There are a lot of prepositions in English and many of them have multiple functions. Prepositions were usually at the top of my students’ troublesome grammar lists! Breaking prepositions up into categories (such as place and time) often helps students learn and remember them more easily. Our Spotlight lesson this week was our Word Bank lesson on Prepositions of Place, so I decided to create some worksheets to practice two of the most common prepositions: IN and ON. I divided the worksheets into two pages—the first is a basic exercise on places, and the second is one on transportation (because in my experience, students get quite confused by vehicles—in a car vs. on a bus, for example).
Spirit Day Ideas for ESL Classrooms
Sprout English’s theme of the week is clothing! Your students will love learning clothing vocabulary with these fun cards and games.
Does your school hold Spirit Days like Crazy Hair Day or Pajama Day? A monthly Spirit Day is a great way to give kids something to look forward to. My own kids love “er” day at their school. This is when students and teachers dress up as anything ending in “er.” If you’re looking for some new ideas for Spirit Days for the upcoming school year, check out these lists, and be sure to add your own ideas in the comments below. Here is a sample Spirit Day Letter that you can use to send home to parents. (more…)
Clothing & Shopping Activities Using Flashcards
Learning new vocabulary can be a struggle for English language learners. Teachers can make it easier and more interesting with flashcards! This week our Spotlight was on Clothes in the Card Games section of our Games Room, and we wanted to give teachers some suggestions on how to use these flashcards in class. If you have your own favorite flashcard activity, please write it in the comments section below—we’d love to hear it!
Activities with Cards/Flashcards for Clothes & Shopping:
1. Dress Up: Put students into pairs and have them draw two stick figures (a man and woman or a boy and girl). Give each student a set of flashcards and tell them to place the clothing pictures on the stick figures to “dress them up.” Students should discuss their choices using the clothing vocabulary. You can repeat this activity using different themes such as formal, casual, business, etc. Ask each pair to come up with a theme to share with the class.
2. Silly Dress Up: (more…)
Young at Heart! 15 Young Learner Blogs We Love
“For in every adult there dwells the child that was, and in every child there lies the adult that will be.”
—John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things
Teaching children can be an extremely rewarding experience or a nightmare. I’ve had many days when I’ve left the classroom feeling on top of the world. Children have a way of making you feel like a superhero when you make a meaningful connection with them. Plenty of hugs, drawings, and other hand-crafted momentos can keep you going. However, I have also had my days when I left the classroom defeated, crying, and worn out. Teaching children requires a lot of energy, flexibility, and a plethora of ideas.
Thankfully, I’ve had more rewarding experiences and the difference has been connecting with young learner teachers worldwide. Whenever I need inspiration I can read their blogs for resources and ideas. I also enjoy seeing their students’ work. Reading their personal reflections comforts me whenever I face problems. It is nice knowing another teacher experiences the same struggles and finds a solution.
The following blogs will offer you plenty of inspiration and support so that you keep inspiring your kiddos! (more…)
Pronunciation of Past Tense Endings
Many languages have a one-to-one spelling-pronunciation relationship, but the English language has no such thing! This is why English pronunciation is difficult for learners to master. On top of the 26 vowel sounds and many tricky consonant sounds such as “th”, students need to learn the pronunciation of endings that change according to the last sound of the word. For example, the past tense ending -ed can be pronounced as /t/, /d/, or /ɪd/ depending on the last letter of the verb. Luckily there are rules for such cases!
Today’s blog post was inspired by this week’s Spotlight lesson, Juan and Sofia – Simple Past Reading, which has an exercise on the spelling rules for adding -ed (the past tense ending of regular verbs). I thought it would be helpful to blog about the different ways of pronouncing the -ed ending. Note that I use the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in this post. Play the audio examples at the end of this article for pronunciation practice for your students or children.
