The Five Senses in 1st Grade

The children in Marta´s first grade science class started learning about the five senses in English. The five senses are sight (eyes), hearing (ears), smell (nose), taste (tongue/mouth), and touch (hands/skin). We played a very interesting activity in which each of the students were given a card with an object, like an apple, a pair of headphones, or the moon, and they matched the object on the board next to the sense.

They really enjoyed playing this activity and were very excited to go up to the board and stick their card in the correct place. Some of the matches for sight were the moon, a colorful parrot, and the sun. For hearing, they matched headphones, a crying baby, and a barking dog. For smell, they placed perfume, a stinky sock, and a bouquet of flowers. Under taste, they matched all kinds of foods (apple, pancakes, pizza), making everyone very hungry. Next to touch, they matched a fluffy kitten, a pillow, and a woolly sheep.

Here you can see one of the students matching ´the sun´ with the sense ´sight´:

Next, they completed an individual activity that was very similar. For this activity, they had to color the objects and then match them to the senses. The objects were ice cream, music, a book, a bag of trash, and a boy petting a cat. Can you guess which senses the objects belonged in? :)

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

Layers of the Atmosphere in 4th Grade

The fourth graders here at CEIP San Miguel have been learning about the different layers of the atmosphere. We have also learned about the layers in English, which are the Troposphere, Stratosphere, Mesosphere, Thermosphere and Exosphere. They even know key components of each layer! For example, the ozone, which helps keep harmful UV rays from the sun away from the Earth, is located in the Stratosphere and the Exosphere (the outermost layer) has extremely thin air.
We watched a video talking about the different layers of the atmosphere and explained fun facts about each layer, and also the distance, size, and temperature.

The students drew a picture showing the Earth and all of the layers that cover it. They wrote and drew the unique parts about each layer in the picture. The Troposphere is where the weather occurs, so they drew different types of weather, like sunny, rainy, or snowy. In the Stratosphere, they drew the ozone, in the Mesosphere, they wrote ´very cold´,and in the Thermosphere they wrote ´very hot´. The students really seemed to enjoy this activity and it also helped them visualize the different layers of the atmosphere and to understand the unique parts of each layer.

Here you can see some examples of the Layers of the Atmosphere that the students drew:

And here is a photo of them working on the project:

Megan's Second Year as an English Language Assistant

This will be my second year as an English language and culture assistant at CEIP San Miguel. I am very glad to be back and I'm excited to learn and gain even more experience working with the wonderful students and teachers at this school! For my first day back, I created a presentation about what I did during my summer. After I presented the PowerPoint to the children, I asked them about how their summers were and what they did. They created their own mini posters with a drawing and a sentence about one thing they did over the summer. The students wrote about going to the beach, going to the mountains, going to the swimming pool, and visiting family and friends.

Here is the presentation "My Summer":

Look at the posters that the children in 3rd grade made about their summers:

A Flipbook to explain: Food Chain or Food Web?

Children of 5th grade have been working about the differences about the Food Web  and the Food Chain. The final product of the unit has been to produce a flipbook with some examples about this topic.

They have done a great work!

Do you want to learn more?

These are the links with the material we are using at school:

• Ecosystems I
• Ecosystems II

Springtime!

Springtime is always such a lovely time of year. The sun starts to come out, flowers bloom, birds chirp. Spring is a time to appreciate all the beautiful things in nature and celebrate with those around us. Every culture has their own unique celebrations in the spring. Most of Spain celebrate Holy Week (Semana Santa), people in England or the USA celebrate Easter, in India they celebrate “Holi”, a holiday in which they come together and throw colors at each other to celebrate the many different hues that come out in spring. In Mexico, they have a parade and all wear white to celebrate the Spring equinox, or the first day of spring.

Being from the USA, I can explain Easter from personal experience. Easter involves many fun activities and lots of chocolate eating! On Easter Sunday, families get together to have a huge brunch (breakfast+lunch), they color eggs, have an Easter egg hunt, and finally, eat all the candy from the eggs! To color the eggs, we first hard boil them, then we use dyes to dip the eggs into and crayons to make interesting shapes on the eggs. In an Easter egg hunt, the Easter bunny hides the eggs in various places of the garden and all the children have to find the eggs. In my home state (Washington) we also have a festival to show off all the colorful flowers that bloom in springtime!

