Ice Cream brings summer memories outdoors, flavours, sweet smell and of course, brainfreeze! These were the feelings we brainstormed before starting a lesson.
After that, we played Go fish with these cards I created making it way more interacting specially for speaking practice. I divided them into groups of 4 students, checking out vocabulary & correcting pronunciation since it was an EFL class.
The next lessons, I focused mostly on spelling and discrimination & recognition of words by playing games like: What’s missing?, point at, even a Scavenger hunt only with the vocabulary words. They can also play a memory game.
Topic: The Ice-cream Shop
Context: EFL/ESL
Approach: PBL
Level: Preschool
Yes, we voted for this topic!!!! I asked my preschoolers to think about a topic to vote from the 4 choices I had placed on the wall. We went outside to collect pebbles for the voting; then, we came in. Each student placed a pebble under the picture of the topic they selected, and……… the ice cream shop won!
- I introduced the vocabulary singing this exact super simple song about ice cream flavors before I use the set of printable flashcards.
I swapped the flashcards from printable to digital ones depending on the day (came in handy during the lockdown).
- When they were ready, I handed in this crossword puzzle where they identified the flavor (by visual recognition), wrote the word next to it (we worked with correct spelling) & then filled in the crossword spaces, then the rest of the activitites 1 each day.
They were so excited for the challenge, feeling they achieved it & capable of anything.
- The following week, we started the next phase of the unit, the role-play. It was time to open an ICE CREAM SHOP.
What is included? you may wonder:
- Welcome sign
- Open & closed signs
- Occupation Tags (customer – scooper – waiter – waitress)
- A beautiful 3-piece MENU (it includes 3 different currency)
- Labels (all included: toppings, sitting area, conainers, all different ice creams and its +20 flavors)
- Receipts (where you add what the customer ate & the total price)
- Stamp cards (the 6th time the customer order from the shop, gets a Free Ice Cream 😉
- Paper Ice cream (1D & 3D)
- Cloud dough Recipe.
I came up with the idea of decorating an area of the class as an ICE CREAM SHOP. We practiced the same language structure over and over, until I was sure they all felt confident, so we made cloud dough with the help of their tutor – all the flavors & details. I include the recipe.
I hope you enjoy my teaching practice & your preschool students enjoy this unit as much as mine. If you have anything to ask, suggest or questions, don’t hesitate to write right on the comments below.
Kind Regards.
Elda
