Food allergies are very common nowadays. Learning about them together helps to promote safety and understanding in your classroom!

This week, Sprout English’s featured lesson is Food Allergies from the Food section in the Discovery Center. This fun, six-page lesson includes discussion questions, a short reading full of interesting facts, comprehension questions, vocabulary exercises (including an opposites exercise and a crossword puzzle), and a word maze. There is even an optional black-and-white title page for your young learners to color. (more…)

Beyond the ABCs

alphabet (noun): It’s time to learn the alphabet. You must know your ABCs by the end of this week.
alphabetical (adjective): The attendance list is in alphabetical order. Find your name and check it off.
alphabetize (verb): Please alphabetize the list of resources you used in your report.

Are your young students or children learning how to alphabetize words or lists? Knowing how to put words and lists in alphabetical order is very useful! After all, we don’t always have a handy “search” field available when we want to find something. Knowing how to alphabetize will help your kids:

• find words in a print dictionary
• find numbers in a phone book
• find CDs in a store
• find books in a library

Teaching Students How to Alphabetize

1. Teach the alphabet.
2. Review the alphabet.
3. Show students how to group a list of words by first letter. (Here is a fun video on alphabetizing that you can show. Or, use the video to see a demonstration of how to teach a lesson on alphabetizing.)
4. Show students how to sort the alphabetized groups by second letter (in alphabetical order), third letter (and more if necessary). Explain what to do when two or more words have the same second letter.
5. Teach students to ignore articles (a, an, the) in titles when alphabetizing lists (such as book or movie titles).
6. Talk about when it’s useful to put things in alphabetical order. (For example: attendance lists.) Talk about the difference between alphabetical order and numerical order.
7. When you are sure your students know how to alphabetize, show them how to do it quickly on a computer (using “sort” or an online tool, such as Alphabetizer).

Alphabetizing Activities

Alphabetizing doesn’t have to be boring! It can be fun! Why not practice alphabetizing with a theme, such as Christmas? (Adjust these activities to whichever theme you are using.) Here are some activities you can try in December:

Alphabetize the Ornaments (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…)

What do your students think of when they hear the word “vocabulary”? Do they think of boring repetition and memorization? Do they think it’s the most difficult part of learning English? If so, it’s time to change their attitudes! Learning vocabulary can be fun when teachers present it in interesting ways. It’s also a lot easier to remember new words with frequent repetition, so try reviewing vocab using a variety of activities to keep students engaged. The activities suggested below are always a big hit with my students!

Teaching Vocabulary

1. Vocab on the Board:

Introduce new vocabulary with this competitive activity that is sure to grab and keep the attention of your young learners. This is a game you can play with the whole class. (more…)

Updated for 2015. Please use this link to find out about this lesson: http://blog.sproutenglish.com/thanksgiving-vocabulary-lesson-3/

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…)

How many words are there in the English language? Global Language Monitor estimated that number was 1,013,913 on January 1, 2012. Most dictionaries list the number of current words at around 150,000. For example, the Oxford English Dictionary has entries for 171,476 words in current use.

English spelling: The number of words notwithstanding, spelling in English is a lot more difficult than in other languages. Many languages have a limited number of sounds; for instance, a, e, i, o, and u only have one pronunciation each in many languages. English, however, has 26 vowel sounds alone! Outside of vowel sounds, many English words have spelling that doesn’t match the pronunciation, with words such as knight, cough, phone, etc. Also, there aren’t many rules for English spelling, and the few rules we do have are often broken (consider the i before e, except after c rule: chief, but their).

American vs. British spelling: To top it all off, there are also spelling variations that differ by region of the world. The most prevalent difference is American spelling vs. the spelling of other English-speaking countries, which primarily follow British spelling practices. These differences can be frustrating for teachers and students (not to mention business owners, government workers, and many others.). At my old school in Canada, we used textbooks from both the US and the UK, so students were exposed to both American and British spelling on a regular basis. Figuring out how to present these spelling differences to students was a challenge. (more…)

New and improved for 2016! Find our updated worksheet here: http://blog.sproutenglish.com/halloween-find-the-objects/

It’s almost Halloween! This scary, fun holiday takes place on October 31^st in many countries. Many teachers will be doing Halloween activities with their classes, and this means that Halloween vocabulary will be featured a lot. Now is a good time to review some of the trickier words that scare English learners and native speakers alike!

1. COSTUME / CUSTOM

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen students get these two words mixed up. They’re tricky! Point out to your students that they have different pronunciations and different meanings. A costume, pronounced /ˈkɑs tjum/, is an outfit that people wear on Halloween in order to appear as someone/something else.

• I bought a cat costume for Halloween this year. My friend is dressing up in a zombie costume.

A custom, pronounced /ˈkʌs təm/, is a tradition or habitual action that people do.

• Taking off your shoes when you enter someone’s house is a well-known Japanese custom. (more…)

This week’s featured lesson is Team Sports from the Sports & Leisure section in the Word Bank. This lesson will help your students expand their vocabulary and improve their spelling through a popular theme. Eight pages of activities ensure your students have plenty of opportunities for practice, and you have the flexibility of doing it all in class or assigning some pages for homework or review the next day. Your students won’t get bored with this wide variety of activities, including a picture dictionary, a matchup exercise, a word choice exercise, a word search puzzle, a word scramble activity, and a spelling bee. Best of all, your students will be able to put these words to use in the “Question Time” section, where they can practice their speaking and writing skills. Go team! (more…)