Web resources for Easter activities

Traditional Easter activities are usually intended for younger kids because they include colouring of pictures, drawing rabbits and eggs, doing egg hunt. However, baking egg nests, weaving egg baskets or carving wooden eggs will be more suitable for older students, so there is something to do for everyone.

Below I have listed various resources that I found on the web which may come in handy to the teachers who wish to mark this festival in the classroom.

Teaching Ideas - Easter poems, stories and slideshows, different worksheets and card templates. The site also offers classroom display pictures and an assortment of Easter videos.

Activity Village has an interesting set of Easter coordinate puzzles for kids where they have to colour the squares according to the code.

TES Connect has a huge range of Easter activities for young kids, some of them are for the interactive whiteboard. Just remember, you will need a TES Connect account to download the worksheets and resources but it is free.
Get inspired by the ideas published on TES Pinterest board Easter Teaching Resources and Ideas. Little kids will love to watch Chick and egg lifecycle Powerpoint presentation.

The Guardian have published a great article with lots of suggestions for the teachers and links to resources. You will have to create a free account to get access to the resources.

Easter webquest on Onestopenglish website is great for older students with higher language level. Worksheets are free to download.

There is a great article on Mental Floss for senior students 6 Easter Traditions You Might Not Know. The text can be used for reading and discussion activities.

What does Easter Island have in common with Easter? Ask your students to find the answer by reading the post on the fabulous Wonderopolis website.

Finally, older students may enjoy watching this video about the stunning Faberge eggs which were made for the Russian Imperial family about a century ago, and also learn a bit of history.

Glogster takes the routine out of your lessons

Glogster is a multimedia tool which we all inevitably set about using - sooner or later. I did it later. I am glad Glogster came to my mind when I was trying to make up a CLIL lesson combining geography, history, music and English, namely Liverpool and the Beatles.

Glogster lets you put all the lesson components in one place - an interactive poster - which you display on the screen and show your students the lesson in a nutshell.

How to use this glog?

• Take your time watching the video about Liverpool with your students.
• Ask them to do the worksheet about the video, discuss their answers.
• See the pictures of Liverpool and tell your students what YOU liked about the city when you visited it.
• Read the piece of text about the Beatles craze and discuss it.
• Watch the Beatles video.
• Ask them what they know about the Beatles, give them some additional information. 
• At the end, ask your students to give feedback about the lesson and evaluate the digital poster you made for them.
• Ask for volunteers who could make a glog for the next topic.

Voilà!





Download the worksheet to use with the video about Liverpool.
Worksheet
                     

Two great websites about London and Britain

I have come across a couple of websites which in my opinion are very useful for getting fresh and plentiful information about the latest events in London and Britain.


One of the sites is Visit Britain Super Blog. Written by a large team of experienced and talented travel writers, journalists, photographers and life-long travellers, the blog shares rich information, reviews, suggestions and impressions.


The blog abounds in information about the culture and heritage of Britain, places where you can eat and drink, things that you can see and do and of course there is now a special section about the Royal Wedding.
I have enjoyed reading the blog and been extremely grateful to the authors for their numerous fascinating posts, among others Britain's beautiful bridges which I used with my students.

Another blog I have favourited is 3 Days in London which is a story of love for London written by an author who is not native to the city.

The blog gives answers to What/ Who/ Where is London, describes brief history of London, reviews attractions, architecture, landmarks of London, and of course there is a post about the Royal Wedding (looks like it is a must-post these days which no blogger can ignore).


Both blogs are of great help to the teachers who need resources for the lessons about Britain, its culture and modern life.

Reading stuff on YUDU

I regularly frequent the YUDU site which boasts a huge variety of online magazines and other reading stuff.
I recently discovered the magazine BRITAIN which should be of interest to every English teacher because of its wonderful materials about Britain, its geography, history, culture and people.

To view the magazines you need Adobe Flash.

The latest issue of the magazine April/May 2011 contains articles about the Royal Wedding (about to take place), Wales, City of Bath, the War of Roses and a lot more. Colourful 100 pages with loads of information!


Click to launch the full edition in a new window
Publishing Software from YUDU


February/March issue

Read BRITAIN Magazine Feb/Mar
Digital Publishing with YUDU

Christmas time

Mistletoe

by Walter de la Mare

Sitting under the mistletoe
(Pale green, fairy mistletoe),
One last candle burning low,
All the sleepy dancers gone,
Just one candle burning on,
Shadows lurking everywhere:
Someone came, and kissed me there.


Tired I was; my head would go
Nodding under the mistletoe
(Pale green, fairy mistletoe)
No footsteps came, no voice, but only,
Just as I sat there, sleepy, lonely,
Stooped in the still and shadowy air
Lips unseen - and kissed me there.

Halloween is creeping up

October is the month of the scary Halloween celebrations. Like it or not, you can't ignore it because --- kids love it!

What an excellent chance to enliven your lessons with different Halloween activities and tasks.

Take a look at my suggestions, also my previous post here.


Bring the festive spirit into the classroom with this video (suitable for older students) giving an idea about the history of Halloween.

Always useful and handy printable worksheets by Sean Banville can be found on http://www.eslholidaylessons.com. Here is the Halloween lesson plan with printable listening and reading tasks.

English Page offers a lesson with Halloween vocabulary which is first studied and then used in writing tasks. Great resource for online practice.

Halloween worksheets on the good old Bogglesworld - a well-known and reliable site.

A rich Halloween resource page for younger pupils with a lot of choice for the teacher on Teacher Planet.

Finally, a great page with Halloween crossword puzzles for both younger and older students.

Teaching topic - Banksy

When the curriculum says "next topic - contemporary British art", you certainly cannot bypass Banksy, a notorious figure in British and world art.
Here is a video that will help you to present this artist to your students.



There is a nice online exercise based on this video at
http://www.esolcourses.com/content/lifeintheuk/britart/banksy-videoquiz.html

I have prepared a worksheet about Banksy with 3 reading tasks which you can see in the preview.
You can download it here.

Worksheet - Englishman in Japan

Reading task about an Englishman in Japan. Students have to put the events in order. It is good for teaching cultural differences and the topic of culture shock.
There is KEY at the bottom of the page, so if you give this task to your students, don't forget to remove the answers.