Using Music to Support Lessons

I don't know about you- but I love using music in the classroom.   Using it for transitions, for signals, for celebrations, for anything.  But I had never really thought about using music for lessons.  Working with ESL students this year, it fascinated me how many American songs they knew the words to, without even realizing it!  And I quickly realized there are some amazing websites out there to help teachers practice listening to songs and filling in the gaps. Two of my favorite to work with this year have been LyricsTraining and LyricsGap.  They are fun to use and oh so simple.  All you have to do is go to the website, choose your song, and listen away!!  I like to view everything ahead of time for 2 reasons... 1)  I like to make sure the video and language are 100% appropriate and 2)  I like to write the words out on flashcards.  See why below.  

I have yet to have trouble finding a song I want!  They have nearly everything. 

Choose your song!

And plug in the missing lyrics

 LyricsGaps has a special feature that allows you to create your own gaps in songs and then assign them to students.  Students can complete this for homework and you get their scores!

 

 

AND THEN comes my fav part- using words from the song, I create flashcards and we use them to form sentences.  Whattt?  So brilliant and easy.  Each time we do this, my camera is either full or I forget it!  Sorry- no pictures of kiddos in action.  But not only does it get them creating sentences, it gets them speaking and singing, and feeling more comfortable with the beautiful English language- A huge win-win for me!! 

How do you use music to help you in the classroom?

Keeping Students Busy Busy Busy During Spring Fever

Wooh Spring fever has hit hard.  It's hit me, the students, and parents.  Wait, what's homework?  Where do pencils go?  What are we learning next??  Oh. My. Lordy.  To keep students engaged I've had to jazz up a few lessons.  Last week I had to switch gears when I realized attention spans we're flying out the window- one after another.  I vaguely remembered reading about a game somewhere and decided to give it a go.  It is a fun vocab game for ESL students but would also be perfect for working with vocabulary in a traditional classroom, and for a quick and easy brain break!   You can super easily differentiate it!

First separate your class into 2-4 groups.  Have each group stand in a line in front of your whiteboard {or chalkboard!}.  Write a word on the board in front of each line.  Then, the first student in the line of each group must use the last letter of the word to write a new word below it.  So if the first word is Beautiful, the next word must start with "L".  Then the marker is passed back to the next student and they write a word.  If I were to incorporate this game into a traditional classroom, I would have students use only nouns, or only verbs, or words that are 7 letters or longer, or only words that begin with a prefix.  I keep a word wall nearby to support my ESL kiddos, but many don't even look that way.  Allow students to continue the relay for 2 minutes.  {That's more than enough time!}

Review the words, correct spelling, and cross out any repeats {I cross out any words that both groups used- this negates the copy cats}.  And then count up the words each group wrote.  The group with the most words "wins".  It usually takes one or two rounds to get into a groove but all of my students who have played this game really love it!  I hope you can use it in your classroom.  It makes for a simple and fun brain break!

Below I have included some possible vocabulary categorizations.  What other categories can you think up?!

Possible Vocabulary Categorizations:
-  Nouns
-  Verbs
-  Words that begin with prefixes
- Words about science
-  Words about math
-  Words about friendship
-  Adjectives
-  Words about holidays
-  Words about your house
-  Words about the weather
-  Words about movies
-  Words about school
-  Words about clothing
-  Words about food

And don't forget to enter my giveaway that's going on right now!!  The winner receives $25 to TpT!!  It's free to enter- check it out :)

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The Difference Between American English and British English

If you're like me, you probably knew one or two differences between American and British English but never thought much more about it.  In Spain they learn British English.  Over the year I have picked up on important UK jargon and grammar {learning to not correct students when they say "I have got a book".  I have a book, I have a book, my inner teacher screams!!}.  Sometimes I have to go home and look up certain British words after having one of those IHaveAbsolutelyNoIdeaWhatThey'reSaying type of moments.  So here are the top differences  between American and British English that have caught me off guard the most.  

10. Have got
In the UK it is proper to say "Have you got a brother?"  instead of "Do you have a brother?"  Hurts to listen to and to say!

9.  Lift
You take a lift to get to the fourth floor of a building.  And the fourth flood is actually the fifth flood because the bottom floor is the 0th floor, not the 1st. 

8.  Maths
Mathematics is shortened so students call it "Maths".  You'll often hear or see something like, "I have Maths homework tonight" 

7.  University
In the States "school" is everything Kinder-college.  In the UK it is specific to students who are Kinder-18.  Once they graduate from high school, they attend University. 

