Sports Day Fun

Today was our school’s sports day!  What fun!  We don’t have a very large school campus, so our school contracted with a local sports club to hold our sports day on their campus.  The benefits of this: the kids get to swim in a real pool and they get to eat a catered lunch in a “restaurant”.

So, here’s what we did for sport’s day:

1.  We played drip, drip, drop – like duck, duck, goose, but they got to pour water on each other’s heads!

2.  We played the pants relay race – the kids had to put on a big pair of jogging pants and run with them, then take off the pants and hand them to the next player.

3.  We went swimming in the big pool – which included changing 30 kids into and out of swim suites, and we only lost 1 pair of shorts and 1 tube of sunscreen!  Lots of fun, and yes, I got in the pool with them!

4.  We had a snack and played what letter starts with the letter ___ while we waited for our turn at the next game (the whole day ran slightly off schedule – )

5.  We played rain relay race – students had a bucket with holes in it that they got to fill and hold over their heads while they ran to fill in the other bucket.

6.  We played soccer – my kids all time favorite game!

7.  We had lunch –

Course 1 - Moroccan salad plate (grated carrots, grated beets, potatoes, olives, cheese, fried egg plant, pasta, tuna, lettuce, eggs, etc. – delicious!)

Course 2 – Hamburgers & French Fries

Course 3 – Bananas & Chocolate Pudding

8.  We gave out goodie bags and went home, a little sunburnt and exhausted!

 

What does sports day (or field day) look like at your school?

Dear Future Me,

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. If you want to search through some of them, you can check out my IKeepBookmarks site. Or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

 

When I was in 2nd grade, my teacher had us write a letter to ourselves at the end of the year.  She had us address the envelope and bring in stamps, but she didn’t send the letters.  She held them for 3 years, and then she sent them out, so that when we were finishing 5th grade, we would get to read what we had written as 2nd graders.  I loved reading that letter so much, I think I still have it tucked in a scrapbook somewhere.

Recently, a fellow blogger turned me on to a site called FutureMe.org.  Anyone can write a letter to their “future me” and schedule it to be e-mailed to themselves at a set time in the future.  I think it would be a great way to do a project like the one I did in 2nd grade.  I also think it would be a great way to set goals with your students.  Let them write a letter in the beginning of the year with their goals for themselves (and maybe some you have for them too), and schedule the emails to come a week before school lets out.  Then, take a minute to look at whether or not your students have achieved the goals they set out in their letters in the beginning of the year.

How could you use FutureMe.org in your classroom?

Real Professional Development

Raise your hand (or click the like button) if you actually enjoy professional development.  I love professional development.  I love teaching, and good professional development makes me a better teacher and re-fires the passion inside me to do what I love.

Now, perhaps I should clarify my meaning of professional development.  I don’t mean boring, staff meetings where you are setting up a schedule, or doing a mundane task that could have been done via e-mail.  I don’t mean being trained on something that you are not interested in actually using in your classroom.  I don’t mean sitting through an hour long power point on a topic you have already mastered.  I mean working on a collaborative task, learning about a topic that will enhance your teaching, getting new tips and ideas that will help you build understanding for your students.

Now, I have enjoyed professional development of this type in real life.  I like nothing more than to get together with other teachers and have a real brainstorming fest!  However, I have found that sometimes these types of “real” professional development can be too few and far between.  That is, they were until I discovered teacher blogging and other teachers on social media.  Now when I need new ideas, I search out ideas on Pinterest.  I collaborate with other teachers by asking questions on their blogs, or contacting them outright if I have a project in mind.  I also use Facebook groups (like Teachers Sharing Ideas) to enhance my own professional development.  Finally, I take part in webinars and/or watch teacher tip videos on You Tube.

In addition to being more engaging to me, this type of professional development can be catered to my own personal needs and the needs of my students.  I find what I am looking for, or if I don’t find it, I ask others where I can find it.  I connect with millions of other teachers (sometimes teachers in other countries and continents, like on Global Teacher Connect) and those connections help me grow and be a better teacher each and every day.

So, the next time your administrators ask what you are looking for in professional development, share with them some different views on professional development.  How do you use the internet to provide yourself with professional development?

