Today, we train vocabulary and communication skills. My kids are very good in english and for them, It is not enough to memorize words to get better...
Obviously, memorizing is important...but when kids know the words...they need a contexto to use them and to lear comprehensive. So, how They nowadays know the words, I consider they can go further...
I want not only my kids know the meening of the words but also explain the meening using gramar and trainning oral skills..
Sometimes the vowel changes (come → came), sometimes the pronunciation changes (read → read), and sometimes the whole word changes (eat → ate). Sometimes there seems to be a pattern (throw → threw, know → knew), but there are always exceptions (snow → snowed).
Learning irregular verbs might seem like a bit of a "brain workout," but they are actually the VIPs of the English language. Most of the words we use to describe our daily lives—like what we ate for breakfast, what we saw at the park, or where we went over the weekend—don't follow the "add -ed" rule.
If you only use the regular rules, you might end up saying things like "I eated" or "I goed," which sounds a bit like a tiny toddler talking! By mastering these special verbs, you’ll be able to tell your stories clearly and sound much more natural and confident when speaking with friends.
1. Use Your Demonstratives
In your poem, you can point to things that are near
you or far away. Remember
the rules for singular and plural:
2. Talk About Who Owns What
You can use Possessive Pronouns to
show who the objects belong to. This
makes your poem sound more professional!
3. Pick Your Favorite Vocabulary
Use the words from your list to describe what you
have. You can group them by what you do with them:
4. Add "Cool" Adjectives
Make your poem more interesting by describing the
objects. Don't just say you have a phone; tell us what it's like! Use these adjectives:
5. You can follow this simple "Rhyming Couplets"
Rhyming couplets
are pairs of consecutive lines in poetry that rhyme and typically share the
same meter, creating a distinct rhythm. They often feature similar line lengths
and offer a complete thought or rhythmic pause at the end of the second line.
Couplets are widely used in literature, including nursery rhymes, sonnets, and
Shakespearean
Example Poem Structure
>>This is my backpack, it
is very cool,
>> I take it with me every day to school.
>>Those are your trainers,
>> they are colourful and blue,
>> I think they look very nice on
you!
As we do every Sunday, we’re working on English. Today we’re doing a general vocabulary review and focusing on definitions to provide context for each vocabulary word and learn it consciously.
In Martín’s case, they’re working on “Our things.” It’s a very easy topic for practicing short definitions.
Specifically, we’re focusing on personal items: sneakers, sandals, backpack, cell phone, athletic shoes...
Adjectives like colorful, polka-dotted, expensive, cheap, hideous, awesome...
And as for grammar “Whose is this?”, “This is mine”...
Here’s how we work:
1) Memorize all the vocabulary.
2) Put the words into context using expressions related to the topic and grammar (“Whose is this?”, “This is mine”...).
3) Define them orally using the context of our home, our room, and our belongings.
Amidst all the activities suggested in the book, the phrase “What do you want to be when you grow up?” comes up, and we were reminded of this great video from Pop Planet.
Explanation here:
Planet Pop has nice ressources to work this topic in a didactic and funny way.
Here the THE ANIMAL GAME
https://www.planetpop.com/shared-video?token=83dfc780-70bf-443a-903d-2d0943d482e6
LYRICS here.
Reading comprehension involves decoding, processing and understanding the words within a text. This is critical to the development of a learner’s literacy skills and vocabulary acquisition.
To develop reading comprehension in English, just as in Spanish, the key is to read and practice, gradually building up vocabulary and understanding sentence structures that allow a child to comprehend texts that should progressively increase in word count and complexity.
We appreciate our teacher for beginning to develop this skill, which is essential for helping children become more confident communicators.
We have been fostering this skill for years now using the American “read aloud” methodologies and materials from Read and Imagine, as well as other books recommended by Carly &Adams
The process we follow to train this skill is this:
STEP 1. UNDERSTAND WHAT THE TEXT IS ABOUT (Title, images, questions)
The information in the title provides clues about the text’s content.
Understand THE QUESTIONS.
WHAT--> qué
WHY --> por qué
WHEN -->cuándo
WHERE --> dónde
WHO --> quién
HOW -->cómo
STEP 2. COMPREHENSIVE READING. (At least twice)
a. Read and understand the general idea, noting new/unknown words.
b. Read the questions and do a second reading to find information to answer those questions (it is helpful to underline information useful for the answer).
