Infonews n°259 du 20/11/2005
For Kindergarten
For primary school and lower secondary school
For advanced students
Videos
Thanksgiving Wordsearch
A Pilgrim Conversation
Thanksgiving arts and crafts
Recipes
A ready-to-use handout
Facts and figures
Teaching with Songs
US State Flashcards
A Christmas Carol
Video games and school shootings
Home Safety
2005 Holiday Gift Guide (from [LII New This Week] November 10)
Videos
How to deal with bullying in the classroom
Laure Peskine recommends this site featuring 88 Traditional Mother Goose
Nursery Rhymes recorded for the children of the world by Walter Rufus Eagles
in streaming RealMedia audio files. All rhymes can be heard free in their entirety.
http://www.eaglesweb.com/Mother_Goose.htm
But I found the tone sad and too emphatic, and there is no script.
You can find the words to several of the rhymes in those sites. Some are also
different, but here they are not read!
http://www.indiaparenting.com/rhymes/english/index.shtml
http://www.geocities.com/EnchantedForest/Fountain/5540/
http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/index.asp (lots
of adverts)
http://www.love-poems.me.uk/a_children's_nursery_rhymes_index.htm
http://nurseryrhymesandsongs.homestead.com/Nursery_Rhymes_and_Songs.html
and lots of links to resources around the nursery rhymes on that page from
A to Z teachers:
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Nursery_Rhymes/
For Kindergarten
- *** this is the best site I found : a Flash animation shows the story,
and a sweet motherly voice sings the nursery ( the site was made by parents
for their baby girl, you can even hear the little girl saying the ryhmes, but
this is not usable in class)
http://www.rhymesandsongs.com/
- This site explains how to use rhymes with English-speaking pre-readers. For
each rhyme, you find illustrated handouts or posters and a lesson plan. But
they aim at helping English children to link sounds, pictures and written words
and enriching their vocabulary (Jack and Jill, hill, dill : "ill" riddles),
so they need to be adapted to ESL students, but the process and they way to
'act' the rhymes is interesting.
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/rimes_and_rhymes.htm#This_Week
- this page (without sound) includes activities, coloring pages and handicrafts
to do around each rhyme:
http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/index.htm
The site also features several traditional fairy tales including Goldilocks
and the three bears, Rapunzle and Snow White.
You can also find activities and coloring pages:
http://www.first-school.ws/theme/nurseryrhymes.htm
http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/kindergarten_rhyme_time.html
- this site (without sound) organises the rhymes according to themes or activities
(animals, counting) and I especially likes their page of finger play rhymes
to teach numbers:
http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/preschool-rhymes.htm
For primary school and lower secondary school
- there you find lovely pages of rebus rhymes, with some of the words replaced
by an illustration : attractive and efficient, as always on Enchanted Learning.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Rhymes.html
you can also find a different introduction to the same pages:
http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/kadair/mgoosehunt.htm
and this excellent and easy *** scavenger hunt invites the students to look
for elements through the different rhymes
http://www.zoomwhales.com/rhymes/classroom/hunt.shtml
- On this site, you can read the words and hear the music, but the song is
not sung. The musics are nice and it can be a useful exercise to invite your
students to make the words they read fit with the music:
http://www.hendersonville-pd.org/hpdnursery.html
- you can also reflect on the sounds used:
http://www.zoomwhales.com/rhymes/wordfamilies/
For advanced students
- explanation of the lyrics of some nursery rhymes with several suggestions
for their origin, linked to history. Fascinating!
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/
you can also read the origins of Mother Goose stories, from France to England
and then the USA
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/mother-goose-origins.htm
read for example : "Hark, Hark, the dog barks"
http://www.rhymes.org.uk/hark_hark_the_dogs_do_bark.htm
- If you wish to work on that theme with advanced literature students, or just
for the teachers' information, read this interesting research paper about rhymes,
their interpretation and their variants:
http://eclipse.rutgers.edu/goose/rhymes/
http://eclipse.rutgers.edu/goose/resources/pathfinder.asp
After studying this, you can go on to folktales, tall tales, fables, proverbs,
myths, and epics:
http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/form2.htm#G
or read this other research paper, studying the language more closely
http://www.english.uwaterloo.ca/courses/engl208c/esharris.htm
Thanksgiving is on Thursday, November 24th this year. You can find resources
on Infonews and on the académies de Paris and Versailles pages:
http://perso.numericable.fr/~dreymondch46/infonews/themes/thanksgivingkids.htm
http://lve.scola.ac-paris.fr/anglais/fetes11.php#tg
http://www.ac-versailles.fr/pedagogi/anglais/civi/thanksgiving.html
and here are some new addresses:
Videos
A video from the national geographic (a bit long, use only parts parts of
it)
http://www.historychannel.com/thanksgiving/?page=video
and remember also the video from Bowling for Columbine, presenting a brief
history of the USA with the South park characters and lots of humor
http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com/media/clips/index.php
Thanksgiving Wordsearch ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyers)
excellent online wordsearch (with congratulations when you find the correct
place)
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/thanksgiving/wordfinds/thanksgiving-challenge.html
upper elementary printable wordsearch with a Thanksgiving theme.