Twister Math

I LOVE to play board games at home, but I also enjoying using them in my classroom. In addition to encouraging cooperation, turn taking and a variety of other social skills, I find I can often use the games to work on math and literacy skills. So, every Friday, I am going to post a Friday Game Night post, giving tips on how to use a particular board game in your classroom. Here’s this week’s Friday Game Night Tip:

 

++ So sorry this Friday Game Night is coming out on Sunday – I’m having internet issues right now, lol!  Enjoy! ++

Twister - Part 1 (Math)

At this time of the year, it’s important to get kids up and moving and Twister is a great game to do just that.  However, you can make Twister educational too!  Here are some ways you can use Twister when teaching Math.  For most of these variations, you will need to add digits (0-9) to the Twister circles.  You can either write the number right on the circles, or write the numbers on index cards and tape the index cards to the circles. 

(Management Tip: If you can get your hands on multiple twister boards, you can spread your students around the room on various boards with 3-4 students on a board and use one spinner for all of them.  Or, you can die cut colored circles and make a LARGE twister board that will encompass your entire class and tape them to the floor – if you have enough space.  Also, when teaching these variations – you should always be the caller for the first few rounds.  After students understand the concept, then you can let children take a turn as caller, or even break them into small groups and let this be a fun, active center.)

1. Graph Your Hands & Feet – There are tons of graphing opportunities that can created using Twister.  You can simply graph the colors called.  You can graph how many times your spinner lands on feet vs. hands.  You can graph the numbers people put their hands/feet on, or even the characteristics of these numbers (odd, even, less than 5, greater than 5) etc.  There are tons and tons of ways to work on graphing using Twister.  Grab 4 possible graphs and some graphing questions free, from Google Docs.

2. Partner Adding (or subtracting, multiplying or dividing) – Partner up students for this variation.  Have on student on the board being the “twister” and one student with a small white board, being the “thinker”.  When you call out the action (right hand, red), the twister will do the action and call out the number he put his hand or foot on to his partner.  The partner will write down the number on the white board.  This will be repeated with each action called out, but with each action, the thinker must add the new number to the old number (or old total), creating a bigger number.  If the thinker gets the answer wrong, that team is out of the game.  If the twister falls, that team is out of the game.  (You could also play for points if you would like.) 

The same could be done for multiplication, or if you’re working on subtraction or division, you could give students a number to start from and have them subtract or divide each number landed on. 

3. Number Creation – For this variation, split your class into 2 teams.  The teams will take turns being “twisters” and “thinkers”, using a 3 strikes policy.  After 3 strikes, the teams switch.  “Twisters” get a strike by letting a body part other than their hand or foot touch the ground.  “Thinkers” get a strike by coming up with the wrong answer. 

Each time you call out an action, the “twisters” complete that action.  Write the numbers on the board and challenge the “thinkers” to use the digits to make the biggest number, the smallest number, the biggest even number, the biggest number they can get to counting by 5, etc. – whatever category you would like. 

 

I hope some of the ideas will help you use Twister in a new, different way. Find more ways to use board games in your room by clicking HERE. Keep playing games and watching your students learn.

Enhance Your Calendar Math

One of the best things I’ve done this year is to add Calendar Books to my Calendar Math program.  I love using calendar math to get my students looking more at numbers in a more in depth way.  I think the routine of calendar helps students to internalize numbers and gain a better understanding of the workings of numbers.  My calendar books have made my students more engaged during our whole group calendar time, and have given them some ownership over the learning that happens there.  I’ve made a little video for you of how I use these calendar books.

 

 

Next year, I want to do more with this concept, so I started making different levels for my learning pages.  I know have 6 levels, of which I think I’ll use 3 next year, and I have 12 different cover pages, one for each month.  I put them all together into an E-Book to share with you.  You can even grab two sample books for FREE – one for June and one for September at Raki’s Shop, or download all of the leveled pages and covers for $7.00.  This product is available exclusively at Raki’s Shop, grab one and be ready for a year’s worth of Calendar Math.  I will be so excited to use this from the beginning of the year last year – don’t you hate when you figure out something to works great, but the year’s more than half over! 

