Paulina's Traditional ESL Easter Egg Hunt

An egg hunt is an activity celebrated around Easter time (different countries celebrate it on different days). In this activity, children look for hidden coloured eggs or, nowadays, chocolate eggs.

This activity is an ESL adaptation, in which children get to practise English, have fun and win a sweet prize!

What do you need?

• a colouring page with Easter eggs (+/- 100 eggs, although it will depend on your game) - ask your students to colour them and cut them out for you.
• (+/- pins - you will need one pin for each "egg") 
• a board with numbers (in my case 1-100)
• a list of secret words
• a list of questions/mini tasks for your students
• a die
• some counters, although these can be improvised
• a prize for the winners.

How much time do you need?

• On average, the game takes between 45-75 minutes. It depends a lot on the number of kids that play (almost unlimited) and their level of competitiveness.

How do you play?

• Prepare the questions and tasks appropriate for your students' level and age (There is a link below to the activities I prepared for my students A1-B2).
• Prepare a list of secret words. I have used words from the FCE word formation exam.
• Write numbers 1-100 on eggs and on the reverse write a secret word. Place the eggs on the walls. Depending on your students, you may want to hide them or make them more difficult to reach - it's up to you!
• When students arrive, divide them into small groups and explain the rules to them (Don't move the eggs, steal the eggs or take them off the wall) and demo how to play the game.

• You may need to add or change your rules according to your workplace policy (No running, no shouting, etc).
• Students roll a die and move around the board. When they land on a number, e.g. 5, they have to go and find the egg number 5. When students find the egg, they need to check the secret word and memorise it (without removing the egg from the wall if possible). They come back to the teacher and tell them the secret word (for B1-B2 levels I actually ask them to spell the word). If the word is correct (check with your secret word list), the teacher asks them a question or gives them the task. When the question has been answered or the task done, students can roll the die and the procedure repeats until students get to the final number (100 in my case).

Here's the link to all the materials

For more teaching ideas go to http://polishyourenglishwithpau.edublogs.org/

Mickey's Christmas Carol - activity for Younger Learners

My favourite time of the year, Christmas is coming and I've decided to prepare some movie based activities for my (younger) students.

The activity  is based on Disney's adaptation of  A Christmas Carol. Students simply have to circle one of the two options while watching the movie (+/- 22 minutes). You can find links to the worksheets below.

1. Scrooge loves / hates his money.
2. Cratchit (Mickey) says Christmas is a time to spend with family / a time for working.
3. Scrooge accepts / doesn’t accept Donald’s invitation to dinner.
4. Marley’s ghost haunts Scrooge / Cratchit.
5. Marley’s ghost is graceful / clumsy.
6. The first spirit that visits Scrooge is the Ghost of Christmas past / present.
7. Scrooge loved Isabelle more than money / money more than Isabelle.
8. The second spirit visits Scrooge at 12 o’clock / 2 o ‘clock.
9. The spirit of the Christmas Present uses a street lamp as a torch / a torch as a street lamp.
10. The second spirit takes Scrooge to Marley’s / Cratchit’s house.
11. Tiny Tim will be fine / will die if nothing changes.
12. The spirit of Christmas future shows Scrooge Marley’s / his grave.
13. Scrooge wakes up in his bedroom / at the cemetery.
14. Scrooge gives money to the rich / to the poor.
15. Scrooge gives Cratchit pay rise (more money) / more work in his company.

Answer key

1. loves
2. a time to spend with family
3. doesn’t accept
4. Scrooge
5. clumsy
6. past
7. money more than Isabelle
8. 2 o’clock
9. a street lamp as a torch
10. Cratchit’s house
11. will die
12. his
13. in his bedroom
14. to the poor
15. pay rise

 

I didn't do it, Pac-Man did!

When I was a little girl, I played a lot this game called Pac-Man. Luckily, I am not the only one who did so. You might even be shocked, but even my younger students know the game quite well. This helps me a lot when I explain the form of the verb after the auxiliary DID.

