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!
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).
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!
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!
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!
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!
