Are you looking for a passage for homework?

Do you have difficulties in finding new texts for your kids? So do I.

With my 5th graders we have a writing lesson where they follow a pattern to write about different topics. Last week's topic was to tell about a member of their families. This boy chose to write about his dad - but it was a little bit scary !! So I liked it =)

Then, I used it for the weekday homework and added some questions. He got shocked! Now all the other kids want their paragraphs to be published! Why not?

P.S.: You can add small notes to your homework sheet ^.^

Make Your Own Certificate ^.^

I’m sure every teacher has a difficult class. The one who resists your creative ways, the one that has that student who doesn’t find your activities enjoyable.

But every student loves to be praised!

My 4th graders, as well, need to be praised every now and then. They need to be pushed to speak English, otherwise they tend to turn to their mother tongue. To have them speak I give them stickers every time they make a full, proper sentence. And wait... If you get 10 stickers, you get a certificate!

To congratulate them, I prepare a certificate and print it on a certificate paper (to make it thick and look more realistic) and it works. They are, now, in a competition with each other (though there is no one winner). 

In this website you can upload your own pictures or choose from the library that the website has. You can write whatever you want on it. You can find an example below. 

I write the student's name with a board marker.  (I'm thinking about preparing one for my friends, as well. =))

Ms Aysu is Published now !

I am proudly presenting my first published article !

I have co-written this article with my former CELTA tutor Phil Keegan. We have shared some ideas on writing exercises that can be used in ELT classes.

I also thank Mr Philip Kerr for the opportunity.

Hope you'll also like it! +.+

A Grammar-Based Writing Activity

In one of my previous blogs I mention a website full of different kinds of worksheets- Crekid. I was wandering in it only to find a perfect worksheet for my 4th graders. 

 We have been reading Peter Pan with them and also in the grammar lessons our main focus is on "have got/ has got". So, I saw a blank picture of a pirate and took a copy, gave it to the kids, asked to color and draw as they wished and describe their pirates using the target language. =)

Believe me, all the kids had fun!

                                   

             

                                        

QR Code? In Homework? {And There is a Bonus!}

Most of my kids complain about how much homework they have. The world is really difficult for them. They have so much to do. How will they manage to finish all the homework? Moreover, doing homework is dull!

With these in mind, to juice up the homework (both for me and my kids) I decided to use QR Code in the homework. I wrote a reading passage about an Indian festival (I basically simplified a text I came across in a website that I mentioned in one of my previous blogs.) There is a video about that festival and not only did I write the link, but also I put the qr code of it. The reaction from the kids was quite nice. They really enjoyed it and they said it was fun to use the ‘QR Code Reader’ in their phones not for “silly website” (as one of them puts it), but for homework.

You can type “qr code generator” on google and come up with many websites, but I prefer this one. Just copy and paste the website that you want your kids to see and save the image. Then copy and paste that image wherever you want =)

PLUS

I love riddles and tongue twisters and I love putting them at the end of each homework sheet. I use this website to write the riddle or tongue twister and the kids can see the answer or conundrum by using their phone. You just write whatever you want, and the website creates URL. You can write 30.000 characters.

 If you think you don’t have enough time in the classroom, you can also use it to give the answers, so the kids can check their homework by themselves.

In this way I’ve concluded that even the ones who do not like doing homework are excited. They wait for the next riddle/ tongue twister.

You can find a sample homework here =)

News For Kids

I sometimes look for new texts especially to share as  homework. I go through all the books that my school library has, but in time they started to look the same to me. If you also feel this way, don't you worry at all.

I have found this new Website where you can discover a lot of different topics as news form. Some of them might be a little bit difficult, so you can do what I do: simply simplify it!! =)

There are different sections, so you can find a text nearly about everything; from science to entertainment!

You can sign in as a teacher and create your own classroom and also give assignment. And here is the news: It's totally free!

A Fun Tool For Teachers (Also Kids!)

Are you looking for new worksheets for your lessons? Here is a lovely website that I have just come across. There are different kinds of worksheets for writing, drawing and story making - you can also find interesting templates on different issues. 

