Here are some new activities you can do this week to help you work on your English language learning at home:
#1 Start a writing idea book. Write down interesting ideas, subjects, objects that you might want to write about some day. Add words to describe each of your ideas.
#2 Find or draw a picture. Without showing the picture to someone in your home, explain the picture. Use location words such as; (above, beside, under, right side, to the left of), shapes, colours, and/or how it makes you feel.
#3 Write words containing the following letter blends; br, bl, cr, st, ch, gr, sw, tr, th. See if you can come up with some of your own letter blends.
#4 Listen to a piece of music – describe how the music makes you feel. Write down or draw your feelings.
#5 Read or listen to a non-fiction book or article. Look for features such as photos, captions, or diagrams. Explain to someone how those things helped you to understand the topic.
#6 Look out your window or go outside. Find some objects from nature, draw a picture of the object(s) and label the picture with the parts. Extension: do some research on this object, learn 3 new facts about it.
#7 Look out your window and see if you can spot a living thing. Write or tell someone about what you predict that living thing might be thinking or saying to itself.
#8 Have someone in your house think of an object. Ask them yes or no questions until you can guess what the object is. Example; Is it alive? Is it bigger than I am? Does it swim? Does it have 4 legs? Is it the cat?
#9 Read or listen to a fictional (made up) story. Write or tell someone about the problem in the story. Come up with 3 other ways that the characters could have solved the problem.
#10 Read or listen to a story. Find one thing from the story that reminds you of something in your life. Tell someone about it or write it down. Think about how it helped you to understand the story?
- How much of the earth is water?
- How is ocean water different from our drinking water?
- How can we help keep our water clean?
- When you read it, bring a piece of paper and a pencil and write down any words you don’t understand. After you have read the story one time, google the words you wrote down so you can learn what they mean.
- Then read the book again—you don’t have to read it all at once because it is very long.
- When you have finished reading the book, tell someone in your family what you learned from it.
- Write down (in full sentences) 5 things you learned from the book.
- Write down something that the book made you think about or wonder.
- Take a picture of your work and email it to me @ tracy.simmons@burnabyschools.ca
- When you are finished, write down 3 things that you learned from the story.
- Try to use full sentence and start with capitals and end with periods,
- Use your kid spelling or look in the book for words you don’t know how to spell
- Tell someone in your family what you learned.
More ELL Activities from Ms. Simmons
Hello friends!!! I miss you and I miss having you in my ELL classes.
Here are some new activities you can do this week to help you work on your English language learning at home:
Story Time: Make up and tell a simple story to your family that contains many different kinds of actions and characters. Act out the characters and their actions, such as:
Animals: elephant, gorilla, kangaroo, horse, bird, alligator, rabbit.
Machines: cars, planes, helicopters, spaceships, robots, elevators, toasters.
Nature: trees, grass, growing flowers, lightning, wind.
Take a picture or draw a picture of the story you made up and upload it here or email it to me @ tracy.simmons@burnabyschools.ca
Pepper & Soap Experiment: Fill a bowl or pie tin with an inch of water. Sprinkle pepper evenly across the surface. The pepper flakes should float, not sink, on top of the water. Squeeze a tiny drop of dish soap onto your finger. Now touch the top of the water. What happens to the pepper? Draw a picture of what happened and write about it using kid-spelling. Why do you think that happened? Upload the picture or email it to me.
Create an alphabet poster. Include a word and picture for each letter. Upload a picture of this or email it to me.
Cook or bake some food with your mom or dad. Ask them to show you how to make this food. Draw pictures of what you used and what the food looked like at the end. Write a few sentences about how you made this food. If you want to you can draw and write about all of the steps you did to make this food. Upload a picture of your work or email it to me.
Play a game called Charades where you pretend to be different animals. Make the sounds and movements for that animal. Try to guess your partner’s animal as quickly as you can.
Think about what you did all day. Draw me pictures and write with your kid spelling about what you did all day. This is called a schedule—it is like your “shape of the day” when you are in class. For example:
9 am breakfast,
9:30 am read a book,
10 am play a game on iPad,
11 am practice counting by 1’s, 5’s and 10’s.
Take a picture and upload it or email the picture to me @ tracy.simmons@burnabyschools.ca
Look in your fridge or cupboard. Draw and label (write the word) all of the things you see. Take a picture and upload it or email it to me.
Make a list of 10 things that make you happy. Draw a picture and write about why they make you happy. Take a picture of this work or email it to me.
Choose an object in your home. Write down 3 clues that describe that object. Hide the object and read your clues one at a time to someone in your house. See if they can guess your object by using the clues that you give them.
Using a subject of your choice, research (online, in books, by asking an adult or someone who knows about the topic). Some examples of subjects are: cats, maple trees, trains, snow, your family’s country. Write out five things you learned and tell them to a friend or family member. Take a picture of your work and upload it or email it to me.
Create a word list of 5-7 words on something from school that you like, for example: recess, math, teachers, homework, friends, gym). Make three sentences using some of these words—use your kid spelling. Try to have one sentence that ends in a period(.), one that ends in a question mark (?), and one that ends in an exclamation mark (!). Take a picture of your work and upload it or email it to me @ tracy.simmons@burnabyschools.ca
Call, Facetime, or video chat with a family member or friend or Ms. Simmons. Think about what you want to talk about before you call the person. When you are done, tell someone in your house about three things you talked about.
For example: Today is Tuesday April 14th, 2020.
Tomorrow will be: _____day____, _____month___,__day number___, __year___.
For example: Tomorrow will be Wednesday April 15th , 2020.
- Read to your mom or your dad or your brother or sister. You can read in English or your family’s language.
- Make a video of you reading or writing and email it to me @ tracy.simmons@burnabyschools.ca
- I can even call you and Facetime with you while you read if you would like to do that.
- Ask your mom or dad to read to you—this can be in their language or English.
- Watch a tv show or look at a book. Draw a picture of your favourite part of that book or tv show. Write down the date and use your kid-spelling to write as many sentences as you can about your picture. Remember CAPITALS and . periods!
- Look outside and think about what you see. Draw a picture of everything you can see. Label (write the words) for everything that you have drawn. Use your kid-spelling to write sentences about what you see.
- Watch a tv show or movie in English. Turn on the English sub-titles (these are the words that people are saying on the show) and try to read the words as you listen!
- Look in your kitchen and see what food you need or want to buy. Help your mom or dad make a list for when they go to get food. Draw a picture of all of the things they need to buy and write the words using kid-spelling. You can write these in English or your family’s language.
- Ask your mom or dad to tell you about the country they were born in (maybe you were born there too). If you can use a phone or computer to look things up on the internet, find the flag of that country and draw it. Draw some pictures of things that your mom or dad tell you about from their country. See if you can learn the English words for important things from your mom or dad’s country AND the words in your family’s language! Maybe you can write those words in English and your other language.