Household stuff: Great tools for teaching... grammar! Part 3

Hi everyone!

Welcome back to my series about using household stuff for teaching English as a foreign language!

Today's item is

 DRINKING STRAWS €1 (100 pcs)

PURPOSE: I used drinking straws to check my students' comprehension of COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE "FOOD & DRINKS" NOUNS.

WHAT I DID BEFORE CLASS: - I printed out this template and I wrote down a food noun in each glass, then I cut each glass out. 

- I stuck two sheets of paper on the desk: 

1) COUNTABLE "FOOD & DRINKS" NOUNS

2) UNCOUNTABLE "FOOD & DRINKS" NOUNS

STUDENTS: (3-6) PRE-TEENS/TEENS/YOUNG ADULTS (A2 LEVEL)

WHAT I DID IN CLASS: After teaching a bunch of  COUNTABLE and UNCOUNTABLE "FOOD & DRINKS" NOUNS I told my students they were going to play a game and I showed them the drinking straws. I placed the "paper" glasses at a certain distance from the sheets. 

WHAT MY STUDENTS DID: All students stood up around the table and I told them the rules of the game.

Students took turns to blow into their drinking straw in order to make the "paper" glasses move towards/onto the right sheet.

They got one point for each right word and lost one point for each wrong one.

It was a very funny game and I felt especially satisfied with their positive results.

Watch the video: Drinking Straws - EFL game

Until the next item ;-)

Household stuff: Great tools for teaching... exam classes! Part 2

Hi everyone!

I hope you enjoyed last week post http://larissaslanguages.blogspot.it/2016/03/household-stuff-great-tools-for.html!

Today's item is... 

ICE CREAM STICK

€1,50 (100 pcs)

PURPOSE: I used ice cream sticks to teach an exam-focused class. Students were trained to practise Cambridge FCE Reading and Use of English PART 4.   

[This part of the exam is called KEY WORD TRANSFORMATION. Each question consists of a sentence followed by a ‘key’ word and a second sentence with a gap in the middle. You have to use this key word to complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence.]

WHAT I DID BEFORE CLASS: I wrote some sentences on the ice cream sticks using present perfect simple/continuous and past simple. I wrote some sentences with the same meaning - using different tenses - and some "distractors'" which were wrong. 

E.g. Stick 1 --> My nephew began to play tennis in 2010.

Stick 2--> My nephew has been playing tennis since 2010.

Stick 3 --> My nephew has been played tennis since 2010.

The first two sentences have a similar meaning while the third one is wrong.

STUDENTS: (4-6) Teenagers

WHAT I DID IN CLASS: I told my students we were going to play a game to revise the use of PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE/CONTINUOUS and PAST SIMPLE and I showed them the ice cream sticks in a clear plastic bag.

Afterwards, much to their surprise, I dumped the sticks on the desk. I said they had to pick up two sticks with the same meaning without moving the others. (See the rules of the game MIKADO)

WHAT MY STUDENTS DID: 

When they picked up two right sentences without moving the other sticks, they got 2 points.

When they picked up two right sentences moving one or more sticks, they got 1 point.

When they picked up a wrong sentence, they got no points.

They had a lot of fun!

Until the next item ;-)

Teaching for exams? Have fun - A card game to revise

Luckily (or unluckily) it is that time of the year again! Exams!

This year to help my students to revise for their exams I made up a game with a deck of poker cards.

Age: Pre-teens, Teens, Adults
Level: from A2 to B2
What you need: a deck of poker cards/a whiteboard (smart board)

First of all, pre-teach some vocabulary about cards. Show your students the deck of cards and teach them the words suits, hearts, clubs, diamonds, spades, jack, queen, king.

Number of players:

2-20

In small classes (up to 8) players will play individually and you can write the questions on the board depending on their weaknesses and strengths.

I played this game with a class of 20 learners and I paired them up. In this case I used a smart board and the questions appeared on it (the cards where arranged in the same sequence as the questions)

Rules of the game:

Each suit corresponds to a language skill or sub-skill.

Revising for the Cambridge KET for Schools

Learners take turns to turn up a card. 

They will answer a question about a language skill or sub-skill according to the suit they get.

If they answer correctly they will get as many points as the number of suits on the card.

If their answer is wrong, other learners have the chance to get half points on the card if they answer correctly.

If learners pick up KING, they will lose 1 point.

If learners pick up QUEEN, they will double the points of the next question.

If learners pick up JACK, they will miss a turn.

Sample questions for the B1 level

My learners had a whale of a time because they had the chance to revise the topics of the exam without getting bored.

If you try this activity out, please let me know!

