The topic of school in grade 6 (11-12 years old) gives the opportunity to learn about the facilities at a school, the different subjects and the time (here is the curriculum I planned for this topic). At the end of the topic I like to have a my students work on a project to recap all the new vocabulary and structures they have learned.
Another IGCSE topic is about describing where you live. First I had my grade 9 students watch this excellent video about a girl describing where she lives near Madrid (you can watch it with or without subtitles):
I then asked my students to produce a short movie like the one above about their local area.
One thing that I did achieve during my maternity leave is to get back into shape. In fact, I have never felt so good and so fit in years! First I started to do yoga on a regular basis but I noticed I needed more cardio workout so I decided I would have a go at running.
I have become a yoga fan because it has benefited me a lot during this past year. I can see the benefits for anyone, especially youngsters who are going through difficult stages in their lives: body changing, hormones kicking, big exam time… When I have a homeroom (or form in English from England!) next year,
Last night I posted a video about Spanish table manners from Ben and Marina. Here is another video from Ben and Marina to learn and/or review Spanish fruit and vegetables:
As well as the video, you can get the full list of vocabulary on Ben and Marina’s website.
This video is great when teaching the topic of “eating and drinking” in Spanish. It is about Spanish table manners which are actually quite similar to the French table manners, apart from the olive oil on the table. I sympathize with Marina about the napkins. I actually do also find it “violent”
Following my first story script in Spanish to practice classroom instructions, I have just finished creating another one which reinforces classroom intructions and which introduces one important question word: ¿Por qué?. It also introduces other key phrases from the Michel Thomas method such as es así and lo.