First of all, I'd like to welcome you to my blog. My intention's to make it a place for cherishing great memories of working with school children.
Here you'll find some tips, projects done by my pupils, their essays and poems, video clips (I don't know if it's me, but my pupils really enjoy singing), and things that can be interesting and useful.
Our last week before winter break started with online meeting with our Empatico friends from Italy and the visits of groups of pre-schoolers from different local kindergartens. Class 4 pupils prepared cards for their younger friends and sang their favourite songs in English, including the Rainbow Song, Do you like bananas? and Busy Week.
After the visits, both Class 3 and Class 4 pupils learned the traditional song about Christmas tree.
Class 4 pupils were also happy to sing some well-known songs about Father Christmas in Serbian and Hungarian, and say their favourite Christmas carols which we recorded and shared with our friends from different parts of the world.
A group of Class 4 girls also shared their New Year wishes and collaborated with their eTwinning friends on the poster by adding some snowflakes and Happy New Year in Cyrillic.
Class 3 pupils enjoyed designing their cards and snow globes which we later sent by post to our friends in Greece, Spain, Lithuania and New York.
The activities of my pupils and me in the projects Walking Around the USA and Walking Around Europe were recognised as good examples of innovation and creativity in language teaching and learning and were awarded Certificates of Honour.
For somebody who enjoys visiting museums and finding out more about the history of a place, it came as a shock when I realised that a large number of my pupils rarely visit or have never visited a museum. That was one of the main reasons why I decided to join the Inspiring Museums eTwinning project.
After a short introduction and some ice-breaker online games on flags created and shared by all project partners, I asked my Class 4 and Class 6 pupils to create logos, and later Class 3 pupils voted for the best school and the project's logos.
We also made a promo video and voted for our project partners'.
In teams, my advanced Class 4 pupils have designed their own learning spaces of the future using bricks of different colours, shapes and sizes.
While some pupils were playing with bricks trying to collaborate and build a submarine and a tree, one group managed to build their own solutions and even came up with a story:
In the future, the children will use a flying taxi and pass through a large portal to get to a building which looks like a rocket. It is divided into different spaces where the children can learn what they want to. The rocket uses solar and wind powers. There is a river and a bridge close by, and the children can cross it to explore the nature. They can also board a plane to explore the world from above and rescue animals if needed.
With a colleague of mine, I've recently carried out some of the activities I created with colleagues from Poland and Portugal in the Edu-Hackathon with Google training course in Brussels, Belgium, in December 2022.
We started the first in the series of lessons with the warm-up and brainstorming activities. The pupils were introduced to the topic, discussed climate issues and completed the online survey. Then, five teams were formed according to the main issues they had suggested: air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, endangered animals, and acid rain.
The teams were ready for their next stage - active involvement. They decided on the name of their team and on the roles of each member. I presented them with a selection of resources and digital tools they could use to create their final products. I also showed them my pupils' examples of various forms on environmental issues, such as infographics, e-books, presentations and games which helped the teams decide on the form of their final product, too.
All the teams agreed on creating presentations in Canva.
After two weeks, during which they shared their presentations with their teacher and me so that I could create an escape room game with their quiz questions, we organised the showcase stage. Several teachers came as well.
I set the timer, and the representatives of each team presented their work. After the last presentation, in their teams, the pupils played the escape room game and checked how much they had learned.
In the wrap-up stage, I asked the pupils to complete the first survey once again and evaluate all the activities too, but I also asked the present teachers to do another survey, with rubrics, and help us choose the best presentation which would be our representative in the international competition and public online show and tell.
My Class 3 pupils enjoy working on projects in teams, so it's no wonder they've accepted my suggestion to team up and present different habitats using colourful collages. I've let them choose their own teams which, in most cases, turned out right.
My Class 6 pupils have been busy these days doing research with their peers from 6 other European countries as part of the We learn together, we grow together eTwinning project.
In their chosen groups, they've created digital infographics showing 5 interesting facts about our partner countries, added some follow-up questions, and read the information their peers shared on the collaborative online board:
I'm happy to say that the lesson plan about the places in a town I carried out last year with my Class 5 pupils has been recognised as an excellent innovative example among numerous lesson plans (500+) and won the second prize in the international competition organised by Eduka Publishing Company.
All the winning and commended lesson plans were collected, published online and promoted on 26 October at the Book Fair in Belgrade.
What is it? How long have you had it? Was it a gift or did you buy it?
What does it look like? How big is it and what is it made of?
What do you do with it? Where do you keep it?
Why is it so special?
My favourite possession is my stuffed animal Mr Turtle. He's a pillow, green and yellow, and kind of big. Mr Turtle has black eyes. His favourite colour is green. His bff is Kitty. She is on the bed with Mr Turtle. I sleep with him every night. I got him for my birthday from my cousin. Mr Turtle's awesome!
Anastasija, IV3
My favourite possession is my schoolbag. It holds my books, pencils, my pencil case and my tests. My bag is blue, black and purple. It has cats and dogs on it. My bag isn't small, but it isn't big either. My mum and dad got it for my beginning of the school year. I think my bag is so cool!
Marija, IV3
My favourite possession is my stuffed koala. She's pink and white, and she has got black eyes. She has got a huge smile. I like sleeping with her when I am not well. Koala is bald and she has got very big ears. I like throwing her in the air. She is awesome and cute.
Teja, IV3
My favourite possession is my teddy bear Mr Huggy. His nose is big and brown, and his eyes are black. He is very fluffy and big. Mr Huggy likes honey and to scare me, but sometimes he surprises me with something. He is there when I need him. He is the king of the kingdom of stuffed animals and I love him.
Food is one of my pupils' most favourite topics. They can name different types of food, use them in role play dialogues in a restaurant or shop, but some still have problems with writing the words or identifying them as countable or uncountable. That's why I asked my Class 4 pupils to make their favourite sandwich at home, describe it in writing, bring it to school and present it to their peers. It turned out that the combination of sour cream and salami or sausages is No. 1.
They enjoyed the activity and I hope it'll make the grammar bit clearer to them.
This year's European Day of Languages was a lot of fun for my pupils.
My younger classes chose different Talk to me! stickers and used the key to find out the name of the language used for the message. Then, they did a quick research, found out and wrote the name of the country and its capital city, and drew the country's flag. Finally, they showed the country on the map and read their findings.
Class 4 pupils also found some interesting facts about the country, including the currency and landmarks.
Class 3 pupils took part in the video survey about the importance of learning foreign languages.
Class 6 pupils enjoyed various language quizzes and sharing their opinion about what learning a language is to them in articles.
