"How often do you...?" padlet for Year 6

How often do you go to pop concerts? 

How often do you play the guitar? 

How often do you go out alone?

Please, write a pair of true sentences about you on this wall. We will share our messages with everyone in our class:

http://es.padlet.com/franciscogongal/Year6-Unit2

 

Talking about myself: Physical appearance padlet

What's your name? What do you look like? Tell us, please!
In this website address http://es.padlet.com/franciscogongal/Year5-Unit1 you can double-click and leave your answer. 
This activity is intended to Year 5 students but Year 6 kids are welcome to write a message too. Go ahead!

Silk, pearls, gold and diamonds quiz!

Would you like to play a game? Remember that you need to read again the text on your class book if you want to win!

Revising Year 5's Unit 1 vocabulary with crosswords

Hi, year 5A & 5B kids! Can you solve these crosswords? Go ahead!

Revising Year 6's unit 2 vocabulary through word searches

Can you solve these word searches about Unit 2? It is easier if you go full screen.

Optical Illusions: 3D Dragon

Do you always believe what you see? Do you believe in dragons? If your answer for the second question is "yes", you are right! Dragons still exist! Or perhaps your eyes are playing a trick on you...

In Arts & Crafts we have talked about optical illusions. To prove our eyes wrong we worked on a 3D dragon craft found on Grand Illusions website. 
First we revised the vocabulary on the worksheet (fold, cut out...), then we cut out the model and finally we folded and glued following the instructions. It was a bit tricky but we made it!

You can click on the image to download and print the 3D Dragon (PDF here) or use the blank design to create your own model:

 

Here you are a video with some T-Rex dinosaurs looking at you!

Finally, you can have a lot of fun with your family and friends by having a look at the optical illusions in Optical Illusions website (illusions.org)

Is this man's face opposite you or he's facing right?

 If you know more websites with optical illusions please leave a comment. Thanks!

Class share, Go Keyboard, Mandos Darkgames, Photo Lab and FaceQ

In our class we love apps for our tablets and smartphones, and we love to share them with our mates at school!

• Pilar was proud to show Class Share, a very nice software to create your school timetable and add notes for important events. You can share it with your friends, teachers and parents.
• Miguel Ángel talked about Go Keyboard,  one of his favourite apps. It is a keyboard where you can customize the background and use lots of new emoticons and smileys for your messaging apps.
• Rubén B. loves videogames. He is a great gamer so he chose Mandos Darkgames as a suggestion if we want to have a customized stick for our video game stations.
• Iván likes drawing and painting a lot. In this ocassion he recommended PhotoLab, an app to edit your pictures with frames, filters, effects and photomontages. It is very easy to use, go ahead!
• One of Alicia's favourite apps is FaceQ. Do you need an avatar? If your answer is yes you must try FaceQ. You will create your cartoon avatar in minutes by combining various face parts.

Magisto, Draw and Paint, Drastic DS, ¿Cuánto sabes de Primaria? and Mobogenie.

Last Monday five new students talked to us about some apps they enjoy in their devices (tablets or smartphones): 

• Inés brought her iPad and talked about Magisto. It's is a video editor. You can create videos from your pictures and other videos and share them with your friends. Magisto is available for Android here.

• Itzíar also used her tablet to show Draw and Paint app. By using this software you can draw on any picture available on your device's gallery. You can also take a picture from your camera or even paint on a blank page. If you want to try this app you may download it from here.
  
• Rubén R. loves video games so he told us about Drastic DS, a Nintendo DS emulator. After you download this app from Google Play you can download and install any game (called ROM). Here you are a link to the evaluation version of this software.
• Cinthia's app was a quiz game: ¿Cuánto sabes de Primaria? There are six levels. You start from 1º Primaria level and must get at least a mark of 8 to reach the next level. Do you like it? So, try it here!
• Paula R.'s choice was for Mobogenie. It is a platform or alternative market for Android resources, where you can find applications, games, music, videos, wallpapers, and other types of resources. Where is it? It's here.

Invenio Carmen and Shazam

As in previous lessons when some kids talked about an app, software or a website they liked, this time Xiomara presented the software Invenio Carmen. This software allows us to search and download from Internet lots of songs from many bands that we like. You can't get this program now because it is considered illegal.

Laura talked to us about Shazam. This wonderful app can recognise almost any song after some seconds. We can use it to know more about songs we hear on the radio, on the TV, etc. You can download Shazam into your android tablet or mobile by clicking here.

Colourful Salt Jars

Last Friday we recalled our early childhood days. Some children had asked me to decorate glass jar with salt as they had already when they were very little.

Materials:

- A glass jar (it can be plastic too)
- 1 kilo of salt
- Coloured chalk

Instructions: 

- Colour the salt using coloured chalk.
- Pour the coloured salt into the jar mixing colours as you like.
- Fill the jar and place the lid.

Finally, they can cover and hide the jar lid in a piece of cloth and tie it with a ribbon. 

What do you look like? (Describing people)

I've got short black hair and small green eyes. Today I'm wearing a black T-shirt, blue jeans and white trainers. I wear glasses too.

What do you look like?

