All You Need is Paper (and a little love) ESL/EFL activities

We're still under the sea and this time with hammerhead sharks! After watching a video about sharks, my first-graders were able to choose which one they wanted to make and surprisingly, they all chose the hammerhead. We used light and dark blue paper for the ocean and the head, and then purple paper for the mouth. The kids just drew everything with a pencil, cut them out and glued them all together. They also drew triangles on white paper, cut them out, and glued them onto the mouth and we were then able to practice answering how many teeth are there. I made sure they gave me complete answers: there are (ten) teeth. The eyes were pretty easy because they just glued googly eyes to the head. The sharks look friendly, don't they?  

In Brazil, we celebrate Father's Day on the second Sunday in August. I got this idea for my first-graders on Pinterest. We painted the hands in one class and the following class they drew themselves in the middle so it would look like they were about to hug their dad. I wrote I love you on the board for them to copy and they all practiced saying Happy Father's Day as I took their pictures. I thought this was so easy and adorable, plus, it can be used for other events, like, Mother's or Family Day, Valentine's Day or even to reinnforce vocabulary like hug or parts of the body. Happy Day, everyone!  

 In Brazil, the new school year starts in February, so once again we're about to have the first day of class. One thing that has helped me a lot teaching online is having these different mouths I can use at the beginning of the class as I ask students or they ask each other how they are. I have a happy, sad, excited or wonderful, and hungry mouth. I've showed these cardboard props here on the blog before. We made them when we were learning about different parts of our face: eyes, nose and mouth but I was able to use them the whole year to start the class. They also come in handy if you have to wear a mask and students can't see your mouth. I keep them right next to my computer along with my pens and pencils. If there's one thing I will for sure use again this year, it's these cute funny mouth props.

It's the end of May 2020 and the world is still somewhat upside down, so having fun with your students is essential for your health and theirs. My first grade group was learning about parts of the body and again Pinterest inspired me to make these eyes, nose and mouth props to help them practice the vocabulary. I used them to teach the vocabulary and the students later also created their own. We cut open some boxes and drew the parts of the faces on the inside. I loved them, my cat, not so much.