Board Games

We often encourage teachers to create new ways for students to learn through play.  This idea is so much more than just "games."  There should always be a clear learning objective for each activity.  The game itself is just a framework for students to follow that defines the rules and objectives while holding their attention.  In doing so, the students stay excited while they practice new skills and engage in fluency and repetition activities.  It also allows the students to learn on their own, which frees up the teacher to focus on LINUS or remedial students without taking away time or learning opportunities from the more advanced learners.

Materials

I find that cheap and simple are the best kinds of materials.  Most important to me is that the materials are reusable and will not break or fall apart easily.  Usually, printed and laminated boards and cards are all that you need.  The nice thing about laminated boards is that students can also write on them with white board markers, and erase with a tissue or eraser.  This gives them a chance to practice their spelling skills as well as their speaking skills.  I also like to use coloured paperclips as tokens or game pieces.  They are very cheap and just the right size.  Game pieces are always getting lost, so having a cheap and abundant set of pieces will make sure that your activities last a long time.

Dice:  Earlier this year we learned how to make paper cubes at our TPD.  Making small paper dice is a great way to add fun to your activity.  You can also add difficulty to an activity by combining letter dice to your number dice.  

Rules

Get creative with your games!  There are an unlimited number of ways that you can use your game boards, flashcards, and accessories to make meaningful and fun learning activities.  Spelling, Question & Answer, Making Sentences, Opposites, and Describing, are all ways students can use flashcards and game boards to practice speaking English.

Remember that the rules have to be simple enough that the students will remember them right away.  The focus should be the language objective... not trying to remember the rules. We want the students to be able to learn and practice on their own with only teacher oversight.

I know you will have fun learning and growing with your students!  Please let your mentor know about the success of your activities.


Joshua Simon (ELP, Jerantut)

Language Arts (again)

Looking for opportunities to chat with the pupils

Language arts classes are a lot of fun for the pupils, and they should also be a lot of fun for the teachers (and mentors) as well. This week Teacher Rohaida got her Year 3 class at SK Jerantut Jaya to make animal masks after they had studied the 'safari' unit. The plan was for everyone to make an animal mask of their choice, and then to get into their animal group (pack? herd?) and make the appropriate animal noises.

It was lots of fun and everyone was relaxed and enjoying drawing, colouring and cutting. The teacher and mentor also joined in and made masks as well. There are lots of opportunities  to speak to pupils during this kind of activity. There is the language of instruction, of course, but that is rather one-way (teacher output, pupil input) and although it's important, it's not much fun. Chatting is a lot more fun, and there are a lot more opportunities for pupil 'output'. Just by chatting, we are talking back and forth in a meaningful way. Whether we're talking about colours and animals or likes and dislikes, we are expressing ourselves and sharing real information, no matter how simple or basic.

Showing pupils my elephant mask and asking them to admire my frog mask is a sure way to get the conversation going. Another guaranteed way to get a response is to look at someone's tiger mask and admire their 'hamster picture'. It never gets old.

Making animal masks

I'm a frog
No, you're not.

Definitely a bear

Roaring lions

Tigers (and hamsters?)

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Taking Learning Outside the Classroom

Using the textbook as a starting point for learning

Teacher Noor Aziatul Akma Bt Zabidin at SK Kuala Tembeling really got her Year 2 class interested in the new textbook topic (Growing Plants) by taking them outside and showing them how to plant cuttings in real life. Many teachers do this, of course, but do we do it enough? What other topics in the textbook can we use as a starting point for the children's learning as we move away from book study, and toward language learning through language using?

Year 2 Textbook

Realia

Making it real

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

The Use of Dictionaries in the Classroom.

Dictionary Day at SK Bukit Nikmat.

Dictionary lesson at SK Bukit Nikmat.

Today Nora, from SK Bukit Nikmat did a bilingual dictionary usage lesson with the year 3’s.  It’s a great idea to teach young students how to use a dictionary.  With modern technology dictionaries are not being used as often as they used to.

