración de halloween en el colegio, los alumnos hicieron una adaptación de un cuento que habíamos leído en "story time" (la sesión de cada semana que dedicamos a cuentos, lectura en grupo, dramatizaciones ... ). El cuento original se llama ""Little Rabbit Foo Foo" y la versión en canción se puede ver en este video:

   

El proceso de adaptación del cuento/canción se centró en cambiar los nombres de los personajes, añadir nuevos adjetivos y mantener el numero de sílabas que hay en la canción original. 

Los alumnos decidieron en sus grupos el guión final y por eso la versión de 5ºA  se llama "Evil Demon Boo Boo" y la de 5ºB "Creepy Zombie Zoo Zoo". 

Aquí hay un video del último ensayo en cada clase:

5A Theatre Rehearsal: "Evil Demon Boo Boo" from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.


5B Rehearsal Theatre: "Creepy Zombie Zoo Zoo" from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

y aquí algunos fotos de los actores ...

Using Whiteboards in Class

For general motivation and class dynamics the whiteboards are great. Pupils just like the switch from writing in their notebook. Here they are reviewing their news from the previous weekend and doing a simple questionnaire,  getting up out of their seats, walking around the class and writing down answers.

We have been working on giving instructions and orders. In the activity in the following video the pupils need to write down commands on their whiteboards using common verbs and then dictate them to the group who then have to do an action in response.

The aim of this activity is for everybody to participate, to think and act quickly, and to feel confident using English.


5A Whiteboards from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

Shake the Dice ... "Bossy Verb" Poems 1

Trabajos con "bossy verbs" verbos que nos mandan hacer cosas o que nos expliquen las normas de un juego. Por ejemplo para el juego de "Snakes and Ladders" usamos ese poema para recordar como se juega.

 
5A Shake the Dice 1 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5A Shake the Dice 2 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5A Shake the Dice 3 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5B Shake the Dice 1 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.
5B Shake the Dice 2 from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.


Shake the dice, throw the dice,
One and one makes two,
You´ve landed on a ladder,
Now I´m in front of you!

Shake the dice, throw the dice
Four and six make ten.
You´ve landed on a slippery snake
Now back to the start again!