Water experiment

Surface tension is one of water's most important properties. It's the reason that water collects in drops. It's also why water can travel up a plant stem, or get to your cells through the smallest blood vessels. Help your child understand surface tension by showing her how she can create a "skin" on the surface of water with this interesting surface tension experiment.

What You Do:

Fill a cup of water. Ask your child: “Do you think a paper clip will float in the water?” Drop one in the cup to find out. Since the paper clip is denser than the water, it will sink to the bottom of the cup.

Now find out if you can use surface tension to float the paper clip: Gently lay the paper clip flat on the surface of the water. This can be tricky—it may help to place a piece of paper towel slightly bigger than the paper clip in the water. Then lay the paper clip on top of it. In a minute or so, the paper towel will sink, leaving the paper clip floating on top of the water. Even though the paper clip is still denser than the water, the strong attraction between the water molecules on the surface forms a type of "skin" that supports the clip.

Now put a drop of dish soap in the water. This will bind with the water molecules, interfering with the surface tension. The paper clip will sink. The detergent disrupts the molecules and "breaks the tension.” You can try floating other things on top of the water if you want; pepper floats well until you add dish soap. Can you find any other lightweight items that will float?

What Happened?

Surface tension happens when hydrogen bonds are formed between water molecules. The bonds, which are formed when hydrogen atoms in one water molecule are attracted to oxygen atoms in another water molecule, create a strong and flexible film on the water’s surface.

Pretty Ritty's bingo

 

Today we are going to see the story telling “Pretty Ritty” in the school about six-year-old children. This is a fantastic story in which they are going to learn new vocabulary.

When we have finished the story telling, we are going to do a post activity: Pretty Ritty's bingo, in which pupils will practice the vocabulary learnt before.

We will give to students a bingo and they must circle four cartoons. Then, we will name the drawings until the first child complete all drawings that he has circled and he says bingo.             

PS: Girls and boys, you will have a surprise soon…

Kinesthetic Painting

Dadaism and Surrealism were art eras during which traditional ideas about art were challenged. However, the artwork artists generated during these movements was still considered representational art. You could see what the art was and what materials were used. Many artists used random objects and recyclables. When abstract expressionism followed, it challenged traditional methods and techniques of art-making. The artists descibed as abstract expressionists seemed to be more free, and the art they created wasn’t always representational. In fact, many abstract paintings looked nothing like their titles.
One of the better known types of abstract painting is a method that uses the whole body to paint. Introduce your preschooler to abstract art with this activity that will have her splatter, drip, and drizzle to create a complex painting. This activity is the perfect way to engage your kinesthetic learner and spark her interest in art history!

What You Do:

Explain to your preschooler that throughout history, there have been many different movements and styles of painting that were popular. Discuss how Dadism and Surrealism were uniquely radical and how these two movements led to Abstract Expressionism. A good way to start the discussion is by showing your child some samples of artwork from these eras.

As she looks at the art samples, have her express her opinions on the artwork. Then discuss how she will be making an abstract piece of artwork that involves applying paint by splattering and using various body movements to create unexpected designs on the canvas.

Lay the canvas on the floor. Have her stand over the canvas and apply paint by splattering, dripping, and drizzling paint on it. Go over how in order to apply paint, she doesn’t have to actually touch the canvas with the paintbrush, spoon, or popsicle sticks.

Encourage her to experiment with her body movements. Is she able to get more paint on the canvas if she stands over it and flings the paint? How about if she squats down closer to the canvas?

Ask her to tell you more about her painting and what she thinks about the abstract art she's creating.

Multiple Intelligences

 

We have chosen Brown Bear’s book to work Multimple Intelligences. The autor is Bill Martin Jr and Eric Carle.

Our activities are designed for 5 year-old children. The book seems to be easy but the activities are more appropriate for the mentioned age.

This book works the order of questions in English, animals and colours.

 

ACTIVITIES:

 

- VISUAL

 

LOOKING FOR THINGS

To develop the visual intelligence, we are going to play. The teacher says a color and children have to look for something with that color quickly.

