Don't let the pigeon drive the bus! Printable vocabulary memory set.

Here are the additional materials that you can use after or while reading the book Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus!

 These are some of the ways in which you can use the cards:

1. Hand the cards to your child ask them to spot the word in the book. 
2. Give them the Greek word and ask them to find the English one in the book. 
3. Play memory
4. Play Bang
5. Ask them to sort the words into three categories: verb, nouns or adjectives.
6. Rainbow write the words.
7. Write silly sentences.
8. Make word ladders.
9. Make a Word Wall

Book Club: Don't let the pigeon drive the bus!

Don't let the pigeon drive the bus! is one of my favourite books for children, since it addresses many behaviour issues from demanding attitude to anger tantrums. It is the first of many in the series of pigeon adventures. It is funny and witty and perfect for beginner readers. So consider getting one of the Pigeon books for Christmas these holidays, they ensure a good laugh. 

photo via wikipedia 

While you are at it,  click on the book photo to visit the official site and play the games you can find there online. 

Book Club: Books to read over the holidays: 2nd and 3rd Grade Reading List!

Learning to read is a difficult task. When parents ask me what they can do to help their child start reading with fluency, I can only reply with one answer. Read to them, read with them, let them read on their own. In other words, do what you did when your child was learning to read in their mother tongue. Pick a book they would be interested in. Pick a book appropriate to their reading level, that won’t be that difficult that will turn the reading process into a hateful experience.

There are thousands of books out there that can help your child read faster and better.  In this post I list some of the books that I would buy for my child if they were beginner readers.  

·       2^nd grade

During our first semester in 2^nd grade, we learnt the alphabet and ventured into the difficult task of blending sounds to read our first words. Here are a few books that will help them practice reading over the Christmas break.

Alphabet and word books:

1. Lift the Flap Word Book by Felicity Brooks

A great book to help your child make that precious word to picture connection. The drawings are very beautiful and it is made out of sturdy material for reading over and over again. Click on the photo for video link.

Calligraphy Club: Handwriting Worksheet - Christina Rossetti Printable

 Another Calligraphy Club Printable, this time featuring a children's poem by Christina Rossetti. 

Christina Rossetti by her brother.
Photo via Wikipedia

The Rainbow 

by Christina Rossetti

Grammar Comic Strip

Technology today offers us teachers a large variety of mediums through which to present grammar structures. Last week I discovered a great comic strip maker called toonlet and tried my hand at making a few strips. I can't wait to show my 5th grade.  

These strips feature my favourite grammar robot Serious Grammaticus, who has started to become popular among my students. Maybe I should start writing his adventures down!

How to teach reading in a second language.

Parents often ask me what they can do to help their child become more proficient in the second language. My answer has always been the same; Read to your child, buy books with your child, encourage your child to read alone. Read, read, read and then read some more.  Reading has always been the most neglected skill in the ELT classroom, probably because of its complexity to teach. We tend to underestimate the power of free, voluntary reading, because its benefits are not instantly evident in our conscious learning classroom environments.

At this point we must make a distinction between acquisition and learning. Acquisition refers to the subconscious comprehension of a linguistic system, which is profound and leads to fluency and accuracy in grammatical forms. Conscious learning refers to the explicitly taught rules of a language. In his Comprehension Hypothesis Krashen maintains that L2 (Second Language) acquisition takes place in only one way: when we decipher the message, when we understand what is said or read. In other words we don’t acquire language when we produce it, but when we understand it (1).

I Can Do It Class Project, based on E.Carle's From Head To Toe. Εργασία των μαθητών της Γ' Δημοτικού της Σχολής Χιλλ

Just a thought before I start...
It has been a long time since the last time I posted something and I am afraid that was a very conscious decision. The Internet is a world of freedom and information, in which the possibilities are endless. Unfortunately, the possibility that someone may use your photos and text without permission in their own site or blog is equally possible. I was unpleasantly surprised when I found some of my work on other blogs, without a reference to my blog, so I decided to stop posting until I had shorted that out. I am still trying to find ways to secure my work, I am still learning you see, so if anyone has any advise or thoughts on this please let me know. 

I Can Do It Class Project

Last month with third grade we learnt the verb "can". I was looking for consolidation activities when one of my colleagues, Zoe, suggested I use Eric Carle's From Head To Toe. The lesson plan I made was based on the PPP, Presentation, Practice, Production model. 

Presentation 
Firstly, we read it in class and then we had our own circle time asking each other questions. I have recorded that session and is going to be used in the students' Goodbye Interactive CD. 

Practice 
Then we watched the youtube video based on the book and we learnt the song. There is no need to tell you how much children love action songs! We all had so much fun dancing around to it in class. The video below is from youtube. 

Production 

The lesson couldn't be complete without some production activity, so I thought of writing our own books. We named them I Can Do it! Each student wrote five questions and answered them according to whether they could do that action or not. Finally we illustrated or books. I made a flipbook out of their scanned work, which you can see bellow. 

I can do it! by third grade students.

Vintage Alphabet Books Revisited

I have always been a fan of rare, vintage and out of print books, however their cost has never been within my reach. This is why is love Project Gutenberg, an online community dedicated to making rare and out of print books accessible to people. I spend many hours browsing through their catalogues for vintage books I can't find where I live. I read a lot of e-books, not because I prefer them to paperbacks, but because they are easier to find and they definitely cost less. Anyway, today I though of looking through their calligraphy and lettering section and I stumbled upon a collection of  antique alphabet books for children. I was amazed by how witty and well made they were, and I thought I should share some of them with you!

