Adjectives describe people, places, and things in English. What happens when we want to compare a lot of nouns at once? We use superlative adjectives! If you tried or will try our lesson of the week, Achievements & Records, then you might want to review superlative adjectives with your students. These adjectives are very common when deciding who is the best at a certain activity!
Have you discussed goals and resolutions for 2014 with your students? One way to lead into a discussion about future goals is to remind your learners of what they’ve already accomplished in the past! Sprout English‘s lesson of the week is Achievements & Records in the Grammar Stories section of the Grammar School. (more…)
The simple future is a bit more complicated than the other simple tenses in English. There is more than one way of making a future verb. You can use the modal will + base verb, the modal expression be going to + base verb, or the present progressive form of be + -ing verb. What’s the difference between these forms? How can you teach them all to your students? In this post you’ll find information on the three future forms, a handy comparison chart that you can print out, fun activities using the future (for warm-ups or fillers), and links to practice exercises. 
COMPARISON CHART – 3 SIMPLE FUTURE FORMS (more…)
Welcome, 2014! It’s the start of a new year, so what better time to discuss goals and resolutions with your young learners? Sprout English‘s lesson of the week is Andy, in the Simple Future Stories section of the Library. In this lesson, Andy is moving to Italy next year, so he decides to make three goals. (more…)
Often spelling and capitalization rules for holidays don’t get taught, and both teachers and students simply use what they’ve seen the most—not necessarily the correct form! Is it New Year, New Year’s, or New Years? When do we capitalize New Year and when do we use lowercase letters?
If you have classes today, it will be useful for your students to learn the correct spelling of New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. If you and your students don’t go back to school until next week, this would still be an educational way to begin or wrap up talking about the holidays! (more…)
Most kids around the world are coming back to school from Christmas holidays this week or next week. Ease them back into study mode with Sprout English‘s simple and fun lesson of the week: Castle in the Project Depot!
This lesson teaches children how to follow instructions as they have fun drawing. Sprout English has 15 lessons like this one in the Project Depot.There are two ways to present this lesson: Listen and Draw or Read and Draw. (more…)
No matter what country they live in, students are usually exposed to Christmas in one way or another, whether it’s through their own family traditions, a homestay family’s traditions, from watching movies, etc. They can all benefit from knowing the best way to spell and capitalize holiday terms. Help your students learn common holiday phrases, capitalization rules, and word choices about Christmas and the holidays with the following tips! (more…)
With Christmas right around the corner, it’s the perfect time to try Sprout English’s lesson of the week: Christmas in the Holidays section of the Word Bank.
This eight-page lesson is so much more than a simple vocabulary lesson! It starts off with a fun, colorful picture dictionary and is followed by a variety of activities that will help your young learners stay engaged while they review the new words. Activities include a matchup, a word choice, a word search, a word scramble, and a spelling bee. This lesson ends with discussion questions so that your students can try using the new vocabulary in context! (more…)
Last week we had a customer ask us which was correct, expiry date or expiration date. As a Canadian, both terms are familiar to me, so I decided to do some digging into these two phrases. Which is best to use?
American Vs. British:
As with many expressions and words in English, it depends on where you live. American English and British English have some differences, and this phrase is no exception. When referring to the date when a product or service expires (such as milk or a passport), the British say expiry date and Americans say expiration date. Canadians often end up using both terms equally, but I’d be interested in hearing if there are differences depending on where in Canada you live (I’m in Vancouver, BC, and I hear both).
Sprout English’s lesson of the week is Three-Letter Words Review in Book 3 of the Phonics Cafe.
There are 18 pages in this comprehensive phonics and spelling lesson. With so many pages to choose from, teachers have the option doing them all in one lesson or dividing them up over a few days. If you choose to divide up the lesson, try doing a fun activity such as the Word Search Puzzle on page 3 as a warm-up, and assign a writing exercise such as page 17 for homework. You can also use page 18 as a quiz. (more…)