1. Pronounce the -ed ending as /t/ following voiceless consonants. (more…)
10 Summer Printing Practice Ideas for Kids
For Parents
Kids need plenty of free time to explore their personal interests in the summer. Finding an English-speaking friend is probably the best summer homework your child can do. Are you worried about your child’s printing and spelling skills? Look for fun games and activities you can do with your child that won’t feel like work. Here are a few ideas to make printing practice fun.
1. Beach Sandman
This game is like Hangman, but instead of using pen and paper, use a stick and the beach!
a. Ask your child to think of an object in English. Your child may need to ask another adult or friend to help with the correct spelling.
b. Tell your child to count the amount of letters in the word. You child will then draw that number of spaces (small lines) in the sand in front of you using a stick. (This game works best in wet sand near the water’s edge.) (more…)
Pronunciation Practice: L & R
This week’s Spotlight lesson is our Phonics lesson: M to R, which gives low-level learners printing and pronunciation practice. The letter “R” inspired me to write this post on perhaps the trickiest bit of pronunciation in English: the /r/ sound. I’ve had students from all over the world struggle to pronounce /r/ as we do in English! Minimal pairs with /l/ and /r/ can be especially difficult for English language learners, so I thought I’d include some practice in my blog post today.
Tongue position:
What position does the tongue need to be in to form the /l/ and /r/ sounds in English? In most languages, including English, the /l/ sound is produced with the tip of the tongue against the back side of the front teeth. The tongue “flaps” or flicks outward when making the /l/ sound. Most students have no problem making the /l/ sound.
The /r/ sound, in most languages other than English, is made with the tip of the tongue near the front teeth (similar to the /l/ sound in English). The tongue often flaps or trills in this position. The English /r/, however, calls for the tongue to be much farther back in the mouth. The tongue stays flat and doesn’t move up and down. (See the pronunciation tips section below for more /r/ pronunciation info to give to students.) (more…)
Be Verb Practice: Be Yourself
Have you tried Sprout English’s NEW Simple Present Be Verb lesson plan? This new lesson is adorable, fun, and very useful for introducing the Be Verb to young beginners. After you use this lesson, you’ll need some fun games and activities to reinforce the language structure. Here’s one idea to try:
Be Yourself Game
1. Start by placing a word on the board that describes a few of the people in your class. For example: a nationality (African), gender (male, a boy), or age (10 years old). Tell your students to raise their hands if this word or phrase applies to them. Introduce one word at a time. Move on to appearances, personalities, and moods that can be used with the Be verb (e.g., brunette, blond, tall, short, smart, friendly, hungry). (more…)
How to Introduce Yourself in English
This week’s Spotlight lesson is our new Simple Present – Be lesson, where language learners can get a lot of practice introducing themselves. Introductions are one of the first things students need to learn to do in a new language. Feeling confident and comfortable doing so can go a long way to making language learning an enjoyable experience.
Like most (if not all) languages, there are a variety of ways to introduce ourselves in English, and we don’t want our students freezing up in the real world if they hear a variation from what they practiced in class. That’s why dialogues that show possible variations (such as the free, printable dialogue below) are great—students can see other ways of saying the target phrase and repeat the basic conversation several times without getting bored.
For listening practice and as a model before the students try it themselves, play the audio clip at the bottom of this post or ask for two volunteers. (more…)
Numbers in Dates: Should We Write July 4, July 4th, or July Fourth?
For those living in, teaching in, or hailing from Canada or the US, happy soon-to-be Canada Day and Independence Day! Canada Day is a federal holiday celebrated on July 1 that commemorates the
July 1, 1867, signing of the Constitution Act. Independence Day, also known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday that commemorates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. With these holidays fast approaching, the team at Sprout English and ESL Library has been busy creating new lessons, updating old ones, and blogging about related grammar and activities!
I chose my blog topic for today based on a question I had while editing ESL Library’s Independence Day lesson. The lesson included several instances of “July 4th”, and I had to decide if that was the best way to present dates. Should we use ordinal numbers (e.g., 1st, 4th) or cardinal numbers (e.g., 1, 4)? What do the style guides have to say? (more…)
