Food Posters – Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Greece
I don’t know about your teaching context, but posters seem to be our favourite project in my school, especially if learners are urged to work collaboratively on them! Every time we get to the 2nd unit of our 5th grade Pupil’s Book, my learners are very excited to create food posters! They use magazines, leaflets, markers and crayons, they add a lot of imagination and give it all they’ve got with colourful cardboard backgrounds, stickers and glitter! The moment their posters are on the school noticeboard they attract everybody’s attention and positive comments and our corridors gain a more personal and familiar touch! I am so proud of their work and contribution to this beautiful, educational and inspiring result!
So many teachers and so many pupils working on the eTwinning project that is related to “Superstitions Around Europe”! We have met each other through our Twinspace, but what do our schools look like? Learners have worked collaboratively on an online PowerPoint presentation with an eye to showing everyone their second home, their school! Here is the presentation they have created in the form of a video!
As part of the English lessons, the 5th grade learners of the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli are taking part in the European eTwinning project which is called “Green Magicians with Superpowers”. The schools we are currently working with are from Croatia, Spain, Romania and Turkey.
Prior to proceeding with our project which is related to the flora of our area, our 5th grade learners have worked in our school computer lab in order to co-edit with their European partners a cooperative online presentation that includes information regarding their school! This way they have managed to familiarize themselves with the cooperative webtool that allows them to create presentations, they have had the opportunity to present their school to a real audience practicing their English productive skills and they have acquired information regarding the partner schools while reading English with a real-life purpose.
The end-product of this collaborative effort is demonstrated in the following video:
English Breakfast at school has been a tradition at whichever Primary School I have ever been appointed to for years! When my 5th graders reach Unit 3 at the listening task that shows pictures of some children making pancakes as a surprise breakfast for their parents, that is when my learners are introduced to the fact that it is their turn this year to enjoy English Breakfast at school!
5th Greade Course Book
This school year, my 5th graders at the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Greece, had been completely unaware of this tradition I have been following, as I am their new English teacher! When we reached this page some time after the Christmas holidays and my learners were presented with the idea of having English breakfast at school, they were so excited and could not wait for the time to enjoy it to come! However, it was necessary to allow some time to inform their parents and get their consent for the learners’ participation, therefore we proceeded with the necessary official paperwork (please, feel free to request a copy of the consent form, should you need it! This is its online version and it has been slightly altered in the printed version for the parents to sign!)!
Before I start describing what a great and educational experience it has been, let me note that it is not very difficult (or expensive) to organize such an event at school, as most of the schools already have a room for learners to have lunch in. You only have to be prepared to do all the cooking! Our English breakfast normally includes tea, milk with cereals, chocolate chip muffins and pancakes – these last two delicacies will keep you busy in the kitchen, depending on the number of the learners you have to cook for! If you are lucky enough to have a cooker available in school, perhaps you can add eggs and bacon in the menu – unfortunately we could not! Learners are usually asked to bring a cup, a bowl and a tablespoon for the cereals, some fresh milk, honey and/or praline, whereas you, the teacher, (or the school) can provide for the cereals (regular corn flakes), the tea, plates, forks, paper tablecloths, muffins, pancakes and, of course, the pancakes recipe printed in Greek for two reasons: their mums are going to ask for it and/or you can use it as homework (ask them to write the recipe in English for the school blog, for an English-speaking friend, a padlet wall, etc)! Here is the recipe card we used this time:
English breakfast, this year, occured twice in our school, on two different dates, due to the fact that there are two 5th grade classes at the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli. I am not sure that words can describe the excitement and the satisfaction of everybody involved and the discussion we all had on the nutritional value of breakfast as a meal was interactive, educational and eye-opening to many of my learners – as they themselves have stated! All learners have participated and it is really worth emphasizing how organized, helpful and disciplined they have been throughout the process! Here are some shots of this unique experience for all of us:
You can also check out our school blog post and our padlet wall where now my 5th grade learners are invited to post their thoughts on their experience of the English breakfast at school, as well as the English version of the Pancakes Recipe I gave them in Greek!
The course book we use at the 6th Grade in Greek Public Primary Schools invites learners to write a report on their country at the end of the first unit. My 6th graders and I proudly present our electronic (padlet) wall with our reports that have been written with a real-life purpose: to be published on our school blog!
Please, feel free to leave comments under our reports, click on the hearts if you like them and/or invite your learners to read and comment on them, too (if you are a teacher, of course!), so that we know that other people out there can actually access them and read them! Thank you in advance for your time and … enjoy!
All of us, English Language teachers in public Primary Schools of Greece, are familiar with the Sports Song presented in our coursebook, in Unit 2.
Last year this rather-indifferent-to-the-learners song was taken to a different level with a little bit of imagination and enthusiasm and it actually became their favourite! Therefore, this year, at the Primary School of Efxinoupoli, it was easy to follow the same steps:
Instead of just singing the lyrics, we simply added motions for every line of the song! And that is how we pursued learning sports in English and learning like + -ing structure while having fun!
Vocabulary learning is a significant part of language learning. The more words a student learns, the better s/he becomes at receptive (reading and listening) as well as productive (writing and speaking) skills in the target language!
Every learner has his/her own way of studying/learning/consolidating new vocabulary. If you travel back to the times when you were a learner, you will definitely find you or your fellow classmates writing words in notebooks, making your own dictionaries with new words and their definitions, repeating words in an attempt to memorize them, or grouping them based on their meaning. And, no matter which strategy you followed back then, almost all of them leave you with a sense of dullness, exhaustion and/or vainness.
Nowadays, learners have the opportunity to work with new vocabulary in many more interesting ways, provided that they are willing to devote some time, have access to a computer with internet connection and are introduced to the right sites to refer to in order to pursue vocabulary enrichment. This year, at the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Magnesia, Greece, we are trying to make vocabulary learning and revision a bit more fun, by exploiting the Digital School and Photodendro! Learners will be introduced to specific links suggested by the enriched version of the digital school book and found at the digital educational repository called Photodendro.
All of my 5th and 6th grade learners promised to work on these tasks as they were intrigued when they were presented with their content today and they said they would have plenty of time to devote over the weekend! And, although it is too soon to tell how this whole effort goes, their wide open, sparkling eyes tell me that vocabulary learning and revision may become indeed more fascinating and effective!
Everybody knows it, 1st graders in Primary Schools are heart stealers! It is unavoidable, teachers, no one can resist bright eyes, smiley faces, lively creatures,cheerful attitude, positive aura and readiness to be part of a team!
This year, at the Primary School of Efxeinoupoli, Magnesia, Greece, after discussing with the 1st graders about what is the English language and why it is important to speak it well in the future, they realized that they already speak English without ever knowing or noticing it! Having recognized all of the words included in the following presentation, we started pronouncing them like English people do! And they did so well!
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