Craft Snowman

     In our new entry at Pbc English we show you a craft activity to make with your 1st cycle pupils. Craft activities are a very handy opportunity to practise English in a different way. The craft to be done in class must be simple because the instruction given in English need to be easy to follow. If it is simple and attractive success is guaranteed.
     Material we need.
- White Cardboard circles
- Paper
- felt tip pen
- Scissors and glue
- Bookbinders

      Apart from the craft sense, which are very useful to develop fine motor movement in our younger pupils, with this activity we also review the parts of the body. As a warming up we play the very well known game Simon Says. As i said before we are reviewing the parts of the body and with this game all our pupils remember them or even can learn some new words if they do not know them.
     After remembering the parts of the body it is time to start with the craft activity.

1st Step: The Head

     Deliver a circle made out of white cardboard to the children. Then, they will draw, colour and cut out the eyes, the nose and the mouth of our snowman. Later on, they will stick all these on the white cardboard. It is always very helpful and positive to show a finished work so they can figure out what you want them to do.

2nd Step: The Body

     In the same way we did in step 1, deliver a white cardboard circle, this time a little bigger to make the body. Then, pupils draw, colour, cut out and stick the buttons and the scarf.

3rd Step: Get the Snowman Together

     Finally, when both parts of the snowman are finished (head and body) we will join them using a bookbinder. We can do the same with the arms and hands, so we will have a kind of  articulated or mobile craft.

Pbc English

Santa's Coming to Town

In this new entry in Pbc English Santa is coming to our pre-school class in the shape of a fun Christmas Card.( 5 years of infant education)
Material we need:
- Cardboard (red, orange & green)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Some cotton

1st Step: Deliver cardboard to cut out

The first thing to do is to give our pupils the pieces of cardboard to cut out. It may seem simple but we can't forget that they are very slow in the process. Then, give them a piece of green cardboard folded as a Christmas card.  After cutting out all the pieces of the cardboard, stick them on the front part of the Christmas card.

   Face: They can stick the eyes or simply draw them.

        Hat: Stick the hat and a white paper strip on it.

2nd Step: Cotton hair and beard

Secondly, after glueing the cardboard, our pupils will start sticking the cotton to make Santa's beard and hair. a little guidance will be necessary, otherwise the results would be strange. It is always very useful to show them a finished example of the work we are doing so they can figure out what they have to do.

 Stick the cotton around the face and make Santa's hair and beard

 To finish, stick a cotton ball at the top of the hat.

Step 3: Inside the Christmas Card: 

The last step is to colour and decorate the inside part of the Christmas card. I have chosen a picture of Santa to colour, with the words "Father Christmas" because it is the vocabulary we were working in class.

I hope you find it interesting and useful for your lessons with the youngest pupils. Have a look to some of their best works. Merry Christmas!

Pbc English

Welcome Christmas Time Sweetly: "School-made Trifle"(2/2)

It is time to prepare our "class-made" trifle. In this new entry in Pbc English I will show how we prepared this delicious and traditional dessert in our language class...a different way to bring British culture in our language class.
1st step: show and tell the ingredients.

In the last lesson we divided the class in groups and each group decided the ingredients they were going to use. So, firstly, in this lesson, one by one each group tells and shows the ingredients the have chosen.

2nd Step: giving instructions and following the recipe 

I began giving the instructions for the first layer, the sponge cake. Then, each group in turn gave the instructions of how to prepare the other layers, jelly, fruit, custard, cream and the final decoration with jelly.

They used vocabulary such as put, add, spread, cut, remove...At the same time they were giving the
instructions, they were adding the layers.

3rd step: Decoration with jelly

When all the groups finished putting all the layers, we decorated the trifle with Jelly...

 4th step: Yummy Yummy!

Here you have the final result... we enjoyed cooking in English, working together, learned some culture and most important IT WAS DELICIOUS

 

Welcome Christmas Time Sweetly: "School-made Trifle"(1/2)

Christmas Time is here and we are greeting it with a famous and traditional dessert in the British isles...Trifle

Trifle is a very traditional British recipe consisting of layers of different and delicious ingredients: cake, fruit, jelly, cream, custard...it is very colourful so it immediately becomes very attractive for children. In this new entry in PBC English I will show you how I worked with this recipe in my 3rd cycle class. Yummy!!!

1st Step: Show recipe, possible ingredients and how to make it.

I showed them pictures in the digital board so they can see the trifle

2nd Step: video sheet.

I delivered a sheet containing some question they have to answer after watching the video of the trifle recipe.

3rd Step: Brainstorm

Before watching the video, children told me what they thought it was going to appear in the video. We wrote everything in the digital board.

4th Step: Watch the video.

I found in YouTube an "easy to follow" video of how to prepare trifle. It lasts 5 minutes so I played it once, then checked for understanding and then played it again(in the digital board). Then we corrected the video sheet stopping the video and finding the answers.

Trifle Recipe Video 

 5th Step: Post-brainstorm and groups.

Finally, we went back to the brainstorm, we saw what they have predicted and completed with vocabulary they learned from the video. To conclude the class I made the groups for the next class in which we will prepare and eat our "school-made trifle".