Here you are some videos to revise physical appearance vocabulary and expressions to describe people. You can describe yourself, your friends or your family members!

In the first video the ABCs sing a song about themselves. Then, the song plays again but with some words missing. How many can you get right?

Here is another video. Can you learn this song? It is very easy! And can you do the dance too? Go ahead!

 * uncle = my dad's or mum's brother. 

PicsArt, Piccollage and Word

This week, Aixa, Marta and Adrián have talked to us about their favorite software:

• Aixa brought her tablet and made a demonstration of how PicsArt works. It is an App for smartphones and tablets to edit photographs and add effects. You can also share your edited picture. You can download PicsArt here.
• Marta showed Pic Collage to the class. She used the interactive digital board to display a beautiful collage of pictures designed with this App. You can share your collage too! Click here to download it.
• Adrián talked about Microsoft Word. This software is used to edit text. You can add pictures to your texts, change font color and size, etc. Word is not free but you can download LibreOffice software here instead.

Essential apps you need for your homework

I have collected on this post some of the apps we have sometimes talked about in class. They are compatible with your android devices (tablets, smartphones...) and will help you at school or at home with your homework.

If you click on the names or the images, Google Play Store website will open in a new tab.

• Wikipedia: it is the biggest free enciclopaedia online. You get the same information as in the website, including pictures and links.
  
  

• Diccionario Español de la RAE: Spanish dictionary from Real Academia Española de la Lengua.
  

• Google translator: this is the official Google application for translating. It includes a lot of languages and the chance to listen, copy or share the word. It also has voice recognition for direct translation.  
  

  

Do you use more applications on your tablets or smartphones? Please, tell me in your comments below!

Oxford Online Learning Zone

In the Oxford Online Learning Zone you can have fun and practise your English. Just click on our textbook at school (Big Surprise 5! or Surprise 6!) and you will enjoy games, stories, songs and other activities. Remember to choose your book by clicking on Cambia de curso on the top right corner of the screen.

 

You can also find many more games if you visit the  fun zone and Paint Party sections. Enjoy yourselves!

For Big Surprise! and fun zone you need to register for free. Just click on the Quiero registrarme green button.

Enlargement (2): personal computer

Dear kids, here you are the personal computer displayed on the interactive whiteboard for the enlargement activity.

Remember, the deadline is on Monday, 21st October! 

Don't forget to draw it square by square!

Parts of a computer

In Year 6's Bilingual Science we are studying new technologies. Last week we had a look at computers and their parts.

Here you are a video to revise computer parts:

Enlargement: we learn to make pictures bigger

In Arts and Crafts we have learnt to enlarge pictures. This technique is called enlargement. It is a very simple technique but may be difficult for younger kids.

The pictures we have worked with are those of endangered animal species of the rainforest.

In years 5A & 5B we have enlarged a tapir and an emerald tree boa meanwhile year 6 kids have enlarged a tree frog and a parrot. 

Before tackling with the process itself we watched some videos and pictures of these animals and answered some questions orally to connect this activity to Natural Sciences (CLIL):

- What's this?
- Is it a pet or a wild animal?
- Can you describe it, please?
- Is it a mammal, a fish, a bird, an amphibian or a reptile?
- Is it oviparous or viviparous, vertebrate or invertebrate?

- ...

You may download a full PDF picture by clicking on its name:

• Tapir: here
• Emeral tree boa: here
• Tree frog: here
• Parrot: here

(Source: Free for Kids website)

Ordinal numbers

Last month, in years 5A and 5B we learnt the ordinal numbers from first (1st) to tenth (10th) while in year 6 we revised from 1st to 10th and learnt from eleventh till thirty-first and so on. We also had a look at how to tell our birthday and full dates!

Here you are a cute video to help you remember and study them:

 

 

Introductions

In order to revise previous years functions and vocabulary we have practised introductions at school. That is something I like to work all academic year long. 

The most frequent questions and answers are:

- What's your name? 
My name's ____________.

- How old are you? 
I'm _________ years old.

- When's your birthday? 
My birthday is in (month) (with years 5A & 5B)

My birthday is on (month+day) (with year 6)

- What's your favourite number? 
My favourite number is ____

- What's your favourite colour? 
My favourite colour is ____

- What's your favourite animal? 
My favourite animal is ____

- What's your favourite subject at school? 
My favourite subject is ____

- What's your favourite food? 
My favourite food is ____

- What's your favourite sport? 
My favourite sport is ____

- What's your favourite ...? 
My favourite ____ is _____

- Have you got any brothers or sisters? 
Yes, I have ___ / No, I have no brothers or sisters.

- Do you like...? 
Yes, I do. / No, I don't.

We usually revise these questions orally at the beginning of the lesson by asking randomly around the class or by interviewing a student every day. They like it!

Welcome!

Hi, welcome to my blog. Here I will be posting about some news and activities that I have been and will be carrying out with my years 5A, 5B and 6 groups at Maximiliano Macías primary school in Mérida (Spain) during this school year.

I work as a teacher of English, including a weekly hour of Science and Art in every group. 

I hope you find them interesting and please, feel free to comment, share or add some feedback if you wish. Welcome!