How old are you?

Super simple activity for practicing HOW OLD ARE YOU? with elementary students. I usually draw first to demonstrate what I expect from them.

  Teacher´s                                 Student´s

1) Write the following on the board:

HOW OLD ARE YOU? I´m___________

2) Hand out sheets in blank;
3) Students draw and color their age (They draw a big number in the center of the sheet)
4) Students tape them on their chest;
5) Students walk around the classroom and practice Q/A;

Happy Birthday!

After being introduced to vocabulary related to birthdays (gifts, party, cake, balloons, and names of toys) my students also learned to congratulate someone for their birthday and how to ask Yes/No questions with the verb TO BE.

S1: Happy Birthday!
S2: Thanks.
S1: This is for you. (a gift)
S2: Thank you very much! Is it a …….?
S1: Yes, it is.

S1: Happy Birthday!
S2: Thanks.
S1: This is for you. (a gift)
S2: Thank you very much! Is it a …….?
S1: No, it isn't. It's a ………

After being presented to the dialog and practicing for a while, my students were given a sheet in blank.

1) They folded their sheet in two.

2) They drew and colored ( ON THE INSIDE) a gift they would like to get for their birthday or a gift they have received for their birthday.

3) Then, they drew a gift like picture ON THE OUTSIDE of the paper. (wrapping paper patterned and a ribbon)

4) Monitor students, so you have an idea of the gifts there are because later on, they will exchange their gifts. Thus, it's important to mentally arrange them in pairs in a way everyone receives an appropriate gift.

5) After that, I chose the pairs and called them out and two by two, they acted out the conversation above and exchanged their gifts. Remember that during the dialog, they have to guess what the gift is by asking "Is it a ….?" In case the student doesn't guess it at all, you can encourage students to ask "What is it?" In my class, there was one student alone, so I participated by drawing one gift myself. During the dialog, students exchanged their gifts and sat down.

6) In the end, they glued their gift drawing to their notebooks and wrote a thank you letter.

                                               

Super Duper Worth it

Boo hoo! Vacation is over and we're on our way back to Brazil. Although many people think traveling is more exhausting than relaxing, I think otherwise. Traveling and being able to meet different people  and see different places is totally worth it! It's worth the twelve-hour flight and other little inconveniences such as the freezing weather.  I'll have wonderful memories and stories to tell.


The activities below have as a final outcome 'writing about your last vacation'. 

Suggestions for Activities

Wacky Race

Material needed: A die, sheets in blank, duct tape and colored pencils/markers. 

I do this activity with all levels. I give each team a sheet in blank so they can draw, color and cut out a car. I draw a race track on the board and tape the cars to it. I also draw a couple of bombs on the way. Then, I ask students questions about the lesson learned or show them sentences to be completed or questions about vocabulary. In other words, any task related to the content. Students take turns performing the task proposed. If the team is right, they roll a die and move their car. If they stop at the bomb, they go back to the starting point. The winner is the car that reaches the finish line first. Once the game is over, I collect the cars but I do not throw them away. I tape them to the wall, so I can use them again in the future.

Once the game is over, I collect the cars but I do not throw them away. I tape them to the wall, so I can use them again in a future activity.