Who doesn't like flashcards, right? -A Quick Look At Some Flashcard Games-

Helloooo,

I have been away from my blog for quite some time, but not been away from teaching, learning and sharing. 

I will be working with some private school teachers this week, and I added some flashcard games not only to add some movement, but also to have fun!

I personally love flashcards, and I'm sure so do many students -and teachers. I am sharing 3 most loved -by me- flashcard games. Hope you'll like them, too.

 

The Robot Dance

Needs: Flashcards and glue tag

For this game hang the flashcards around the room, and then ask one student (you can ask for more if you like) to 

come to the front. This student will be a robot who cannot talk or decide anything on his/her own, but 

            can only follow the directions. For this one, you can choose a student who needs some support or who is shy to talk. Then, say one of the words in the flashcards, and the students give directions to the chosen student, who is also a robot,  such as “Go right, turn back etc.” This way, they will be able to revise directions as well as the target vocabulary. You can divide the classroom into two and play the game by giving points for every correct answers. This one is really fun and inclusive for all the students in the class.

The Basket Game

Needs: Flashcards, a basket and two balls

Place the flashcards that you would like to review in two rows on the floor. Divide the students in two, so that every group can stand behind one row of flashcards. Then say one of the words to group one, and the first student jumps to that card and says the word.  If the word is correct, the student has the chance to throw the ball into the basket. If s/he scores, the group gets the point. If not, the other steals the point even though the answer is correct.

The Bottle Game

Needs: Flashcards and a bottle

Ask  the students to sit on the floor and make a circle. Then place the flashcards in front of the students to make an inner circle. If you don’t have enough space, you can divide the students into groups and do the same, but this time you’ll need more bottles =) Then, turn the bottle and wait. The student  that the bottom part of the bottle points to says the word the teacher 

asks. You can play this game with very young learners, too.  You must remember this game from your childhood,it was called “Truth and Dare” =)  You can extend the game by asking the students to make a sentence with the word, depending on the level.

 Note: The pictures are from google images.

Exit Slips

Hey hey!

It has been a long time -at least for me- since the last time I posted. In the meantime, some things have changed in my life. And the biggest one is: I am no longer a teacher (sad face). Now I work as an educational consultant for a publishing company, which means I get to work with teachers, rather than the students -whom I miss a lot. That's a whole new page for me and I am totally excited!

With that said, I can move on today's topic: Exit Slips!

created with https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

I love the idea to assess students, but I am not a big fan of exams. So, exit slips come in handy. You can use them either at the end of each lesson, or at the end of each week - or whenever! These are easy and loved by students. The idea is that students write their opinions about the lesson/topic/subject they have been doing, and the teacher can assess what or how much they have learnt. Not only can the teachers, but also the students reflect upon themselves. These also help students think critically. Let’s look at some ideas on how to adapt them in classroom below.

Students can:

•  write what they knew already before the lesson
• write 3 things that are new to them after the lesson.
• imagine one of their classmates couldn't attend this week's lessons and write to that friend what s/he should know for the next one.
• write 3 questions about the topic/lesson,
• rate the lesson out of 10 according to their level of understanding.
• draw an emoji that best describes their feeling about the week/lesson/topic.
• tweet about it.
• prepare their own test about it.
• write about what they would do differently in 1 sentence.
• write the reason why s/he has had that particular topic that day/week.
• write a note/short letter to the future student of that class warning them about what they will see in the lesson

To adapt them in the classroom, you may have a wall where they can stick the post-it notes or you can prepare a hand out in which they can hand in to you. The best part of it is that it is done anonymously. In this way, every student can feel comfortable. With younger kids, this can be turned into a game at the end if the lesson. The teacher can divide the class into 3 corners where each one has a name : GOT IT / ALMOST GOT IT / NEED SUPPORT, so that they can run to the corner according to how they feel about the lesson.

You can see more ideas in this pinterest link if you are interested.

Hope you’ll enjoy yourselves! =) 

WHAT'S STUCK WITH YOU?

During the whole school year, some things got stuck with us more. I was curious what my kids will take with them when they leave, so I decided to prepare this =)

It happened to be a fun activity as they got to discuss their year and remembered the days of yore. First we talked about the passing year, then they went on writing and coloring. 

It was a fun activity for me, too since there were a lot of stories that I hadn't heard. 

You can download the template from here. 

Hope you'll enjoy ! 

POEMS TO SPICE UP THE END OF YEAR

I love poems! 

Especially if it's the end of the school year, 

and everybody is tired, 

and nobody wants to do a thing. 

I love poems!

Because who doesn't?

To read it out loud

To act it out

Is to me everything.

So, here I am talking about poems and have already written a poem =) Obviously, today I'm going to share some good poem to be read inside the classroom.

1. How to Eat A Poem: This one is a highly short one. You can discuss what this is about, what it is and how they feel after reading. (http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/eatpoem.html) 

2. Apple Picking: I studied American Literature at university and Robert Frost was one of my favourite poets. This ne comes from him. You can read and mime! http://storyit.com/Classics/JustPoems/applepicking.html

3. Hope: Of course Emily Dickinson is another favourite of mine.  

4. What is Pink? : Nice one to question the universe.  

5. Whole Duty of Children: If you want to talk about behaviours and duties, this poem might be a good start.  

6. Two Little Kittens: If you want to do some grammar revision and maybe some act out, this one is great!  

7. There was A Naughty Boy: This one comes from John Keats to all the naughty children out there =) 

8. The Rainbow: Christina Rosetti shared her ideas on a rainbow. Would you like to share them with your kids? 

9. Humpty Dumpty's Song: Of course one cannot forget Lewis Caroll. There is a plenty of poems, but I chose this one. 

10.  Catch A little Rhyme:  one again comes from Eve Merriam. I really love it as it is wonderful to recite and act out. 

Hope you'll enjoy reading!

Published Again =)

I got published again! I am proudly presenting my other article that was published in a magazine. This one is in Turkish, but no worries. You can read it from One of my previous blogs .

This one was published in the school magazine –the school that I work in. The counselling service department has put a lot of work in it.

It happens to be one of the firsts in my life in that it is the first Turkish article that I have written.

You can read mine and the others in here.  

Hope you’ll enjoy.

A Simple Past Tense Activity

It's been a while since I shared something I prepared for my kids. Here is an idea to work on Simple Present Tense and Simple Past Tense that I have written. 

I started the worksheet with a story of a boy named Tom. But to make it a little bit more interesting, I told that it was actually written by one of Tom's friends when they were 12. The year was 2004. And I asked them to underline the verbs - that's where they sometimes have problems: to identify the verb! 

Then, I continued with the same story but I erased the verbs. It's 2016 now, so how was Tom's life when he was 12? The kids completed the blanks using Simple Past Tense of the verbs in the original story. 

I ended the handout by asking the kids a question: How old is Tom now? What do you think he does for a living? And that's a speaking activity +.+ 

You can download the handout here =)

Enjoy !

Online Graphic Designers

Teachers are so busy-as always- I know. And we need graphic designs for almost everything. Although I love working on Microsof Word, saving time sounds great! That's why I've been searching for some online tools for graphic design. There are many tools online, but these two look better, in my opinion.

-eduplace.com: This one is a tool that has a lot of different charts, story maps and clusters.

-Studentshandouts.com: This one is nearly the same as the former one, but with a different outlook. Moreover, this website does not only contain charts and story maps, but also there is every kind of worksheet that a teacher may make use of.

These are all free and photocopiable. Even though you do not want to use any of them, you might use them as nice ideas.