Άρθρα κατηγορίας 2nd grade

Λεπτό χαρτί για λεπτή κινητικότητα! Καλά Χριστούγεννα!

Το λεπτό χαρτί βοηθάει να δουλευτεί περισσότερο η λεπτή κινητικότητα. Φτιάχνουμε καρτούλα Merry Christmas σε μορφή σπιτιού – φάτνης, που στέκεται και μπαίνει και κάτω από το δέντρο, ενώ ζωγραφίζοντας και κόβοντας τις φιγούρες μπορούμε να παίζουμε με τις χάρτινες μαριονετούλες μας, φτιάχνοντας ιστοριούλες, και να μαθαίνουμε το λεξιλόγιο και τις φρασούλες που χρειάζεται: Mary, baby Jesus, Joseph, manger, donkey, sheep, camel, wise man 1, wise man 2, wise man 3, Here is Christ etc. Αφήνουμε τα παιδιά να παίζουν στο σπίτι με τις χειροποίητες φιγούρες που έφτιαξαν μόνα τους, για τα πιο ονειρεμένα Χριστούγεννα! Τα πιο ωραία παιχνίδια είναι αυτά που έχουμε φτιάξει μόνοι μας!

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Παίρνουμε ένα φύλλο Α4 και το έχουμε σε οριζόντιο προσανατολισμό. Διπλώνουμε τις πάνω γωνίες έτσι ώστε να σχηματίσουμε στέγη. Έπειτα, διπλώνουμε τις άκρες προς το κέντρο ώστε να σχηματίσουμε “αυτιά” που θα κάνουν την κάρτα μας να στέκεται, και ζωγραφίζουμε την πίσω πλευρά, που είναι χωρίς διπλώματα. Χρώμα κατά βούληση!

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Nativity scene made by @Joel. Merry Christmas!

“Party with Mr. Men and Little Miss”: Our story book!

Have you ever felt that things somehow fall into place, and you suddenly see they are going to work out just fine? Well, it was the case this last week of May. I really felt we were left behind on the project, but in a mysterious way there was finally time for us to complete the process.

First all the students wrote a story (in Greek), for a new character of Mr. Men or Little Miss. Then, they all read it aloud and then they voted for their favourites. We ended up with Ο κύριος Σοβαρός, written by Katerina.

The next time, we put the scenes down and illustrated the story. The Art teacher had helped immensely by asking the students to create a character for Ο κύριος Σοβαρός.

But, we did run out of time, so I created the video myself… And here it is:

https://www.storyjumper.com/book/index/56462515/5b096dd11f562

 

“Party with Mr. Men and Little Miss”: Little Miss Contrary and Mr. Cheerful (with a visit from Little Miss Splendid)

The last two Roger Hargreaves books we dealt with in class were Little Miss Contrary and Mr. Cheerful. The students were willing to read the books this time, page by page, and I was very pleased they are feeling comfortable in Greek -it’s an important “step” if they are to be comfortable with English, a year from now. They also paid attention to what was being read, and even added their own “colour” as they read.

They were introduced to opposites like “black – white” and “day – night”, and also elements of British culture (with Little Miss Splendid). I explained to them that next time we are going to start working on creating our own “Little Miss” or “Mr. Men” character or book, and they were thrilled! It remains to be seen if we can actually do it, or if it’s too much to ask…

“Party with Mr. Men and Little Miss” – Mr. Tall and Little Miss Somersault (with a visit from Mr. Bounce)

For the past couple of lessons with my 2nd graders we’ve been discussing different body types, like Mr. Tall (also Mr. Tickle, Mr. Nosey, Mr. Greedy and Mr. Small, who appear in the book) and Little Miss Somersault (along with Mr. Bounce). Students were introduced to the idea that one’s obvious “drawback” may well indeed be a blessing, as is the case with Mr. Tall! And in the case of Little Miss Somersault, how delightful to see a girl character save the day like a super hero, only to discover that super heroes do sometimes need help themselves! Two lovely messages from Roger Hargeaves, worth the attention of younger learners.

The students drew Mr. Tall this time, easily following this wonderful video, which I only had to pause a little, and then there was also colouring and lots of “Jump! Bounce! Cartwheel!” singing! I think they carried on jumping for the next hour, as by the time we finished, it was time for their P.E. class.

These are the lyrics to the song, available here:

Bounce! (Bounce!)

Jump! (Jump!)

Cartwheel! (Cartweel!)

Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault

Stretch! (Stretch!)

Leap! (Leap!)

Tumble! (Tumble!)

Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault!

She doesn’t walk around, but leaps over instead.

She can do anything, even stand on her head!

Jumping, tumbling, bouncing up and down, Little Miss Somersault never touches the ground!

Bounce! (Bounce!)

Jump! (Jump!)

Cartwheel! (Cartweel!)

Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault

Stretch! (Stretch!)

Leap! (Leap!)

Tumble! (Tumble!)

Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault!

She’s so full of energy, there is no doubt.

Bouncing over and under, around and about!

