HELLO!! HELLO!!

Hello everybody!

We are group composed by Clara González Vaca, Pilar Trejo Martín and Ana Zarza Caballero, from 4º Grade on Early Childhood Educatio, from Teacher Training Collage, from Extremadura's University (Cáceres, Spain).

Clara is from Cáceres, Pilar is from Quintana de la Serena (Badajoz) and Ana is from Villanueva de la Serena (Badajoz).

We met at the University this year, so that, we thought it was really good to create a grupo to work in this blog because each one have an hability and we could do really good this together.

We made this syllabus for a subject called "English metalinguistic skills" that Gemma Delicado taught in our faculty.

This subject is very interesting for us because there we learnd more thing about how to teach and about the material that a teacher always need to have. So that, we chose this topic because we can teach lot of thing with it, not only contents about Thanksgiving Day, and we can do lot of materials for our class. 

We want to show you all the material that we create because it maybe will original and people could be interested on watching it. 

Finally, we want to make some questions to you to do the best on our blog:

• Do you like the blog?
• Do you think all material are adapted to Early Childhood Education?
• Do you think all material are good explained?
• What do you think this blog need?
• Would you do any material?

Thanks for everything and GOODBYE! Have a nice day!

WELCOME TO OUR SITE!!

WELCOME TO OUR SITE!!
Here we want to show you all thing that we preparad and created for our syllabys which is caller "Welcome to Thanksgiving".
This proyect is for kids with ages between 4-5 years old (2^nd level of 2^nd cycle of pre-school).

This unit is composed by three different sessions of 50’each one divided in three activities and their routines (warm-up, closure, routines to link activities and to get the attention of the children).

We will carry out those sessions in a week (the first one on Monday, and Wednesday and Friday respectively).

OBJETIVES:

The aim of preschool education is to contribute to the physical, emotional, social and intellectual development of the children.

Both levels will be focused on emotional development, movement and body control habits, on communication language, on guidelines for coexistence and social relations, as well as on discovering the environment’s physical and social characteristics. Girls and boys will also be encouraged to form a positive and balanced self-image and to acquire personal autonomy.

Preschool education will contribute to the development of abilities in kids wich will enable them to:

• To get to know their own bodies as well as the others’, and their possibilities of action.
• To learn to respect differences.
• To observe and explore their family, natural and social environment.
• To acquire progressive autonomy in their daily activities.
• To develop their emotional abilities.
• To interact with others and progressively acquire social relations guidelines, as well as practice solving conflicts peacefully.
• To develop communicative skills and ways of expressing in different languages.

LEADER PIN

Each day we are going to chose a leader for the class who are going to help the teacher during the hole class.

He/She is going to wear a start and here you have the materials needed for it and the way of doing.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Cardboard
• Scissor
• Black pen
• Pin

WAY OF DOING:

• Here you have a tutorial made by us:

WARM-UP

This is a part of the class that we are going to repeat every day at the beging of the class as a routine. With it childrend could know that the class start and they have to pay attention.

It will take  10'.
We are going to star with a "hello song", thet one of the kids will check who is in class using a poster (in that one we hace photographs of all the children also a house and the school; and one of the kids called leader willput the photos depending on where the rest of the pupils are).

Finally we will say what is the weaher like, using images is, writing...

Pupils could memorice the song, learn the gestures and movements and organize the rest of the classmates. They could check list and learn vocabulary related to weather.

And we will use only two skills to do it: speaking and listening.

Now, here you have the materials needed and the way of doing.

MATERIALS NEEDED for check list poster:

• Cardboards
• Pen
• Pencil
• Ruber
• Scissors
• Adhesive backing
• Velcro
• EVA

WAY OF DOING:

• Here you have a tutorial made by us:

CLASSROOM RULES

We are going to review the classroom rules between two activities use a poster were we can stick the rules that we use this day.

Here you have the materials needed to make this poster and the way of doing it.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Cardboards.
• Pen
• Pencil
• Crayons
• Rubber
• Glue
• Scissors
• Adhesive backing
• Velcro

WAY OF DOING:

• Here you have a tutorial made by us:

THANKSGIVING STORY

To carry out this activity and needing help from two colleges, we will performance a drama explaining what is thanksgiving about (how the pilgrims land to America, how the Indians helped them and how nowadays thet celebrate this festivity). One of the teacher will be the pilgrim, one the Indian and the other the one who tells the story, the kids will help giving opinions. 

In case somethings goes bad and we don´t have help from other adults, we could record the performance and show it to the children. Also, we will use some flashcards to show them the most important vocabulary while we act out.

This activity will take more or less 10' and we can do it in the class or in ICTs class.

Pupils could know what Thanksgiving is and participate in it. They need to remember a story and learn to listen. And they will star knowing some of the vocabulary related to Thanksgiving.

