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!

Weeks of February 25 - March 1 and March 4 - 8

These past two weeks were slightly off schedule as we celebrated Andalucia Day on February 28 and International Women's Day on March 8. We've also had some teacher's out with various things going on so these past two weeks were definitely a lesson in going with the flow which is very important! All that said, they were very good weeks and the students had a lot of fun with the activities that were related to these two very important holidays.

SCIENCE
Our classes were really thrown out of routine during these two weeks in fifth grade but we were still productive! We played another food chain game with one class. Teacher Dani created the game and the students had to build an assigned food chain with tennis balls. SUPER FUN! It went over much better than my food chain game! They were very involved and active and it seems they learned a lot about each food chain. We didn't meet for the other class to do this game yet so maybe this week.
The following week I again only met with one of the two fifth grade classes and we had a different teacher in class so I took the chance to lead class. They were given a worksheet about the human body and it was in Spanish. Two things that I haven't worked on in this class, naturally. So it actually was perfect! I asked them to essentially teach me what the worksheet was about. They read it in Spanish and I had them translate it in English so that I could help them. Together we listed all of the systems of the body and their parts. Made me proud! You go 5th grade!!

PHYSICAL EDUCATION
We did not have school on our normal class day so there's nothing to blog about from the first week, sadly. But, last week we played a game that I've never seen or heard of. So I don't quite know the name of it either but it's played like tennis using the hands, knees, feet or head to pass the object back and forth. The object is like a cylindrical foam block with feathers attached. And although, they taught me the name of it in Spanish...I couldn't catch the hang of how to say it, let alone spell it! They played in pairs and small teams passing the toy back and forth showing off some impressive skills. My hand coordination and I were intimidated by the game but I eventually jumped in and it wasn't as hard as I expected. Pretty fun! I'm hoping I've gained their trust again to try some American games by now...we'll give it a go next week with one game I think they'll love!

Week of February 18 - 22

NATURAL SCIENCE

In fifth grade we are working on ecosystems and food chains. I used this week to combine both and made a game for class. I gave each student a strip of paper that had a plant or animal on it. Their job was to find the other organisms within a given ecosystem and determine what order their food chain belonged in. After we completed the food chains, we looped the strips of paper in order to create an actual chain for each ecosystem.

This activity didn't go as well as I'd hoped because I didn't give them enough clues about where they belonged. I intended for them to use logic and reasoning for the more difficult organisms and ecosystems but that didn't go as planned. I think they felt defeated by the lack of information. I will certainly remember that for the next activity but we still got the idea of the excercise.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

This week the students played classic Spanish games as part of the Andalucia Day festivities. It isn't until next week but they are preparing now. They taught me several ways to play marbles! In America as a kid, I only pretended to know how to play marbles with the ones from my grandma's vase. Don't tell her we used to play with those! ;)

This day was fun, naturally less active than normal but a great day for the students to teach me instead! They explained all of the rules in english and asked me to join their groups to play. I had a few small wins and we had fun together!

Our first six weeks with Teacher Melanie!

Our first six weeks with Teacher Melanie!

Now that I’m adjusted to my new life here in Spain, let me tell you about these amazing first six weeks…

I am the Auxiliar or Culture and Language Assistant here at CEIP Antonio Rodríguez Almodóvar and my role is to encourage conversation and introduce relevant American culture into the classroom. Let me say…this is THE BEST job I’ve ever had! I am showered with love and appreciation and I get to use fun activities to get students involved in their curriculum. I think the one thing that I have been shocked by is how much I am truly able to teach the students. When I have their full attention I am able to introduce new subject matter and they walk away with knowledge and new confidence in their English. There is no better feeling!

Let’s talk about fifth grade. My mini adults! They have so much individuality and have their minds made up about so much. Quite naturally their English is the strongest and I enjoy our classes together as I’m able to have conversations with them about many things. They are so entertaining and teach me a lot about what it’s like to be a Spanish kid. Here’s what we’ve covered so far…

SCIENCE

We began with the Spanish constitution and I learned so much about the country. We played a lot of Pasapalabra in class, which was great for listening and answering.

We moved onto demographics and I created an activity called “Find my Family” for this unit. Each student was given a flashcard of a family member that they had to portray and their goal was to find the other members of their family by asking questions about where they live, where they’re from and where they’d like to move if so. Once they found their family they were required to tell the class who they were and facts about themselves. We then created graphs to describe our demographics from the game and it reinforced the trends they were learning about. This activity was so much fun and brought out the students’ acting skills!

