Archive for the 'Teaching' Category

Jun

Glook

One science class, we made Glook. It’s really simple and safe enough for even small kids. All you need is cornstarch and water (plus food coloring if you want extra fun). Mix in about a 2:1 ratio. You’ll probably be quite surprised.

Glook is a non-Newtonian fluid. It doesn’t behave as a solid or a liquid exclusively. If you put pressure on it, it acts like a solid (and as Jamie and Adam showed us in MythBusters, you can even walk on it). If you try to pick it up, it acts like a liquid.

I did it with Summer and Winter classes and they all loved it. I even had fun with it.

Here’s a fun video showing it on a speaker.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Maple Square,Science,Teaching,Teaching Resources,Videos and have No Comments

Apr

Foods – Countable and Noncountable

Polaris Class is studying countable and uncountable nouns using foods. Their latest activity was to draw some foods on a table and the write sentences about them. For example… There is an apple on the table. There are three bananas on the table. There is some cheese on the table. I simply took the book activity and put it on the board. After cutting out various foods from flashcards each student came up and added one picture to the table on the board. They had to write a/an/some/number by the picture. When everyone had a turn, they had to write the sentences on the board. Then they repeated the exercise in their books on their own. repetition is the key to successful second language learning. By doing it as a group first, the class didn’t even realize they were doing it more than once.

Enjoy the pics!

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Fun things,Games,Maple Square,Pictures,Students,Teaching and have No Comments

Jan

Irregular Verbs

One of the things my advanced level students hate the most is irregular verbs. Well, actually all my students hate them. I don’t make them memorize them, but the Korean teachers do. They have a huge list of base/simple past/past participles that they have to memorize. In all fairness, I don’t think I’d do too well on one of their verb quizzes. Sky class had a bit of leftover time the other day so I decided to try to find a fun way to help them recall the verbs.

What you need: a list of irregular verbs (example pdf), a soft ball (or something soft that can be thrown back and forth) and a die.

What you do: Start by passing the ball to a random student. The teacher then rolls the die. If it comes up 1 or 2 they have to give the base form. If it comes up 3 or 4 they have to give the simple past. If it comes up 5 or 6 they have to give the past participle. The teacher calls out a verb and the student with the ball has to give the form dictated by the die. Obviously the teacher should say a form other than the one the student should give. If the student is wrong, then have the class figure out what the correct answer is. Then the student with the ball tosses it to another student and the game continues.

Simple, less. But much more fun than drilling.

I’ve also found that many students can go in one direction easily (eat – ate – eaten, for example), but given the past tense, they can’t get to the past participle without going through the all three. In other words, given ate, they’ll think ate – eat – ate – eaten. Part of the point of this game is to make the associate between word and form more solid.

If anyone tries this, please let me know how it goes. I think the throwing the ball around part is the most fun for the kids. In fact, I’ve found that doing any sort of drill this way makes it a lot more fun for the kids.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Fun things,Games,Grammar,Teaching,Teaching Resources and have No Comments

Oct

Apple Print Shirts

Last week’s minitheme for Summer Class was apples. We looked at the parts of the apple in science. They learned about Johnny Appleseed in social studies. They made puffy apple pancakes in cooking. And finally, we made apple print tee-shirts in arts & crafts. I had a lot of fun with this one. The kids enjoyed it too. It’s one of those crafts that is super easy, but super stunning when done. Some fabric paint and fabric markers and a few apples later, we had awesome shirts. I hope they’ll wear them to school.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Arts and Crafts,Fun things,Maple Square,Pictures,Students,Teaching and have No Comments

Sep

Fall Photo Frame

This was last week’s craft for Summer Class. The overriding theme for the month is Thanksgiving. This year, Chuseok, the Korean thanksgiving celebration, is in September. Last week’s minitheme for Summer Class was “I’m thankful for my family”. I had all the students bring in a picture of their families and we made picture frame. I got the idea from two different sites. The foam board frame idea came from Enchanted Learning. The mosaic idea came from Kaboose.

Enjoy the pics. I think the frames the kids did came out fabulous.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Arts and Crafts,Maple Square,Pictures,Students,Teaching and have No Comments

Aug

Stained Glass Windows

Spring Class’ theme for the month is around the world. Today, in arts & crafts, we made stained glass windows. As far as arts & crafts go, this is easy. All you need is crayons, paper, baby oil and cotton. Use a dark crayon to make random loops and scribbles all over the paper. Keep them rather large unless you want to be coloring forever. Use bright colors to color in the shapes. When you’re finished coloring, turn the paper over. Dip the cotton in the baby oil and spread it over the paper. You’ll be able to see the colors coming through. Then cut out your design. Punch a hole in it and use some string for a hanger. Hang it in a sunny window.

posted by Kathryn in Activites,Arts and Crafts,Maple Square,Pictures,Students,Teaching and have No Comments

Aug

Wave Bottles

We made wave bottles in Spring’s science class. The kids had a lot of fun doing so. We talked about what we saw when we moved the bottles back and forth. And we also talked about why the oild and water didn’t mix.