I’d love it if you tell me how you use Calendar Math in your classroom.

A New Take on the End of the Year Project

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. If you want to search through some of them, you can check out my IKeepBookmarks site. Or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

 

The end of the school year is a great time for students to work on projects.  I know many teachers have students create posters and other projects at this time of the year.  This week’s website suggestions is a new way to create that end of the year project – a Glog.  Glogs are online posters, so they can include a large variety of text and graphics.  However, they can also be interactive, and include links to websites, videos etc.  They are simple to use and if each student signs in on their own account they are free.  (There is a way for you to monitor all of your students, but that is a paid service.)

Another use for www.edu.glogster.com is that as a teacher, you can create an interactive poster for students to use during their computer center.  I have created a glog on Egypt (click HERE to view it) that my students are using to complete their Egypt country book.  (Feel free to grab a free copy from Google Docs.) The students love that they can click on the weather box and find out what Egypt’s weather is like today.  For my students who need everything clearly given to them, all the answers are right on the main page, but for those students who need a challenge, there are links to further information, allowing them to delve deeper into the subject.  So, Glogs have become a great way to make my computer center into a more involved and interactive experience.

How could you use Glogs in your classroom?  I’d love to hear some of your ideas.

TESOL Teaching Tip #26 - That Word Sounds Like….

My class consists of 20 students, of which only 1 speaks English only in his household, and even he began his life in a bilingual environment. The other 18 speak at least one, if not two other languages in their homes, and go to school in English, although they don’t live in an English speaking country. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. Here’s this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:

ELL Teaching Tip #26: Help Your Students Explore Cognate

All languages are related, and there are words called cognates that help language learners to “guess” the meaning of new words.  Cognates sound and/or look the same in two or more languages.  For example:
Night in English is nuit in French, noche in Spanish, nicht in Scots and nat in Danish.
Star in English is etoile in French, ster in Dutch, sterk in Kurdish and estrella in Spanish.
Active in English is actif in French, activo in Spanish, ativo in Portugese and attivo in Italian.
Family in English is famille in French, familia in Spanish, familie in Dutch and pamilya in Fillipino.

Sometimes we have what is called “false cognates”, where words give us meaning clues, although they may not be exactly the same.  For example:
Snake in English is serpent in French.
Glacer is a large piece of ice in English, glace means ice in French.
Molest in English means to abuse, molestar in Spanish means to bother.

When we are learning, or teaching, a new language, these cognates help us to learn and remember new vocabulary.  Help your students learn these cognates by being aware of some yourself.  Here is a website with a list of common Spanish cognates.  Here is a website with a list of common French cognates.  A Google Search will reveal cognate lists for other languages as well.
Also, when introducing new vocabulary, encourage your students to tell you if they can find a cognate in their home language.  Have students write these cognates in a “Words I Know” or “My Own Dictionary” type of book, to help them spark their memories.

Do you enjoy the weekly TESOL Teaching Tips? Would you like to view an hour long presentation on this topic? I recently presented on Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners at the Everything’s Intermediate Expo. Now you can grab the presentation for just $4.95 from Teacher’s Notebook.


Find more TESOL Teaching Tips here, and come back every Tuesday for a new tip!

Custom Order Clip Art

Are you looking for a clip art graphic, but can’t find the specific graphic you are looking for?  My husband, Khalil, and I create clip art and we have just recently started taking custom orders.  if you are interested, simply fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you ASAP to get you the cute clip art you are looking for.  The pricing on these custom ordered clip art starts at just $0.50 per graphic.

We do have clip art packages readily available already at Raki’s Shop, Teacher’s Notebook and Teachers Pay Teachers.  Here are some samples of the graphics we currently have available:

 

 

 

 

What do you use clip art to make?