My first find was Kate Greenaway's A Apple Pie. It is  an alphabet book with a short of a story. Kate Greenaway managed to deliver a new sense of the alphabet. The children learn the letters while compiling, sentence by sentence ,a story. Her beautiful illustrations are witty and colourful. 

My second find is Dame Wonder's Amusing Alphabet. The moment I saw the following photo, I just knew I had to make my own alphabet book. Of course it is not going to have that vintage look but I bet it is something my students will enjoy. 

The Absurd ABC, has a funny, witty disposition we don't find in alphabet books these days. 

Next I came across with Mother Goose's Nursery Rhymes by Crane, Gilbert, Tenniel, Weir, and Zwecker. It is a compilation of the most popular nursery rhymes but is also offers really breathtaking illustrations. I really like the fact that letters are personified and that aspects of one's personality that would be characterised as negative are depicted with great sense of Humour. They remind me of Edward Gorey. 

Finally I came across with a book so aesthetically pleasing that I have to get a copy of this somehow! It is called the Fire Side Picture Alphabet, and it is certainly one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. The colours are amazing and the text so well written, I wish I was a child when it was first published. 

The little sweep has washed his face,

But not as we advise;

For black as soot he's made the soap,

And rubbed it in his eyes.

Here's Master Mack presenting fruit,

Of which he makes display;

He knows he'll soon have Lucy's rope,

And with it skip away.

Here's Topsy-Turvy, upside down,

The ceiling seems the base;

Reverse the ground and 'twill be found

The things are out of place.

All these wonderful pictures from books made me want to start my own alphabet book and card series which is now under way. Of course they are not going to look like that... However given the help of some good people that have made several fonts and released them as public domain fonts, I was able to get started. My first attempt is already finished. All that remains is for me to print them out and get started preparing them for my lessons! 

Vocabulary That Sticks For Advanced Learners

One of the most demanding tasks our students undertake is to learn new words. With younger learners we mostly focus on picture-word association, but when it comes to advanced learners, this may not be applicable.What is more, we often ask our students to memorise words with abstract meaning, that is not often found in simple contexts. My university  professors used to claim that people cannot easily memorise new vocabulary, unless they find it in context, however this is not always easy to provide. I have encountered this problem as a teacher numerous times, especially while preparing students for Cambridge exams like FCE and CPE, as well as with my 6th grade students. I think I have found the answer in a combination of traditional as well contemporary approach to teaching vocabulary. Literature and technology are a killer combination.

Literature

I have always been a fun of reading, not only because I find it a great way to spend one's time, but I have also come to appreciate its educational value. Once more I try to bring my love for books in my teaching, and I have come to realise it actually works. It provides the necessary context for the vocabulary to be understood and retained. It also provides a lot of variety of new words, that are introduced in a pleasurable way.

This year I am hooked on mystery chapter books. They remind me of endless nights staying up reading my books to the last page to find out who the culprit was. I am also somewhat of a retro fan, so I have started re reading my Enid Blyton collection. After that I am going to bury my teeth into Nancy Drew novels and probably the Boxcar Children. I am also planning to recommend them to my students. They are teenage novels, relatively easy to read while providing a challenge, and they have a mystery to solve. I have started making the materials I am going to use along with the books. 

I am using a sample paragraph from Enid Blyton's The Secret Island to show you how I do this. 

sample paragraph


The three children listened, their eyes wide with astonishment. An island on the big lake! Oh, if only they could really go there and hide - and live by themselves - with no unkind aunt and uncle to slap them and scold them and make them work hard all day long!
“Are you too tired to walk down the lakeside to a place where you can see the island?” asked Jack. “I only found it quite by chance one day. The woods come right down to the lakeside opposite the island, and they are so thick that I don’t think anyone has ever been through them, and so no one can have seen my island!”
“Jack! Jack! Take us to see your secret island!” begged Nora. “Oh, we must go. We’re all tired - but we must, must see the secret island.”
“Come on, then,” said Jack, pleased to see how excited the others were. “Follow me. It’s a good way.”

After the students read a chapter, they have to fill in a new words form. I provide them with a dictionary that they can use to do that. Looking things up in a dictionary, printed or online, is a basic study skill.

See-Cover_Copy_Word_List

 In order to make it more appealing for them, I try to involve them in as much sleuthing as I can. This is why I have made a Mystery Case File,that the children have to fill in as real detectives. This includes main list of characters, suspects, evidence and clues. 

Mystery Case File Cover
Χρηστίνα Τσιαγκλή

Technology

I know that students prefer spending time online rather than reading a book. In order to accommodate that I have opened a Spelling City account. In this account my students can find word lists from our lessons, and practice on them. I use this account for my FCE and CPE candidates as well as my other students. Unfortunately I haven't got a premium account, but maybe one day I will. 

Have a look at the current lists I have added:

FCE Wordlist 1

FCE Wordlist 2

FCE Wordlist 3

Bookworms: Brambly Hedge

Brambly Hedge by Jill Barklem must be one of the most read children's books series in the whole world. I remember packing these books and taking them with me on every holiday we would go when I was a child. Back then I had only four of the books: The Winter Story, The Spring Story, Poppy's Babies and the Autumn Story. They are well worn out by now, but I still show them off proudly in my bookcase. So you can imagine how happy I was when I found a complete set of the series for 9.99 pounds in a stock book store. Unfortunately there aren't any book stores of this kind in Greece, with is something that annoys me greatly. Books shouldn't be overpriced. They should be affordable for all people to buy. Anyway, today I visited Jill Barklem's official site and thought I should share with you my love for these books. Check out the site with your child and have a look around. If I were you I would definitely buy them. 

 

The books were also made into a TV series back in the day. I prefer the books to the videos, but still have a look: