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/

Christmas songs - FCE practice

Part 2: Open cloze – Shake up Christmas

Shake up the happiness

Wake 1) ___ the happiness

Shake up the happiness

It's Christmas time

There was a story that I 2) ___ told

And I want to tell the world before I 3) ___ too old

And don't remember it, so let's December it

And reassemble it, oh yeah

4) ___ upon a time in a town like this

A little girl made a great big wish

5) ___ fill the world full of happiness

And be on Santa's magic list

Shake it up, shake up the happiness

Wake it up, Wake 1) ___ the happiness

Come on all, it's Christmas time

At the same time miles away

A little boy made a wish that day

That the world 6) ___ be okay

And Santa Clause would hear him say

I got dreams and I got love

I got my feet 7) ___ the ground and family above

Can you send some happiness with my best

To the rest of the people of east and the west

And maybe every once in a while

You give my grandma a reason to smile

'Tis the season to smile

It's cold but we'll be freezing 8) ___ style

And let me meet a girl one day

That wants to spread some love this way

We can let our souls run free

And she can open some happiness with me

Shake it up…

I know you're out there

I hear your reindeer

I see the snow where

Your boots have been

I'm gonna show them

So they will know then

Then love will grow and

They believe again

Part 3: Word formation – Sleigh Ride

Just hear those sleigh bells 1) ___ Ring-ting-tingling, too Come on, it's 2) ___ weather for a sleigh ride Together with you 3) ___ the snow is falling And friends are calling, "Yoo-hoo!" Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride Together with you Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap, let's go Let's look at the show We're riding in a 4) ___ of snow Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap, it's grand Just holding your hand We're gliding along with a song of a 5) ___ fairyland Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy-cozy are we We're 6) ___ up together Like two birds of a feather would be Let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or two Come on, it's 2) ___ weather for a sleigh ride Together with you There's a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray It'll be the perfect 7) ___ of a perfect day We'll be singing the songs we love to sing Without a single stop At the 8) ___ while we watch the chestnuts pop Oh pop pop There's a happy 9) ___ nothing in the world can buy When they pass around the coffee and the pumpkin pie It'll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and Ives These 10) ___ things are the things we remember All through our lives! Just hear those sleigh bells jingling… Our cheeks are nice and rosy and comfy-cozy are we We're 6) ___ up together Like two birds of a feather would be Let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or two Come on, it's 2) ___ weather for a sleigh ride Together with you Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap, go Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap, now Sleigh ride, sleigh ride Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap, let's take a Sleigh ride, sleigh ride All right girls sing Let's take a sleigh ride now Come on

JINGLE LOVE SIDE WONDER WINTER SNUGGLE LOVE (2) END FIRE FEEL WONDER SNUGGLE (6) LOVE (2)

_________________________________________________________________________________
Download the worksheets here (*docx)

Error hunt

While doing my CELTA course, I learnt to add PACS (Post-Activity Correction Stage) to every lesson I plan. However, everyone who does it will admit that sometimes it's challenging to notice and write down any mistakes, and sometimes, as in case of this writing assessment I did with my students, there are so many mistakes to analyse that you need far more time than a couple of minutes you'd normally dedicate to the PACS stage.

Personally, I think I sometimes neglect my students' mistakes, don't get me wrong. I use different correction techniques, such as reformulations, instant and post-activity corrections but I feel like there's much more I could do to actually make my students learn from their mistakes.

Therefore, last week I started brainstorming while correcting my students' FCE writings (it was one of those moments when you could do anything else but correcting and marking - we've all been there). And I came up with the idea of an ERROR HUNT game for my students. It was quite easy, but a little bit time consuming, to prepare and what's crucial my "guinea pigs" hugely enjoyed it.

How to prepare an ERROR HUNT game

You'll need:

1. A list of your student's mistakes.
2. Post-its.
3. Pins.
4. Answer sheets for your students.
5. A sheet with error codes you've used while correcting writings. I used this one from British Council - I added P for punctuation mistakes, ESP for Spanglish or Spanish and X for extra words.

How to go about it:

1. Write the errors on post-its, don't forget to write the error code on the post-it (you can write it right above the mistake - I didn't want to make it too easy for my students).
2. Pin/stick the post-its in your classroom, hall, wherever your students will be able to access during the activity.
3. Divide your students into groups of 3-4.
4. Set a time limit.
5. Give each group of students an answer sheet and explain how to use the error code to decode/find mistakes.
6. Students get one point for correcting each mistake.
7. After correcting 5 mistakes students can come and check it with the teacher. If their corrections are OK they can steal the post-its so that other teams can't score the point for that "mistake" (Plus you'll have fewer/no post-its to collect after the lesson).
8. Allow students to error hunt until they've corrected all the mistakes or until the time's over.

Feedback  

Go through the mistakes with all the students. The best way to do it is by preparing a PowerPoint presentation with ready error corrections.

What I would change or improve

It was the first time I prepared this activity so I didn't really know what to expect from my students. As I had hoped, they were absolutely into the activity and they got quite a number of mistakes corrected. However, I wish I had assigned more time or had not prepared as many mistakes. I dedicated 40 minutes to the game and only 5 minutes to the feedback. There was not enough time for my students to correct all the mistakes and go through them all.