MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

Faith makes all things possible, Hope makes all things work, Love makes all things beautiful, May you have all the three for this Christmas. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Today we've said a "see you soon" to each other because our Christmas holidays are just about to begin. But before that, we would love to share with you some of the activities we have been doing during the last two weeks of class.  

In first and second Grade we have taken the opportunity to do some Early Reading Comprehension activities which have helped us learn new vocabulary related to Christmas. 

In order to unfold the cheer of the season, all the students from each grade have prepared a Christmas card for their family or/and friends, wishing them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Here are some of them: 

Hand clapping song: "A sailor went to sea"

Clapping games are extremely helpful to develop children's hand-eye coordination and rhythm. It also will help with their listening skills, as well as helping children with listening in order to follow instructions. 

Hand clapping songs are a great and easy way to learn the song that accompanies the movements and also to learn about the culture of the different English Speaking countries. 

This week in Second Grade we have learnt a very popular nursery rhyme and clapping game called "A sailor went to sea". It is common to see children playing this game (which is originally from Birmingham) on playgrounds. 

Here you can see one of the classes having fun while practising the song! Of course we used our hydroalcoholic gel before and after the clapping song 😊

WHAT DO WE DO IN OUR ENGLISH CLASSES? *VIDEO*

It's been nearly a month since we came back to school after our summer holidays. We can say we 've been as busy as a bee! (Which is an idiom that means  "moving about quickly doing many things" - Cambridge Dictionary). 

I have no doubt you would love to see with your own eyes what we do in English classes at Los Olivos School. 

Well, today we are delighted to share with you this video which we hope will give you an idea of what we do in Infant and Primary at Colegio Los Olivos. 

Teacher Estefania has had the pleasure of preparing it and we hope you really enjoy it!! 

In this video we can see a sample of some English classes in both Infant and Primary. It shows how we learn through linguistic immersion, active participation, debates, working on skills in a fun way.

Thanksgiving Project with St. Augustine School (Prague)

The school year 2020-2021 is over but we didn't want to miss the opportunity of sharing with you the project about Thanksgiving that we carried out with students from St. Augustine in Prague. Each student shared different recipes from important celebrations and made a wheel of gratitude in which they gathered some of the things they were thankful for. 

In the pictures underneath, you can see some of the students from the school in Prague finishing their wheels of gratitude and recipes as part of the project. They also made a Thanksgiving meal and enjoyed giving out a gift to the others. 

It is a pleasure to say that, despite all the difficulties we've had to face this year, closures because of the Covid situation and all the factors regarding the health situation, we have kept working with other schools internationally. 

Think Outside The Box

To THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX means to think imaginatively using new ideas instead of traditional or expected ideas (Cambridge Dictionary). 

Developing creativity is such an important subject! Today in Second Grade the students have been doing this precisely. The children have let their creativity flow, thinking outside the box, and have developed their own ideas and drawn pictures from a given sketch. Finally, they have named all the pictures they have been doing using the structure "It is a..." 

We've had so much fun and we love the result of our creations!! We put them up in the corridor and, every time they go past the pictures, they stop by to look at them. 

This worksheet has been created by an account called @cositasdeprofe. 

GETTING TO KNOW...Teacher Estefanía

 Hello, everybody!!

The end of the school year is just round the corner, so we are busy as a bee!! (which is an idiom that means that we are very busy indeed!) 

Today we would like you to know more about teacher Estefanía. 

GETTING TO KNOW...Teacher ISRA

Hello!! 

I hope you are having and amazing Friday! Let's end the week getting to know another teacher at Los Olivos. Today is Israel's turn. 

TONGUE TWISTER CHALLENGE

 Hello!! 

Teacher Fran is proposing a tongue twister challege to all of us. Are you ready?? Come on! Tongue twisters are so much fun and a great way to improve pronunciation. 

