Tuesday 26 February 2013

"LEARN ENGLISH KIDS"


 
Right now I am not teaching English at school and when I have done it, I have been teaching in the third grade and the pupils have been beginners. That is why I wanted to choose something that beginners at English could use and also have a lot of fun with.

At the school where I am working, we have few computers and do not have smartboards. We have some projectors in the ceiling we can use and in that way we can show the whole class sites from the internet.

I have chosen the website www.learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org. This site has a lot of opportunities. I can choose to work with the site with the whole class with help from a projector in the ceiling or the pupils can study the site themselves.

WHAT THE RESOURCE IS AND HOW IT WORKS

The resource is specially elaborated for children who are learning English as a foreign language. It is the British Council that stands behind the site. The site is developed and created by teachers and the site is easy to understand. I think that the children can have a lot of fun when they are using the resource to learn English.

If you want to, you can be a member and then you get access to further tools on the website. The account is free, and I really can recommend it.

The website has different subtitles as “Kids games”, “Listen and watch”, “Read and write”, “Make”, “Speak and spell”, “Grammar” and “Little kids”. Beyond each subtitle there are different activities.

HOW THE RESOURCE CAN BE USED BY THE TEACHER AND BY THE PUPILS

You can also choose to join as a teacher or as a parent and then you get other information and hints about what to do. For example, you can find worksheets which you can download. Beyond  “Listen and watch” there are also worksheets that can be downloaded. The animated stories and songs in “Listen and watch” are very useful. Either the pupils listen and watch the stories themselves or the whole class can listen and watch them with help from a projector in the ceiling.
 One of the animated stories.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS WHEN USING THE RESOURCE

It seems like the website has an enormous potential. When you click on one subtitle, you get other games, activities and so on. For example, if you click on “Topics”, you find a lot of new topics with a lot of subtitles beyond.

WHAT I THINK ABOUT THE WEBSITE

I have never been using the website www.learnenglishkids.britishcouncil.org with children, but I really want to try it out because I think it could be really useful! According to LGR11, we should start with the skills concerning with communication. For example, the pupils themselves can listen to a story on the website and then work with the worksheets. It is great when the pupils get the opportunity to listen to native English as it is in the stories. In that way they also practice the right pronunciation.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Jeanette!
    Just like you I think that this website is a great recourse to use to teach English.

    I have used some of the activities in my 1st grade and they really like it and they are active and think it is very fun to learn English.

    When I looked at the games and activities on this site I also noticed that each game and activity is graded according to the CEFR levels. I think that this can be god to be aware of because I think this can be very helpful to the teacher in the selection process.
    I also think that it’s a helpful feature that you can see witch skills the pupils can practice when they work with the tasks and there is helpful links to other suggestions of pages that will practice the same skills.

    Unfortunately this site is using “Flash” so the games and activities are not compatible with Apple products and that is a disadvantage if you have access to I pads for example.

    I hope you get an opportunity to try this site with your pupils soon!

    / Susanna Lindh

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  2. I also like that site. I´ve used it a lot. My kids love the stories. Especially now that I´m able to show it to them with the projector on the whiteboard.

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  3. This site is an perfect site to find material from. I have used it a lot with my pupils. It is so easy to find material to use in the classroom with pupils in all ages. The site is updated and the pupils in my class like the short movies that comes along with the rhymes for example. I used the Ipsy Wipsy Spider with my class a second grade and it was´t to childish and the sang along in the lyrics and we tried some of the exercises that came with it as well.
    Regards Maria Johansson

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