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

  Valentine's Day is here! The much awaited (or not so much) time of the year. Here's a looks-hard-but-it's-easy-to-do card you can make with your students or by yourself to gift someone. You're going to need 2 sheets of papers, a white one and another one in a different color. I made a pink and a black one. I've already posted a video on how to make this here when I wrote about the Mood Tracker, so it's the same idea but this time you can right a person's name on it using different lettering, add doodles and decorate it however you want. You have to do the drawing and writing after the white papers are in place. You can also write something on the cover or maybe even make an envelope for it. Here's the video on how to fold and cut the papers for you again: Hope your students get creative with it. Have a Happy Valentine's day!

 This year, I'm going to make sure I use exit tickets more often. It's a way to wrap up your class and also to assess your students on what you did that day. I made this simple sample paper booklet for the students to use as a model and make their own.  At the end of a class, they have to write or draw something new they learned or found interesting that day. They can add the date and be creative with the information they add.  They write their names on the little paper boat that is tied to the booklet and dangles on the side. If you're already back in the classroom, it would be best if students left their booklets at school, so everybody is sure to have theirs to work in. When you hand them back at the end of the month, students will be able to share with their parents what they experienced that past month. I'll be using this with my early teens group.

  I made these characters to play an adaptation of the Among Us game with my teenage students on our first day. They all have to put their heads down on the table and I'll call each one individually. If I show them the green player, they are part of the crew. If I show them the red player, they are the impostor. When they all put their heads up, each student will say a sentence about themselves but the impostor has to say a false sentence. Then, the class has to all vote on who they think the impostor is and why. The sentences can be about things they like or don't like, favorite colors or sports teams, pets they have, anything about their lives. Again, I used a cereal box to make the characters and taped them onto chopsticks, really simple. Let's see how it goes. 🤞🤞

The first day of class is always crucial to set the tone to what kind of teacher you are and how you hope the semester will unfold. I remember the butterflies which frantically flew around my stomach on the many first days of school I had as a child. This year with the many different kinds of classes, online, in class or even hybrid (some students online while others are in our classroom), students might be even more anxious than ever. Here are some ideas and suggestions to make your students feel welcome and to immediately get to know your students better. Remember the ideas have to be adapted to fit your age group. If you live in a country where you are already in the classroom with all your students, tape a slip of paper under their desk or chair with a personal message for them. It can be something like: John, I'm so happy you are my student this year/semester or Alice, I can't wait to learn what your favorite pet/color/cartoon is. They really get excited when you tell the...

 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.

Here's another idea to practice talking about the weather. I used a strip of a thin cardboard from a cake box I had. I stapled the strip to make a circle and cut 2 slits on the sides so I could insert different clouds: cloudy, snowy, rainy. I glued a blue paper circle on the back and drew the house and the full moon on the same thin cardboard and glued them onto the blue background. I also glued a string to the back to be able to hang the craft somewhere. I used creative paper for the clouds. Since I made this last year, I ended up hanging it on my Christmas tree. So, the idea is to insert or better have your students insert the different clouds and ask each other: How's the weather? You can also let them be creative and instead of a house, they can draw something else, like a tree or a pet. Enjoy! 😊

My first grade bilingual class made this 3D cactus to practice answering how's the weather . The city we live in is known for its hot and dry days so the craft was very appropriate. Since they had been online for more than a semester, it was pretty easy for them to follow all the steps from the slides.  I made the vase from an oatmeal box. A cereal box works perfectly too. You need 3 circles for each part of the cactus so the students need 9 circles total. Everything except the vase was made on creative paper, then cut out and glued onto the orange paper which I thought gave the idea that it was a hot day but it's okay if the don't have orange paper. They can use another color as the base paper or color a white sheet. We all loved the final product. 😍