 

 

- INTRAPERSONAL

MY FAVOURITE ANIMAL

Children have to think what is their favourite animal. Then, they will explain why they have chosen that animal. Finally they will describe it at class.

 

- MUSICAL

MUSICAL VIDEO

To develop musical intelligence we can show children a video with Brown bear’s story. This video is excellent because the story is told singing.

Then, children can sing the song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek7j3huAApc

 

 

-  INTERPERSONAL

 

PECULIAR ANIMALS

Children have to work in groups of 4 to create a peculiar animal. They will draw their own animal with colours and a piece of paper. Then they have to shape it with modelling clay.

Finally, all the groups show and explain their classmates their peculiar animal.

 

- BODILY

 

ANIMALS MASKS

Children have to create animal masks using cardboards, papers, crayons, etc. When the masks are finished, the children will dance with their own animal mask, and they can acting out each animal’s sound and/or action (a kangaroo can jumping, a tiger can running, etc.)

 

- LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL

REMEMBER THE ORDER

The animals in Brown’s Bear book appear in a particular sequence. Children have  to remember the order of appearance of each animal. Then, they can playing in pairs saying an animal, and the partner have to say what animals appear in the book later.

 

 

- VERBAL-LINGUISTIC

 

DREAMING CHILD…WHAT DO YOU SEE?

After reading all the Brown Bear’s book, reread the last line in Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?: “Dreaming Child, Dreaming Child, what do you see?” Ask the children what they see in their dreams. Continue the book by having each child complete the sentence: I see ________.

 

 

 

- NATURALIST

 

CREATE OUR OWN BOOK

Children have to create their own version about book zoo animals. They describe other animals found at a zoo (giraffe, gorilla, tiger…). Children can work in pairs or individually. Distribute a piece of paper to each group for draw an animal of the zoo. When each group have chosen an animal and they have  worked at it, the teacher board all the works and we will have our own animals' book!

 

 

Listening activity

Hi teachers!

If you want to practice English listening with your small children and you don’t kwon how, I will go to propose you an activity.

Children love playing so it’s a good idea this game, the rules are:

- Put color rings scattered on the floor.

- Children are running around the rings and when the teacher says one color, all the children have to run and put into a ring. For example, the teacher says “red”, and each child put it into a red ring.

-When the children do this game quickly, the teacher can complicate it saying colors and numbers. For example: “three green”, and they only can put into a green ring three children.

The pupils love listenings with their teacher’s voice.

My favourite tale when I was a child.

My favourite tale when I was a child was Toy Story because I love the characters of the story. Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Rex… are fantastic, but my favourite character is Mr Potato. When I was three years old, my parents give me a Mr Potato toy and I played hours with it putting and removing all its pieces.

This is a short summary of the tale:

A little boy named Andy loves to be in his room, playing with his toys, especially his doll named "Woody". But, what do the toys do when Andy is not with them, they come to life. Woody believes that he has life (as a toy) good. However, he must worry about Andy's family moving, and what Woody does not know is about Andy's birthday party. Woody does not realize that Andy's mother gave him an action figure known as Buzz Lightyear, who does not believe that he is a toy, and quickly becomes Andy's new favourite toy. Woody, who is now consumed with jealousy, tries to get rid of Buzz. Then, both Woody and Buzz are now lost. They must find a way to get back to Andy before he moves without them, but they will have to pass through a ruthless toy killer, Sid Phillips.

Here I left you the film’s trailer.

 

My best teacher / my worst teacher

ESL TEACHING AND CHILDREN'S LITERATURE

The best teacher I had in school was Marga, my history teacher in the fourth year of high school. She is a good person and an excellent professional with all students, and she is always worried about their academic and personal problems.

Moreover, Marga controls the topic and has great knowledge of geography and history. She loves her job well, she gets her students learn while they are having a fun time.

On the other hand, the worst teacher I had was Josep, my English teacher at Primary School. He does not like because their classes were boring. He was never interested in our problems, and was constantly talking with his mobile phone during class.

For these reasons we feel ignored and maybe this was the reason why we were not motivated in their English classes. Fortunately, we had excellent English teachers over the next years.