Fed up with end-of-year tests? A Digital Scavenger Hunt is the solution!

It's time to close books and go on holiday in most parts of the world, isn't it? Well, if you are teacher and in your school an end-of-year test is not compulsory, you can have some fun with your students!

Digital Scavenger Hunt

In my town it's warm these days so I thought there was nothing better than going out and having a digital scavenger hunt on the street with my pre-teen learners.

MATERIALS:

1) a smartphone/ a mobile phone with a camera per pair.

2) This handout

PROCEDURE & REACTIONS  (6 students):
Last week I told my students we were going to do a special scavenger hunt outdoors so they were excited about the idea of stepping out the classroom. However, when they read the rules and they realized they were supposed to ask questions to unknown people they felt ashamed. I didn't worry because I knew that a prize was going to be the right "medicine" for shyness. And so it was.
We went out all together and we walked along a pedestrian street (where my studio is situated) and on the pavement of a nearby street. Students worked in their pairs but not far from each other. I tried to keep myself behind and I helped them when they tried to talk to the people. (Well, I helped more the strangers than my own students :-) ) I had a whistle with me which I used when some of them were walking too far from the rest of the group.
About 1 hour later we went back to the classroom and the feedback was surprising! The three pairs got 16/18 on average ;-)

WHY DO I LIKE THIS ACTIVITY?
1) You can personalise it according to the programme you carried out with your class.
2) You can monitor your students without looking a "slave driver".
3) It helps students be more autonomous.

Remember to ask parents to sign an authorisation form if you want to take your students outside the classroom.

Some of my students ;-)

If you try this activity, please let me know!

COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

Can you count your friends, the chairs around your kitchen table, your books and the apples in your fridge? I think so. However I am sure you cannot count the milk you had for breakfast this morning nor the bread you made your sandwich with.
COUNTABLE NOUNS        UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
friends                                     milk
chairs                                       bread
apples

When a noun is COUNTABLE there are both singular and plural forms.
for example: There is an apple on the table. There are two apples on the table.
When a noun is UNCOUNTABLE there is only the singular form
for example: There is some pasta in the plate.
You CANNOT use A/AN with UNCOUNTABLE nouns but you MUST use SOME.
SOME can also be used with COUNTABLE NOUNS when they are plural (always in positive sentences).
for examples: There are some apples on the table.

Collocations, connectors and a tragic story

Hello everyone! This is a brief summary of last ADULTS class.
This is the reading text we put in order last night.

We used this picture to re-tell the story after listening to the ending on the tape

We also learnt what COLLOCATIONS are:
(from Cambridge Dictionary)
Collocation is a word or phrase which is often used with another word or phrase, in a way that sounds correct to people who have spoken the language all their lives.
 For example we say DO HOUSEWORK NOT MAKE HOUSEWORK

Do you remember the verbs phrases we studied last class?
Here you are 
BE IN A HURRY
RUN ACROSS THE ROAD
KNOCK ON THE DOOR
PLAY A SONG
INVITE SOMEBODY TO DINNER
MEET IN A COFFEE BAR
TAKE SOMEBODY TO A RESTAURANT 
TRY TO STOP
WAIT FOR SOMEBODY

 

Then we got a gnawing doubt: WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TAKE AND BRING?LET'S SEE TOGETHER




 We use TAKE when the movement is away from the speaker.
Example: It's raining. Take your umbrella with you.

Or When you go somewhere with somebody

Example: The boss is taking his new girlfriend to the new Japanese restaurant.

We use BRING when the movement is toward the speaker

Example: I've brought my son with me this morning.

Can you bring the book I lent you some weeks ago?

  For further information or questions please contact me

GRAMMAR CORNER: QUASI and QUESTIONS WITHOUT AUXILIARY

Last night the adult class was about questions with and without auxiliary.
On the whiteboard I wrote the following questions:

1) What song did Robbie Williams sing* with Nicole Kidman in 2002?
2) Who sang I can't get you out of my head?

sing is an irregular verb sing-sang-sung

Both questions are in past simple but in the first one there is the auxiliary did while in the second one there is no auxiliary verb. Why?
Let's see together

To make questions in the present and in the past simple, we normally use the auxiliary (do/does/did)  + infinitive without to (base form).

QUASI

QUESTION WORD	AUXILIARY	SUBJECT	INFINITIVE WITHOUT TO
What music	do	you	like?
Which CD	did	he	buy?
Who	did	she	go with?

However, when the question word is the subject (who/what/which/) WE DO NOT USE ANY AUXILIARY.

SUBJECT	VERB
What	happened	after the concert?
Who	writes	their songs?

Would you like to practice now?
Do the exercise!