Favorite Blogs for Preschool and Kindergarten English language Teachers

I like to read Blogs to see new resources from teachers around the world, but I want to share some of my good blog findings.I consider that content, design and style make them stand out in no particular order .These teachers share part of themselves. I usually post their blog entries in my Facebook Group: ESL/EFL Preschool Teachers.

11.    “Teaching English to the Little Ones”– Innovative Holidays, crafts and many songs/videos. Printables are available as well. She focuses her lessons for the 3 to 5 year old children. She has also been my guest blogger.

Blog: http://saraseflresources.blogspot.com/

    Country: She is from Lithuania but living in Spain         Publisher: Sara

 

2.    “Cockroaches and Ladybugs” This is blog is not to be missed. I appreciate all the high quality articles presented in all his posts. Everything is so interesting to read and very well written. He was kind enough to include my blog in a post  named Resources for Teaching English as a Foreign Language in Preschool. I am honored.

Blog: http://cockroachesladybugs.blogspot.com/

Name: Cockroaches and Ladybugs

Age: Preschool and Elementary

Country: Spain                               Publisher: Enric Calvet

3.    "English for Children Today- Daniela´s Class"- Daniela invites us to share her activities, videos, songs ,interactive games, ideas and projects. Follow her on Pinterest as she adds many pins related to teaching. Find her on Facebook.

http://english4childrentoday.blogspot.com/

Age: Preschool and Elementary

Country: Spain              Publisher: Daniela Ayala

 

4.  "Miss Lucy´s Teaching Fun"             http://misslucysteachingfun.blogspot.com/---------- 

     She posts innovative  games and  fun activities .She designs her own resources and can be purchased at her online store. Her book for parents is available on  Amazon. 

     An interesting Facebook page wraps up all her creativity.

Age: Preschool and Elementary

Country: Spain                        Publisher: Lucy Moretti

5 . "El Blog de Espe" ---------------http://espemoreno.blogspot.com/

Age: Preschool and Elementary

On her site, you will find resources, useful links for your students and  fun ways to teach.  Many readers will find this blog very inspiring.

Country: Spain

Publisher: Esperanza Moreno

6. " British Early Years Centre"----- http://beyc.co.th/blog/language/en

The best pictures on a blog with unique ideas for toddlers and kingergarten students.

Age:  Pre School and Nursery 

Country: Bangkok

7. "Helen Doron English"--------http://www.helendoron.com/blog

This blog belongs to the franchise Helen Doron English  web site which covers topics related to teaching and the franchise as well. There´s a wide variety of topics relevant to teachers today.

Country: Europe- Austria

Age: babies to teens

Publishers: Helen Doron English

8 ".Learn English with Ken and Karen" ----------- http://kenandkaren.wordpress.com/

Head to this blog to follow her story based activities. You’ll enjoy her lesson planning  and more Get ideas and plenty of motivation.

Country: Spain

Age: Preschool and Kindergarten

Publisher:Conchi

9. "UPUERÊ "---------------------http://upuereingles.blogspot.com.br/

 Find useful information along with beautiful imagery keeping us engaged in reading. This awesome blog comes to inspire teachers.

Publisher: Claire Venable

Country: Brazil

10. "Children Learning English Affectively "

http://childrenlearningenglishaffectively.blogspot.com.br/

Dig into the  posts  to  find a treasure of pure content.   This is a first class blog that many will be delighted to follow.

Publisher: Juan Alberto Lopez Uribe 

Country: Brazil

Age: Kindergarten and Elementary

Please post a link to your favorite blog here and on the Facebook Group: ESL/EFL Preschool Teachers.

The Children´s Movement of Florida

Our guest blogger this week is The Children´s Movement of Florida.  This  is a non-partisan grassroots movement of Floridians insisting on increased investment in the first five years of all our children. They are working on improving Florida’s voluntary pre-K program.

There are so many interesting articles. Their reality is similar to so many of countries worldwide.  I have been reading their blog as well.  Please help spread the  word through  social media by posting  a link on your Facebook pages and groups.

This is their link:  http://childrensmovementflorida.org/lessons/

They are sharing a special project The Children’s Movement of Florida during this month of February.  They are asking people to answer this short question in 100 characters or less: What lesson has a kid taught you?

We often try to guide our children through life’s tricky lessons, but I often find that children teach me -- about priorities, patience, laughter and more. They’ve also taught me that a lesson learned is best when shared. It’s in this spirit that our #LessonsFromAKid digital quilt campaign was born.