6.  Trainers and Trousers and Jumpers
A jumper is a sweater.  Trainers are those things on your feet that lace up.  And trousers are what you wear on your legs every day.  Pants?  Oh gosh- don't make me blush by mentioning those things you wear under your trousers! 

5.  Pants and Knickers
Pants are men's underwear and knickers are women's underwear.

4.  Rubbish
Have you got any rubbish to take out to the rubbish bin?

3.  Colour, Favourite, Travelling
The different spelling has been so hard for me to get used to!  Our unit on Holidays {what they call vacations} challenged me.  In the US: Traveling.  In the UK:  Travelling

2.  Z
You know that last letter of the alphabet?  In the UK it is called "Zed".  Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, and Zed.  Just doesn't have the same ring to it...

1.  Rubber
I'll never forget the first time a student said, "Have you got a rubber?"  to her first grade friend.  Whhhhhat?  When she pulled out an eraser I realized rubber is entirely different in the UK.

Curious for more differences?  Check out my guest blog post at All Things Upper Elementary tomorrow!! 

 

Five for Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for a little Five for Friday!

I'll be working on this guy all weekend.  It looks like my hubby and I may be moving to the Greenville, South Carolina this Summer!  So I'm on the search for a new job- anybody know anyone who is hiring in Greenville?  I have 4 years of experience in the classroom and I am ready to send, send, send my resume!  After four years teaching at 3 different schools, I am ready for a teaching "home".  I loved my schools in Colorado but it's definitely time to be closer to my family on the East coast!

I began playing a fun new game with my classes this week!  It's great for ESL but also for some vocabulary enrichment in a non ESL classroom. To play it is super simple and needs nearly zero materials.  Have your class form two lines in front of the chalkboard/whiteboard.  At the top of the board write a topic, as broad or focused as you'd like.  Then, like a relay, have students come up one at a time and write a word that corresponds to that topic.  Once they've written a word, they pass the chalk back and the next student comes up.  After two minutes, the group with the most words wins.  However, you could do the group with the most letters {so they're using bigger words}, wins.  Or the most creative words win.  I could use this game with every class for any type of review.  You could have them writing science words- body parts- food- breakfast foods- jobs- words ending in -ity or -able-etc!  I didn't count words that both teams came up with.  Improper spelling was not an issue because it wasn't our focus, but that is up to you.  After two minutes they would sit down and we would talk about each word, correct spelling, and award points.  Perfect for a fun and easy review!

All the jobs they came up with

 
 I was finally able to finish up a Fraction Art project that I have been wanting to TpT-arize since last year!   I did this last year with my 5th graders and really loved it.  Students create a picture using fractional pieces and then they have to add up all of the fractions to find out how many wholes they have in their picture! Included is a Rubric, the fraction pieces, directions, and a student's page with questions for them to answer about their art work.  I shared it with my Facebook Followers when it was completed and had it free for the first 24 hours it was on TpT.  For more freebies, follow my Facebook page --here--! 

March Madness is coming up and if you're like me, you're excited to fill in your bracket!  Well, what better way to incorporate some sports into your classroom but with Miss Nannini's March Madness Basketball Tournament Math Project!   My class did this last year and we LOVED LOVED LOVED it.  I can't do it here in Spain because they would not understand- but I cannot wait to do it again next year, wherever I end up!  I will be blogging about it more next week.  Be sure to stop by to learn all about how it worked in our classroom! 

And #5:  I leave you with this- a perfect little summary of Friday!!  Have a good one :)

Weather Bingo

I've never come across a student that doesn't have a love for the game of Bingo.  Something about it is just universal- it's simple, fun, and it's the best of both worlds- teachers get to teach and students get to have fun!  So while pulling together some lessons to teach basic weather vocabulary to my ESL first graders, I created a quick Bingo game!

You can grab it for FREE {here} via dropbox!  It never fails to grab my student's attention, and it's so simple to differentiate by showing some students the picture, only verbalizing the clues to other students, or standing by a student and quietly pointing to the correct answer.  The possibilities are endless.  I've played it with 1st and 3rd graders and both of them loved it {despite the grumpy faces pictured... I swear}

Hope you can add a little Weather Bingo to your day!!  Happy Monday!!
 

What's In Kelly's Bag? {Inferencing and ESL Lesson}

Inspired by the amazing Abby from The Inspired Apple, I used what I had in my Teacher Bag this week to do a quick little ESL lesson!  I absolutely loved doing this with my kiddos and I think what I loved the most was that it could easily be adapted to work with any age!  So I used it with my 1st grade class, my 3rd grade class, AND my 6th grade class!  Heart- swoon. 