  

By using a dictionary students involve themselves in a process.  Firstly, by using dictionaries students take responsibility for their own learning.  They no longer rely on the teacher to simply tell them the answer.  Secondly, when students look up words they are taking note of how to spell the words and they are also reading all the possible meanings for a word too, therefore increasing their vocabulary.  Thirdly, since using a dictionary is a practical experience that requires effort students are more likely to remember the word they looked up.

       

Working together to look up words.

However it is important that you teach students how to use a dictionary efficiently.  If a student struggles to use a dictionary they can spend a long time looking up one word.  This can take away valuable class time and prevent a student from wanting to use a dictionary in the future.

I encourage teachers to teach their students how to use dictionaries correctly and efficiently.  Try to motivate your students to use dictionaries instead of simply asking for the meaning of words.

Melissa Simon (ELP Jerantut)

Hungry Monster!

Brilliant classroom materials are only as good as the amount of use they get in the classroom.

The Jerantut mentors and teacher Rohaida Binti Mohd Aripin from SK Jerantut Jaya got together to make a fun card game that helps children learn the vocabulary for food. We called the game Hungry Monster, and it is a lot of fun to play.

Hungry Monster card game

The game is a variant of Old Maid. The whole pack is dealt out to the players, and each player must match the food picture cards to the corresponding food word cards. The players take it in turns to pick cards from other players' hands in order to make more pairs. When you make a pair you can put it down on the table, and the first player to pair up all of his or her cards is the winner. Winning, however, is not the point. The point is NOT losing. There is one card that does not have a corresponding pair - the Hungry Monster - and the player who is left holding this card at the end of the game is the loser.

Up to eight players can play.

It gets quite tense.

Players put their pairs down on the table. Notice the cheat sheet that comes with every pack.

We usually divide the room into four groups - like we do for station teaching. Two groups are given the cards to play, and the other two groups can choose from one of three fun puzzle sheets to complete (the same puzzle for everyone at the station). The puzzle sheets use exactly the same vocabulary and illustrations as the Hungry Monster card game. This means that there are a lot of opportunities for pupils to meet and use the same vocabulary over and over in different contexts.

One of the puzzle sheets: this one is a word search
with space for children to make their own pictures
to match the relevant vocabulary.

Fully engaged!

Talk to your mentor if you want to play Hungry Monster with your classes.

 Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Phonics for Very Young Learners

Coming soon to Jerantut!

The mentors at Bera cluster, led by Tara Springstroh, will be bringing their very successful phonics workshop to Jerantut.

The target audience for this event is primarily in-service pre-school teachers, but we will also be able to invite some TELL2 LINUS and Year 1 teachers to participate as well. Interested? Talk to your mentor to find out more.

Check out the workshop here Phonics Workshop for Young Learners

CONFIRMED DATE AND VENUE

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Penmanship Competition at SJKC Sungai Jan

Year 1 giving it their best shot!

We used the competition rubric to choose the six best penmanship entries from across three Year 1 classes at SJKC Sungai Jan. It was a tough job.

Teacher Pam always starts her class with an English song. Lately we've been singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and the children's illustrations that they have added to their hand-written TTLS entries show that they really do understand all the words.

Year 1 students working on the penmanship[p competition

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Penmanship Competition at SK Jerantut Jaya

Engaging Low-level Learners

Teacher Azizi at SK Jerantut Jaya was surprised at how well the students from a low-level Year 2 class engaged with the penmanship competition. The results were a mixed bag, but the process of writing and illustrating a well known nursery rhyme was an enjoyable one for the pupils.

Year 2 pupils copying and illustrating Baa-baa Black Sheep
for the upcoming penmanship competition

How is the penmanship competition going at your school?

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)

Keeping Busy During the June Holidays

Welcome Back!
I know a lot of teachers were kept busy catching up with administrative tasks and working on school camps during the holidays. The mentors were busy, too! The three mentors from Jerantut, plus one from Kuala Lipis were chosen to go to Savannakhet, Laos to pilot Phase 1 of a new Brighton Education project (similar to TELL).

TELL Mentors at the closing ceremony for the Laos project

Stephen-Peter Jinks (ELC Jerantut)