Every day, we try to instill lessons in our children, but oftentimes we learn by seeing the world through their eyes.

Participants can submit their answers all month long on our website, and may see their lessons featured on our Facebook and Twitter pages. They also will have the chance to win $50 Publix gift cards.

The process is simple:
1.     Think about what lesson a kid has taught you.
2.     Submit a short personal/original quote (you can add a photo if you wish) by clicking here: http://bit.ly/1fbEG2j
3.     The Children’s Movement of Florida will collect submissions and will create custom images like those shown below, and post to their Facebook page. If your image is posted, you will be notified.
4.     Make sure to “like” and “share” your link with friends and family, as $50 gift cards will be awarded to the images with the highest number of “shares” by the Feb. 28th.

All submissions will be compiled into a digital quilt, to be featured on Pinterest. In addition to keeping us warm, over time quilts have served as a means to tell a story, share lessons and preserve knowledge for generations to come. Help showcase how children can be true teachers by participating in this special project!
John Knight
Early Literacy Coordinator
The Children’s Movement of Florida

Teaching ESL in the United States

     

                   I am glad to introduce a new guest blogger who has great advice for teachers.

  My name is Stephen Piotrkowski and I am the Outreach Editor for certificationmap.com, a comprehensive online resource for teacher certification.   Follow me : https://twitter.com/teachercert

 

How to Transition from Teaching ESL Abroad to Teaching ESL in the United States

English as a second language (ESL) teachers are in high demand all around the world, as more people are looking to learn English. With immigration rates climbing in the United States, ESL teachers are being heavily sought after.

Differences between Teaching Abroad and in the United States

Teaching English in the United States and teaching English as a second language abroad require different qualifications and provide different experiences.

One of the primary differences is teaching English in the United States requires a bachelor’s or master’s degree in combination with both teacher certification and ESL certification. Those who wish to teach English abroad do not typically need a teaching degree but will require TESOL certification. This makes obtaining a job teaching English abroad much easier than finding one within the United States.

Some individuals mistakenly assume English is the same, regardless of where you go, but the English language has several variances, with British and American English being the most popular. When teaching ESL in the United States, American English is the only one teachers must know.

Other countries, though, frequently express a preference for British English, requiring teachers to be familiar with this variation. In many cases, it is useful to know both British and American variations.

Making the Transition

One of the challenging aspects of teaching in a new country is making the transition from living abroad and coming to the United States. Many teachers serving abroad must leave behind the cultural differences they have grown accustomed to.  

Many teachers who teach abroad come to the United States to resume typical teaching jobs or use their TESOL certification to teach English to non-native speakers in the United States. Others come to the United States to attend school to obtain a master’s degree or work with nonprofit organizations. It is important to determine if you will need to complete additional coursework to begin working in the United States.

Those who are coming from abroad and plan to become an ESL teacher in the United States must obtain the proper bachelor’s degree in the education field, teaching certification and ESL certification to qualify as a U.S. ESL teacher.

Here is a quick look at each of the 50 states’ teacher certification requirements. 

Links:

http://certificationmap.com/international/esl/

http://certificationmap.com/faq/esl-certification/

http://certificationmap.com/international/tesol-certification/

Making Story Books by Sara

Dear Readers,
 Let me introduce our first guest blogger:

I'm Sara, or Teacher Sara .I'm originally from Lithuania but I am now living in Granada, Spain. I've been teaching English in preschool for five years now and I love it! There are so many resources for teaching English on the Internet, I just felt the need to select the ones I like and use, and organise them in some way, adding some materials of my own that I feel like sharing. So here's my blog:http://saraseflresources.blogspot.com.es/

You know how kids love stories? How their learning thrives in the process of creating something? Well, I took this into account when planning the end-of-the-year project for my 5-year-olds last year.

The idea is for them to make a STORY BOOK of their own using as much English vocabulary as possible. Your 4-year-olds would enjoy this as well, especially at the end of the school year.

First, you need to make up a story with simple sentence structure and lots of the words your kids have been learning over the year. Remember: a good story has a beginning, a problem, a solution and a happy ending.

