Winter Wishes

The end of the year celebration at school usually includes all students at all levels. The teachers tap into their creativity to meet the needs of the learners. This year, our students ranged from Literacy Foundation to CLB 6. To start off our morning, we designed an activity that included some student collaboration, speaking, fine motor skills, following instructions, and writing.

We started by having students put together a puzzle.

I designed the puzzle in Word, saved it in Adobe, and printed it as a poster. I enlarged it to about 375%, so it printed off into sixteen squares. The images I chose were not distinct enough, and we decided to add colours. Students used the colours to determine how the lines matched up. I gave them some clues such as that the puzzle was 4 x 4 squares. I also put up squares six and seven to get them started. Students of all levels participated in this.

This puzzle had the question for our next activity. First, each student expressed their own answers. Some students required a sentence starter, and others said a few sentences.

Then, we moved on to writing our sentences and decorating some winter-themed images.

Teachers and higher level students assisted lower level writers by writing down the learners' sentences or words. Students then copied their message onto the paper.

  

Happy new year to you all! I hope your winter wishes come true too!

Amaryllis Bulbs

There is nothing quit like getting your hands dirty when it comes to learning ESL! 

In November there are endless supplies of forced bulb kits that you can purchase in local garden centres or grocery stores. It is wise to compare prices so that you can get a deal, and do not blow your budget doing this kind of project. 

This year I chose to do one plant for my morning class and one for my afternoon class rather than one plant for each student. At the end of the term, students entered their name in a draw to take the plant home.

To start, I discussed all the relevant vocabulary with my students including soil, a pot and saucer, bulb, water, and roots. This could be done orally only or supported with a diagram to label. I explained the process of what we would do orally. 

Inspired by horticultural therapy workshops I have attended, I had the students dump the soil into a big pot and slowly add nice, warm water from a pitcher to the soil. Students then mixed up the soil with their bare hands. You could provide gloves. It is always best to start with moist soil.

Then we poured about three quarters of the soil into the pot, nestled the bulb in, and filled in the space with the rest of the soil. Finishing up with a thorough watering, we were set to let more language learning happen. 

At this point you could have the students describe the the process to you and write the simple directions using a Language Experience Approach.

This year, we started a measurement chart. Each Monday we would write the date, and measure the growth of the plant using a ruler in centimetres. This continued for four weeks. Longer would have been better as we did not end up seeing our amaryllis bulbs bloom. The lucky draw winner was able to have it bloom in her house. 

We reviewed the chart weekly, learned how to read and write in a chart and built competency in measuring using a ruler.

Outcomes: Listen to and follow instructions, copy words and sentences, use a ruler to measure height, read and write numbers, read and write in a chart.