STEP 3. STRUCTURE THE ANSWER CORRECTLY:
SUBJECT + PREDICATE
(Ex: LUIS LIKED FOOTBALL)
Answer in the same tense as the question; therefore, if the question is in the present tense, answer in the present tense; if it is in the past tense, answer in the past tense. Be careful with the correct use of the present tense (3rd person).
PRESENT PAST
DO YOU GO….? DID YOU GO….?
• NO I don’t, NO She/he doesn’t - NO, I didn’t
• Yes I do; Yes she/he does - YES I did.
Aquí un ejemplo que hemos hecho en casa:
We also received a new book from Read and Imagine today, and like all their books, it’s fantastic.
This weekend we also have had to work study techniques to organize contents to study Science. We are very tired, because our school delegate too much work for home and it spent too much efforf and time
We’ve had a dreadful week working with the children at home.
I get the feeling that either they’re rushing through the work at school or the material is too scattered, which creates quite a bit of confusion for them.
For me, it’s absolutely vital that children read, write and enjoy learning. Children should want to learn, develop their creativity and curiosity, and gradually come to understand life’s challenges...
All of this goes far beyond exams... it’s primary school, not a competitive exam!
Children must learn and acquire skills, but they must also be happy and develop their interests.
My kids like to draw, to build things, to create stories, play music...and there is not too much space in school to do It..So we have to facilitate dituation at home: going to special clases, participating into special contexts or making models at home.
We all, teachers and parents, are "in the same boat": educate our kids to be well educated and emotional enough to prepare them for life.
In our case, we emphasise daily work on what we consider to be fundamental and go beyond rote learning: language, maths and English.
Writing, reading, understanding maths problems, thinking critically, and knowing how to express themselves and relate concepts to real life... these are the areas we focus on particularly and support very specifically in their learning.
Social and Natural Sciences are more repetitive subjects, and we only teach them techniques for organising their work and study... In this case, as the standard system is repetitive and relies on rote learning... I believe parental involvement is less important.
This weekend we’ve been sorting through my books and exercise books from my primary school days, and we’ve been using my 8 year EGB school books to practise reading, comprehension and discussing the vocabulary needed for the upcoming exams.
This weekend was a total game-changer because we combined traditional methods with my elementary school materials and created reading exercises using Gemini to align the vocabulary and topics with what they’re covering in school.
The truth is that artificial intelligence is very useful and has helped us a lot. And we have a thousand resources at our fingertips to support English learning from home.
Here my books from EGB
The truth is, it’s a pleasure to support them with their English and see that fluency in communication that we thought would never come… but really…
it’s coming!
I encourage all families to support them, if you can, in this process… it’s a real breakthrough that takes time to arrive, but it does arrive.
And...
This week we have an important date, because Álvar and Martin were involved in a traditional drawing context in which they get used to participate...And they have got a prize!...so after all the effort, they had a reward...
This weekend, Álvar had to prepare for a school exam, which was a good excuse to read in English and practise our reading comprehension.
As always, we follow the school teacher's blog, which guides us in building grammatical knowledge and enriching our vocabulary.
When it comes to working on reading and comprehension skills, I recognise that my children are privileged because they have my husband and me to guide them in the process of understanding and practising this skill. It is true that in other families, parents also have this ability, but perhaps what is lacking is the dedication of time to help them. Or the belief that children learn on their own. We believe that in a non-English environment, we must strive to create moments of family work in English to guide them on the path of reading aloud, which is how we work on it.
We started from the premise that Álvar has been reading in English for some time, so he is quite familiar with the #Read&Imagine methodology from #Oxford. Even so, I looked for texts on the topics covered in this exam and we worked on three comprehension exercises:
In addition to these short readings, we have read a very cool historical book that also empowers women. Today, 8 March, is International Women's Day, and this is a very subtle way to learn about the past, to learn about American history, and to value the women who fought for THANKSGIVING DAY.
Today at home we worked on regular and irregular verbs.
We are lucky that the English school they have been attending for two years now started teaching irregular verbs, and many of them are already using them correctly. link to INFIL https://www.infil.es/
At home, we always work on English comprehension and oral expression. Our teacher said us to expose kids to english at home. We have luck because we speak english and our kids can learn also with us.
We have created weekly routines to do always a little bit of speaking, readind or listening...It is hard, but a second language need too much efford.
This week, in addition to communicating using the vocabulary they learned at school, we reinforced regular and irregular verbs a little bit.
We did a really cool activity that turned me into DJ Blanca. We played DJ using this excellent video.
We practiced regular and irregular verbs, making unexpected stops, and Álvar and Martín had to complete their meaning and the conjugation of the infinitive, past tense, and participle.
It was a really cool game because Álvar and Martín themselves asked me to “keep DJing and I enjoyed like a child...
I am returning to this blog now that my children are in elementary school and have made tremendous progress in English, but not enough to be totally selfconfident in english.
In addition to being the mother of two children aged 9 and 10, I am a teacher and a lover of languages. I have been studying and practicing language learning for a long time, english and french.
I have a University Degree in Business, and my own training and the fact that one of my passions is traveling have led me to work hard at learning languages.
I currently teach business at IES Fray Luis de León and have been involved in international projects for years. Mastering several languages gives you culture and perspective, helps you grow as a person, and makes you more independent in life.
Nowadays, languages are essential, especially English.
Now, as a mother, I will tell you about the work we do at home to help our children develop communication skills.
Learning a language is difficult; it requires a lot of stimulation to force us to understand and speak other languages.
It is impossible for a child to learn a language solely through the hours of class established by the curriculum. I say this loud and clear: IMPOSSIBLE. For a child to learn a language, they need a lot of stimulation in their environment that allows them to learn to communicate...
Primary school classes are very diverse, and if this is noticeable in a normal class, it is even more noticeable in a foreign language class. Children who are exposed to languages in their environment know how more or less to communicate; those who are not exposed will learn to hate a language because they usually learn very little, and this carries over from primary school to secondary school. Of course, the system has a huge learning gap, but it is true that new technologies have allowed families who do not have an immersive English environment to compensate for this with online exposure, whether synchronous or asynchronous...
Obviously, behind all the effort made by families to stimulate language learning, there is a significant effort that must be made if the aim is to learn to communicate and not just pass exams.
In the case of my children, I'll tell you a little about how we work on this:
1) We have an excellent teacher at school who really encourages them to communicate. She promotes meaningful learning through international projects in collaboration with schools in other countries. This way of learning is great, but it's true that it might be more productive to focus on a few projects that allow more time to internalize structures and vocabulary and practice communication situations in class. Cris is a nervous teacher, very implicated in her job, we sometimes cannot follow her...but we try, of course!.
Her blog: LAL Aprender Lengua Viva. Metodologías activas
2) Every week, we set aside an hour to improve oral skills at home readinng and speaking. We know it is not enough...but we both work and we also have to manage our home. We read aloud or use the PopPlanet platform, which is wonderful. We are lucky to be able to communicate in English, so we don't use virtual tutors at home (another good option for language immersion).
3) We do regular grammar reviews in creative ways. I bring the methodologies I use in my classes home so that my children can learn in a meaningful way, linking concepts and creating situations in which they can understand the meaning we want to work on. From methodologies based on critical thinking and Maker Culture to dramatization (which I think is wonderful for language learning).
4) For years, Álvar and Martín have been taking communication classes with experts in linguistics. We are loyal followers of INFIL, a school that works diligently to help children learn to communicate. Even so, we believe that our children need more personalized attention to advance in their own goal of communicating aligned to their levels of english.
Our plan is for them to soon be able to take part in an immersive English-language activity where only English is spoken.
It's difficult when they're so young, but for now, the “English Village” option is a clear possibility, although it's beyond our budget with two children.
It is important for us, our kids write by hand before using digital platforms like Canva because handwriting strengthens cognitive development, spelling accuracy, and language processing. When children write by hand, they focus more on letter formation, sentence structure, and word choice, which improves memory retention and reinforces grammar learning. This initial stage helps them organize their ideas clearly and develop fine motor skills. Once they have planned and written their text on paper, transferring it to Canva allows them to revise, edit, and present their work creatively in a digital format. In this way, handwriting builds strong linguistic foundations, while digital tools enhance motivation, creativity, and digital competence, creating a balanced and effective learning process.
Here one exemple. My old child was revised the lesson for the exam, after controlling the spelling he made this amazing porter for a nice girl, Irene to whom they do many creative workshops.