And we will use three skills to do it: speaking , listening and reading.

Here you have the story:

"Thanksging Story"

A shiny day of December the pilgrims land to Playmouth rocks.

They sailed on a boat called Mayflower.

Here, they built new houses.

The winter was very, very cold.

They didn’t have food. They were very cold.

But one sunny day the Indians appeared.

• Hello!
• Hello
• Who are you?
• I’m an Indian and I will help you.
• Why?
• Because here we are all friends. I will help you to plant and haunt to eat.
• Oh, thank you so much. We needed it.
• Let’s go!

They haunt and plant together and they had fun!

Next winter, they decide to say thank you to the Indians.

• We want to celebrate a biiiiiig feast because of your help. We will call it Thanksgiving.
• Oh my God!
• Here you have some corn, pumpkins, mashed potatoes, turkey, pie, cramberries and watercress.
• Thank you very much, let’s eat!

And they lived happily ever after.

After that, the pilgrims and the Indians didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving again.

Then, President George Washington appeared.

• Hello, I’m George Washington. I want to celebrate Thanksgiving.

And also his friend President Abraham Lincoln wanted to help.

• Hello, my name is Abraham Lincoln.
• Hello, friend.
• I want to celebrate Thanksgiving the last Thursday of November.
• Okay, let’s do it!

And because of this now every family celebrate this day together.

THE END

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Costumes
• Flshcards
• Decorated wall.

WAY OF DOING costumes:

• For costumes we are going to use hats and things like that. Here you have some tutorials made by us:

MATERIAS NEEDED for flashcards:

• White cardboard
• Pencil
• Ruber
• Black pen
• Crayons
• Adhesive backing

WAY OF DOING:

• Here you have a tutorial made by us:

We use red for verbs sound, green for food sound and blue for names and events sound.

AUTUMN TURKEY

For this activity we will go out to the playground with kids to pick up several autumn leaves and then we'll choose some of the leaves for each kid (the bigges, the one which they like the most...), after taht we will give them a sheet where they can paste them and design the rest of the turkey.

This activity will take more or less 20'.

Pupils could know the enviroment and to recognize the season where they are in. They could encourage their creativity  and remember the colors.

And we will use three skills to do it: speaking, listening and writting

Now, here you have the materials needed and the way of doing it.

MATERIALS NEEDED for design the file:

• Paper
• Pencil
• Ruber
• Black pen

WAY OR DOING:

• Here you have a tutorial made by us:

MATERIALS NEEDED for the activity:

• Leafs
• Files
• Pencils colors
• Ruber
• Scissors
• Glue

WAY OF DOING:

• Here you have a tutorial made by us with real children who are 4 years-old.

PILGRIMS vs. INDIANS

This activity is going to be an action game (this is mostly to help kids who learn trough bodily-linesthetic intelligence). 

We will them some hat (half of the class with the pilgrims one, the other half with feathers) and we will paint big circles in the floor; after that we will tell them a number and they will have to group themseves with the others (pilgrims with pilgrims and Indians with Indians). Later, it will be the same but mixing them.

MATERIALS for the class:

• Indians tapes.
• Pilgrims hats.
• Chalk.

We will use the same hat all we use in the "Thanksgiving Story". 

MATERIALS for hats:

• EVA 
• Glue
• Scissors
• Velcro

WAY OF DOING:

• Here you have two tutorials made by us.

This activity will take more or less 10' and we can do it in the playground of the school.

Pupils could know difference between pilgrims and indians, remember the numbers, learn to make groups adn increase participation.

And we will use only two skills to do it: speaking and listening.

THANKSGIVING VIDEO

For this activity we are going to watch a funny cartoon video telling Thanksgiving story (didactival and entertain at the same time). 

This is the one we are going to use:

This activity will take more or less 10'  althought the videos is short, and we can do it in class or in the ICTs class.

Pupils could know Thanksgiving Story and learn to listen.

And we will use only one skills to do it: listening.

PUZZLE AND MATCHING GAMES

For this activity we will introduce the ICTs in the class because children are really interested on it, so they could learn better.

This activity will take place after watching the video, to carry out some activities relarted to ICTs that we had created by ourselves froms before (in ths case, a puzzle and some matching activities).

We created it with a programme called "JClic" where you can created lot of different kind of game appropiated for little children.

You could developed it with the digital blackboard.

Here you have some pictures about the game that we created.

This is the name of the story which we are going to tell them previously.

Here you have the menu of the activity, so you can chose the game you will want to do.

We created some puzzles related with the pictures which appeared in the video.

Here you have a matching game where you have to find the couple of the pictures which appeared there. 

And here you have other matching game where you hace to mach the caracters with the clothes they usually wear.

We think that this kind of game are very easy for kids and you can evaluate if they understand the story with it.

You can dowload this games here.

