minimal pair: a pair of words that differ in sound by one phoneme (EX: cat/bat, sit/sip, hit/hat)

Are your students reviewing Three-Letter Words with Sprout English’s featured phonics pack? Have you introduced the concept of minimal pairs? Here is a fun holiday-themed craft that you can do to practice three-letter minimal pairs in December. Adjust the difficulty based on your students.

You will need
* lots of red, green, and white strips of paper about 5″ long by 1″ wide  (or use wrapping paper)
* felt markers (black or something that shows up well on colored paper)
* staplers or tape (a few shared around the classroom)

Minimal Pairs Activity
1. Review the concept of three-letter minimal pairs. Show lots of examples on the board, and get students to give you examples. Use Sprout English’s phonics pages for ideas. (more…)

“At the end of the day, the most overwhelming key to a child’s success is the positive involvement of parents.” ~ Jane D. Hull

Dear ESL parents,

Is your child learning English? Are you an English learner yourself? The most important thing you can do to support your child’s language learning is to be involved. After all, parent involvement is the key to early literacy!

Think back to when your child learned his or her first language. You were your child’s first teacher! Parents teach their children their native language by talking to them, singing to them, reading to them, and keeping them close by during daily routines and interactions with others.

Parent involvement is crucial when it comes to learning additional languages as well. Here are five tips for supporting your children during their language-learning journeys.

1. Be a role model. Show that you care about learning English yourself. Read books, newspapers, and magazines in English. Tell your child, “I’m learning English too!” (more…)

“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” —W. T. Purkiser

Thanksgiving is a time to express gratitude for family, friends, food, warmth, clothing, and other wonderful things and memories. This week, teach your students the expression “count your blessings”. Then try this fun pre- or post-Thanksgiving activity to practice vocabulary and counting in English!

count your blessings: to concentrate on the good things in your life

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This week on Sprout English, students are practicing the simple past tense. Here is a warm-up you can try with your students after you’ve introduced the simple past. This activity requires zero preparation and is great for practicing irregular verbs. It is also useful for practicing question formation. All you need is a piece of paper, a pen, and a small container. It might get loud!

Remembering Yesterday (more…)

There’s no escaping idioms! Whether you love them or hate them, your students need to know them. Of course, it’s more important to teach idioms that are in common usage. If you come across outdated idioms in your teaching materials, be sure to tell your students to avoid using these expressions. Some students fall in love with idioms, and end up overusing them in their writing. Teach your students that idioms are great to know, but should be used sparingly. Too many idioms can drive people bonkers!

In Sprout’s Spotlight this week you’ll find a fun lesson plan about Astronauts. To keep on theme, here are 10 air and space-themed idioms that you can teach your students, followed by 8 fun and interactive ways to review idioms. (more…)

Are your students learning the present progressive tense for the first time? Have you explained the difference between the simple present and the present progressive? If yes, then they know that one use of the present progressive is to describe temporary actions that are happening right now.

After you’ve introduced a specific use of a verb tense, it really helps to get the grammar off the paper. Help your students learn a specific use of the present progressive tense by getting them to visualize it. Keep in mind that this is how native English babies learn the present progressive. They see something happening, and their parent or caregiver points and says, “What’s Daddy doing?” or “What’s Daddy eating?“. At first, the child might respond with the word “apple”. The parent probably praises the child, saying, “You’re right! Daddy is eating an apple.” Eventually, the child will respond in a full sentence using the present progressive.

Here are three activities for getting your students to visualize the present progressive tense:   (more…)

Hi Parents,

Is this your first time experiencing Halloween in a foreign country, or have you been celebrating Halloween since childhood? For those of us who grew up trick-or-treating, this Halloween tradition feels like a safe and fun thing to do. We enjoy watching kids run around in costumes because it brings back memories from our own childhood.

Not all parents are familiar with this tradition, though. Many ESL parents in my neighborhood aren’t comfortable with Halloween. Some don’t send their kids to school with costumes. This may be because of religious reasons, or because they don’t know enough about the tradtion. Others allow their kids to dress up for school, but they don’t take their kids out trick-or-treating. Some people do not feel comfortable with the idea of children knocking on strangers’ doors.

I have met ESL parents in my neighborhood who think Halloween looks fun, but don’t understand how trick-or-treating works. Are you one of these parents? Don’t be afraid! Here is a step-by-step list you can follow if it’s your first time taking your kids trick-or-treating. The two English phrases your kids need to practice are “trick or treat” and “thank you.” (more…)

Frankenstein Day takes place on the last Friday of October. Do your students know the story of Frankenstein? Do they know the story behind the story?

Listen or Read The Story Behind Frankenstein

Mary Shelley was in a writing group. The writers challenged each other to think of a ghost story. They talked about scary things that were happening in the world to help inspire each other. Mary Shelley tried to think of an idea, but she couldn’t come up with anything. The other writers were busy at work! Finally, Mary Shelley had a bad dream about a scientist who created a monster that ended up coming to life. According to legend, Mary Shelley had the dream while she was awake! She was afraid of her own dream, and she decided to write it down. Her idea turned into a novel and a film. Many people think the monster’s name in the story is Frankenstein. It’s not! In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein is actually the last name of the scientist who created the monster. Over the years, it’s almost like the monster claimed the name for itself. Creepy!

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If you didn’t hear about RSCON4, or if you were too busy to attend, don’t worry! All of the sessions were recorded. There are a few different ways to catch up on the sessions you missed. If you want to watch the full recording as if you were in the session (allows you to follow the chat), choose the Blackboard recording. Alternatively, you can listen to the session and view the presenter slides (MP4), or you can simply listen to the audio (MP3). Here are a few sessions that I think teachers of young learners may find particularly useful or interesting. These may even inspire you to do your own presentation at an upcoming e-conference!

If you’re thinking of blogging with your young learners…
Presenter: Dina Doboru @dinadobrou
Session: New Kids On The Blog (more…)

Young learners love to draw creatures such as monster or aliens. If you celebrate Halloween at your school, your classroom walls should be filling up with scary, creepy, and silly creatures by now. Here’s a fun activity to get your students into the Halloween spirit. It will also help your students practice listening, speaking, and giving instructions. You don’t have to tell your little monsters that they are also learning prepositions of place!

My Monster
1. Invite all of your students to draw a colorful monster or alien on a blank sheet of paper. They shouldn’t show any of their classmates. (Have them open up a big book around their drawing to make a little secret cave as they draw.) Tell your students they should use as much detail as possible. (See vocab list below.) If you have some spooky music, play it while the kids draw. The “Monster Mash” is a fun song to put on. If you want to speed up the drawing portion of this activity, tell students they have to put their crayons or markers down as soon as the music ends.

Your Monster (more…)