Write the story down, think through the illustrations your kids would be able to draw, and make your own story book as an example. You’ll need:

-          several sheets of paper

-          crayons

-          a wooden ice cream stick

-          adhesive tape

-          stapler

Fold the sheets of paper in half and staple them in the middle (I used 2 staples). Draw a small picture of yourself on a small piece of paper, colour it in and cut it out. Stick it to the ice cream stick with adhesive tape. That’s your puppet! Now make a small cut on the cover of your book and insert the puppet. Write the title and finish decorating the cover. Proceed to drawing the illustrations for the story.

If you are working with 4 or 5-year-olds, you don’t need to write the story down in your book as they most surely don’t read or write in English yet. If you’re doing this with older kids, write it down by all means!

 

When your story is ready, tell it in class. Use the puppet throughout the pages as you’re telling it. Kids will love the fact that you are the main character. Don’t forget to use a different voice for each character. Now tell them they can make a story of their own! Give them the paper (preferably already stapled) and have them number the pages before they start. This way it will be easier for them to follow the story line without forgetting something.

You need to really plan this ahead as it will take some time. Remember that not only do they need to make the book, but also practise telling the story (by parts, telling it to/with the teacher, to the rest of the class, by pairs, assuming different roles, etc.). I dedicated part of every English lesson for this project and we had it finished in 6 lessons, doing about 2 pages per lesson. Keep in mind that you’ll probably have to help them make the puppet and the cut on the cover.

 

So here’s my story:

 

(Obviously, kids write their own names in the title. I had them copy the rest of the frase from the board.)

SARA AND THE MONSTER

HELLO! MY NAME IS SARA. THIS IS MY HOUSE. I’M PLAYING IN THE GARDEN. OH NO! IT’S RAINING! IT’S COLD! QUICK! GO IN THE HOUSE!

MOMMY, MOMMY, WHERE’S MY COAT?

-It’s in the closet.

THANK YOU MOMMY!

MOMMY, MOMMY, WHERE’S MY HAT?

-It’s on the table.

THANK YOU MOMMY!

MOMMY, MOMMY, WHERE ARE MY BOOTS?

-They are under the chair.

THANK YOU MOMMY!

MOMMY, MOMMY, WHERE’S MY SCARF?

-It’s on the sofa.

THANK YOU MOMMY!

(On this page I told the kids to choose the items of clothing they wanted to draw, it didn’t have to be the ones I used)

MOMMY, MOMMY, WHERE’S MY UMBRELLA?

-It’s under the bed.

(The puppet looks under the bed.)

NO UMBRELLA… EYES! ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR EYES! (I told them to draw as many eyes as they wanted, as long as they could count them in English)

ARE YOU A SNAKE?

-Nooo…

ARE YOU A TIGER?

-Nooo…

ARE YOU A BIRD?

-Nooo…

ARE YOU A CROCODILE?

-Nooo…

 (Once more, they could draw the animals they liked here)

-I’m a monster!

WOW! HELLO MONSTER! FOUR EYES! THREE ARMS! TWO MOUTHS! SIX LEGS! WOW! (again, they could draw the number of body parts they wanted, as long as they could count them in English)

THE MONSTER IS SAD. (if that’s how your story goes, make sure they draw sad mouths as they are used to doing happy faces)

WHAT’S THE MATTER MONSTER?

-I’m hungry!

LET’S GO TO THE KITCHEN!

OPEN THE FRIDGE!

I CAN SEE A CAKE!

-I don’t like cake!

I CAN SEE APPLES!

-I don’t like apples!

I CAN SEE JUICE!

-I don’t like juice!

I CAN SEE FISH!

-I don’t like fish!

(They could draw the food they liked here as well)

I CAN SEE SAUSAGES AND TOMATOES!

-I like sausages and tomatoes! Thank you! Yum yum yummy! (make eating sounds)

LOOK IT’S SUNNY AGAIN! LET’S PLAY IN THE GARDEN!

-Okay!

I’M HAPPY! THE MONSTER IS HAPPY! WHAT A HAPPY DAY!

THE END

As you can see, our topics that year had been: the weather, body parts, clothes, house, wild animals and food. None of the vocabulary used in the story was new to the children, so it was quite easy for them to learn the story. They were also eager to finish it so they could take it home and tell it to their parents. Their drawings were amazing, most of them draw better than me (which is not very hard though J ).

So the kids were happy, the parents loved it, and the teacher… Well, she was so excited she wanted to share it with you! Enjoy!

Please visit Sara at her blog. Thank you Sara, this is an excellent job. Hope to see you around soon.