Summer Homeschooling

In addition to teaching, I also “homeschool” by two older sons in English.  They both go to school all day in Arabic and French, but I don’t want them to lose their academic English level, so we also do English activities throughout the week, including reading, writing and math.  Over the summer, I plan to work with them on each of these activities, but I also try each summer to make sure my kids have a lot of experiential learning.  Two years ago, we used my summer scavenger hunt to guide our experiential learning.  (Grab this summer scavenger hunt for FREE from Google Docs.)  Last year, we went to Washington D.C., New York City and then moved to Morocco which provided plenty of experiential learning.  For this summer, my kids and I made a “Summer Bucket List” of 60 things to do this summer, and we’re going to try to do one a day.  (BTW – I got this idea from That’s So Cugely.)  Here’s what my kids want to do this summer – as we check things off of our list, I’ll keep you updated on what my kids are learning.

1.  Go Fishing

2.  Play Monopoly

3.  Make Donuts

4.  Make Origami

5.  Do Every Puzzle in the House

6.  Have a Movie Day

7.  Camp in the Living Room

8.  Make S’mores

9.  Paint Ceramic Pots

10.  Use Every Block in the House to Build a Huge Castle

11.  Be a Marching Band

12.  Make Brownies

13.  Make Jewelry

14.  Have a Tea Party

15.  Visit the Forest

16.  Make a book

17.  Make a movie

18.  Collect & Sort Rocks

19.  Play Simon Says

20.  Play Card Games

21.  Color a Whole Coloring Books

22.  Make Scrapbook Pages

23.  Use the Scale to Weigh Things in our House

24.  Race the Toy Cars

25.  Hide & Seek with Toys

26.  Clean the Whole House (yes the kids added this to the list!)

27.  Have a Scavenger Hunt

28.  Work in our Math Workbooks

29.  Have Different Types of Races

30.  Make Glogs (www.edu.glogster.com)

31.  Play House

32.  Make Storybirds (www.storybird.com)

33.  Have Dinosaur/ Superhero Battles

34.  Play with Bubbles

35.  Do Science Experiments

36.  Have a Ball Race

37.  Make a Big Playdough Picture

38.  Have a Records Day (Who can bounce the ball the longest?  Who can stand on one foot the longest? etc. – My oldest son is obsessed with World Records right now. )

39.  Build Boats

40.  Play Souk (Market)

41.  Read 20 Books

42.  Mage Bagels from Scratch

43.  Go Horseback Riding

44.  Have a Fake Karate Tournament

45.  Make Raviolis from Scratch

46.  Learn Everything we can About Another Country

47.  Go to a Music Festival

48.  Go to the Zoo

49.  Make Obstacle Courses

50.  Go Roller Skating

51.  Play Tag

52.  Read all the Street Signs

53.  Play with All of the Train Tracks

54.  Write letters to family

55.  Participate in a post card exchange

56.  Bake Cookies

57.  Go Bird Watching

58.  Play Flowers

59.  Put on a Puppet Show

60.  Play School

What’s on your Summer Bucket List?

 

Let Them Sing!

There are 13 days until the end of the school year and I have yet to get my class to be able to stay quiet during transitions.  Anytime we are switching activities, passing out papers, collecting papers, stopping learning time for a nanosecond, there is talking – and not whispering but full, loud conversations – usually in Arabic or French (the home language of most of my students) going on in my room.  Then, recently, I came upon a solution – let them sing! 

All year long, I have been teaching my kids little songs, some are related to our curriculum, some are to build rhyming and phonemic awareness, and some are just playground songs that my students aren’t aware of because on our playground, they sing in French or Arabic, lol!  So, the other day, I decided I couldn’t take the transition noise one more minute, and I just called out “Miss Mary Mack”, and while I was passing out papers, all of the kids sang the song.  Now, this didn’t make my room any quieter, but it kept them all focused on one thing, and when the song was done, I was able to pick up teaching without any wait time – amazing!  So, we are spending the last 13 days of school singing, and it puts us ALL in a better mood! 

How are you managing those restless munchkins at this time of the year?

  

Literacy Cherries

I LOVE to play board games at home, but I also enjoying using them in my classroom. In addition to encouraging cooperation, turn taking and a variety of other social skills, I find I can often use the games to work on math and literacy skills. So, every Friday, I am going to post a Friday Game Night post, giving tips on how to use a particular board game in your classroom. Here’s this week’s Friday Game Night Tip:

Hi Ho Cherry-O!– Part 2 (Literacy)

I often see Hi Ho Cherry-O played in Preschool and Kindergarten classrooms to work counting, colors and turn taking. Here are some adaptions to use this preschool game in the elementary school classroom, and touch on some literacy standards too! For each adaptation, you will need to write a digit (0-9) on the bottom of each cherry with a fine tipped Sharpie.

