Τρίτη 28 Ιουνίου 2022

Teaching Values: Goal Setting


 As a child , I always tried to please my parents and do the "right" thing. 
When I pointed at someone, my mum used to say " It's not polite!" She was trying to teach me values!

Some common  values are developed through our role models (parents, teachers,peers), some legends or people that we look up to and definitely through stories! Stories that our parents used to read before bedtime, stories that we came across during school lessons,stories that promoted the common good!

As educators, we are interested in building positive, honest, good citizens, aren't we? In other words, we want to find a way to help our students develop good values and virtues. It's about being a human! Whatever your culture,background,language, you cannot be successful, without being a responsible, respectful or kind person. 

Everything we do in class as teachers influences the kind of human-beings students become. School values will help our students understand what is a good or bad choice, set  goals, understand what is important or not and be better prepared for future life!

Teaching the right attitudes is just as important as developing their academic skills. Thus, we are not just teachers, we are role models and we need to demonstrate these traits and expose our students to these important values.



Setting Goals:


                                                             Ruby's Wish

Ruby is different from other girls in Old China. She is determined to go to university when she grows up, just like the boys in her family. This young girl is full of ambition. Has she set her goals or is she just dreaming? Well Ruby has set goals and she works hard to achieve them.

This is how we started discussing about goal setting with my students. We then discussed the difference between goals and SMART goals.

And we played here:SMART

As a follow up activity, students can complete these arrows and write about their smart goals.









Σάββατο 25 Ιουνίου 2022

Let's go fishing /colours

 Let's go fishing!


Here's a fun idea that students enjoyed while learning colours!

Print in colour different kinds of fish  (e.g red fish clipart etc...) 

Put a paper clip on top.
I bought the fishing rod from a toy store with less than 3 euros.Alternatively, if you have a small magnet, tie a string around it and perhaps a wooden stick or a straw. 
You can see here how to make a handmade  fishing game.


Young learners will love it! Ask them to catch the RED fish or the GREEN fish etc. You can have a timer or count up to 10 with the whole class. 


The pictures speak for themselves!

If you want to practise numbers as well you can print these cute fish from Super Simple Songs!

fish and numbers

While some students are fishing others can make their own fish bowls!

                                                  

                                                https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/

Πέμπτη 16 Ιουνίου 2022

Ηealthy Unhealthy

 


A nice and fun craft activity that will be unforgettable for the students!

You need two mouths and BEANS!

You can use these mouths: Mouths

or the mouths in the picture below



The students can paint the beans with a black marker but personally I used black beans.

It was so much fun!

We also love singing this song:Healthy food



We also made healthy and unheathy plates! The templates are from "sparklebox".

https://www.sparklebox.co.uk/topic/world-around-us/food/healthy-eating.html



And this link for games:Games



Τετάρτη 15 Ιουνίου 2022

Earth day



Every Drop Counts!





This took place in our school as part of the Earth Day!

Students brought bottle caps and we  did our best to get the message across!

 Every drop counts!

It was a goup activity that students enjoyed!

Another idea is make a robot out of recyclable materials! Or things that you would throw away!

The little ones can make Earth Puppets!

And they can join them altogether saying We love Earth!

Mascot
 

Shapes

 


Here's a fun game if you want to spice up your lesson!

 how to play:

3 teams (one stands in front of the circle, the other one in front of the triangle, and the 3rd one in front of the square)

A student or the teacher rolls the dice and everyone has to say the shape that appears. 

If the circle appears on the dice, then the student who is standing in front of the blue circle moves forward. The same applies for every shape ...The first team or player that reaches the other side is the Winner!


They will enjoy every minute of it!

Here's a link with games and songs for extra practice

shapes


Clothes





We had so much fun with my 3rd graders! While learning Present Continuous and clothes, we described what we are wearing and then ....as you can see in the picture, they stood up, picked different clothes and started describing what the boy is wearing!

The template of the boy I chose:



copy paste the photo in a word file and make it bigger or smaller.

Then print the clothes in different colored hard paper and cut it. Make sure the size fits!

You can find the clothes online(The students can do the same activity in their notebooks and write a paragraph)

Dress a boy/ girl


Young learners love this song too!

