Let’s Talk About YOU!

1. What do you like?
What are your interests?
• Animals/Pets
• Toys
• Sports
• Computer Games
• Books/Reading/Writing
• Travel
• Food/Cooking/Eating
• Drawing
• Music/Dancing
• Shopping
• Nature
• Space
• Science
• School
• Friends
• Food
• Hobbies
2. What do you like best about school?
3. What do you do after school?
4. What doyou like to do when you are at home?
5. Do you have favorite TV show, computer game, app, story, or a song?
6. What places have you visited that you liked a lot? Why?
7. What three words describe you?

Ways to teach Vocabulary

1. Sight words
2. Mystery Hat
3. Answer Buzzers (Amazon.com, Staples--$14 for a set of four)
4. Words on Wall
5. Find Definition
6. Find two words that go together
7. Compare and Contrast
8. Grammar
9. Follow Directions
10. Picture Cards
11. Doodle Boards
12. Dry Erase Boards
13. Pocket Charts
14. Fly swatters (eye and head movements)
15. Bean Bag toss (eye, head and arm movements)
16. Work in groups: 4 kids decide on answer together and one kid hold up the answer card
17. Word Walls: Temporarily display cards, words, lists: irregular plurals, irregular verbs, vocabulary, opposites, difficult spelling words, etc.

Ways to teach alphabet

1. Use MagnaDoodle boards or Chalkboards
Have the student write letters using the boards. Call out a letter or a sound or a word that starts with your target letter and have the students write the letter they hear on their board. Have them hold the board up and you can quickly see how many kids have learnt the alphabet letter and how many are still having difficulty.
2. Letter Search
Using a Microsoft word table or by handwriting, create a search puzzle. Have the student circle the specified letters within the word search puzzle. This is a great activity for homework.
3. Make an Alphabet Book
Make your own alphabet book with your kids. You can purchase a blank paper book at an educational supply store or you can make one with construction paper and a three-hole punch. Help your student make a page with each letter. You can have him write the letter or find the letter in a worksheet and cut it out. Cut out pictures from an old coloring book or magazine that start with the letter on the page.
4. Sing the Alphabet Song
Children love to sing and what better song to sing than the Alphabet Song. Start your day off with a song or two and be sure to include the Alphabet song.
5. Play the Alphabet Memory Game
You can make your own flashcards with card stock paper or construction paper. Have your student match the letters to their sounds. Or you can start with letters that are all in target language and find two that are the same. Each time your student matches the letters have him tell you what letter it is.
6. Make Alphabet Playdough figures
What child doesn’t love to play with play dough? Get play dough and have the child roll the play dough and make shapes!
7. Make an Alphabet Photo collage
Cut out pictures from magazines, newspaper ads, store ad papers, etc. and glue them onto a collage. Have your student write or trace the letter for your photo collage onto construction paper and glue the photos around. Children love cutting and pasting pictures and this is a lot of fun.
8. Play Alphabet Bingo
Make your own Bingo cards with construction paper. Write the letters of the alphabet on it. You can make this simple by making your Bingo cards more like a Tic-Tac-Toe game or you can make them like a traditional Bingo card. Call out the letters and have your child mark them or put a Bingo chip on the letter. When your child wins they can yell out Bingo! Purchase little prizes from the dollar store to make this even more fun.
9. Play the Alphabet Hide Away Game
Fill a bag with different objects that start with different letter sounds. For example, you could fill it with a car, a book, a pencil, etc. Show the student all the items in the bag. Then put all the items back in the bag. Have them find the items by touching them only. Say can you find something that starts with the letter B? Say what sound does the b make? Then see if they can find the book in your bag just by touching. This game is not only good for learning letters and sounds but also helps them with using their senses and tactile skills.
10. Pinterest.com
The site has endless ideas on teaching just about anything!

Ways to Incorporate Technology

1. Screen Chomp
Drawing app with voice recording feature
2. Quick Voice Pro
Record your voice and send as text
3. iTalk
Record voice on iPhone and send as text
4. Word Flurry
app to generate words from sound/letter given; expand by using opposite/synonyms; lite version available
5. Junganew Herd Sounds
6. sparklebox.co.uk
(search for “animal masks”; answer “wh” questions)
7. enchanted learning.com/wordlist/animal.shtml
8. kiddyhouse.com
(has sites for fun and interesting facts about animals; “cow facts”)
9. kidsbiology.com/animals-for-children.php
10. peoplepets.com
11. buildyourwildself.com
(build yourself with funny animal parts; moves; cute game)
12. soundstouch.com
13. enchantedlearning.com/wordlist/food.shtml
(food noun list)
14. weatherwizkids.com
15. Free Activities and Games
(allow you to manipulate the content)
1. eslgamesworld.com
(printable games)
2. primarilyreading.com
(games)
3. toolsforeducators.com/boardgames.php
4. mes-english.com/games/boardgames.pht
5. jc-schools.net/tutorials/gameboard.htm
6. education.com/worksheets
7. eslgamesplus.com/board-games-cards-games/
8. google.com/imghp
9. graphicsfactory.com
10. The Print Shop
11. Boardmakershare.com
12. worksheetworks.com
13. Dltk-cards.com/bingo
14. toolsforeducators.com/bingo
15. jc-schools.net/tutorials/PPT-games/
(games using PowerPoint; type your own questions; save each game separately; great for review).
1. Password
(one person stands in front of class with his back to the board; class gives clues in target language; extra point for sentence or definition, etc.); Can play with 2 teams and each team helps their person guess the key word
2. Jeopardy
p. eslgamesplus.com/classroom-games/
1. Jeopardy
2. Spin the Wheel Game
3. Catapult/Volley Game
16. eslgamesplus.com/hidden-pictures/
17. pppst.com
(PowerPoint games and interactive activities)
18. freeclubweb.com
19. pinterest.com
(“I Have, Who Has…” activities)
20. buildyourwildself.com
21. kiddyhouse.com
22. enchantedlearning.com
23. teach.fcps.net
Who Wants to be a Millionaire (Multiple Choice answers that you set up)

Ways to Teach Language Concepts:

1. Organization Approach
1. Choose naturalistic story, poem, etc.
2. Decide on vocabulary, grammar, concept ahead of time.
3. Practice via discrete (unique, functional) tasks
4. Incorporate the concepts back into naturalistic format
2. Themes
1. Requires advance organization and planning
2. Allows for continuity, repetition and relevancy
1. Week 1
2. Week 2
3. Week 3…
3. Allows for students to make inferences, predict what they can look forward to

Example:

1. Descriptive Words for Clothing
1. short/long sleeves
2. colors
3. styles
4. weather
5. fashion show
one kid walks, and the other kids describe what they see;
6. teacher writes words on the board; certain words must be used
7. Audio tape them and listen to them together
2. Shopping
1. Mini Market (categories of food; collapsed boxes of food; cans
2. Use Monopoly money (only buy food for $X.XX, without going over)
3. Only buy breakfast, lunch, dinner foods; vegetables, fruits, healthy, unhealthy, etc.
4. Take pictures
5. Food noun lists (see website for list)*
6. Food container questions (attach to containers to play question and answer)
7. Food adjectives
8. Food idioms, poems, stories, games, etc.
9. Create Advertisements
10. Practice Table Talk for social situations (e.g. Restaurant)
11. Recipes
12. Money, Guess prices
3. Weather
1. Great conversation starter
2. Nature
3. Seasons
4. Temperature
4. Figurative Language
1. Do Idiom of the week