In my opinion, it is a really nice tool to get your kids to use their creativity. For instance, there is a writing template with a sleeping king picture on and kids can write about the king's dream. This is a good way to assess (or revise) The Present Continuous Tense.  I believe these kinds of websites are not only good for resource, but also good for giving ideas to teachers.

If you've got any other ideas on how to use these worksheets, let's share and cheer ^.^

My First Presentation

Hey Hey Hey !

For the first time in my life I had a presentation in Eyüpoğlu Schools, one of the best private schools of  Turkey. It was the 19th of the Annual Teachers' Conference and I took a part in it. It was a small move for the world maybe, but not for me =)

My presentation was about the ways that can help us spice up our writing lessons. I shared some internet links than can be adopted during and after lessons. It went well, and the teacher who attented thanked me. So, Ms Aysu is very pleased. I hope there will be more of this =)

You can download it from here: 

Do Your Walls A Favour +.+

Do you sometimes get bored using ordinary posters or banners in the classroom? I do!

So, here is a fun idea (at least for me) that you can apply to your classroom walls (or corridor walls). With 9 Gag ' s growing reputation in memes, I could not resist but create my own memes. 

Plus your kids can also make their own if they are old enough ^:^

You can go here and choose from over 1000 pictures and write whatever you want. You can even upload your own photos ( that I haven't done yet) You do not have to post it to everybody; there is a "private" section that allows you to save the picture for yourself. You can download the picture. But there are too many photos, so you need to be careful if you want to be the one who lets your kids know about this ;)

Your walls will thank you (silently, though) =)

P.S.: There are a lot of different websites to create memes, but I liked this one better. But if you want to look for more, just go for "meme generator".

Walk in Web with Weebly

Weebly is a free tool that you can use online to create your own website. And surprise surprise ! It has an educational site, too.

http://education.weebly.com/

I haven't used this website yet as my school already has a similar website of its own.

With this one you can create your own classroom, follow (and monitor) your students, give homework or different tasks. You can make your classroom private or public - it's up to you!

Your kids have a different website to see your page that is easier. ( students.weebly.com ) 

P.S: You can even purchase a domain name if your pay for it

Characters to be built

Hey! Have you met me ? I'm Cute Loud Lion. Here is my picture:

My friends say I'm cute but I can be so loud. This is something that my mom doesn't like. She wants me to be quiet most of the time, but all the time I speak loudly. My grandfather was a lion, that's why it is my surname. I am 23 years old. I live in a planet called Zozo, that your planet does not know of yet. 

So, it can go on and on like this. You can add some character features or apply different grammar subjects. Kids can compare their characters using past simple or anything you want. 

Do you wonder how you can create your own? Go on this site:

http://www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk/games/adventure-time-character-creator 

There are 3 different types of character that you can choose : Hero, Princess, Weirdo (and bonus: custom) My favourite is -of course- "WEIRDO". Then you (or your kids) can choose the outfit and the organs and the name and the background. Plus, you can download your character as printable. +.+ 

This site can be a great tool for writing exercises or some digi clubs or a revision. Kids can make their own character and then present it to the class.  

Hope you'll like it ^.

Me, Myself and I

Now that the summer holiday has gone (at least for us teachers – Yes, I know I’m sorry, too), it is time for me to go back to blogging. I know that my blog also has rested, sunburnt and swam (and read a lot) like I did.

All I can do for summer holiday is to go back to the photos I took – and of course ideas have been coming through). When I saw one of my photos, which is absolutely one of my favorite selfies, I decided that I could use that one in one of my lessons.

I think that one can be used if I ever have a cover lesson or simply for speaking using Past Simple Tense. After speaking, the kids also can write about it, and they can create their own photos like that and present it to the classroom the next day. 

Here is the original photo that I have chosen :

I used my phone skills, which I barely have, to cover it like this:

 I'm sure you have better skills -anything can be done. I thought about my fifth graders from last year, so I know them, which means they would love this one. Simply because they know that I am definitely terrible at drawing and they call me Ms. Picasso Simsek =) I'm sure we would laugh a lot at this. 

When I show this one of course the first question would be "Who is this?" They most probably would guess. Then more questions would be asked like:

-Where was I?

