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 ...