The Universe Project: 5th Grade

The Universe can be a very interesting topic for the children. This is why they have made a project about it by pairs. They have researched about the Solar System, the planets, the satellites and how the planets move in the galaxy. The final task was to explain the project orally to their colleagues in English. Here it is their wonderful results and their display.
These are some resources we have used to work this unit in class:

• The Universe II
• The Universe I

¡Pon un #eTwinning en tu clase!

Como todos los años vamos a seguir con los proyectos eTwinning en el centro y animo a que cada vez haya más docentes y clases implicadas en este tipo de proyectos puesto que abren las puertas a nuevas metodologías.
Regístrate para recibir noticias recientes al boletín eTwinning.
Si eres nuevo en eTwinning, te recomiendo que entres en:
'Beginning in eTwinning' donde encontrarás mucha información sobre la plataforma y cómo comenzar nuevos proyectos.

¿Necesitas más ideas sobre proyectos de referencia, independientemente de los que se han llevado en el centro? Entonces, sólo tienes que entrar en los proyectos destacados eTwinning.

A Portfolio in Natural Science

We have been working on so many different themes in all of the classes!

 The common theme we have all been working on is nature.

 In first grade, we have been learning about the Sun and the Earth. We learned that the Sun is a star, and the Earth is a planet. We also learned about the four different seasons - spring, summer, autumn-fall and winter!

What is your favorite season?

 In the second grade classes we have been learning about the phases of the moon, as well as the order of all of the planets.

We drew the different phases of the Moon, such as waxing Moon, full Moon, new Moon and waning Moon.

 In our journals, we created a beautiful drawing of the planets and our Solar System!

 Lastly in fourth grade, we did crafted a project about the parts of a flower.

We labeled all of the parts in English and Spanish. Inside the petals we wrote about the Sexual Reproduction and their roots.

If you click on these lovely photos, or here I have attached a link to the portfolio of the student´s work:

Plants in 4th grade! #CLIL

In Lucia's 4th grade class we worked with learning about plants and their parts! Her class did a creative project which included colored construction paper to make a flower which they were able to open and write descriptions inside the flaps. They labeled the parts in English in Spanish, such as "stem, flower, and leaves." They also wrote in Spanish about the sexual reproduction in flowering plants. They all worked so hard! Here are some examples of the students work!

 

Vertebrates and Invertebrates in 3rd grade

In our 3rd grade class we have been learning about vertebrates, invertebrates and the different classifications of animals.

Did you know a fish is an amphibian, a snake is a reptile, and a deer is a mammal?

Humans are also mammals, we are viviparous meaning we come from our mother´s womb. Oviparous animals produce eggs that hatch from the female´s body.

Our class made beautiful, colorful photos of different animals to help us learn & understand their characteristics! We decorated the windows of our classroom with our drawings. On the front is a picture of the animal and the back is a list of characteristics.

Thank you students of 3rd grade!

Portfolio about animals in 1st grade!

Kids can work Science in the class in different ways. We would like to share with all of you how we did it with the unit about animals in 1st grade.

• This is what kids did in their class portfolio.

The resources of the units were in 'Animals classification'

Nuevas ilusiones para un nuevo 2018: ¡Felices fiestas!

Este año la gala navideña en el teatro de Armilla ha sido fabulosa desde infantil hasta el último curso de primaria. Es un lujo contar con un grupo de compañeros, una comunidad educativa tan comprometida y un alumnado tan fabuloso.
Los peques han trabajado para su puesta en escena distintas canciones de navidad, de invierno y bailes, que han presentado a las familias con gran ilusión.
¡Mi mayor enhorabuena a todos y a todas!. Este año, dentro de las actuaciones se han combinado el español, el inglés y, por primera vez, el francés con la canción "Vois sur ton chemin", un auténtico reto para nuestras docentes de francés. Os queremos dejar con este recuerdo a través de la partitura de la canción de "Le Choristes" y del vídeo que combina a dos voces sus notas e imágenes representativas de esta película de época, cuyo mensaje es único: para enseñar sólo hay que tener ilusión y dar ejemplo con una metodología motivadora abre horizontes hasta en los niños y las niñas que más complicado lo tienen por su mundo cercano. Os recomiendo también la película para estas navidades.

Y sin más, el equipo bilingüe del C.E.I.P San Miguel de Armilla, os dese una felices fiestas y un muy buen comienzo para este 2018.

Halloween is nearly here!

Como todos los años "Halloween" muy cerca y quiero compartir con vosotros estos recursos para esas fechas. Es un tiempo para disfrutar de las cosas más insospechadas relacionadas con el miedo y el terror. Sin duda no se puede dejar pasar esta oportunidad para celebrarlo en los centros escolares.