http://www.abcteach.com/Thanksgiving/wordsearch.htm
and a very (too?) easy one
http://a4esl.org/q/h/9704/af-sw-thanks.html
interactive thanksgiving crossword (easy)
http://iteslj.org/cw/1/af-thanks.html
A Pilgrim Conversation (Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Wednesday, October 19th)
Using online resources and pictorial references, students will be directed
to proper quotation techniques. They will also complete an assignment on creating
a dialogue between Pilgrims, using the Mayflower Passenger List and a picture
prompt.
http://www.teachervision.fen.com/page/3247.html
Thanksgiving arts and crafts (from from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Friday, November 11th)
- how to make corn husk doll
You can usually purchase inexpensive corn husks at your local grocery store,
and will need to soak them in water previous to this lesson plan. Illustrated
instructions are included to make this Thanksgiving corn husk doll.
http://www.teachersfirst.com/summer/cornhusk.htm
- how to make a dreamcatcher
Dreamcatchers can vary widely in their artistic interpretations, but they all
basically have the same circle hoop and stitching. Find directions here to
create a web of simple stitches, tying on feathers and beads to decorate to
individual preferences.
http://www.nativetech.org/dreamcat/dreminst.html
[ the difficult part for us is to find usable corn husk or willow twigs!]
Recipes
- Best-ever Thanksgiving (from [LII New This Week] November 10)
Collection of recipes and craft and activity ideas for children related to
the celebration of Thanksgiving. Includes recipes for turkey, pies and desserts,
side dishes, and leftovers. Craft ideas include decorations, tabletop decor,
pilgrim hats, toy canoes, and more. From FamilyFun magazine.
http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/minisite/thanksgiving-main/
with lots of recipes and you will especially enjoy the video recipes of nice
looking pilgrim hat cakes:
http://familyfun.go.com/utilities/global/feature/fftv-archive-video-player/fftv-archive-video-player.html?video=pilgrim_hats
- Mr Breakfast's thanksgiving recipes (from [LII New This Week] November 17)
http://www.mrbreakfast.com/thanksgiving.asp
A ready-to-use handout
Harvest Ceremony: Beyond the Thanksgiving Myth (from [LII New This Week]
November 10)
This document "assists teachers in preparing lessons about the first Thanksgiving.
The study guide includes information on which Native peoples met the first
European immigrants in 1621, the harvest celebration, the Wampanoag today,
the importance of corn, and instructions on how to make Johnny cakes." From
the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).
http://americanindian.si.edu/education/files/harvest.pdf
Facts and figures (from Annie Gwynn)
from the U.S. Census Bureau Facts for Features: Thanksgiving Day Facts and
statistics about turkeys, cranberries, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, holiday shopping,
places named Plymouth, and more. Includes quotes and audio clips, and a brief
history of the holiday.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/005712.html
a text and a MP3 file to download
http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/broadcast/radio/profile_america/005856.html
http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/radio/audio/pa051124.mp3
Teaching with Songs
Here is a site with lots of worksheets around the lyrics of songs.
http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org
http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/music-index.htm
You have to find the song itself somewhere else, but the site also
offers a guide to how to make a worksheet from lyrics:
http://www.musicalenglishlessons.org/music-create.htm
You can also find useful resources in those pages from our colleague
Michèle Henry, which offer songs you can hear and activities around them :
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/chans.htm
http://www.ac-nancy-metz.fr/enseign/anglais/Henry/music.htm
US State Flashcards ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, November 9th)
download these cards and print them on hard paper : you can then use them
as a puzzle or as a game. Print them on a magnetic support, and you can use
them as fridge magnet.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/acProject?dlc=en&hhopsession=cfd3a988a03ed1b66b44ba0a7738&lc=en&page=acCategoryAll&cc=us&project=magneticunitedstates&subcat=36222
and to find where the states are, what their capitals, flower, emblems are,
and train interactively, go to:
http://perso.numericable.fr/~dreymondch46/infonews/themes/50states.htm
A Christmas Carol
This is an interesting way to introduce students to the Victorian way of
life. This theme can be linked to Oliver Twist and to Christmas. You can download
the full text at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/46
then Elisabeth Buffard recommended some sites to study it :
- an excellent page of resources, including several sites of reading notes,
learning guides and projects:
http://www.webenglishteacher.com/dickens.html
- two webquests (remember to go through all the links before you use the webquests
because some links are broken and you will have to replace them or suggest
another way of completing the task):
A well organised webquest, with students working in teams to perform different
roles and study different aspects of the problem: Scrooge is running for Mayor
and want to convey what he has learnt to the citizens and help them change
things for the better. This webquest includes information from the novel, but
also from several online sources of information about life in the Victorian
period.