1. How Many Words are in Your Sentence – Do you ever struggle trying to get your kids out of those “I like pizza.” 3 word sentences?  Play Hi Ho Cherrios (with the numbered cherries) and have students write one sentence for each cherry they have.  The sentence must have the same number of words as the number on the cherry.  This is also a great time to talk about using sentences of different length within a paragraph – to build up interest.

2. Rhyming Words – Working on rhyming?  Before each round, give students a word.  Then during their turn, they will collect and add up their cherries, however may “points” they earn tells them how many rhyming words they need to come up with for that original word given before the round began. 

3. Syllable Words – Build critical thinking while working on syllables.  Once students have a conceptual understanding of syllables, play Hi Ho Cherrios (with the numbered cherries) and tell students in order to keep the cherry they win, they must come up with a word that has that many syllables.  (ie. If the cherry they win has a 4, they must come up with a 4 syllable words like ‘impossible’).

 

I hope some of the ideas will help you use Hi Ho Cherry O! in a new, different way. Find more ways to use board games in your room by clicking HERE. Keep playing games and watching your students learn.

Home Visits: Making Connections with Students and Their Families

One of the most powerful strategies a teacher can use to make connections with students and their families is by making home visits. Over my past few years as an English as a Second Language teacher, I have made several home visits. I have found that they take extra time and effort, but the eventual results are worthwhile. In fact, I believe the “payoffs” are huge!

 

One of my students was struggling to access an online student reading program. After trying several notes back and forth with the child’s mother, I offered to make a home visit to see what I could do to help. When I arrived, Mother and the three children welcomed me to their home. They offered me a tray of traditional sweets and pistachios along with a cold can of Pepsi. I sat and chatted with Mother for about 20 minutes before I began to work on their home computer. It took me more than an hour of tinkering with several possible solutions to figure out why they couldn’t access the online reading program, but finally, it worked! Hurrah! We celebrated and then I waited while my student completed one of the online lessons. I wanted to make sure she was successful before I left. Mother observed how the online lesson was supposed to work so she could help her daughter in the future. While we were waiting on my student finish her lesson, Father called on his cell phone. He couldn’t be there in person to meet me, but he wanted to talk with me and to thank me for visiting his home and helping his child.

Another time I visited a family who lived in an apartment complex housing many families from the same country and culture. As a teacher colleague and I along with our school district interpreter walked between buildings, a cry arose of “Teachers are here!” Suddenly, doors opened and children streamed out. They were excitedly yelling at each other in their first language while interspersing their conversation with the English words, “Teacher, Teacher!” We were quickly engulfed by a crowd of children hugging us and saying our names. As we made our way to the apartment, we must have looked like a small parade to any onlookers! The children of the family we were scheduled to visit thrust themselves importantly to the head of the group and led us to their home. They escorted us into their apartment and sat down cross-legged on the floor. We greeted Mother and Auntie and started our meeting. During the visit, other children kept peeking in the open door of the apartment. They giggled, whispered and waved to us as we talked with the adults of the family.

I’ve met many families and found that every one of them appreciated the time I’ve taken to visit their homes. I’ve eaten a variety of food such as Latin American candy, Middle Eastern pastries and cookies, spicy Asian hot wings and Somali sambusis (triangular shaped fried pastries filled with a spicy ground meat, onion and peppers mixture). I’ve sipped hot tea, spiced chai, assorted soft drinks and unfamiliar fruit juices. It seems to be a universal gesture from all of the families I’ve visited to offer the teacher a treat or drink. I always try to accept graciously even if I don’t care for something because I know it’s important to my students.

Home visits have made a difference for me in how I relate to my students and their families. Parents are always more comfortable communicating with me after they have hosted me in their homes. I find now that mothers, fathers, “aunties” and others make the time to stop in my classroom when they come to school for Open House nights or when they come to pick up their children during the school day. I see them at district meetings and cultural events and, yes, sometimes even at the grocery store, hardware store or the mall! Without fail, they greet me with a smile, a handshake or even a hug (from the women). If you have not tried home visits with your students, I suggest you try. You may be pleasantly surprised at the positive results.

