Last week's beginner club...I forgot to post this one

Last week, I pulled out some old matching cards that I had leftover from a volunteer team that came last March. Half of the cards have phrases on them and half have pictures (clip art) that correspond to those phrases. They made them by printing out the phrases and clip art pictures and attaching them to index cards. The students then work to match the correct phrase with the picture. Here are the phrases that they used:

1. Ride bikes

2. Get ice cream

3. Go for coffee

4. Order a pizza

5. Go to McDonald's

6. Go to church

7. Study together

8. Take a walk or a hike

9. Go to the park

10. Go shopping

11. Take a camping trip

12. Go to the movies

13. Ice skating

14. Play soccer

15. Bowling

16. Play video games

17. Listen to music

We started by each person drawing a card (we ended up doing this a couple of times because there were more cards than people). We then went around and let everyone practice reading the phrases/words and discussing what they meant (as well as any discrepancies between American English and British English). Then, I divided them into groups to match the cards.

After matching the cards, I paired them up and gave each pair a role-play to read through. They aren't very advanced beginners at all, so it took a little while and a lot of practice.

Role-play 1:

1: What did you do last weekend?

2: My family took a camping trip.

1: What did you do on your camping trip?

2: We slept in the forest and went for a hike.

Role-play 2:

1: What will you do today?

2: I am going shopping.

1: What are you shopping for?

2: I am going to buy a new hat.

Role-play 3:

1: What did you do for lunch today?

2: I ate at McDonald's for lunch.

1: What did you eat?

2: I had a hamburger and french fries.

Role-play 4:

1: What did you do today?

2: I spent time with my friends.

1: What did you do with your friends?

2: We went ice skating!

Each pair read their own role-play, and then we kept swapping until each group had been able to read each of the role-plays.

Continued Airport Stuff

We spent part of this week reviewing the airport/airplane stuff from last week. For the class opener, we did a two-minute list of countries. We started with countries of Europe, but they liked it so much that we did two more: Asia and states (of the US).

I took the same matching game (airport terms) from last week, and two teams raced against each other to see who could match them correctly first. They liked that, too. They love a good race around here... We then discussed/reviewed the terms.

I created a worksheet of sentences with fill-in-the-blanks for them to correctly use the terms in context (unfortunately, I cannot find an electronic copy of the worksheet on my computer...can't think of where I saved it...).

After the worksheet, I assigned each group a country. Their assignment was to create a packing list for a trip to that country. One team had Jamaica and the other had Switzerland. The first thing on both lists was "money." Ha.

Our "theme" for this week's quotations was "direction."

1. "Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction." -John F. Kennedy

2. "The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life." -Plato

3. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not trust your own wisdom. In everything you do, acknowledge Him, and He will give you direction." -Proverbs 3:5-6 (Bible).

Great discussions followed these quotes. They really got into discussing them and figuring out how they would apply to life.

Airplanes and Security

Last night was the first night back to English club after all the holidays. I borrowed some of my friend Wendy's ideas for one of her classes and then put my own twist on things. Since traveling is so popular, this lesson focused on airports and airplanes and all that entails.

We started out by making paper airplanes in small groups. Each student in the group wrote his or her name and dream destination on the plane. We then went around the group for introductions. For fun, we tested the planes to see whose would fly the farthest. The all-girl group actually won that contest.

Next item on the agenda was a matching game. I made a few sets of matching game cards and each team got one. Cards with the words written in blue were the vocabulary cards and cards written in red were the definitions. The task was to match the correct vocabulary word with the correct definition. The students were familiar with some of the terms and then had to deduce the remaining ones. After they matched what they could, we discussed and defined the words.

Here are some of the words that we discussed:

terminal

check-in counter

security

baggage claim

boarding pass

overhead compartment

passport control

customs

pilot

flight attendants

gate

passengers

After discussing these vocabulary words, you can introduce phrases/ actions:

to go through customs

to land

to go through security

to wait at the gate

to get bags from baggage claim

to go through passport control

to board a plane

to check bags

to check in

For kicks, you can play charades with some of these phrases (to get bags from baggage claim, to go through passport control, etc).

For our discussion part of class, we read, translated, and discussed the following quotes, focusing our discussion on airport security measures and security/safety in life:

1. Happiness has many roots but none more important than security. - E. R. Stettinius

2. There can be no security where there is fear. - Felix Frankfurter

3. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? - Psalm 27:1