October with new English Language Assistant, Daniella

A whole month working as an English Language Assistant at CEIP Antonio Rodríguez Almodóvar has flown by. My name is Daniella and I am 23, from the United Kingdom and currently teaching English at CEIP. I am in science classes teaching science in English, which I love because the students get to practice their English through their science learning. I think I am the first British language assistant that the school has had, so I am looking forward to bringing some British culture into the classroom. This brings me to one of the most exciting days so far at school… Halloween! 

Halloween at CEIP
It was so amazing to see Halloween celebrated at CEIP by all the teachers and students. I was blown away by the costumes. Halloween originated in Scotland and Ireland so it was a great festivity to intertwine with some British cultural history! I told class 4A and 4B about the history of Halloween and how people wore costumes to scare away the evil spirits. They seemed interested and learned some new vocabulary as well as the geography of the UK and Ireland. I asked the students questions about Halloween in Spain to find out how it is similar or different to the UK, where Halloween is a big deal. They were surprised that everyone puts a pumpkin outside their door in the UK, and that we eat the insides of the pumpkin sometimes too. It was great to see the students trying to explain what they do on Halloween and what they dress up as without realising they were improving their English by practising and learning new vocabulary.

Spooky Word Search and Bingo
We did a spooky word search and bingo. I taught them some new vocabulary like ‘broom’ and ‘cauldron’ by drawing pictures and writing the words on the board. They had to understand the new vocabulary for bingo because I would call out a word and they needed to know it to find it on their sheet (and as with all games, they all wanted to win so worked hard to remember the vocabulary).

First Impressions of English & Intentions

I have been so impressed by the high level of English across the year groups! The first step to learning a new language is motivation and to be motivated the children need to be excited and confident. I hope I can make the students have fun with their English learning and not worry about making mistakes (as that is how we learn after all).

California song

Welcome to the lab

For this unit we're going to try different experiments. Are you ready? Watch the videos and pick the one you like the most!

Number 1. Density

Number 2. Air has weight

In this one, instead of a ruler you can use a hanger.

Number 3. Floating eggs

Number 4. Solid or liquid?

Number 5. Fill up a balloon without blow up

Number 6. How to make an orange sink in the water

Number 7. Lava lamp

Number 8. Bouncy egg

Number 9. Drops on a penny

Number 10. Floating paper clips

Number 11. Dancing rasins

Number 12. Newtons disc

Number 13. Clay boats

Do you want to see more? This one is voluntary.

You can pick a different experiment as long as it's related to matter and energy. Be creative!

Physican and chemical changes

Mind minutes 4:32 and 4:51 to see the differences between physical and chemical changes.

Solar oven

Our teacher Melanie is going to teach us how to make a solar oven. That is going to be one of our experiments in this unit.

For that we need the following objects:

• Pizza box
• Foil 
• Black paper
• Plastic wrap

Don't forget to bring them by thursday.

Finally, we will cook some traditional american treat:

We hope you will enjoy!! It must be delicious!

European Anthen

Catching up...

I've been behind the past few weeks! I've been traveling and trying to keep my creativity alive in the classroom, so blogging has taken a back seat unfortunately but here's what we've been doing in fourth grade:

Sadly enough I haven't been able to do much in class the past few weeks. We have been working on our oral exams and with this being my first time completing it with them I've had to work through some nerves and anxiety. I assured them that I don't bite but it still seemed to be a little nerve wrecking for them. They are doing well and we are taking our time but I'm ready to get back into the classroom this week and have some fun! They are completing an economy project and will be presenting soon so I'll be helping them with presentation skills this week. Time to do some more acting!