How can a children’s book be for everyone?

I am always on the look for interesting funny stories and at the same time stories which are comprehensible to my learners. A few months ago when I was busy breastfeeding, I was reading the TPRS bible “Fluency through TPR storytelling” by Blaine Ray and Contee Steel and one chapter entitled “Kindergarten Day”

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acquiring18 acquisition65 animal sounds1 animals97 bedtime3 children28 ci145 circle3 circling5 comprehensible100 comprehension250 connection105 engaging10 exercises1 fun413 funny256 high frequency217 home practice3 input47 interesting23 kindergarten day1 listening52 own pace2 parallel story3 practice33 present tense435 reading252 repetition42 repetitive22 story46 storytelling39 teacherspayteachers11 TPRS71 verb forms3 video350 vocabulary256

French culture: celebrating la Chandeleur !

Candlemas is around the corner and I have prepared some fun activities to do in the French class to celebrate this special event. In fact as the activities are mainly centered around crepes and how to make them, you could also use them to celebrate Mardi Gras (which is on the 9th of February this year) or if you are teaching a topic on food.

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acquisition65 bundle1 celebrate26 celebration20 communicative7 comprehensible100 Cooking41 cultural10 culture246 Education20 food154 French41 grammar66 infinitive1 input47 logic1 logical2 numeracy1 passé-composé227 past316 perfect tense4 recipe36 song29 story46 storytelling39 teacherspayteachers11 TPRS71 tradition57

Fun and simple idea to practice “gustar”

The verb “gustar” is not an easy verb to use as it is so different from “normal”verbs. The majority of students know how to use it in the first person singular “me gusta” but they rarely know how to use it when they want to refer to someone else.

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cards1 clapping1 Education20 engage150 focus36 grade 68 grammar66 gustar1 lesson7 listening52 marker1 matching1 motivation201 objective21 practice33 reading252 Spanish33 speaking73 warm up36 whiteboard2 writing55

Homework “a la carte”!

As far as homework is concerned, I have been trying something new which has been successful so far. Basically I let my students do what they want as long as it is in Spanish!

At the start of the year I told them that they will acquire the Spanish language,

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acquire50 anjoy1 book95 choice4 Education20 engage150 hobbies8 homework3 internet13 language45 library4 listening52 magazine3 memorize11 memorizing6 mother tongue2 motivate151 reading252 skills26 Spanish33 tasks1 watch52 youtube67

Spanish culture – Poem: Gracias a la vida

Today I want to share a beautiful song and poem in Spanish about life, love and being thankful. It can be used in class with intermediate to advanced learners to review or reinforce the perfect tense. It could also be used with beginners looking at the vocabulary in the song which is quite simple and then talking about what students are grateful for.

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advanced294 canción2 culture246 gracias1 input47 intermediate707 Mercedes Sosa1 poem71 poema1 reading252 song29 Spanish33 thankful3 thanksgiving1 video350 Violeta Parra1 worksheets1 youtube67