You see, the very first time I had to explain Past Simple to my younger students I had a brainwave. I realised that DID "eats" all the "-ed" endings and irregular forms (extra points!!!) just like Pac-Man eats all the dots on its way.

Since then, I always refer to Pac-Man when I explain Past Simple, I do it to such an extent that my students use Pac-Man more often than DID, for example:

"Did Lisa go to the supermarket yesterday?"

When I ask my students why we don't say "Did Lisa went to the supermarket yesterday?" They simply answer "Because, Pac-Man!" It's all as simple as that. What I am glad about is the fact that they remember to use infinitive without to after DID.

I think using Pac-Man is an entertaining way of explaining how DID works. If your students don't know the game (Poor them!) you can always find an online game on the Internet and play it to show them or you can play it as a reward at the end of the grammar lesson.

I hope you'll enjoy your next grammar lesson with this trick!

P.S. Pac-Man/DID explanation is also compatible with adult learners - we're never too old for a little bit of fun!!!

How to make a cup of tea AKA a conditional sentence...

Have you ever wondered how to explain the form of a conditional sentence to a bunch of nine-year-olds?

While my students had no problems deducing or discovering the meaning of the conditional sentences, they almost always struggled with the form. I have always wondered why, at the end of the day it's just If + Present Simple, will + infinitive. I even got the students to memorise this formula, but as you can probably imagine - it is never that easy. Memorising never equals learning but I guess even teachers learn through their own guided discovery - make a mistake, spot the mistake and correct it.

And so, one day I asked my students how to make a cup of tea. It was a funny situation because they listed everything but a... cup. And as everyone knows, you can't have a cup of tea without a cup!

I took my students to the staff room and we prepared a real cup of tea. I got everything they listed plus all the extras (sugar, milk, sweetener, teaspoon). And then I asked them if I could start pouring the hot water over the teabag. Finally, someone said "Teacher! You need a cup!". At that moment I asked my students whether the cup was important or not. They all agreed that it was essential.

Therefore, the cup became my "IF". All the conditional sentences start with if (I know, not all of them, but don't forget we're dealing here with a bunch of nine-year-olds, we don't want to complicate it too much). And IF we want to make a cup of tea, we need something simple like... HOT WATER, and something characteristic of a cup of tea - a tea bag (will)!

My students remembered the formula immediately, and I never had to repeat it again. What's more, whenever they lost some part of the sentence, I just said "Ana, where's the teabag?" And my students knew which part of the sentence was missing.

One week later, following the same pattern, we learnt how to make a cup of coffee - 2nd conditional sentences. This time, everyone started with the "CUP - IF". And making conditional sentences resulted being a piece of cake, ahem, a cup of tea/coffee, for my students.  

Past Simple Monster

Have you ever wondered how to teach Past Simple to a group of eight year olds? Maybe you've already faced the challenge and found your way of doing so. So have I. Today, I am going to share with you an idea that came to me while I was preparing my lesson for a lovely group of very talkative and (hiper)active kids.

In my opinion, teaching grammar to young learners always is a little bit about thinking outside the box. The idea of creating a Past Simple Monster came from the fact that whenever I say the word grammar (it should be banned) my student's are at least puzzled and even scared. And so, two weeks ago, without any introduction, I just asked my students to take out their crayons, listen to my clues and draw a monster.

We drew monster's head with mouth that was a vertical DID. Above the monster's mouth we drew a nose that looked like a question mark, and "ed"-looking hair on the monster's head. We wrote "PAST" on the monster's belly and we went on to draw two arms, a straigh=regular one and a curvy=irregular one. The regular arm ended with two hands that resembled letters E and D, with some examples of regular verbs and the irregular arm ended with a hand made of such irregular verbs as was, were, went, ate or could. We also drew monster's feet labeled as LAST and AGO.

I'm sure you're curious what the final effect was. Well, my student's were happy that they could draw and did not have to listen to any boring grammar explanation. What is more, they learnt all the important information about the Past Simple Tense I wanted to teach them. Mission completed succesfully!