Climb on a roof, or balance on a chair, she does it all with out a single care!

Bounce! (Bounce!)

Jump! (Jump!)

Cartwheel! (Cartweel!)

Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault

Stretch! (Stretch!)

Leap! (Leap!)

Tumble! (Tumble!)

Little Miss Somersault, Little Miss Somersault!

(repeat this a few times)

See you next time!

“Party with Mr. Men and Little Miss” – Little Miss Wise (with a visit from Little Miss Neat) and Little Miss Chatterbox

I am excited to see the children get more involved in our project. Little Miss Wise was next in line, and we got to discuss her behaviour. A student (girl) brought Little Miss Neat in class, too, so there she was, our little guest, and we also got to know her! Letter and phoneme correspondence was tackled during the lesson, in the following words:

After that, it was Little Miss Chatterbox, and while the boys were almost sure that talking too much is a female trait, they were surprised to find out that a Mr. Chatterbox also existed, and he was just as talkative as his sister!

There was a very nice video on Youtube that the students enjoyed. The following character will have to be a male one, though. Till next time!

“Party with Mr. Men and Little Miss” – Mr. Quiet and Little Miss Sunshine

It was so enjoyable to see how the young students of 2nd grade reacted to the stories, they really liked them a lot. There was colouring of letters and figures, playing and letter making with play-doh, the kids loved it. They are also beginning to understand and accept the different characteristics of different personalities, portrayed in the series, which is good. Here are some pictures:

Can’t wait to see what’s next! Have a happy Clean Monday!

“Party with Mr. Men and Little Miss” – the inspiration

So many things in today’s society, factors outside the classroom, are ripping the students’ team spirit apart: The antagonism is sometimes insane, and it is often one of the roles of the teacher to reconcile different situations and to build bridges, so that students can co-exist peacefully and in a spirit of understanding.

In this context, I decided to invest in a project with 2nd grade students, called “Party with Mr. Men and Little Miss”, with the aim of bringing them closer to each other by primarily recognising aspects of themselves in the Mr. Men and Little Miss characters, getting to know themselves better, and then by realising how many things we all have in common with others. To do that, we are going to study 10 books by the English writer Roger Hargreaves, at the same time engaging in fun activities that will promote the students’ phonemic and phonological awareness in English, as well as building on their self-confidence and connecting English with a literature and a culture. The end product is going to be a story that the students themselves will have created. The project will also help students learn how to illustrate a story, with the help of the Art teacher, and how to value differences in playground games, with the help of the PE teacher.

This is the set of books that we are going to deal with:

  • Mr. Cheerful
  • Mr. Busy
  • Mr. Quiet
  • Little Miss Chatterbox
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • Little Miss Wise
  • Little Miss Somersault
  • Mr. Tall
  • Little Miss Contrary
  • Mr. Messy

And of course, the books are going to enrich the collection of the school library, after we finish our project. I’m curious to see if the young students are going to be familiar with this series and talk about books that they have at home. We’ll see!

Christmas cards for young learners: Square shapes, lettering and ribbon!

Ho ho ho! It’s this time of year when kids like to bring their wishes home after school, especially if they have written them in the new language they are learning… English!

I found this lovely printed cardboard in my local bookstore, bought two sheets and cut each sheet into 20 squares; then I paired these squares with 40 more from simple red canson, binding each pair with red ribbon! The students wrote their Merry Christmas wishes and their names in English on a piece of simple white paper, which they glued on the red canson inside. Lovely! They even said they would hang their cards from their Christmas trees at home!

So… why don’t you try and see how many words in English you will find on this card:

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Merry Christmas everyone!

Rapunzel, illustrated

I love telling stories and fairy tales to my younger pupils, in B Class. I also love reading them from the original, and they often love to listen, especially if it’s the last hour of the day and they are too tired to do anything else; it’s relaxing. I tell them a few things about the story before I start, and I ask them a few questions about it when I finish, to see if they have understood the basics, and they usually have. On such a day, I brought Rapunzel to class, and they were totally absorbed!

We also discussed the plot, analyzed the characters and shared our feelings about this tale. The next time we had a lesson, I wrote a few sentences, excerpts from the story, on the board, and asked them if they could guess what they meant. Indeed they could, for most of them, they have a way of remembering clusters of meanings that I repeat, so then I asked them to copy them to their notebooks and see if they could tell me which sentence goes first, second etc. I had to switch to Greek here a lot, if I was to get any answers, but in general they were able to number the sentences correctly.

On the third time we had our Rapunzel lesson, it was time for them to draw! Each student was given a sentence from the story, told which scene to draw, and asked to copy that sentence at the back of the piece of paper. We put all the drawings together, in the order the sentences appear in the story. This was the result (some of it, anyway):

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This endeavour came after I attended a seminar with Mr. Nikos Toumazatos, about how to illustrate a children’s book. I was definitely inspired, what can I say! I just hope I can ask my students to illustrate more in the future, it definitely seems to be making a difference when it comes to involvement in the story!