After demographics they started to work on projects about different provinces of Spain and I enjoyed helping them describe the facts of their province. We are moving into ecosystems and food chains so last week I taught on the types of ecosystems in Texas. It’s very similar to Spain in that we have so many types but the one big difference was the wetlands we have in Texas! Describing the alligator at the top of the food chain seemed to be exciting for them.

I hope to introduce a form of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader before the school year is over!

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

I was most excited about this part of my job because I love sports, and it has not disappointed! Each week we play 3-4 games in class and they build their skills to master a type of sport such as handball or soccer. The students take the opportunity to explain each game and how it’s played in English. I participate in the games every chance I get and the students love this. Last week we played human foosball. I introduced the idea of requiring the students to hold hands as they played and it really elevated the game. They were forced to use strategy and team work. It was my favorite game to date and I can’t wait for the next chance to play along with them!

Hello and welcome to Unit 3: "Citizens"

In class we have been reading and talking about "The Spanish Constitution of 1978"

Let´s watch a video to review the most important things about our Constitution...

After reading and studying about "The Spanish Constitution" we made a diagram to summarize our ideas.

Can you complete the diagram using the text in our notebooks?

Can you complete the diagram without the text? 

WHAT A CHALLENGE!! LET´S TRY!!

How is Spain organised?

In Spain there are three separated powers.

Let´s describe them reading our Social Science books on pages 62 and 63 and completing the following structures in your notebooks.

What are the different Autonomous Communities of Spain?
What are their provinces?

In your notebook you must have two coloured maps:

-A map with all the Autonomous Communities of Spain.
-Another map with all the provinces.

Let´s watch some videos about the Autonomous Communities, capital cities and provinces.

Interactive maps can help to study!!

Autonomous Communities Puzzle: http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/ealg0027/espauto3e.html

Provinces Puzzle: http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/ealg0027/esprovin3eb.html


Autonomous Communities maps:

 http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/ealg0027/espauto1e.html
http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/ealg0027/espauto2e.html

Provinces maps:

http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/ealg0027/esprovin1e.html
http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/ealg0027/esprovin2e.html



Our changing population

There are 7 billion people in the world

Demography is the science that study population, we have studied some concepts in class

Let´s review all this concepts and learn more about population on the the Earth

The Population in Spain

In class we have been analysing different graphs to study our population. Now you can review all of them with the different questions we worked.

                         

                         

FINAL TASK

We are going to make an exposition in groups describing the Autonomous Communities in Spain.
In class we have been writing our text. We used the following structures below.

HELLO TO EVERYONE! In this Unit we are studying The Solar System and the Earth!

1.The Universe. 

In class we traveled through the Universe in our spaceship. We realized how small is the Earth in the middle of the Universe.

2.Celestial Bodies.

What are the things that you can find in the Universe? That things are called CELESTIAL BODIES.

In class we read and classified them.

Watching the following video we can remember CELESTIAL BODIES in the SOLAR SYSTEM.

3. The Solar System

We live in the Solar System, in the centre is the Sun, all the planets move around it, orbiting the big bright Sun....

Let´s know the main characteristics of planets in the Solar System

And after singing we described the eight planets in the our Solar System.

4. The Geocentric and Heliocentric model

The ancient greeks believed that the Earth was in the centre of the Universe. Years after Copernicus said that it was not true, he said the Earth and all the planets revolute the Sun.

Nobody better than Nicolaus Copernicus to explain the Heliocentric Model

5. The Earth Movements

Does the Earth move? How does the Earth move?

What is the consequence or effect of the Earth rotation?

What is the consequence or effect of the Earth revolution?

6. The Moon

Don´t forget to look at the sky every night to complete our moon calendar!!

7. The Spheres of the Earth

We know that the Earth is the only planet where living things can live.
Our planet is made of water, gas and land.

Do you know what are the different spheres on Earth?

8. The world map

We need to know some different things before using maps

Geographic Coordinates

A GPS works with geographic coordinates.

How can we find and point a city or a place in a map?

Now you can practice Latitude and Longitude coordinates. Let´s go.

https://kidsgeo.com/geography-games/latitude-and-longitude/

https://www.purposegames.com/game/geographic-coordinates

The World Map

Let´s review the 7 continents and 5 five oceans on Earth

Let´s try to locate the 7 continents and the 5 oceans in these interactive maps

http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/ealg0027/mmundi1i.html

http://serbal.pntic.mec.es/ealg0027/mmundi2i.html


Do you want more map games? Let´s visit this website.

http://world-geography-games.com/