Espero que os sea de mucha utilidad.

Un saludo grande.

En español:

• Cuentos para leer

http://halloween-halloween.webnode.es/products/cuentos%20halloween%20para%20ni%C3%B1os/

• Cuentacuentos para escuchar y disfrutar

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cuentacuentos+halloween+para+ni%C3%B1os

• Juegos y otros recursos

http://www.orientacionandujar.es/2013/10/29/recopilatorio-de-actividades-interactivas-para-halloween/

In English:

• Worksheets

https://www.teachervision.com/holidays/halloween 

• British Council Resources

https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/es/category/topics/halloween 

• Games

https://www.thebalance.com/halloween-party-games-kids-1357658 

• Crafts

https://www.diyncrafts.com/14709/decor/31-fun-and-easy-halloween-crafts-for-kids 

https://es.pinterest.com/explore/artesan%C3%ADas-de-halloween-para-ni%C3%B1os/ 

• Songs

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=halloween+songs+for+children 

Funny art projects!: from children bookmarks to origami

Every child loves drawing, origami and painting. As teachers we can offer them some methods of expressing themselves. This way we encourage them to experiment with different techniques. This is what we have been doing in our 3rd and 4th grade during this term.

Spend time with your students and have fun with this basic origami in your art classes! Here you are some of my students' designs. 

• 1st Technique: Children bookmarks

They are useful, adorable and they can make your students happier in your lessons.

Do you need help? How to make this bookmarks? Watch this video :-)

• 2nd technique: Flexagons

It is a fascinating geometric toy! Flexagons are folder paper polygons that can be flexed. They change form flexagon to flexagon very quick. It is a good way to teach your students the third dimension and to find hidden surfaces at the same time they learn geometry.

How to make this great paper toy, the Flexagon? Check this video!

Download the template from babbledabbledo here.

• 3rd Technique: Funny toothy pictures!

Surprise and laughs! Our students created crazy creatures just with a piece of paper. Very easy and fun for your class. Isn't is wonderful? 

Do you know how to make one? Here you are this video "Folded Surprise Animal Drawing Project". Enjoy!

• 4th Technique: Ancient jars

After our history lessons about Greece and Rome, it was a good idea to work some art techniques about it. So Ancient Greece and Rome overloaded our class! Each child received a piece of paper with the shape of the jar and they decorated it. They really got into it and did all kinds of decorations, as geometric patterns.

Download the template of the ancient jar here

Hangout abriendo fronteras en eTwinning: "See you next year"

eTwinning siempre tiene momentos para el encuentro entre el centro "Don Saverio Valerio" de Gravina in Plugia en Italia y nuestro colegio . Con la cercanía del cierre del proyecto al final de curso, hemos vuelto a reunir a las clases a través de un hangout para intercambiar las experiencias vividas a través de este trimestre sobre "Education Creates Smiles". 
En este caso ha estado lleno de pinceladas y de color a través de la historia del arte y las obras seleccionadas por los países sobre Modigliani, Franz Marc y Picasso. 
Una de las tareas más interesantes del hangout ha sido descubrir a qué artistas pertenecían las obras en grupos, así como explicar porqué se sabía a través de evidencias utilizando el inglés. Ha habido también juegos de italiano y español para sensibilizar al alumnado sobre lo similares que son las lenguas procedentes del latín y se le ha dado una pincelada final a estas lenguas a través de un poema en italiano que nos propusieron para estudio de Gianni Rodari, autor muy querido en esta clase, titulado "Filastrocca di primavera".

A modo de conclusión, hemos de resaltar que ha sido un proyecto muy relajante para el alumnado e integrado en los distintos currículums the los países. Las materias principales implicadas han sido ciencias naturales y sociales, las lenguas, el arte y, por supuesto, tecnología digital. Un aspecto a valorar ha sido el alto interés mostrado por el alumnado por la animación a la lectura gracias a los autores trabajados a lo largo del año, como Gianni Rodari, Gloria Fuertes y Roald Dahl. Se ha creado gracias a ellos un mundo de fantasía lectora dentro y fuera del aula y han podido disfrutar de distintos géneros literarios con distintos escritores europeos.

Nuestro último compromiso ha sido realizar una valoración justa del proyecto, que hemos creado para disfrutar aprendiendo y para despertar esa motivación intrínseca por la educación. Tras esta valoración, el objetivo siguiente será continuar con nuevos retos para el curso próximo y "poner un nuevo eTwinning en nuestra clase". 