 

GETTING TO KNOW...TEACHER RACHEL

 Today is time for you to meet teacher Rachel:

DICTATIONS + VOCABULARY IN CONTEXT

At the end of every unit we have a dictation with all the words from the Pronunciation Lab. Students know these words from the very beginning and we review them every day in class so that by repetition they are at least capable of recognising all of them. However, we also want to make sure that, apart from learning these words by heart and being able to spell them, they are also learning their meanings and they can use them in a real and relevant context for them. 

From third grade on, instead of having a simple dictation of just words, they have been adding the sentences with each of the words they had to learn. In second grade we have been practising out loud in the classroom, proposing sentences with theses words in context. However, in the last dictation we had a bonus which most of the students decided to complete. It consisted in choosing a word from the Pronunciation Lab and writing a complete sentence using that word. 

Here you can see some examples: 

2nd Grade

3rd Grade

4th Grade 

6th Grade 

GETTING TO KNOW...TEACHER BEA

Hello!!!

This week we would like you to know a bit more about teacher Bea.   

GETTING TO KNOW...TEACHER ÁLVARO

Good morning and good Monday to you all!

In the coming weeks we are going to be introducing our English teachers at Los Olivos School so you get to know a bit about us. This week we start with teacher Álvaro. 

SPELLING BEE 2021 AT LOS OLIVOS SCHOOL

Many are the advantages that come from learning how to spell words. For instance, it helps with reading and writing, it improves your memory and it supports the connections that we make when thinking about sounds and letters. 

Since at Los Olivos School we believe the Spelling Bee event is an incredible opportunity for students to learn more about their second language, get motivated and improve their skills, we have been celebrating this contest for a few years now. 

This year, because of the Covid, it has been a bit different than other years in which the participants had their classmates cheering for them at the auditorium. It was a great day for them though and for all the ones who could attend and were there to help. 

Three different finals were celebrated and these have been the winners this year: 

1st and 2nd Grade: - Right to left - Silvia (1st place), Antonio (2nd place) and Sofía (3rd place). 

3rd and 4th Grade: Elisa (1st place), Jaime (2nd place) and Clara (3rd place). 

5th and 6th Grade: Sara (1st place), Manuela (2nd place) and Marta (3rd place). 

They will have the opportunity to represent our school in the AMCO Spelling Bee National Contest in May. So good luck!! We believe in you!! 👏

For those of you who will represent our school in the National Contest, and for those who are interested in participating the coming years, here you have a video by AMCO in which they share with us 10 tips to improve your Spelling Bee skills. 

It was a very close contest so...CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL!! YOU DID AMAZING!!

STORY TIME: "PIP AND POSY: THE RED BALLOON"

What a wonderful time for this story time! 

Spring time is here and teacher Estefanía tells us this cute story that reminds us a lot about this season. Here is the plot: Pip is very proud of his big red balloon. But when he lets the balloon go and it pops, he is inconsolable. Luckily, Posy has a clever idea to cheer up her friend and soon they are having fun again!

Now, keep your eyes and ears open, and enjoy! 

IDIOMS are so much fun!

Hello and Happy Easter Monday!!! 

The spirit of easter

is all about Hope, Love and Joyful living. 

Happy Easter Monday! 

At Los Olivos, some of the English teachers are big fans of Idioms. But, maybe you are wondering what an idiom is. According to Cambridge Dictionary, an idiom is "a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own". So idioms do not always make literal sense (in fact, most of the times they don't), that's why they are so much fun to learn for students! They are incredibly useful for improving communication skills, to make you sound more fluent and natural when speaking English. 

 In 5th and 6th Grade students are working on Idioms as a part of their Daily Routine. Every day, a different student brings a new idiom to show the rest of their classmates. They also make a poster about it and then display them in the corridor.

In 2nd Grade we have also started to learn Idioms. We learn a new one every Friday and, so far, it's been such a success that some students are trying to use them in the classroom context. For instance, after an exam one of the students said: "Teacher, the exam is A PIECE OF CAKE!" 👏 

We have also made little posters to remember them easily. These are the ones we have learnt about so far: