Special Objects and Belongings

Describing the Belongings Of Some Immigrants to NYC

This worksheet is a really good follow on activity from the museum posts I published earlier today. It carries on with the theme of descriptions. They are suitable for Upper Intermediate and Advanced learners and are based on a photo article from the New York Times.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/nyregion/27belongings.html

TEFL Communicative Resource Page

Online Tours at the British Museum

Practise TEFL Reading and Listening Skills. 

A good selection of tours  from different time periods and different geographical locations. Full of images and quality information from experts.

TEFL Communication Resources

Are you a budding archaeologist or historian?

An Online TEFL Tour at the British Museum

Find 5 objects from around the world in the British Museum on line collections and improve your English at the same time

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Learn to ask and answer questions with yes/no or true/false or simple sentence answers if you are elementary to intermediate level; or describe the objects in more detail to your friends using your own words if you are an intermediate to advanced learner. 

With each exhibit there are a selection of exercises graded at different levels:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/galleries.aspx

TEFL Communication Resources

Welcome to the Online V&A Museum

Have You Got an Eye for Objects of Art?

20 Great Reasons to Visit the V&A Museum, London

http://www.vam.ac.uk/channel/things/art/20_great_reasons_to_visit_the_victoria_and_albert_museum/

For tips on describing objects of Art go to TEFL Communicative Resources

British Council Museum Activities

Do you enjoy Museum Visits?

A series of 2 lessons that use video, listening and reading resources to open up the topic of Museum Visits. From the Knowledge is Great Series. Learn English, British Council Website.

Practice gapfills, phrases and verb forms from Part 1 of the lesson at:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/britain-great-video-clips/knowledge-great-part-1

Match questions and answers, complete sentences and practise synomyns at:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/britain-great-video-clips/knowledge-great-part-2

Olympic Heroes

Reading and Writing Activities 

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/english-for-the-games/my-olympic-heroes

A British Council resource with 3 worksheets

Worksheets 1 and 2 are quizzes.  Worksheet 3 consists of 3 descriptions of Olympian athletes; Eric Moussambani Malonga, Michael Edwards and Oscar Pistorius.  Students are asked to read collaboratively and write a short story about their own favourite athlete.

Also, go to http://www.olympic.org/athletes and find out about athletes who came from your own country.  What were/are their achievements? 

More activities can be found at TEFL Communicative Resources

Pronunciation Games

Domino and Board Games

 

Summer is the time for teachers to get resources ready for the following year.  These links from the British Council can be printed and laminated for use as warm ups, time fillers and lesson closers. The aim of the games is to help improve student's spelling and pronunciation.

Find links for the resources at TEFL Pronunciation Resources.

Macmillan Interactive TEFL Tool

Excellent Interactive and Irregular Verb Wheel Game

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/verb-wheel/

A visual and interactive tool to build up your knowledge of irregular verbs and your speed recalling them.  Useful I would suggest for an Intermediate level of learner.

Use the above link to find the 'ing' form, present form of the 3rd person, past participle form, simple past and infinitive form. See how many full verbs you can complete in 2 seconds.

Grammar Tenses - Wheels and Timelines

Excellent Resources for Students Who Are Visual Learners

To assist in the learning of the English Tenses; past, present and future.

• http://busyteacher.org/11837-make-a-time-line.html 

A worksheet for making a time line of all the tenses. The activity will help students become aware of the position of the various tenses; past, present and future. They can add the tenses to the time line as they progress to a higher level reinforcing their learning further. 

A marvellous aid for visual learners.

• http://busyteacher.org/3361-wheel-of-tenses.html

Another brilliant little resource, a pictorial wheel illustrating and explaining all the tenses. Once constructed (there are multiple layers to it); it helps students to understand when they should use a tense. Print, cut out and assemble the wheel layers to form a handy tool. 

A Great Medlay of Present Tense TEFL Songs

Song Links to Help you Learn the Present Tenses

from http://busyteacher.org

An excellent website with downloadable song worksheets to help you learn your Present Grammar Tenses.  Many of the links have video's but if not look them up on 'You Tube'. Good luck and have fun!

Songs that Practise the Simple Present Tense

http://busyteacher.org/2723-wonderful-tonight.html

http://busyteacher.org/3486-another-day-in-paradise.html

http://busyteacher.org/2605-here-comes-the-sun-the-beatles.html

Songs that Practise the Present Continuous Tense

http://busyteacher.org/11866-listening-activity-eternal-flame-the-bangles.html

http://busyteacher.org/10474-cecilia-song-simon-and-garfunkel.html

http://busyteacher.org/10424-toms-diner-by-suzanne-vega-cloze.html

Songs that Practise the Present Perfect Tense

http://busyteacher.org/10251-frank-sinatra-my-way.html

http://busyteacher.org/7416-song-worksheet-i-still-havent-found-what-im.html

http://busyteacher.org/10294-we-are-the-champions-song-by-queen.html

Songs that Practise the Present Perfect Continuous Tense

http://busyteacher.org/6709-a-hard-days-night-song-worksheet.html

http://busyteacher.org/3091-a-song-for-present-perfect-continuous.html

The Word Family Framework (WFF)

Effective TEFL Vocabulary Learning with Word Families

The Word Family Framework (WFF) is a resource for TEFL teachers and learners that consists of over 22,000 words. Instead of words being organised in alphabetical order they are presented and can be searched for as word families. 

For example: value, valuable, valueless, invaluable, evaluate and devalue.

The underlying idea is that seeing words as families promotes more effective vocabulary learning.

The tool covers all six levels of the Common European Framework. Further details on the resource and how to use it can be found at:

http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/word-family-framework

Jubilee Celebration Resources

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee and Other Resources on Jubilee Celebrations.

In the United Kingdom the Queen is celebrating her Diamond Jubilee this weekend (2^nd to the 5^th June, 2012).  The weather has been beautiful over the last week and we are all looking forward to 4 days of public holiday in the UK.  I hope the weather continues.  In Britain however we can never guarantee that.

Apart from the weather, I am really looking forward to the speeches and addresses that will be made starting tonight with the Prince of Wales.  The website that I provide the links for on the Content Based Learning Page also allows you to send a personal message to the Queen.  So practise your writing skills and compose a short message if you like. I did mine a few weeks ago and I got a thank-you note from Buckingham Palace itself.  It was very special to me and I will treasure that for some time to come. 

Keep your eyes open for bits of news that you can read over this special weekend.  The following are good links to follow:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/

Complimentary access is being given by the Times and Sunday Times free this weekend http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/article3432080.ece

This is a celebration for a very special lady and her whole family.  All members of the Royal Family help in the duties and good work.  I wish them all the very best of wishes especially the Queen.