Fun in class: our year recap
- Miss Marilena
- May 27, 2024
- 5 min read
This year I set a new goal at the beginning of September to make learning more fun for all of my students. Now as this academic year is slowly coming to an end I realized how much of a difference this change has been for every one of my students, even for me. It has definitely been more fun but also less stressful of a year. Here are some of the things we did.
Are you ready for a huge load of pictures? This post is full of visual information rather than words. So for my visual loving readers you are welcome. 😄
Before we start I would love to remind you that all these extra activities, crafts and games are part of a whole lesson. The biggest part of the lesson is usually spent going through our English-level-appropriate books. All these extra fun activities we are going to talk about today happen at the beginning or end of some (not all) of our lessons for 5 to 10 minutes.
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Alphabet practice
Let's begin from the basics. We have practiced Alphabet a few different ways these past years and they are all pretty fun to do. The kids always love hands on activities and anything that's similar to a game. Here are some of the more creative ways we practiced the Alphabet:
pic.1 Tracing letters with water
pic.2 Playdough letter shaping
pic.3 Magnets letter recognition
pic.4 Letter puzzle toys
pic.5 Alphabet letter crafts
pic.6 Alphabet ice cream matching (fun fact: I made these cute activities during the summer and ended up with a full busy book)
pic.7 Alphabet tracing
Vocabulary practice
Many children luck the confidence to speak when we first start our lessons together. My goal is to make them feel comfortable and start talking English as soon as possible even if they make mistakes. That is why I start out with a vocabulary boost at the beginning of each year. I personally talk to my students (and even their parents) in English, I deliberately talk slowly and name everything I do or think.
For example, I make a lot of fuss over my lost pens, which I happen to loose at the beginning of every single lesson 😜 pro tip: repetition is key to learn something new
"Where is my pen? Oh no! I lost my pen! Have you seen my pen? It's blue. It was right here. Is it under the table? No... Is it under the chair? No... Oh! It's in my book. Here it is. In my book. My blue pen."
Real life conversation I have by myself almost every other lesson. Do I look and sound silly doing it? Yes! Does this work as a great teaching method? Yes!
So that is a simple way of how I introduce more vocabulary without lots of preparation in my lessons but here are some other ways I love using:
Pic.8 Spelling game with magnets
Pic.9 Spelling with blocks of letters
Pic.10 Picture - letter matching (a fun way to connect the word with the picture and then the letter itself)
Pic.11 Different ways of checking for dictation. Here we are using our class simple tablet to practice our vocabulary and later on check what my students remember
Pic.12 We play a lot of of vocabulary games on the computer to make sure we remember our new vocabulary from the lesson of the day
Pic.13 This fun handout is an example of vocabulary homework I usually ask my younger kids do at home. They will choose pictures of things that are blue, or start from the letter 'A', or things that you can find in a classroom, etc. This way when they come back the next time we talk about their pictures and practice the words.
Pic.14 The holidays are always an inspiration for me for more fun activities. Here is the most fun search word Halloween activity you will ever see. My student is looking with his torch for Halloween related words to fill in his notebook and win a prize!
Grammar practice
As a teacher I am a strong believer of using English to teach English. What I mean with that is that I believe that by simply talking and reading in English, grammar will come to the students naturally. That does not mean that we don't practice Grammar though. We do and I try to always make it fun. Here are some of the different ways we practice grammar:
Pic.15 This is one of my favourite ways to practice 'have got' and vocabulary as well. My students go crazy over this simple game and they even challenge each other who will do it the fastest.
Pic.16 Find and match plural
Pic.17 DIY flashcards for irregular verbs practice
Pic.18 So many fun books to read and practice English. Reading is an amazing way to learn new vocabulary but also pick up grammar structures without a lot of effort.
Pic.19 I have created four different board games in a hurry so far and I can only say that they are easy to make and so much fun to play! You can even try this at home, using grammar questions to help players move along.
Pic.20 Another fun game that took quite of a preparation from my part. My students chose everything for their players (ears, lips, clothes, etc.) and then described them. Excellent way to practice 'have got'.
These were some of the many fun and amazing ways we have enriched our lesson throughout this year. I always do my best in each and every lesson so that my students can enjoy learning English. It's also been a blessing to have such great students and lovely parents to work with. But remember learning should always be fun and children should enjoy spending time with their teachers. Learning should come easily and stress free.
That's all from me!
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