Easter Holiday Homework: Follow-up.

The pupils produced some excellent and interesting "Holiday Diaries".
(Pincha en las fotos para verlas más grandes)

After returning from the Easter break we did a questions and answer session using the whiteboards to take notes. (photos and video 5ªB). After selecting various dates from the holiday period pupils have to find others in the class who did something on that date. They use their own diary for consultation.

La calidad del sonido en el video no es muy buena pero se puede ver que todos los alumnos se involucran en la actividad 

Easter Holiday News from Atalía 5 Gijon on Vimeo.

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:

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!

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.