Clothing Song

One nice craft activity is to make these cute washing machines!

You need a paper plate and two bottle caps!

Let's wash our clothes!


Σάββατο 11 Ιουνίου 2022

Summer Time

 Yay! Summer time!


                                                           Summer Fun young learners

In the above link you will find activities, songs, games and Pete the cat at the beach!

Pete's story is fun and adapted for young learners!

You can also make paper caps!

I got the idea from Paper Magic https://www.facebook.com/papermagicreny


this template was free







Six Thinking Hats in class (de Bono)

 You might have heard of de Bono's six thinking hats before and you might have also wanted to use it as a learning tool in your class.
video

Depending on the level, students can deal with different situations  from other perspectives. Each thinking hat represents a unique thinking perspective and it will help your students explore different viewpoints related to a problem.

You will get an idea here:presentation

Working with the hats will help students improve their critical thinking and will lead to fruitful discussions.

It's ideal for problem solving, group work, brainstorming and story creating...

But how could this be introduced in class ?

Through a story of course!

Roy The Rat is a story I found online By Angeliki Voreopoulou and introduces the idea in such a simple and clever way!

You can read it here:Roy the Rat by Angeliki Voreopoulou


After reading in class , dramatizing will give students a deeper understanding of the whole idea.

 So bring a box in class and six caps.

When the rat puts on the white cap , he says : Where are we now? What is this?What do I know about it?

When he puts on the red cap his feelings appear: I want it! I don't care! I m not afraid!

When he puts on the black cap bad feelings come and go...oh no! It's a poisonous snake!It's risky!

When he puts on the yellow cap he thinks positive...Such a lovely box, it can't hide anything dangerous!

When he puts on the blue cap he says: Let's get organized! What are the best ways to open it?

Finally he puts on the green cap and lots of creative ideas flashed into his mind!

He made a plan and it was perfect!


Make sure the students understand what each hat represents!

And then, a good idea is to role play!This way, their communication skills will improve and ideas, opinions will be exchanged!


Providing your students with different situations will promote group work and participation in class!

Role play

This activity could work well with different groups of 6 students. Each student puts on a hat(you can make headbands too) and they all deal with a situation but react differently according to the hat's perspective.

Each group has a different situation and after they discuss it in groups , they come up and present!

Examples of situations:

  • new decoration for your bedroom
  • a present for your mum's birthday
  • family trip
  • organise a surprise party for your friend's birthday
  • what will happen at the weekend?
Literature
de Bono's technique could work wonders with character analysis and stories/books you are probably using.
Which hat is the character using in this particular situation?
How would he react in case he wore a different hat?


Extension
Everyone thinks differently! To extend this idea, the story of the elephant and the blind men is relevant!


Παρασκευή 3 Ιουνίου 2022

Mr Potato Head and parts of face


 With Mr Potato Head, we always have fun and learn the parts of face!

 



                                      This way is super FUN but...... needs preparation!

                              I promise it will be an unforgettable experience for the kids!

        They choose different mouths, ears, eyes and present their own unique Mr Potato Head!


Now....you can also use this to present Mr Potato Head!

Mr Potato Head Link

and play the same game online

online game

Family Members


 My family Unit ....

When it comes to teaching Family Members, you will come across several ideas and crafts!
 For instance , the Finger Family  is always a must!


Printable Family Puppets


or a family tree which you can decorate in class like the one in the picture!


or make a family tree online using this


Last time we made this camera! It's like a slider and moves up and down!






Famous Landmarks CLIL

FAMOUS LANDMARKS!

Let's learn about famous places around the world, countries, historical background!

and make travel brochures! You can find the template here:Travel Brochures

 Then students present and we all learn!

For games click here Landmarks games

For some info concerning Europe's landmarks Europe

Paper Big Ben click here:Big Ben

Paper Statue of Liberty:Statue of Liberty

Paper Eiffel Tower:Eiffel Tower 1Eiffel Tower 2

Extra Fun: Use this template and students can draw different landmarks 

                   Camera craft



Classroom games to remember

 1. Simon says or Fluffy says or the class puppet says.... 2. Split the class in groups. For example if you are teaching family members , sp...