Thanksgiving lesson

Because I'm going to be out of town next week, I went ahead and did a lesson on Thanksgiving tonight. I think their favorite part was the pumpkin bread that I took, but I'm not above bribing students with pumpkin bread. :)

1. Vocabulary introduction with the spelling game: pilgrims, Indians, crops, to die/died, to bless/blessed, plenty, winter, thanksgiving, feast, to provide/providing
2. I read a story about Thanksgiving to the class, allowing them to listen and see what they could understand:

The pilgrims had a hard first year in America. The crops did not grow well, and many people died. During the second year, God blessed the crops. The Indians that lived in the area helped the pilgrims with the crops. There were fruits, vegetables, fish, and meat. They had plenty of food to save for the winter. In 1621, the pilgrims and Indians met together for a feast. They thanked God for providing for them.

3. After reading through once, I read through again and had the students take turns translating, line by line.
4. I gave each team/group a fill-in-the-blank copy of the story to work on together. After they completed their stories, we read it aloud, checking their answers and practicing pronunciation.
5. I passed out pumpkin bread to the students to snack on while I talked about different Thanksgiving traditions. In keeping with a tradition my family has, we went around the room and listed things we were thankful for.
6. I took a moment to talk about many things in my life that I'm thankful for, sharing my story.
7. We then discussed our verse for the week: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will remember all of your wonderful deeds.” Psalm 9:1
8. We read in English, translated, discussed meaning, and re-read several times.

I am thankful for my wonderful ESL students!

Swine flu! Week 2

I promise that I'm not obsessed with the Swine flu; I've just learned that it's often a really good idea to reiterate previous lessons. I did this for both the Intermediates and Beginners.

Intermediates
1. Review last week's terms by doing a "worksheet race." I divided the class into two groups and gave each a worksheet to complete, based on what we covered the previous week.

1. I have such a terrible _____________! My head has been hurting all day.

2. I need another tissue. I have a _____________ nose.

3. My throat hurts because of my _____________.

4. I’m very hot; I think I have a _____________.

5. Let me take your ______________ to see if you have a ______________.

6. I’m so _____________ today. All of my muscles are hurting and sore.

7. I hope the doctor doesn’t give me a ______________. I’m so afraid of needles!

8. I think I have a ______________. These are my symptoms: my nose is ___________, I have a ______________ (very hot), and a ____________ (throat).

9. I can’t breathe through my nose. I’m _____________.

10. In America, people say, “Bless you!” when you ______________.

11. Most children don’t like to take their ______________ when they are sick.

12. My mother always reminds me to take my _______________ to prevent becoming sick.

Word bank:
Sneeze

Congested

Temperature

Runny

Fever

Vitamins

Symptoms

Headache

Cough

Achy

Shot

Cold

Medicine

2. Check together and correct.
3. I reused the role-plays from the previous week's Beginners' class. The Intermediates read through them and translated them. THEN, I gave them the assignment of writing their own role-plays. For this, I divided them into 3 groups and assigned them topics for their role-plays: a) a student who feels sick with a fever and aches at school b) a patient with congestion and a cough at the doctor's office and c) a small child with a runny nose and a fever who wants to go outside (and his mother won't let him). They did a great job!
4. We reviewed the quotes from last week, focusing on the Bible verse. I had the students translate it again, and we discussed how this can be a part of our lives.

Beginners
1. We started reviewing by playing Hangman. After each word was guessed, we reviewed what they meant and used each in a sentence.
2. We, again, used the role-plays from last week. However, this week, I gave them the role-plays with some of the words removed. I divided them into two teams, and their task was to fill in the blanks with the correct words.

“I don’t feel good”
Child: I don’t______ good. I don’t think I should go to school.
Mother: What doesn’t_____ good?
Child: My_____ hurts, and I’m hot.
Mother: Let me take your______…No, you don’t have a______. You need to go to school.
Child: I don’t like school.
Mother: I know, but you’re not_____. Have a good day at school.

“Doctor”
Patient: I think I’m______.
Doctor: Tell me what is wrong.
Patient: I have a fever, a headache, and a_____ nose.
Doctor: I’m going to give you a_____ to make you feel better.
Patient: Thank you.
Doctor: I’m also going to give you some________ to take for 10 days.

3. After checking the answers, I assigned each group a few "sick" vocabulary words to create sentences with. We checked and corrected as we went along.
4. To wrap up, we reviewed the verse from last week, reviewing vocabulary from the verse, translating, and discussing what it meant. Some of the students had even taken time to memorize the verse!
5. We finished with candy. :)