Wednesday, July 13, 2011

A Who is Who Podcast

With this activity your children will prepare short presentacions about their classmates. Once the activity is done you can post their presentations in a blog with pictures of the children.

Guessing who is who (mp3)

Monday, July 11, 2011

Lemon Tree

This is an animation of a song by Fool's Garden that 10 to 12 year olds love. The tune is catchy and easy to learn, the rhythm not too quick, the lyrics are OK, there is a lot of repetition, and some chunks of language that the children can perfectly understand because of the use of visuals.
Have fun!

Everybody can contribute to a song, singing a lot or a little, and without the pressure of feeling alone in front of the group.

Welcome

As an English teacher, I've observed that sometimes it is difficult to find songs that are appealing to the students in the upper grades in Primary. Studens often feel that simplified songs are too childish for them, even though the content may be adequate for them. Pop songs, rock songs and the likes are sometimes too difficult for them or inadequate because of the language or other reasons, but they are much more interesting for them. All in all, I think that songs are a useful tool to practice pronunciation, to learn chunks of language, to introduce a topic, to foster the feeling of being part of a group when singing along, to calm down the students, to stir them up, and to help shy students to participate when they are ready.

So, I will try to find resources to have a good time singing in our classes while learning, because I feel that we should aim for activities that are meaningful and provide opportunities for the children to really learn and to grow personally and socially.