Descriptions

 

Playdough family

 

 

You can't get away without using playdough once every half term, all my pupils know that! Last week my Year 4 had to make a family of heads where they all had different eye colours. I took a picture of the family after they finished them and I put these photos up on the big screen so that they could talk about their families to everybody:  "La madre tiene los ojos azules." They all love seeing each others' work, the heads are really funny. It's easy to make them talk if  it is about their own work and if they can make the rest of the class smile.

 

 

 

Heads down, thumbs up

 

When I teach hair colours, I take my coloured pompoms in to school. In the first few years of my teaching I just pointed to the kids' hair when I was teaching "blonde" or "brown", but we spent so much time clarifying whether Amy is blonde, hazelnut or light brown and also, the red haired kids were often a bit embarrassed so I just assign them with hair colours and no arguments. They think the wigs are really funny! I cut eye shapes out and we use them for games.

"Heads down, thumbs up" is one of our favourites, the 4 kids standing in front of the class look so funny with wigs and big coloured eyes. The rules are:

-all the children put their heads down on their tables, with their thumbs up,

- the 4 wig kids walk around the classroom and squeeze one thumb once,

-these 4 go back to the front of the class, the rest wake up,

-those who have been squeezed have to stand up and guess who has touched them,

-they have to guess in Spanish, of course:-) "Tiene los ojos verdes y el pelo rubio."

-if they get the right person, they can swop.

 

 

 

Missing friends

 

I hide some dolls in the classroom before the kids come in. When they are in, I say that I have four friends who disappeared in this huge classroom, and can  they please help me find them. I have written descriptions of the dolls, the pupils have to find them and match them with the descriptions. We play this in Year 4 and the boys are just as excited as girls, don't think that the dolls will put them off.

 

 

 

Wanted posters

 

After the "lost dolls" activity, we make our own "Wanted" posters. The pupils can look for a classmate, a teacher, a friend, or anybody they want to. They present them in front of the class and then we put them out on display.

 

 

 

 

 Listening to the monster

 

This is a very scary listening activity, and I say that to my children, but after hearing the sound file, they just laugh at me! I have the body parts printed out and the kids lift these up while listening to the monster. There is a Powerpoint, as well if you want to practise reading with them. The Powerpoint and the sound file can be found on the Scholastic website, see the links below.

 

 

El Monstruo ppt

 

sound file

 

Enjoy the lesson:-)