Introduction

For these young learners, I just asked each of them their names and wrote down in a seating chart in my notebook. They were very excited they knew the answer to the question and I am now able to use their names.

Units:

My Body

We did a lot of activities from their textbooks, working on matching vocabulary words and pronunciation.

They adored Head Shoulders Knees and Toes and The Parts of the Body Song (which are both linked).

Above are my drawings used to help students on their tests find the bones or muscles being pointed to on their papers

Halloween

We worked on Halloween vocabulary with this slide show. I asked them "Do you like ________" and we worked on the responses in full sentances (eg "Yes I like bats!")

My Family (and Thanksgiving)

In addition to helping them finish activities in their textbooks we practiced family members by using this song.

This unit was in late November so I also made a Thanksgiving and Family presentation to practice the family member vocabulary the 1st graders were learning. The PowerPoint also talks about the special Thanksgiving food and how families gather to celebrate the holiday.

I went through the same family-themed PowerPoint with the second graders, but it was a very easy review for them. They were much more interested in the special food we eat on Thanksgiving so after the presentation we colored in a Thanksgiving I Spy

Christmas

To learn Christmas vocabulary I printed this sheet where the students repeated the words after me (to pratcice pronunciation) and we matched the image with its corrsponding word together. They then colored the pictures in.

We also played this memory/matching game online.

Animals

As we worked through the animals part of their textbook I broke up the class and added some dance parties by playing different animal songs on youtube.

Let´s go to the zoo: song

What do I see: song

Yes I can: song

I also played The Very Hungry Caterpillar

To practice the words invertabrates and vertebrates we played a game where one student would leave the classroom, I would hide one of the flashcards, and when the student reentered all the other students would say the word, quieter when the "seeker" was further away and louder when the seeker was close. This was a great way to drill pronunciation and the kids 1st graders loved it.

Plants

After reviewing plants in their textbook I played some plant song and we played some plant games. Here are the resources I used:

Match part of the plant https://learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org/word-games/plants

Matching game https://matchthememory.com/Partsofplantsyear1

What aplant needs and plant parts

https://wordwall.net/resource/498854/science/plant-needs-and-parts

Parts of plants song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bFU_wJgvBI

Grow a garden song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdBPH7Dj1bc

Matter

The 1st graders learned about different materials (plastic, metal, fabric, wood, rubber, glass, paper) so we played a lot of "Simon Says."

For example"Simon Says touch something paper" and then they could touch the page in their book.

I also went through differnet toys and asked teh students what material were needed in each toy. This was a great chance to have students answer one by one so I coudl hear their pronunciation so I could help them improve.

In 2nd grade we expanded on these topics and did actvities concerning mass and volume. I dropped different items in a cup of water to see which float and which seat. I asked the students their float/sink predictions before I dropped the items.

Here is the short slideshow I made for the kids to describe the materials needed for each toy.