The Owl who was afraid of the dark

(By Jill Tomilson)

Kids grow and demand different sources to develop harder skills. Their knowledge of the world grow too and demand a different type of tales: deep tales. In this case a baby owl, named Plop can´t fight with his big fear, the darkness. The ilustrations of this book, are more dark and  more realistic than the books they have been reading in previous courses.

To win this battle, Plop needs the help of other residents of the story, but they don´t have weapons to use. They only talk with Plop about another point of view about his fear.

In this case the activity was made with Nearpod.

The true story of the three little pigs

(By Jon Sciezka)

All the stories have a beginning, a middle with a problem and the reason to solve it to achieve a happy end. All the stories have their principal heroes and a routine of their lives. But, what about the other characters? They have a live too, and another point of view of the story. 

Across the reading of this book, children will find a lot of new concept and more text than years before, We will introduce social values like empathy.

Venn Diagram Kidspiration

Lazy Jack

(by Tony Ross)

In this book with a lot of new vocabulary about actions, jobs and items. We can share the misfortunes of Jack and his different way to obey the advices of his mother. Children will enjoy the read of this story and imitate the different stages of the Jack and the Sad Princess.

Characters of the book with Kidspiration

The jobs of Lazy Jack

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

(by Eric Carle)

Inside this wook, children will hear a story about the life circle of a tiny Caterpillar, and which actions he does in each steps of his life. Also, kids enjoy it using their owns fingers to count the amount of food the Caterpillar eats along the day. Learning a lot of new vocabulary about family words such as fruits, the days of the weeks or diverse stages of the caterpillar´s life.

An example of Acitivity with Kidspiration

Family Words of the Story

The Drop goes Plop

(by Sam Godwin)

Following with nature, we can teach them a lot about our enviroment. Not only how animals live or its natural behaviour. We can show them about the circle of the water and how it is produce with a never ending story and later play the story with our students using a lot of drama techniques.

The O.W.L. Chart for the Water Cycle

Developing Social Skills

Work as a teacher involves the development of a lot of activities with children. Be a teacher is be the first contact with the real society of the kids. Far away of their family, the students have to learn how to be polite and social with the rest of the classmates, workers of the school and citizen in general. 

Young kids must know how to perform their feelings and how affect these to the rest of the people. Learning class routines, hygiene habits, behaviours or respect the classroom material, or the emotions of other kids. Humans live in society and the adults have to transmit this education to the new generations.  In class we can work with nursery rhymes with physical response but is a culture knowledge what teachers and parents must work together.

On internet we can find a lot of media resources for free use. Like this video in which Bert of Sesame Street, teach a little boy how to express his feelings. If you watch the video carefully, you will recognize physical response and imitation of the role model of the teacher.

Phonological Awareness

English is a strange language with a lot of new sounds and stress entonaiton in each sentence. A lot of characteristic wich differentiate it from other idioms, such as the Spanish language. This is the main reason of our work as a teacher and the tools we need to use....

Inside each PDI activity, there are a lot of pictures and games to work in class. In our class, we encourage children to become familiar with the pronunciation of sounds. We don´t need to use letters or the name of the letters, in early levels we don´t need them. Only we use the letters as a support for the explatanion of the teacher.

The levels of Phological Awareness with each activity

Level 1: Knowledge of Rhymes: Lots of Animals Live in the Zoo

Level 2: Word Awareness: Compound Words

Level 3: Recognition & Production of Rhyme: Rhyme

Level 4: Recognition & Production of Syllables: How many sounds?

Level 5: Recognition & Production of initial sounds: Phoneme Train

Level 6: Recognition & Production of final sounds: Find your toys

Level 7 & 8: Blending & Phonemic segmentation: Phonemic Segmentation

Fat Cat on a Mat

(by Phil  Roxbee & Stephen Cartwirght)

At the first years of school atendance, children must to be in contact with a lot of new material. This material will be funny, colorful and  enjoyable for all the kids. But inside the point of view of the teacher, the use of this concrete material have an important reason to be used. 

In this case, while kids are listening about the adventures of a lazy cat and how her friends try to play with her. But the teacher are teaching and testing, a lot of new English skills. Such as the rime of concrete words, the repetition of particular sounds and the use of language structures.

We have been working with this book, you can see the activities below:

Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Fat Cat on a Mat KIDSPIRATION

Also in year one, you can work with non-fiction books,  we used this..

I Spy

( by Lucy Micklethwait)

Playing the traditional song of "I spy with my little eye, something beginning with ......", we can show to the kids a lot of new vocabulary while they are searching for an initial sound of an object, person or animal. Also they are taking a first meeting with real painters and styles across the history

Activity for this book using PDI.

KENSUKE´S KINGDOM 

(By Michael Morpurgo)

For the children of the level six class, we choose this book to read and later work with it. Michael Morpurgo wrote a fantastic story about his childhood. Near his eleventh birthday, his family decide to travel around the world and left their old live behind.

Who was Kenshuke?  What lesson he taught to Michael?  You have to read the book to answer these questions. I only can show you the route they have chosen.

The adventure of Micasan

Jolly Phonics

From teaching English to very young children , it could be a problem if you do not know how to begin.

Language English is different from other languages ​​such as Spanish . English follows specific rules we need to know to use English in the right way .

When working with children , we can´t start with letters or words on the blackboard. We must begin with a phonetic sounds , to build a good framework that will help us to build a good structure of knowledge. 

ITC´s gives plenty oportunities to work with phonics in class, making funny and motivating activities. During the year, we have been working with "Jolly Phonics" books. Enjoy visit them!

Jolly Phonics Worbook 1

Jolly Phonics Worbook 2

Jolly Phonics Worbook 3

Jolly Phonics Worbook 4

Jolly Phonics Worbook 5

Jolly Phonics Worbook 6

Jolly Phonics Worbook 7 &8

For more information you can visit Jolly Phonics Official Web: http://jollylearning.co.uk/

Keep Walking!

Being a teacher is not a journey with a final destination to come to rest. It´s not a final place that is indicated on maps.

Being a teacher is a growing process that will last all personal and working life. A life where you can´t stop of learning new knowledge, use of new materials or new ways to teaching the subjects. A road full of new challenges to defeat and grow in experience.

As a student, this blog will show a visual part of what I learned during this course. Putting in one place the amount of  work I have  donde during the adventure of learning how to teach English to children.

And don´t forget to keep walking!