Inmersión en inglés a través del teatro: Snow White y Little Snow White

La compañía "En la Luna Teatro" nos ha ofrecido la oportunidad de disfrutar de dos obras de teatro en inglés a los distintos colegios de Armilla a través del teatro de la localidad.
Este año han ofrecido dos niveles para la obra "Snow White" para los mayores y "Little Snow White" para los más peques. La obra ha sido un éxito y el alumnado se lo ha pasado sensacional cantando, escuchando el idioma y participando de forma activa en distintos momentos de la obra.
Un inglés muy adecuado, una escenografía ambientada en la obra, una vestimenta que hace viajar a otros tiempos y el uso de los recursos tecnológicos como es el espejo que retransmitía palabras, expresiones clave e imágenes alusivas a la obra han hecho vivir esta experiencia de una forma más intensa.

¿Quieres saber más sobre estas obras? Aquí te dejo algunos enlaces:
-Recursos para trabajar Snow White (os recomiendo las canciones)
-Recursos para trabajar Little Snow White

Yoga in the class: The Spiral Mandala

Yoga in the class is a powerful tool you can use to improve the children well-being. This is why, we have been working on yoga this time in Natural Science in the unit: "Healthy habits". By taking moments throughout the sessions in the class to pause and practise some techniques with the children, they will gradually increase quality in their activities and they will develop a good habit.

When can we practice Yoga during the morning at school?
Since last year, some of our teachers are very interested in working on Yoga and Mindfulness at school because it has many mental and physical benefits in the class. Imagine that they start a new lesson after a very active session like sport or after the break. They feel stress and anxious after these lessons, so it is time to 'STOP'. It is better to practice some yoga techniques for some minutes and respiration exercises. After that they will be ready to start with more concentration and eager to learn.

Why Yoga in the class?

• It is a good opportunity to develop the body, the mind and the spirit. The children and the teachers feel happy after this practice.
• It is a non-competitive form of exercise and children enjoy.
• It has many benefits, like strength, balance and flexibility.
• They develop concentration, focus and attention; moreover, creativity and imagination.
• They learn how to breath, how to relax and self-control.
• And the most important, as they feel good, they respect for others and they can work better in the class.

In order to get a better environment during our lessons and to reduce anxiety, we can incorporate into our daily routines some minutes for yoga. We can use different techniques for breathing, a guided exercises of 'asanas' or, - very relaxed one!-, the visualization. Children enjoy with all of them and we can practice them in English or in Spanish as we want, because the language we use is quite easy and if we tell a story, we can do it according to the level of our students.

This time, we have created a game called 'The Spiral Mandala'. I gave to each child an eye to decorate and to colour according to their creativity. Then we organized the mandala in a big poster by sticking with glue each eye and a different 'asana" as an spiral shape. But, how to play?
You just need the poster,  a token, a dice and pleasant motivation.

Why the eye?

The eye is a symbol of observation and offers the evidences we need to interpret the things we have around us. The spiral is a mandala shaped, but 'infinite' because it can be seen in both directions again and again. It is perfect for meditation and to focus on an element.

How to play?

1. A pupil throws the dices and counts from the eye in the centre to the positions (eyes) outwards.
2. He/she explains physically the 'asana' to his/her classmates and they repeat the position during four or six breaths (inhalations and exhalations) depending on the possibilities of each one. It is important not to force the posture and to practice them in a calm and slow way.
3. When it is finished the position, the student who threw the dice, throws it back to his/her classmates again and another student catches it (this is very funny to them) and the game continues again as before.
4. The game finishes when we want because the mandala is 'infinite'. If we reach the end, we can start again from the last outwards eye until the achieve the central one and so on.

Don´t forget before you start yoga in the class:
Warm-up exercises
Asanas (they should be short and slowly. Don´t forget to breath properly)
Breathing exercises (through the nose)

Moreover if you want to practice more with your students you can also practice some 'Minfulness exercises' to focus attention, some relaxation or positive affirmations. This way you will have the PERFECT environment in your class to start your lesson :-) My favourite mantras for kids are:

• Yes, I can. I can work hard.
• I can help to others.
• I can and I want to listen to others.
• I am ready, I am ready.

If you want more about this experience for teachers in Spanish: 

https://goo.gl/iqnH1V

Good luck in this adventure! 

Legends: Nessie Monster

As part of the class 4a and 4b we recently studied the topic of Legends! The children made different legend stories ranging frm the Trojan warriors to the Greek Gods, how cool! They then presented their legend to the class and acted out the story. This was really cool and intresting, I decided to tell me own Legend story which was about the Loch Ness Monster, which is a mythical beast found in my home country, Scotland!

