October with English Language Assistant Teacher Daniella

October at CEIP Antonio Rodríguez Almodóvar

A whole month working as an English Language Assistant at CEIP Antonio Rodríguez Almodóvar has flown by. My name is Daniella and I am 23, from the United Kingdom and currently teaching English at CEIP. I am in science classes teaching science in English, which I love because the students get to practice their English through their science learning. I think I am the first British language assistant that the school has had, so I am looking forward to bringing some British culture into the classroom. This brings me to one of the most exciting days so far at school… Halloween!

Halloween at CEIP
It was so amazing to see Halloween celebrated at CEIP by all the teachers and students. I was blown away by the costumes. Halloween originated in Scotland and Ireland so it was a great festivity to intertwine with some British cultural history! I told class 3A and 3B about the history of Halloween and how people wore costumes to scare away the evil spirits. They seemed interested and learned some new vocabulary as well as the geography of the UK and Ireland. I asked the students questions about Halloween in Spain to find out how it is similar or different to the UK, where Halloween is a big deal. They were surprised that everyone puts a pumpkin outside their door in the UK, and that we eat the insides of the pumpkin sometimes too. It was great to see the students trying to explain what they do on Halloween and what they dress up as without realising they were improving their English by practising and learning new vocabulary.

Spooky Word Search and Bingo
We did a spooky word search and bingo. I taught them some new vocabulary like ‘broom’ and ‘cauldron’ by drawing pictures and writing the words on the board. They had to understand the new vocabulary for bingo because I would call out a word and they needed to know it to find it on their sheet (and as with all games, they all wanted to win so worked hard to remember the vocabulary).

First Impressions of English & Intentions
 
I have been so impressed by the high level of English across the year groups! The first step to learning a new language is motivation and to be motivated the children need to be excited and confident. I hope I can make the students have fun with their English learning and not worry about making mistakes (as that is how we learn after all).

Science

In October, we learned about the 5 senses and how to stay healthy including having a healthy diet.

To teach the 5 senses I brought a tea towel into class with some different objects hidden underneath. They had to feel without looking and describe using the structure ‘I touch with my hand…’ and saying if the objects were hard or soft. They loved this game and it got them all asking questions and replying in English, as well as learning about their 5 senses.

To learn about a healthy diet the students worked together to fill in a food wheel, putting 'apple' in the Fruit and Vegetables section for instance. Then they made their own food wheel, cutting and sticking the foods into the right box as well as writing down why we eat different foods, e.g for protein or vitamins. I showed them different foods on an Ipad and they had to tell me which category the food is in and why we eat it. This was a good test and they used their English very well.

Let’s see what November holds for science learning using English!