 

Mrs. Gumby is an English as a Second Language teacher in the United States. Please take a minute to stop by her blog at Semper Gumby and tell her how much you liked her guest blog post here at Raki’s Rad Resources.

Read a Book, Give a Book

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. If you want to search through some of them, you can check out my IKeepBookmarks site. Or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

 

As a teacher at a small school in Morocco, English books are not extremely prevalent, so I am always looking for alternative ways to expose my students to books.  In previous Wednesday Website suggestions, I talked about some websites I use for listening.  Today’s website will not work for listening, but it’s a great way to expose your children to lots of good books.  There are over 190 books on the WeGiveBooks website that you can read completely FREE.  With a projector, this makes a great shared reading activity or even a read aloud.  The books are a combination of classics (like the Snowy Day) and contemporary (like Good Night I-Pad), fiction and non-fiction.  There are even books in Spanish.

However, the best part of this website is that it is also a way to increase your children’s global awareness, because for every book you read, you have the opportunity to “give a book”.  WeGiveBooks is run by Penguin Group and Pearson Foundation.  It is part of their non-profit division.  Not only do they donate books, but they have different campaigns available, so that you can specify if you want your book to be donated to the Phillipeans, Latin America, inner city kids in London etc.  What a great way to increase literacy in your own children, while increasing their global awareness and giving to children in need of books!  It’s a win, win.

 

Hope you enjoyed this Wednesday’s Website suggestion – check back each Wednesday for a new Wednesday's Website suggestion and click HERE to view previous Website suggestions.

Do You Speak Another Language?

My class consists of 20 students, of which only 1 speaks English only in his household, and even he began his life in a bilingual environment. The other 18 speak at least one, if not two other languages in their homes, and go to school in English, although they don’t live in an English speaking country. Due to my unique teaching position, I have had some readers ask for tips on teaching English Language Learners. Here’s this week’s Tuesday TESOL Teaching Tip:

ELL Teaching Tip #25: Learn Another Language

A few weeks ago, we talked about the difference between being able to sympathize with your students and being able to empathize with them in regards to culture shock.  Experiencing a culture outside of your own is something you can never understand from reading about it or hearing about it, it is something you must experience first hand. 
Being bilingual is another concept that you can never understand from reading about it or hearing about it.  I know that most of us do not have enough time to learn another language to the point of becoming fully bilingual, but I still suggest to anyone teaching English Language Learners to try and learn at least some of another language.  The more you learn, the more you will understand how your students feel, and the most you will be able to appreciate the positives and negatives of being bilingual.
For the past year, since I moved to Morocco, I have been working on learning Arabic and French.  Even though I have been learning for a year, I am far from bilingual (especially since I spend the majority of my time in English and not Arabic or French).  However, I have learned enough Arabic and French to:
1.  be able to communicate my basic needs, and often simple thoughts
2.  know that there is so much I’d like to say in, but I don’t have the words to express myself yet
3.  have the word I am looking for pop into my head in Arabic or French before English
4.  get frustrated by how slow I am learning
5.  get excited by having 3 different ways to explain one item or event
6.  tune out my teacher and others who are speaking to me because I’m only understanding about one word out of ten.

In order to better understand how your students feel when they are learning English in your room, I highly suggest learning another language.  Buy a Rosetta Stone program, take classes, find a tutor, but take the time to see how it truly feels to be a language learner.  I promise you will look at your English Language Learners in a whole new way.
I’d love to hear from you – Please leave me a comment and let us know - Have you learned another language?  Are you bilingual?  How does it impact how you teach in the classroom?


Do you enjoy the weekly TESOL Teaching Tips? Would you like to view an hour long presentation on this topic? I recently presented on Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners at the Everything’s Intermediate Expo. Now you can grab the presentation for just $4.95 from Teacher’s Notebook.


Find more TESOL Teaching Tips here, and come back every Tuesday for a new tip!