The story told the tale of a young boy who ignored his family and friends warnings and visited the famoud Loch Ness Monster which was said to have great big teeth, six eyes and a love for eating children! The boy wanted to see for himself if the stories were true although he knew that all living things have good points and bad points. The boy travelled to the lake and found the scary monster but soon realised that the monster was actually nice and friendly and they made friends. The moral of the story is to not judge a book by its cover!

After I had told the Legend story and scared the children we did a drawing of the Loch Ness Monster. I have attached a few of the drawings below, they were all really good and scary looking!!

If you want to find out more about the Loch Ness Monster there is a really great film about it called the "The Water Horse", we will try and watch it in class as well. I have attached the link for the trailer below. In Spanish "Mi mascota es un monstruo".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuvPpCMgA9U

eTwinning: Artistas europeos y "Mannequin Challenge"

Este trimestre nuestro proyecto eTwinning se centra en los grandes artistas europeos que ofrecen distintas técnicas y formas de conocer el arte. 
Para ello nuestro alumnado está descubriendo lo mejor de las propuestas realizadas desde los países como Italia, Alemania y España. Este mes ha tocado Picasso, el malagueño que llenó de color y que ha dado formas distintas sus lienzos al mundo.

Cada país está utilizando una metodología distinta de tal forma que podamos crecer juntos con variedad en los distintos centros y hacer nuestra enseñanza más rica.

Los cuartos del C.E.I.P San Miguel hay empezado con buen pié y tras visualizar el vídeo general sobre el cubismo de Picasso y de emprender una buena crítica colaborativa sobre su forma de pintar y estilo al coger el lápiz o el pincel, los pequeños artistas se han puesto manos a la obra para crear, crear, crear...

Si observamos bien, el alumnado alemán ha utilizado otra perspectiva para trabajar los retratos de Picasso, centrándose en la creatividad en torno a una imagen en particular. Se ha creado un entorno, "un alrededor", de la obra. Una forma muy colorida de presentar su propia experiencia en torno al cubismo.

No obstante, hemos querido además innovar en artística y combinar lo manual con lo digital y por eso hemos preparado un Mannequin Challenge para nuestro proyecto eTwinning y compartirlo con nuestros socios europeos.

El ciclo de la rana y Mr. Happy

La clase de tercero ha trabajado estas semanas con Mrs. Talero en Natural Science sobre el tema "living things and animals" y han tenido una visita muy especial: nuestra  mascota eTwinning, Mr. Happy.
Como es un hombre de mundo y amante de la naturaleza, ha disfrutado de esta actividad con sus amigos de clase y han seguido las fases de la reproducción de la rana con gran interés. Los niños le han explicado a Mr. Happy cómo se transforma la rana de un pequeño huevo hasta llegar a ser un animal saltarín adulto.

Second Blog Post - Holidays, Space, and Geography

Second Blog Post - Holidays, Space, and Geography

I´ve now been teaching at C.E.I.P San Miguel for 4 months! I´m starting to really like my classes and I can honestly say that I´m very impressed with the kids level of english which is constantly improving. Since my last blog post (2 months ago) I have helped teach a huge range of topics, ranging from Space and Geography to Economics and Healthy Diets. In this blog post I´m going to highlight some of the projects that I helped create and teach.


Layers of the Atmosphere - with Class 4A and 4B.

At the moment we are studying the layers of the atmosphere in classes 4A/B. As part of this unit we put together a small flipbook which the children seemed to really love making. Attached below is an exmaple of one of the completed flipbooks, which contained alot of very important information and diagrams.

The Solar Sytstem - With class 5A and 5B

With class 5A/B I had the chance to help out and add my own input with the Solar System topic. This topìc was great to teach and was very practical. The children got involved with creating some great looking posters and models. Attahced below is some photos I took from some of the space models and posters which are proudly presented on the top floor. I helped mainly with the order of the planets poster which again I have attached below as the picture on the right..




The Earths Movement - With class 3A and 3B

Again this is a recently finished topic which was very interesting to teach. We created a poster which described the types of movements which the earth has, Rotating and Revolving. This unit was very fun and engaging to teach. Below is an example of one of the posters which was created! As part of this unit the children also learned about the different seas and oceans around the world as well as the different continents.






















The Economy - With class 6A 6B and 6C

With class 6A 6B and 6C we have been working on the economy in the last couple of weeks. The children have been very engaging when I have asked them questions in english on the topic and eager to learn. This was demonstrated in the recent Kahoot test that we did which involved 14 questions on the economy, 7 in Spanish and 7 in English. The children got on really well with this with some students even scoring 100%! I have attached the link for the Kahoot below where you can see the questions that were asked.

https://play.kahoot.it/#/k/5d3c1f9b-ac11-4b42-bc10-529f59b6d9bc