This activity will take more or less 10' and we can do it in the class if we have a digital blackboard. If we haven't got it, we can go to the ICTs class.

Pupils could know how to use ICTs and use it in class, and they could check if they got the knowledge from the story.

And we will use three skills to do it: speaking, listening and writting.

CORN GARDEN

For this activity we are going to plant a garden using corns seeds. Some of the kids will make holes in te ground, then some of the others will put the seeds inside and the rest will cover it and water it. During the rest of the year we will keep caring the garden.

If we haven't got any garden in the school we could plant in a bottle. 

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Sand
• 1 bottle
• Scissor
• Corns seeds
• Water

WAY OF DOING:

• First you have to cut the bottle in half.
• After that you have to put some sand in the half bottle, but not full. 
• Now you have to plant the corns seeds and cover it with more sand.
• Finally you have to water it and wait until they grow up.

This activity will take more or less 10' and we can do it in the class or in the playground of the school to not untidy the class.

Pupils could learn to repect nature and know one of the most typical Thanksgiving food (corn).

And we will use only one skills to do it:  listening.

TABLE DECORATION

For this activity pupil need to create their own table decoration. 
First of all, we will explain the importantece and meaning of Thanksgivings and this activity. We will ask the kids to bring recycling materials to create their own thanksgiving table decoration.
We will show them some pictures about a real table decoration created by american's pupils to give then some ideas about how do it. Here we have some ideas that we find surfing the Internet:

We called the first one "decorating stick". It will be a bit difficult for kid, but they will be inspired. 
For this you will need sticks or straws, washi tape, felt, cardboards, scissors, glue,...

The second one we called "hat glass" and "turkey glass". We think is could be the best, because is really easy and funy. 
For this you will need plastic glass, cardboards, scissors and glue.

And the third we called it "writer turkey". It's very easy too, and children could like it a lot. 
For this will need crayons, glue, scissor, cardboars and pinecone. 

This activity will take more or less 10'.

Pupils could know to encourage their creativity and know the meaning of table decoration on Thansgiving time. 

And we will use only two skills to do it: writting and listening.

MAKE A RECIPE

For this activity we will cook a easy recipe with pupils. Maybe some parents could came to the class to help children, but it's really easy, so they could do it by themselfs.

The recipe that we are going to cook is called "Mashmallow pop corn balls". It is like pop cakes made with pop corns.

This activity will take more or less 12' and we can do it in the kitchen of the school to not untidy the class.

Pupils could know some food related to Thanksgivings, repect food traditions and respect cleaning classroom rules. 

And we will use only two skills to do it: speaking and listening.

Now, here you have the recipe and the way of doing it.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 butter spoon.
• 6 pop corn cups.
• 150 gr. mashmallows.
• Chocolate.
• Sugar decoratings.
• (We will need stick to make it like pop cakes)

WAY OF DOING:

• At first, children need to make the pop corn in the microwave. 
• After that, they have to put butter and mashmallow in a bol and melt it on the microwave. Maybe the teacher have to do it because it can get burn and pupils can burn too.
• Now, they have to mix it with pop corns. 
• Put a little bit of oil in their hand and make balls.
• At this moment, they can put a stick on their ball and eat or maybe they can cover the ball with melt chocolate and sugar decoratings.
• If they cover it with chocolate, them they have to wait for the chocolate to dry and ¡¡IT´S ALREADY DONE!!

If you don't like this recipe, here you have other. It is so easy too and it is called "Pumpkin Biscuits".

INGREDIENTES:

• Puff pastry biscuits
• Chocolate
• Food Coloring
• Smarthies

CLOSURE

This is a part of the class that we are going to repeat every day at the end of the class as a routine. With it childrend could know that the class is finishing and they have to clean a tidy everything.

 It will take only 5'.

To say goodbye until the next day we'll sing a song; while we do that we can pick everything up and keep the class tidy using the "goodbye song". Here you have the "goodbye song" that we will use fot it:

"Tidy up, Goodbye Goodbye,

Put everything back in its box.

Tidy up, Goodbye Goodbye,

Remember now, you're the tops!"

REINFORCEMENT ACTIVITIES

Here you have reinforcement activities which we are going to do each day if children finish their activities quicky or if they need some extra activities homeworks.

MATERIALS NEEDED to do the file:

• Paper
• Pencil
• Rubber
• Black pen

ACTIVITIES AND WAY OF DOING IT:

• For the firt lesson they we will have to do a "Thanksgiving Labyrinth". They have to mach the indian with the corn. Here you have a tutorial made by us:

• For the second lesson they we will have to do "Mash". They have to chose a mask and say the name of the caracter who apeared in the mask. Here you have a tutorial made by us:

• For the thrid lesson they we will have to do a "Decorate your food!". They have to make little balls tissue paper and paste it on the food that appeared in the file. Here you have a tutorial made by us: