While correcting my students' pieces of writing, I found many errors related to word order. So I began looking for material that helps students to understand the structure of sentences in English. 

This video provides clear explanations and examples of SVOMPT order. Students can watch the video and then be asked to put  some sentences in order.  

Let's play a detective's role like Sherlock Holmes and use our problem-solving skills. 

Problem:

 Delfina goes to artistic gymnastics every Wednesday at 7 pm. Today is Wednesday. Thus, now she is doing gymnastics.

1) Is the conclusion correct? Why? Why not? 

Comment: Activities like this one can help our students to develop their thinking skills while they use logic to solve problems and reach right conclusions. Adjust difficulty according to their age and level and enjoy a moment of collaborative reasoning. 

Hi everyone! I want to share with you this game I have prepared for my students of secondary school. The game is similar to "chinchón" where each player aims to collect two sets of three cards. In this case I used the game to make students practice sentence structure, so each card contains different types of words: nouns, auxiliary, and verbs. Each player then had to collect a set of 3 cards that formed a sentence, and another set containing three words from the same category (noun, auxiliary or verb).

Of course you can adapt the game  and prepare the cards according to your teaching needs. My students and I had a nice time playing it! 

Some years ago I began to implement an activity that one of my teachers used in a class I was part of. It consists in asking students to write a short text giving their opinions about some aspects of their English lessons. I used to ask my students to do this at the end of each year, but this time I prefered to do it at this moment of the year since I can make improvements before the end of the course. Some aspects students can be asked to write about are:

- An activity they liked / didn't like and why

- A topic / content they feel that wasn't clear/ they understood

- A kind of activity they would like to do / a topic they would like to study or practice more.

Today my students wrote really constructive comments and I am happy to see that they have become very critical thinkers. I believe it is good and necessary to make students take part in the teachers' plannings and encourage them to be reflective and constructively critical. 

Well, finally I want to wish you all a wonderful winter holidays! 

Vowel sounds: /ai/ - /I/ - /e/ 

As an introduction to phonetics, students can watch and listen to this catchy video:

1) Ask students to pay attention to the pronunciation of the words PINEapple and PEN.

2) Show them the symbols for each vowel sound. They can think of other words containing the same vowel sounds.

3) Students can be provided with a list of words with different spellings. They can be asked to classify them according to their vowel sounds.

Examples of words with the vowel sound:

/ai/ : life - cry - style - crime - fine - my 

/I/ : live - sit - fit - ship - tip - kiss

/e/ : pet - bed - spell - spend - left 

Let's sing and dance with these vowel sounds! 

Type of Sentences

I recommend you this video to revise the three different types of sentences: simple, compound and complex. After watching it, you can try the Quiz I share below. Let's practice!  

Video: https://youtu.be/pyVfspf-qIc 

Quiz: https://www.turtlediary.com/quiz/identifying-sentences-as-simple-compound-or-complex.html

"Much Ado...": Main Characters

For my students in secondary school: Here you have short descriptions about the main characters of the play. Practise for the literature exam by writing sentences describing each character. You can add other adjectives and more info. Good Luck! 

Having Fun

Comment: This 6 step sequence can be useful for the teaching and learning of simple present, comparatives,  and vocabulary connected with places.

Step 1: Look at the picture. What can you see? 

Then, read an advertisement about a club. Is it connected with the picture? Why?

Step 2: Listen to a conversation between two friends. Complete the conversation with the comparative form of some adjectives and with the name of places. 

Step 3: Listen to a person from London talking about the city. Answer some questions about the city. (E.g. Where does the speaker go to have fun? Which place does he\she prefer? Why?)

Step 4: Listen again. Pay attention to the intonation of some statements. Does it go up or down? Classify the statements according to the intonation and then practice saying them aloud. 

Step 5: Role – play

Work in pairs. Student a) is a tourist.

Student b) is a person living in Buenos Aires city (or the city where the student lives)

Student a) asks questions about the places where he\she can go to have fun and the activities to do there. 

Students b) answers the questions using the vocabulary and expressions previously studied.

Step 6: Watch a video about different places in Argentina. 

Decide on the most suitable place to go if:

_ It is summer

_ It is winter

_ You travel with friends

_ You travel with your family

Justify your choices comparing the different places and refering to the activities you can do in each of them.