To Infinity & Beyond With Images

The IMAGE CONFERENCE was held in Brasilia. My presentation was supposed to last 45 minutes, so I had to be brief, which made me nervous. Besides, there was a little glitch which held me back. Nevertheless, I was able to deliver it.

Story Telling: Simple Past X Present Perfect

Dani Lyra, my dear colleague, asked me to draw a story to teach the Simple Past and the Present Perfect. A story in which these two tenses would be the main characters. Here is the thing: At first I thought I could record my voice telling the story, which I did, but afterwards I realized it would be more interesting to write the story, so you could memorize it and tell it yourself. Believe me, it's a lot more fun!  

Simple Past and Present Perfect were friends when they were little. They played, laughed and had a lot of fun together.

Eventually, Simple Past became a cowboy.

Present Perfect became a surfer.

Simple Past is very likable, straightforward, easy to understand.

Present Perfect is not easy to understand.

 Sometimes some people prefer to think he doesn't exist.

 Some frown at and look down on him.

And many people have misconceptions about him...

 ...which makes him upset.

 Simple Past is super attached to the past.

Every time he tells you about something he did, he will tell you "when". 

 And if you tell him that you traveled on your vacation, he will ask you when. And he will always use DID in questions.

Present Perfect has an eye in the present. 

Simple Past is obsessed about time...

...whereas Present Perfect doesn't even have a watch. He doesn't care when something happened. Sometimes it's because he doesn't remember.

Present Perfect always uses HAVE and the participle of a verb.

In questions, too.

 He uses HAS for the third person.

All these differences made them go separate ways, but it doesn't mean they are alone.

Simple Past has friends that hang out with and enjoy his company. They are always together.

Although some people don't understand Present Perfect, he has friends, too. Loyal friends who relate to him and are always there for him.

Images - Downloadable

My Super Duper Costume

I went shopping today and tried on some cool costumes but it took me a while to finally find the right one. I hope you like it as much as I did. It fits me like a glove!

Photocopiable Material

The Fridge Song

This activity has been designed for a group of children. The grammar focus here was the verb THERE TOBE. 

STEP 1: First, students draw what they have in their fridges. (Teachers can use a data show equipment so they can share their drawings with peers)

STEP 2: Students guess what the teacher has in his/her fridge. The teacher projects a photo of his/her fridge, so students check whether they were right.

STEP 3: Students listen to "THE FRIDGE SONG".


STEP 4: The powerpoint presentation provided for the activity allows students to write their own version of the song, so they are arranged in small groups and work on what food items they will use in it. When they finish, they write their version of the song on the board.

STEP 5: Finally, they share their song with all their peers.

   

Activity - Downloadable


P.S. Steps 1 and 2 are interchangeable.

COOL TIP:

A nice activity to be done in the following day is:

1) Arrange students in two teams.
2) Project the images of the students' fridges' drawings and give them 1 minute to memorize them.
3) Ask them questions using IS THERE ANY...? and ARE THERE ANY...?

My Costume for Halloween

This year, I'm celebrating Halloween but I haven't decided what to wear yet! Well, actually I have something in mind but I'm  still mulling it over . I don't wanna make any mistakes. Anyways, I'm going to a costume store next week, so I'll keep you posted. By the way, do you celebrate Halloween? Have you decided what to wear yet?

October in Brazil

Super Duper 

People in Brazil celebrate Children's Day on October 12th. On this day, they post their baby photos on Facebook. They also buy children presents and play games with them. On the same day, they also celebrate a catholic holiday called Nossa Senhora Aparecida's Day, in honor to Jesus's mother. In Brasília, the capital of Brazil, faithful catholics gather at Esplanada (a place where outdoor events and concerts take place) for a Mass. On October 15th, they also have Teacher's Day, when schools don't open. On this five-day holiday (it starts on the 12th and it is extended to the 15th), teachers have some time to rest and some of them even travel. 

Rules for the Classroom

The drawings below were used to practice Rules in the Classroom. Having these pictures on the wall helps students remember what the teacher expects from them. The original drawings were rough sketches that I made on paper, so I didn't have them in the computer and later I threw them away. The ones in the digital book are the new ones. I decided to digitalize them, so they would last longer.

The images have been used to teach students the affirmative and negative forms of the Imperatives.

Original drawings

Digitalized Drawings

Images - Downloadable

Yawning...Frowning

An adult student during a reading activity: 

"Teacher, what's yawning and frowning?" 

Suggestions for Activities

Idioms 2

Super Duper is an excentric teen. He wears a cape and his parents nag him about it whenever they have a chance. They're getting on his nerves!!! Let's hope that he finds a girlfriend soon. Maybe then, he'll lose the cape.

Digital Tools

The activities presented here have been designed for an elementary group and the ultimate goal was to incorporate  a digital tool to it. At the time, I was working with Dani Lyra on this project that we developed and which consisted on devising lesson plans which enabled teachers to use digital tools. We called it "DIGITAL COMMUNICATION PROJECT - WEB 2.0 AND EFL YOUNG LEARNERS". For the first activity, students started out by drawing and coloring the foods they liked. Then, they wrote on the back of their drawings three sentences using the structure learned, the verb LIKE. They wrote two true sentences and one false. In the end, I digitalized their work using PHOTO PEACH, which allows us to make a slide show presentation. In the slides, students could read the true and false sentences written by their peers and guess which sentences were false, based on the drawings presented. They enjoyed seeing their drawings in the activity and had a lot of fun. For the second activity, students drew their bedrooms and wrote sentences using the structure learned, the verb THERE TO BE. Afterwards, the illustrations and sentences were digitalized and in the end, which could be the next class, students watched the slide show and guessed which of the three sentences was the correct one. Needless to say that they had tons of fun seeing their drawings projected on the wall.

Instructions for Children

Whenever I assign a task in which students have to write/draw, color,  cut out and paste, I draw on the board the following sequence:

Gone

Have you guys seen September?