I began by doing a little inferencing.  I asked my class to pick up my bag and make inferences on what I may have in there.  What does a teacher need?  What does an adult need?  WHY?  I charted their responses on the board. 

Then, I had one student at a time close their eyes and pull an item out.  Once they had an item, we would name it {vocabulary!!}, and then discuss why I needed it, while writing it up on the board. 

I chose to try and steer my younger kiddos toward infinities {to drink, to eat} but with my older guys I had them create sentences {You can use it when you get thirsty, You may get hungry before lunch and need a snack}.   This activity can literally take as long as you need it to.  You can have as many or as few items as you want! 

And why is the last thing in my bag "a rubber", you might ask?  Well, let's just say that British English and American English are a little different.  More coming on that in the next few weeks :) 

Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend!!

A Recipe for Friendship

What are you planning for Valentine's Day in your classroom?  We don't exactly celebrate the holiday here in Spain- but I just can't let this week pass without some {LOVE}.  So today I spiced up a great activity I did last year with my 5th graders. {You can read all about how we used it in a traditional 5th grade classroom here!}

I stumbled across this FREE activity from Angelica Alves on TpT where you create your own Recipe for Friendship and I was super excited that I could work it into our 6th graders ESL lesson this year!

 

I started by creating some easy puzzle pieces to help translate important adjectives.  You can pick them up here through Dropbox-  You could use these puzzle pieces for so many different ESL games, however here they were just a helpful tool when thinking about our writing!  I also included a list of possible cooking words and adjectives to use.  The rest you can pick up from Angelica!!  She even has a great powerpoint to go with it all.

 

The final product always turns out adorable! 

Here was one of my favorites this year:  Mix together 1 cup honesty and 1/2 cup of a good listener.  Stir in a pinch of fun, 3 tbs. of loyalty, and 2 tbs. of kindness.  Then, bake it for 2 hours.  Enjoy!  {Pretty good for a non-native English speaking 6th grader!!} 

Hope you are having a great week and find all sorts of way to share the love with those around you :)

Five for Friday!

Happy Friday, friends!!  One of my favorite weekends of the year is the weekend after Christmas break!  You're still feeling refreshed and rejuvenated and ready to tackle the weekend :)  I hope you're still feeling fresh and ready to go too!

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching  for Five for Friday!

Come heeeeere!

Ever wonder how I became a teacher in Spain?  Interested in moving abroad?  If teaching here is something you would be interested in, the application process just opened this past week and will be accepting application through March!  It's free to apply and you don't have to even be a teacher OR speak Spanish! My husband and I both got job placements in the same city and are having a wonderful adventure here together!  Learn more about it --> here <-- OR please feel free to e-mail me :)  Appleslices4th@gmail.com  I would love to help you with any questions or concerns you have.  Moving abroad can be scary and unnerving, but I am so glad I did it.  I wouldn't change it for anything!  If this is something you've been considering, I urge you to look into it.  What do you have to lose?

Christmas break is officially over.  My hubby and I had the best travelling around Europe but it's always nice to get back home and settled in :)

I had a nice surprise when I took the early train an hour out to my school on Tuesday- it was a teacher strike day!  The teachers still strike once a month in order to continue trying to find a balance with the government.  So instead of heading home since no teachers were at school, I wandered around, sat in parks, explored outside of hundreds of year old churches, and soaked up the sun.  It was 70 degrees here and I was enjoying every minute of it!  

Old church, blue sky, palm tree shadow, no jacket... happppppy.

So since I had a FREE day, I spent it putting away Christmas decorations and organizing the house.  I even stopped for some fresh flowers so I could have something once the decorations were all put away.  I always feel so sad once I've taken down the pretty holiday decorations!  The flowers definitely helped :)  

So I spent my first day back to school sharing with my little Spanish students what a New Years Resolution is.  They don't have that custom in Spain, so it was new for them!  I used The Applicious Teacher's cute little New Year Flip books and we created four resolutions.  They loved it and I'm looking forward to getting them up on the wall when I'm back in the classroom on Monday.  Not being able to get into the school outside of work hours makes it tough!

I am looking forward to making these adorable little snowmen this week with some of my ESL learners!  We will make them and then label them in English or write about them in English, depending on the level.  I've seen these little guys all over the blogsphere and Instagram so if you know where the idea originated, please let me know!  

Thanks so much for stopping by- have a wonderful weekend!!