http://www.coollessons.org/Dickens.htm
Another webquest, only based on the novel/play. The content and the process
are easier and interesting, but I think it needs to be adapted and can't be
used as is. The students take the roles of the three ghosts, but the first
task each time requires the students to draw a picture of themselves as the
ghost, and this is neither useful nor interesting for our ESL students.
http://www.bgsu.edu/colleges/library/crc/webquest/Christmas%20Carol/
Video games and school shootings
Lots has been said and recommended about this topic of firearms, especially
Mickael Moore's http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com with
- the page of clips (including the history of America with the characters from
South Park and an interview of Marilyn Manson)
http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com/media/clips/index.php
- and the teacher's guide to the film
http://www.bowlingforcolumbine.com/library/teachers/index.php
see also this page of links to Elephant, Columbine and the real facts
http://perso.numericable.fr/~dreymondch46/infonews/themes/violenceinschools.htm
but here are some interesting sites for advanced students that I discovered
thanks to Elisabeth Buffard on eTeach:
- about school shootings (why? statistics and advices)
http://whyfiles.org/065school_violence/
- *** about violence in video games (with reference to all the last games the
students know and I don't...)
http://whyfiles.org/165video_violence/index.html
see also this page of links to catégories of video games and how they work
(find RPG, first person shooters and so on)
http://perso.numericable.fr/~dreymondch46/infonews/themes/videogames.html
other articles about games and their interaction with school results and social
behavior
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/ca516033.html (
meet en gamers)
http://pdfs.voya.com/VO/YA2/VOYA200502YA101.pdf (all
types of games, including board games. does not include the last novelties)
http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/Play.asp (the
two links above and several more)
Home Safety
Play this interactive game to discover what you shouldn't do if you don't
want a thief to visit your house. Then read also the tips and take the quiz:
game : http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/ittakesathief/interactive/interactive.html
facts, tips and quiz : http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/ittakesathief/tips/tips.html
and here are some advices from an insurance company to learn how home alarm
and protection systems work and what will be the best for you. It is the opportunity
to discover key pads, control panels and panic buttons.
http://www.statefarm.com/consumer/vhouse/articles/secalarm.htm
and to complement those sites, here are tow easy .pdf pages ready to use, full
of useful tips (some match the interactive game, so you could make them play
the game as a whole class with a video projector and the pages will help them.
http://www.ncpc.org/cms/cms-upload/ncpc/files/holiday04.pdf
[ for all those interested in safety devices.]
2005 Holiday Gift Guide (from [LII New This Week] November 10)
Annotated links to gift ideas for the holidays, most of which are food-related
items. The theme of these offerings is "the power to induce maximum wow." Categories
include chocolate, other sweet items, gifts for the office, gifts for children, "Good
Things in Small Packages," and books. Written by a food columnist, for
the Law Library Resource Xchange (LLRX).
http://www.llrx.com/columns/afterhours23.htm#
[ interesting site to find original gifts or just to dream : for teachers as
well as students.... find a kit to make a potato Bonzai, or a Ferrari boxter
for a 6 year old from Meiman Marcus ( for only $750)
bonzai : http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/runningpress/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0762416718
Ferrari : http://www.neimanmarcus.com/store/catalog/prod.jhtml?cmCat=search&itemId=prod22790104
Videos
no script, but some interesting videos. One about language and writing mistakes
in American businesses
http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=defdf30c-0e2f-48ff-a05d-ad536c0fd4dc&t=&f=
another one about a book about wine written by an young Australian:
http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=defdf30c-0e2f-48ff-a05d-ad536c0fd4dc&t=&f=
see also this site for the references of the book (for wine lovers or professionals)
http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/runningpress/home.jsp
another one about a mother trying to go back to work. Just make your choice.
there are no scripts, but the subjects are interesting. (you can also watch
the news).
How to deal with bullying in the classroom ( from Riverdeep's Classroom Flyer, Thursday, November 10th)
Acknowledging that bullying is a common adolescent experience and that adults
need to intervene are key steps in learning to deal with bullying, according
to this expert's advice. Find several steps for learning how to confront bullying
and how to safely intervene, how to model anger management skills, and how
to talk about bullying with your students.
http://teachers.net/gazette/DEC02/voors.html
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