Mr Tshepo English Language Support (December, 2021)
Creating Fun Board & Card Games to Practice English
This year, LELS.1 students are learning about seasons, double consonant blends, and healthy and unhealthy foods. We learnt about these topics through fun and engaging songs, chants, games and videos throughout the year. Students really enjoyed learning about the seasons, double consonant blends and food through fun games, so we decided to create our own games in order to review the content!
First, students were introduced to popular games played around the world. The games were Scrabble, Uno and Spot It. Students played these games to get an idea of how they are played and what the rules are for each game. Once students were familiar with the games, we began designing our own using the content we had learnt in class.
Students chose to review phonics blends through the Spot It game, healthy and unhealthy food vocabulary through the Snakes and Ladders board game, and grammar about seasons through the Uno game.
Once students were done creating their games using the materials provided and their knowledge on the content covered, we started playing the games. Students had a lot of fun playing each other’s games! They learnt that practicing English was not hard when it is done through fun and exciting card and board games. They now play the games they created during our review lessons in class and even at break times!
Mr T UELS (October, 2021)
Writing Checklist
Writing is an important aspect of a student’s English education.
Students should work hard to establish good habits so their writing will be strong and informative. The following checklist can help students to always ensure their work is the best that it can be. UELS.3 practice these skills every time they write and here they will show you examples!
1 My name and date are on the paper.
This helps to make students accountable for what they create.
The teacher, student and parents know when the writing was made.
2 Each sentence starts with a Capital letter.
It is important to start sentences with a capital letter.
Ex. Once upon a time, there was a young boy and a young girl. Jake the snake and Gail the snail lived by a lake. (3,4)
3 I used punctuation correctly.
Students should familiarize themselves with punctuation such as periods, commas, exclamation marks, question marks, quotation marks and the many other ways we use punctuation in English.
4 I checked my spelling.
To make a piece of writing more concise and more robust it is important to review spelling. This can be done by consulting a teacher, a classmate or by using a dictionary.
5 My work is neat and easy to read.
Students should show pride in their writing.
They should make a strong effort so that their writing is beautiful.
Remember it is not a race, so show good work and take your time.
6 I read my work and it makes sense.
Students should get into the habit of reading and reviewing their work. Students may find grammar mistakes, or other things they want to change to make their writing stronger. Also students can check whether they want to add more to their writing or perhaps remove something.
7 I did my best!
Getting into the habit of always trying their best will set students up for future success in school and in life.
Students writing will improve if they get into the habit of following this checklist.
Ms Vanessa UELS (June 2021)
Who Wants to Be an Author
The students from UELS.3 have been working on expanding their writing skills. The students have been following a series of stages teaching them how to write their own children’s book. The stages are - Research, Brainstorming, Drafting, Editing, Revising and Publishing. The exercise began with finding the best research idea which included going to the library to find an age-appropriate book for the target audience of 3-5 years old. Once we found age appropriate books, we read it aloud in front of the class to understand the differences in already published books. The students talked about the characters, plot and setting as the most important elements of a story. The students sat in small groups to brainstorm their topic ideas to create story lines that could be used in the individual stories. The students were given the opportunity to plan and work on a written draft using clear and concise language, ensuring the correct use of grammar, and being as accurate as possible. The teachers edited each story to ensure correct grammar and punctuation was used before writing the final copy. Once the students revised and completed the final draft, they could publish their story by writing neatly and drawing illustrations. The students were then encouraged to read their published books to our UELS.1 and UELS.2 classes for approval.
Mr Mark LELS.3 (June 2021)
Where’s the ball? Prepositions
Welcome to our LELS.3 classroom. An ELS (English Language Support) classroom has a limited amount of students hence we try to maximize this advantage to meet student’s needs. For the topic of prepositions we organize the classroom to maximize student’s ability to learn preposition words. At the end of this topic students should know preposition words such as; in; on; under; next to; behind; in front of; near; above etc. Firstly students are shown a power point on prepositions. Next students are placed into small groups. The first group is on the carpet walking and reciting the preposition words. Meanwhile other students are teaching prepositions words on the carpet. Then group in pairs and play a game called ‘Where’s the ball?’ Students have 3 guesses about where’s the ball. They are expected to use the target language in full sentences. For example the ball is under the basket. Students have fun with this game and now play it together during break times.
Finally students present their weekly talk to the class about prepositions. This is an opportunity for the students to be more expansive with the language they’ve learned. Students attempt to tell a story about the picture for 3-4 minutes using the target language.
Mr. Ryan UELS (March 2021)
Phonics for language learning!
Phonics for language learning is a method of teaching our students to read by developing their phonemic awareness and an understanding of the links between the sounds and how we use the letters of the alphabet to represent them. Essentially to not only read well, but to bridge the gap between reading and writing. In our class we focus on the letter and sound correspondences to enable students to break written words down into their component sounds, before later recombining them to read the whole word. This process is known as segmenting and blending. For example, when faced with the word cat a student might run their finger under the first letter and make the initial /c/ sound, then /a/, and, finally, /t/. Once they have successfully segmented these individual sounds, they then blend them together to say the word /cat/. We played a game called ‘Hidden names” to teach the students in an interactive and fun way. The students were placed in pairs and with the teachers assistance they had to first identify a common sound in a group of words. The teacher would say the word and the students would have to repeat it to ensure they pronounced it correctly and elicit the common sound. From the common sounds in four or five different columns they had to then guess the name of a character. The students would come up to select the correct character name on the board based on the common sound for each column of words. Students were rewarded for correct answers. It was a fun way to practice the sounds of letters and identify them in different words!