-Who was that standing next to me?

-Where was I before?

-Where was I going?

-How was I related to that "thing next to me? etc.

-Was I alone? If not, how many people were there with me? Who were they?

Then the next one comes:

I thought showing the cow would be more surprising than showing me =) 

Then, questions about the cow  like "Is it real?", "What's her name?" etc. might come. You can always add more according to the class.

This exercise can also be done when students themselves ask questions. After this speaking session, they can write a story by answering similar questions and as I stated above they can bring their own surprise photo and present it to the classroom.

By bringing my own photo to the classroom may result in having more students interested in the lesson. Nearly every day more and more students add me on instagram, but I, as a teacher, do not like the idea of having students in my personal life. So, in this way they might keep away for a while - or the opposite! 

P.S.: If I can ever have the opportunity to use these in my lesson, I will definitely write about my kids' reaction ^.^

Jane's Sock

Do you get bored using Mary or Sally or Jack to talk about daily routines? I do! So as a revision of the year , for my 3rd graders, I prepared a worksheet where there is a letter written by a sock. =)

This sock belongs to Jane and he tells about what he is doing now, what he does in general and what he did yesterday. In this way my kids were able to revise the three main grammar subject that they were introduced this year. I used 3 different colours for each grammar subjects. Then they also talked about their socks, watches etc. To be honest while most of them found it funny and interesting, some of them thought it was unnecessary.

You can find the PDF form here :

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bzi_uqEZ0_7qcEN3SV94dGhDOXM&authuser=0

Singing Under A Yellow Lemon Tree

When I see my kids also love the songs that I use during my lessons, I become so pleased -of course. I love it when they sing them even during breaks.

Recently, with my 3rd graders we have talked about present continuous tense and I used "Lemon Tree" by Fool's Garden. Not only has the song got a story, but also the music is fun. I gave them a handout where they can complete the blanks using the target tense. I used my Microsof Word magic and write the necessary verbs inside a leaf =)

Before listening to the song, they try to guess what the blanks might be and some of them guessed correctly. Then we listened, but it took 3 times for them to complete successfully. I remembered my CELTA teacher saying "Students can listen even 20 times! Play the song as many times as they can fully understand." Then we talked about it. 

-When is he sitting?

-What is the weather like?

-Is he happy? Why/not?

-Is this a happy song?

-What does he need to be happy? (you can add more)

Then we watched an animated video with lyrics, but there is a mistake in the video. So I asked them to find the mistake -if they can, one sticker is waiting for them. If you can, you can also have your sticker =)

Here is the video:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAFS43NKFag

And here you can download the PDF form of this handout:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzi_uqEZ0_7qLU56SEY2eGRobnc/view?usp=sharing

Here Is A Poem / Like A Little Foam

Hey!

Here is a poem that you can read and maybe memorise with your kids during the last days of school! Lessons are about to be finished and kids are already drifting away from you; but no worries! Keep calm and read a poem.There are lots of poems online but I like this one a lot. 

You can read and learn it by heart while your kids are practising English in a fun way. Your kids can act it out. Then you can discuss in terms of feelings or the characters in the poem. Then you can talk about other rhyming words that they know and in groups or pairs they can write a new one!

Hope you'll enjoy reading it:

Catch a Little Rhyme

BY Eve Merrıam

     Once upon a time

     I caught a little rhyme

  I set it on the floor

  but it ran right out the door

     I chased it on my bicycle 

     but it melted to an icicle

  I scooped it up in my hat

  but it turned into a cat

     I caught it by the tail

     but it stretched into a whale

  I followed it in a boat

  but it changed into a goat

      When I fed it tin and paper

      it became a tall skyscraper

  Then it grew into a kite

  and flew far out of sight ...

Zombie-ie-ie

Today I had one of my weirdest lessons ever! 

We were about to finish the last book of this year with my 3rd graders -that is "The Clever Woman" by Herbert Puchta- and the last activity was about Ireland. In that activity there was some basic information about Ireland such as the capital and the population. Also some of the famous music bands were included-and one of them was The Cranberries !

I had a casette of The Cranberries when I was in secondary school and I was constantly listening to it. They were already worn out at that time so I could never imagine that a 9-year-old girl would hear their music.