Here you can see a video of the tulip festival in Washington: 

             

So, it seems every culture celebrates spring a little differently, but I think we can all agree that spring is a time to appreciate all that nature has to offer, and spend quality time with our family. How do you celebrate spring? :)

Jeopardy! (6th Grade)

A fun way for the students to learn or study for an exam is a game called Jeopardy! It is based on a television game show from the USA that has different categories and also different levels of money (or points). As the money increases, so does the difficulty of the question! We separate the students into groups and they must work as a team to try to earn the most points by answering the questions correctly, pronunciation included ;) The students love playing it and it is a great way for them to prepare for an exam in a fun environment! Here you can see the students from 6th grade playing Jeopardy based on the topic of Economy in Europe and Spain:

Animals and Ecosystems (2nd Grade)

In the second grade, we have been working on learning about ecosystems and about all the different animals and plants in ecosystems. In My Pond Community, we made a pond ecosystem with water, plants, the sun, birds, fish, frogs, and turtles. We are learning about the many parts that make up an ecysystem and why each part is important. And here you can see the different types of ecosystems we have learned about.

Here you can download the ecosystem template, just print it for your class.
Pond Ecosystem Cut & Paste template
Cycle of the frog template

Here you can see the life cycle of the frog: 

The life cycle of a frog starts with an egg, then a tadpole, a tadpole with legs, a tadpole with arms and legs, a froglet, and finally, an adult frog. 

The earth has many different ecosystems and we have learned about a few key ones: forest, desert, ocean, and polar. The children learned about the different plants and animals that belong in each ecosystem. For example, in a forest, you will find pine trees, deer, and owls, while in a desert, you will find sand, cactuses, snakes, and camels. 

Parts of the Cell (6th Grade Project)

Here you are the great projects made by students from 6th B. 

CONGRATS YOU ALL!

School Day of Non-Violence and Peace: Light a candle for PEACE

Today we are celebrating the School Day of Non-Violence and Peace. It is time to think and to make a reflexion with our little children about what it means. In order to get that we have prepared this wonderful song 'Light a candle for peace' from Shelley Murley They have enjoyed singing this song and decorating this symbolic candle to share it with their family and friends and to talk about this day.

Do you want the link of the candle? 

Here you are the template  in PDF.

More examples of this great work!

The lyrics of the song

The Karaoke of 'Light a candle for PEACE'

More resources for the School Day of Non-Violence and Peace: January, 30th

Shop Role Plays in the 6th Grade!

This week in Lucia's 6th grade science class, we acted out various shop role plays! The eager students were put into six groups of four and were given a specific shop to act out a typical exchange between customers and workers. Some of the shops included were a supermarket, an electronics shop and a pharmacy. The students were very excited to act out the little skits and all worked very hard to deliver their lines and act out their roles. It was a great way to show the students how the economy is embedded into our everyday activities, such as going to the market. It also gave them an idea of how these exchanges might go in an English speaking country. AND it allowed them to practice some of their budding acting skills! :)

Thanksgiving in the USA

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving in the USA so we all learned a little bit about it's history and how it is celebrated today (mostly eating yummy food!). Thanksgiving is based on the first harvest of the pilgrims and Native Americans, and also about giving thanks for all the good things we have in our lives. In some classes, we did a traditional activity done with children in the USA in which we create a turkey from the outline of our hand and write in each "feather" (or finger) the things we are thankful for such as family, friends, food, water and toys. What are you thankful for? :)

So good to work as a linguistic assistant here!

My name is Megan and I am the new English language assistant at CEIP San Miguel! I am very excited to be working in a school with such helpful and welcoming staff and students that are very sweet and eager to learn :)

This will be my second year working in Spain as an English language assistant. Last year I worked in a secondary school in Ciudad Real. Though I am somewhat familiar with the city of Granada after having studied there in university, this is my first time spending time in the cute neighboring town Armilla!

The first week at school I introduced myself and taught the students about where I'm from. I told them a little bit about me, my interests and hobbies, about the USA in general, and some fun facts about my state, Washington (not to be confused with Washington, DC). The students then asked me questions about myself and told me a little bit about themselves as well. They told me their names, ages, favorite foods, and hobbies. After showing them a map of the world and demonstrating how far my home is from Spain, many of them were curious to know how long it took me to get here (12 hours, but so worth it!)

Here is a link to my intro presentation

I am very excited to be working at this school and am looking forward to getting to know the students and teachers better! :)