Welcome Methods Matters Teachers!

It is always so nice to have an opportunity to meet other teachers, share ideas, and connect. We often have few colleagues of our specialty within our school, or even our district- it can get lonely!
Here are a couple of neat sites that I love to print off of. Though the activities are in English, they can easily be modified for the FL classroom. The focus is on elementary teaching, but some of the activities, particularly the games, can be played at any level.
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/index.htm
There is so much on this site!! Lots of games, printables, etc you modify for your class.
http://kidscrafts.suite101.com
This site is not easy to search, but has lots of good printables once you find them. They have lots of printable card games, like Rummy and Uno, with animal themes, which are really cute.
http://wondertime.go.com/create-and-play/article/at-the-farm-printables.html
These activities are particularly appealing for the little ones. This link will take you to the farm printable page, but you can continue to search the site for other printables. The illustrations are just adorable!!

Enjoy!

Summer doesn't see me sit still!

Although school is out, and I am undoubtedly taking time to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather, thoughts of my classroom are never far away. I am constantly looking for manipulatives- I use them in boatloads of activities, from counting to sorting and classifying, games, etc. A great place to find them (yes, you guessed it!)- garage sales. I recently hit upon a treasure trove of plastic foods which I am sure will come in very handy. Last year I collected small stuffed animals, including an extremely cute anteater, which my students get to hold during class. Naturally, the animals talk and answer questions!
Baby clothes are good for teaching clothes vocab, plastic tea sets and dishes work well for teaching meals and place settings, and you can almost always find game pieces which you can repurpose to all kinds of activities. At any rate, get out there! Not only are they cheap but you are helping to reduce and reuse- always a good thing.