However, this girl smiled when I said the name: The Cranberries! I was trying to figure out how she heard them when she started to sing "Zombie". Oh I wasn't expecting that!

Then -not to anybody's surprise-  it spread like wildfire and all my kids were insisting on listening to the song. I had nothing else to do but to except.

On youtube I found a video with lyrics since I was not sure to show the original video. Before playing the song I explained that this song is a rock song which means that it might sound different; so no need to worry. If they hadn't liked it, I would have turned it off. But, the moment the song started, all of them also started to sing it by following the lines. I was  dazzled because I thought they wouldn't have liked it. 

Moreover, we've been doing Present Continuous Tense recently, and while listening to the song I found out that there is Present Continuous Tense in it! Out of the blue my lesson was turning into a new one. When the song finished I asked if anybody had any idea on the content of the song. Of course nobody thought about that. I said it is about war so is it a happy song? No, it is sad Ms Aysu =)

Then we talked about the tense that was used in the lyrics. e.g.: "In your head they are fighting." I asked when they are fighting? Is it past? I didn't go further as I already planned and prepared another song for them. I will share it soon.

Then they wanted to listen to it again and I said if they would be quiet. And they did and they got the song in the last 5 minutes.

So, this made me think : Why do we always keep using children's song instead of "real songs"? I never listened to songs for children when I was 9 or 10. I was listening to what my 9-year-older brother was listening. 

Here is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv5wF-E9D8Y

P.S.: I couldn’t escape from the question though: “Why is their name a fruit?” I have no idea=)

A (New) Silent Way

 Today I woke up to find out that my voice was hoarse – and as a teacher who has little monsters in the classroom can you imagine what that means?

To my big surprise my kids were quite understanding. I went to the class and told them that I was not able to speak loudly but they needed to be OK with my moving lips. First they did not get it, thinking I was only making a joke; but then they understood that I was really serious -I could barely make any noise! Then they all said "Get well soon Ms Aysu." =)   (It's nice to see them being kind in English)

The rest of the lesson went very quiet. For the first time in my teaching life I literally did not speak at all -reducing my TTT to zero level while thinking my lovely CELTA tutor. 

In one of  my 3rd grade class we were to do a listening lesson, which I felt lucky! I wrote some of the instructions on board, and did some  miming, and asked them what they could do with the task. I don't know if it is because we are almost at the end of the academic year or they love me more, but they were more focused than before. They tried to read my mouth for the answers or instructions.

Then I had an epiphany : I don't need to be loud in a Turkish classroom! So I decided to use this "silent talking" more and turn it into a game -maybe. I think I can say the vocabulary without a sound, for example, and they can try to guess.  More words mean more points.

In this way I ended up with the idea that the louder the teacher speaks, the louder the kids will get. When I calmed myself down, the kids became more quiet +.+ 

P.S:Have you heard "The Silent Way"? It was developed by Caleb Gattegno in 1960 to leave all the speaking to the learners. I wasn't using that method, but I immediately thought of that.

( You can find out more from here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Way )

Grammar Revision with Pictures

Hey Hey!

Have you heard boredpanda.com? It is a great website to follow and I have been following it on my Facebook. A few days ago I came across with this news that is about "astonished animals". As a teacher I cannot "just" read news -or listen to music- , but I look at everything as a lesson material. So, when I saw the "astonished animals", I wondered why. Then I thought that I could use these pictures as a tool for creative writing as well as grammar revision. 

Here are some ways that I came up with to use these lovely animals:

* You can ask why these animals look like this. What have they seen? And they can describe the vision through the animal's eyes including where they are etc.

* You can revise Present Perfect Tense by making some sentences such as "The koala has seen an alien."

* You can revise modals either in past or present: "The koala might have seen an alien and he must have been frightened." 

* You can revise if clause: "If the koala saw/ had seen an alien, he would/ would have run away, so he can't have seen an alien." Or as the teacher you can ask "If you were this animal in the forest and got frightened, what would you do?"

If I can come up with any other idea, I'll add to the list ^.^

http://www.boredpanda.com/astonished-animals/