October, November, and December with Nancy

 

Seeing as it’s been more than two months since I arrived at this amazing school I think it’s time I introduce myself! My name is Nancy and I am the English Language Assistant (ELA) this school year at ​​CEIP Antonio Rodríguez Almodóvar. I am from California, USA and this is my fifth year working as an ELA. 

The first few weeks were spent introducing myself and getting to know how things worked around the school. At the end of October I shared with the students different ways in which Halloween is celebrated in the States. I didn’t expect such enthusiasm for this holiday and was pleasantly surprised at the awesome decorations all over the school! 

The final topic of this year will be winter holidays! I talked about Christmas and how my family and I celebrate this special holiday, but there are also other holidays the students may not have been familiar with. I enjoyed sharing these new (to them) holidays this week. 

Time has flown by and I am enjoying every minute of it. I will try to do a better job with this blog to keep you up to date on everything going on with the 5th graders and all the material they are learning in their science classes. I hope you all have a great winter break with your loved ones!

P.S. To view any of the presentations linked to this blog post just click on the underlined word and once the tab opens click on Presentación (top right) to begin the slideshow!

October with new English Language Assistant, Daniella

A whole month working as an English Language Assistant at CEIP Antonio Rodríguez Almodóvar has flown by. My name is Daniella and I am 23, from the United Kingdom and currently teaching English at CEIP. I am in science classes teaching science in English, which I love because the students get to practice their English through their science learning. I think I am the first British language assistant that the school has had, so I am looking forward to bringing some British culture into the classroom. This brings me to one of the most exciting days so far at school… Halloween! 

Halloween at CEIP
It was so amazing to see Halloween celebrated at CEIP by all the teachers and students. I was blown away by the costumes. Halloween originated in Scotland and Ireland so it was a great festivity to intertwine with some British cultural history! I told class 5A and 5B about the history of Halloween and how people wore costumes to scare away the evil spirits. They seemed interested and learned some new vocabulary as well as the geography of the UK and Ireland. I asked the students questions about Halloween in Spain to find out how it is similar or different to the UK, where Halloween is a big deal. They were surprised that everyone puts a pumpkin outside their door in the UK, and that we eat the insides of the pumpkin sometimes too. It was great to see the students trying to explain what they do on Halloween and what they dress up as without realising they were improving their English by practising and learning new vocabulary.

Spooky Word Search and Bingo
We did a spooky word search and bingo. I taught them some new vocabulary like ‘broom’ and ‘cauldron’ by drawing pictures and writing the words on the board. They had to understand the new vocabulary for bingo because I would call out a word and they needed to know it to find it on their sheet (and as with all games, they all wanted to win so worked hard to remember the vocabulary).

First Impressions of English & Intentions

I have been so impressed by the high level of English across the year groups! The first step to learning a new language is motivation and to be motivated the children need to be excited and confident. I hope I can make the students have fun with their English learning and not worry about making mistakes (as that is how we learn after all).

EUROPEAN ANTHEN

How to Make Paper Mache Paste

Here you are another way to make Paper Mache Paste (Similar Art Attack Paste)

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS: DRUMS AND TAMBOURINES

European Anthen

Catching up...

I've been behind the past few weeks! I've been traveling and trying to keep my creativity alive in the classroom, so blogging has taken a back seat unfortunately but here's what we've been doing in fifth grade:

SCIENCE
They have wrapped up all of the ecosystem content with a few rounds of games and activities. Now we're completing a game-show style review activity where they answer questions about different ecosystem facts. They are proving that they have learned some facts but they are also fifth graders who are too cool for games sometimes...I understand fifth grade! I want to challenge them in our next unit so I look forward to history next. Sounds like I'll be learning too! ;)

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Well we have officially lost our games field to the construction so we are confined to the patio now where we have to play calmer games that do not get too rowdy. I've also visited second and fourth grade classes in the past few weeks where I was able to observe the younger one's behavior and try out some ideas too. In the last class we played a style of paddle game. It was a fun game where everyone could participate because it was a calmer game. Groups spread out to small courts and passed the balls back and forth with their paddles. They also introduced me to a popular Spanish card game called "Wolf Man". I can honestly say I still don't understand the game because I spent some time with my eyes closed as the town slept...and when we woke up I was told I'd been killed! Haha I'm not sure exactly how it goes but there's some logic and reasoning involved so I'm eager to figure it out because that's my kind of game!