THANKSGIVING!!!

The above film was made to celebrate Thanksgiving. My students did their best. Don't be harsh on them, they are only freshmen! We had great fun while making this film. We tried to render the spirit of this traditionally American holiday in the movie. I'll challange my students to do another film next year and VISUALIZE their improvement.

I think film making on a cultural specific item is a good way to enhance the acquisition of a second language. Try and see!!! :)

GETTING READY FOR HALLOWEEN!!!

Thanks God I have a model at home who willingly tried on all the masks. I don't know what about the others but he loved them. He didn't know which one to choose. However, being a spiderman fan he said the spider is the best. He also added that girls are afraid of spiders.

To be continued ...

SPECIAL TAHNKS

We'd like to thank our photographer, Helen, for her help and contribution to the lesson. I also think I should tell the names of the heroes, excuse me, heroines, who are working with me:
ALISA
CRISTINA
LENA
LINA
(alphabetical order, as they are all important)

THEY ARE THE GREAAAAAAATEST!!!

CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT THE PROJECT!

It was fun just like usual only tiresome. This is the worst side but the positive side is that it is a great experience. As I'm used working with grown-up kids, getting into contact with 5th grade-students is a real challenge. I made a big discovery it's the same fun. What can I do: teaching is my cup of tea!

My biggest problem is that I'm a BIT forgetful, yet even with this handicap I managed to do everything I planned. My girls are the best (one laughed that this is what I always tell, Can't help it, Helen, this is the truth). Each has her own individual style but they all are very responsible and like what they are doing. I think their attitude should be inspiring for many teachers.

It's difficult to deal with kids, they are noisy, naughty, but at the same time they are very receptive. They can inspire you, they can make you reconsider many things. The only thing you should have is PATIENCE!

This Friday's topic was HOLIDAYS. I thought it's a good continuation of the previous material and a wonderful preparation for HALLOWEEN! Indeed, up till now we covered AUTUMN, SCHOOL, and FRIENDSHIP. So I thought it would be nice to speak about the holidays Americans celebrate in autumn to which they might invite their friends. This lesson was meant to arouse cultural awareness in the pupils' bright minds minds. As usual, we were ready with interesting activities and when I say "interesting", believe me, I'm being modest.Wonderful handouts and posters just like the previous times.

Do you know what holiday was on October 21?
Rediscovering America. The Young Columbuses.

Our boat casts off.Sailing to the port of HALLOWEEN.

The work with the new vocabulary
THIS IS HALLOWEEN! THIS IS HALLOWEEN!
(wonderful song, a must see)
Knock, Knock. Treack or Treat?
Singing Together
We're going to Eurovision!Mark - the mummy
Group WorkThanksgiving in NovemberCartoon Time!!!

THANK YOU ALL!!!

COMING SOON

This Friday we are going to deal with holidays. I thought it's a good continuation for the previous topics. This lesson is meant to encrease cultural awareness in the pupils' young minds. I also hope they will enjoy discovering America together with Columbus, finding out the origins of Halloween and learning the culture of Thanking.

In a week we' re going to celebrate HALLOWEEN (it's a kind of preparation). However, as far as I understood I'll have to give money out of my own pocket again to have the trick or treat part. This is terrible. No mun no fun. I was told the money from the project is not allocated for this. But this is cultural specific. Am I wrong? If you explain to the kid what is the significance of Halloween and you are going to sing the trick or treat song, shouldn't you treat the kid?

THE SAME PROJECT WORK

This time it was difficult. I don't know but I felt tired. However, we tried and did our best. The girls I worked with were great just like usual. They did everything I wanted and came with wonderful ideas. It's a pleasure working with them. This time we focused on friendship. We sang, danced and, of course, STUDIED. There's always something to learn from those kids and I hope there's something in our meetings that will stay with them forever.

BEST FRIENDS Moment

Grammar Focus: Fill In the Right Form of the Verb "To Be"

Let's Sing Together

:) "We did our homework!" :)

Friends at School

The Friendship Crossword

The Friendship Spidergram

Our Friends' Faces

Dou you recognize yourself?

The Magic Box!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You can come under my umbrella!

An accident happened during our "You can come under my umbrella" moment. One of the kids broke my umbrella. Definately I was "devastated" and I liked the girls' optimism, they said: "Don't worry, a friend will take you under his/her umbrella". It was real fun!!!!!!!!!!

MY PROJECT WORK

(Unfortunately I deleted it by mistake. It was posted on Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 2:03pm)

Yesterday I went to the local School for Orphan Children to both supervise and take part in a class. It was wonderful. The kids were great, the girls I trained were great. I think it was a success.

We thought that our first lesson should be dedicated to autumn. We began our lesson with a surprise element: the magic box. The kids were supposed to ask Yes/No questions in order to find out what was there. The level of English is not that good (they are in the 5th grade) so we constantly helped them. They found out that the magic box contained leaves. Each student got one. The leaves were red, green, and yellow. We grouped the kids according to the color of their leaves.

Then we introduced ourselves. Thanx to Eminen we got the kids. We chose the rhythm of "My nane is, My name is, My name is Vicky". They loved it and they did it with pleasure.

We had some matching activities. The students prepared colorful handouts. The kids loved them. We were constantly moving and encouraging them to talk.

We used a ball to make the learning of the vocabulary more fun. Thanx god, we avoid breaking the vase from the teacher's desk. Other games we used were: the bingo game, word play.

The hit of the lesson was the drawing moment. Each kid picked up a word from the new vocabulary they learned and went to to the black board to draw it on the paper we brought. They loved it. I hope I'll have the possibility to post the pictures we took there.

The kids were sorry to part with us and they asked us to come next Friday too. So we are looking forward to a new adventure. Next time I'm thinking to deal with school, but i won't tell you what we will have in the magic box this time :)

MY PROJECT WORK II

Dispite the hostilities existing between me and the person who is in charge of this project I love working with those kids. They are wonderful!!!!!!!!! In addition the girls I'm working with are wonderful as well!!!!!!!!!! They did their best. I really enjoy working with them for the kids. They seem to understand what I want from them and they also come with great ideas.

However, this week was tiresome. Remeber the magic box? I bought at my own expense 20 notebooks (special thanks to Rafel who also made a contribution) and made a special design for the kids. I think they loved it. The lesson dealt with school supplies. The vocabulary was well chosen. We tried to involve all the four skills: reading, listening, writing and speaking. The kids met a new character: Sylvia (thanks to the girls they had the possibility to visualise her). They wrote in their special notebooks.

Here are some more photos from our lesson:

Who Is Sylvia?

The Magic Box:

The Work With the New Vocabulary:

Reinforcement of the New Vocabulary:
Grammar Focus: Special Questions
Cartoon Time!!!

Thouth it is extremely difficult to do all this amount of work, it is very rewarding when you see the kids reaction. In fact, they keep me going as I feel I would betray them if I gave up.